History of TABLE TENNIS

Ping Pong Anyone?

The sport got its start in England towards the end of the 19th century when,
after dinner, some upper-middle class Victorians decided to turn their dining
room tables into miniature versions of the traditional lawn tennis playing field.
Several different every-day objects were employed in constructing the sport.
They used a line of books as the net. Rackets were lids from empty cigar boxes,
and a little later, parchment paper stretched around a frame. The ball would be
either a ball of string, or perhaps more commonly, a champagne cork or rubber
ball.
Before “Table Tennis.”

• When the game first started it was called by a number of different

names. “Whif whaf,” “gossamer,” and “flim flam” were commonly
used to describe it. The words, as can be assumed, were derived from
the sound that the ball made when hit back and forth on the table. In
1901 though, English manufacturer J. Jaques & Son Ltd registered one
of the more popular names, Ping-Pong, as a copyright. He later sold
the trademark to the Parker Brothers in the United States. Then in
the 1920's the name and the sport were revived in Europe as table
tennis.

Evolution

• The turn of the century brought many other refinements to the

sport. Players started using celluloid balls after the English man
James Gibb discovered them during a trip to the United States in
1901 and proved them to be perfect for Ping-Pong. In 1903, E.C
Goode replaced parchment paper and cigar box lids with pimpled
rubber on light wooden “blades” as rackets. And after the world
championships in Prague in 1936, where two defensive players
took over an hour to contest one point, the net was lowered to
make the pace of the game-play faster. (In another effort to make
the game faster paced and entertaining, rules were again changed
in 2001- see Rules).

It Spreads

• Also, around this time, the sport spread to other European countries
and to the United States. Asian countries like China, Korea and Japan
are understood to have learnt about it from British Army officers who
held posts in those places. There was an unofficial world championship
held in 1901, but the first official world championship was held in
London in 1927 by the International Table Tennis Federation. The
ITTF was founded in Berlin in 1926 by England, Sweden, Hungary,
India, Denmark, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Wales.
Asian Factor

• Although it may seem today that the sport, in the professional realm,
is dominated by Asian countries like China and Korea, it wasn’t
always that way. Before the late 1950’s and early 60’s, European
players from Hungary especially, but also from France and Sweden
seemed without competition. But in 1952, Japanese player Horoi
Satoh introduced the foam rubber paddle. The paddle made the
game faster and spinning the ball became an even greater factor.
Japan became the main winner in the world competitions in 1960,
and by the mid 1960’s China took over the reigns through to the early
1980’s. Their absolute domination of the sport was finally subdued
with the entering of table tennis into the Olympic Games in 1988 and
the participation of players from Korea and Sweden.

Table Tennis and the Cold War

• On April 6th, 1971, the US table tennis team was invited on an all-
expenses-paid trip to play in China. Four days later, nine players, four
officials and two spouses crossed the bridge from Hong Kong to the
Chinese mainland. They were the first group of Americans to be
allowed into the country since the communist take-over in 1949. One
of the first signs during the Cold war of improved relations between
the United States and China, Time magazine called it “the pong heard
throughout the world.” It was shortly followed with a visit to China
by President Nixon.
 
 • Table Tennis - also known as ping pong, is a sport in which two or four
players hit a lightweight ball back and forth using table tennis rackets.
The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net. Except for the
initial serve, players must allow a ball played toward them only one
bounce on their side of the table and must return it so that it bounces
on the opposite side. Points are scored when a player fails to return
the ball within the rules. Play is fast and demands quick reactions.
Spinning the ball alters its trajectory and limits an opponent's options,
giving the hitter a great advantage. When doing so the hitter has a
good chance of scoring if the spin is successful.

• Table tennis is governed by the worldwide organization International

Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), founded in 1926. ITTF currently includes
218 member associations. The table tennis official rules are specified in
the ITTF handbook. Since 1988, table tennis has been an Olympic
sport, with several event categories. In particular, from 1988 until
2004, these were: men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles and
women's doubles. Since 2008 a team event has been played instead of
the doubles.

ITTF- International Governing Body of Table Tennis

PTTF- Philippine Table Tennis Federation, Inc. (formerly TATAP) Local governing body
Table Tennis evolved as pictures shown below:

Before

After