Table Tennis

History:
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-
whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit
a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong
ball, back and forth across a table using small
rackets. The game takes place on a hard table
divided by a net. Except for the initial serve, the
rules are generally as follows: players must allow
a ball played toward them to bounce one time
on their side of the table, and must return it so
that it bounces on the opposite side at least
once. A point is 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.
 Table tennis is governed by the worldwide
organization International Table Tennis
Federation (ITTF), founded in 1926.
ITTF currently includes 226 member
associations. The table tennis official rules
are specified in the ITTF handbook.
Table tennis has been an Olympic sport
since 1988, with several event categories.
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.
• The sport originated in Victorian England, where it was played among the
upper-class as an after-dinner parlor game. It has been suggested that
makeshift versions of the game were developed by British military officers
in India around the 1860s or 1870s, who brought it back with them. A row
of books stood up along the center of the table as a net, two more books
served as rackets and were used to continuously hit a golf-ball.
• The name "ping-pong" was in wide use before British manufacturer J.
Jaques & Son Ltd trademarked it in 1901. The name "ping-pong" then
came to describe the game played using the rather expensive Jaques's
equipment, with other manufacturers calling it table tennis. A similar
situation arose in the United States, where Jaques sold the rights to the
"ping-pong" name to Parker Brothers. Parker Brothers then enforced its
trademark for the term in the 1920s making the various associations
change their names to "table tennis" instead of the more common, but
trademarked, term.
• The next major innovation was by James W. Gibb, a British enthusiast
of table tennis, who discovered novelty celluloid balls on a trip to the
US in 1901 and found them to be ideal for the game. This was
followed by E.C. Goode who, in 1901, invented the modern version
of the racket by fixing a sheet of pimpled, or stippled, rubber to the
wooden blade. Table tennis was growing in popularity by 1901 to the
extent that tournaments were being organized, books being written
on the subject,[7] and an unofficial world championship was held in
1902. In those early days, the scoring system was the same as in lawn
tennis.

• Although both a "Table Tennis Association" and a "Ping Pong

Association" existed by 1910, a new Table Tennis Association was
founded in 1921, and in 1926 renamed the English Table Tennis
Association. The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF)
followed in 1926. London hosted the first official World
Championships in 1926. In 1933, the United States Table Tennis
Association, now called USA Table Tennis, was formed.
• In the 1930s, Edgar Snow commented in Red Star
Over China that the Communist forces in the Chinese
Civil War had a "passion for the English game of table
tennis" which he found "bizarre". On the other hand,
the popularity of the sport waned in 1930s Soviet
Union, partly because of the promotion of team and
military sports, and partly because of a theory that
the game had adverse health effects.
• In the 1950s, paddles that used a rubber sheet
combined with an underlying sponge layer changed
the game dramatically, introducing greater spin and
speed. These were introduced to Britain by sports
goods manufacturer S.W. Hancock Ltd. The use of
speed glue beginning in the mid 1980s increased the
spin and speed even further, resulting in changes to
the equipment to "slow the game down". Table
tennis was introduced as an Olympic sport at the
Olympics in 1988.
Thank You!