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
more fast 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 wasnt always that way. Before the late
1950s and early 60s, 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 1960s China took over the reigns through
to the early 1980s. 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.
Rules

Equipment
The Table

The playing surface, should be rectangular, 2.74m long and 1.525m wide, and shall lie
in a horizontal plane 76cm above the floor
.The playing surface should not include the vertical sides of the tabletop.
The playing surface should yield a uniform bounce of about 23cm when a standard
ball is dropped on to it from a height of 30cm.

The playing surface shall be uniformly dark colored and matt, but with a white side
line, 2cm wide, along each 2.74m edge and a white end line, 2cm wide, along each
1.525m edge.
The playing surface shall be divided into 2 equal courts by a vertical net running
parallel with the end lines, and shall be continuous over the whole area of each court.
For doubles, each court shall be divided into 2 equal half-courts by a white center line,
3mm wide, running parallel with the side lines; the center line shall be regarded as
part of each right half-court.
The Net Assembly

The net shall be suspended by a cord attached at each end to an upright post 15.25cm
high, the outside limits of the post being 15.25cm outside the side line.
The top of the net, along its whole length, shall be 15.25cm above the playing surface.
The Ball

The ball shall be spherical, with a diameter of 40mm.and weigh 2.7g.

The ball shall be made of celluloid or similar plastics material and shall be white or
orange, and matt.
The Racket

The racket may be of any size, shape or weight but the blade (wooden face) shall be
flat and rigid.
The covering material (rubber sheets) shall extend up to but not beyond the limits of
the blade, except that the part nearest the handle and gripped by the fingers may be
left uncovered or covered with any material.
The surface of the covering material on a side of the blade, or of a side of the blade if
it is left uncovered, shall be matt, bright red on one side and black on the other. Slight
deviations from continuity of surface or uniformity of color due to accidental damage
or wear may be allowed provided that they do not significantly change the
characteristics of the surface.

Serving
The server shall project the ball near vertically upwards, without imparting spin, so
that it rises at least 16cm and then falls without touching anything before being struck.

The ball shall not be hidden from the receiver by any part of the body or clothing of
the server or his doubles partner and as soon as the ball has been projected, the
servers free arm shall be removed from the space between the servers body and the
net.
If the umpire is doubtful of the legality of a service he may, on the first occasion in a
match, declare a let (see below) and warn the server. Any subsequent service of
doubtful legality of that player or his doubles partner will result in a point to the
receiver.
Whenever there is a clear failure to comply with the requirements for a good service,
no warning shall be given and the receiver shall score a point.
Let Point

To Let a point is to disregard it. A point is let if:

1-the ball touches the net during an otherwise good serve without interruption by
either player.
2-Play is disturbed by circumstances beyond the players control.
3-Tthe service is delivered when the receiving player or pair is not ready, provided
that neither the receiver nor his partner attempts to strike the ball.
Scoring Points
When serving, the ball should bounce once on the servers side of the table and once
on your opponents side of the table. (In doubles play, the ball shall touch successively
the right half court of server and receiver.)

When returning however, the ball should only bounce once on your opponents side of
the table.

The first player who fails to keep the ball in play, as specified, loses the
point.
There are other ways to score points:

If your opponent's free hand touches the playing surface; if your opponent, or
anything your opponent wears or carries, touches the net assembly; if your opponent
strikes the ball twice successively, you win a point.
Course of Play

After a combined two points have been scored, the receiving player or pair shall
become the serving player or pair and so on until the end of the game, unless both
players or pairs score 10 points ,when the sequences of serving and receiving shall be
the same but each player shall serve for only 1 point in turn.
The right to choose the initial order of serving shall be decided by luck and the winner
may choose to serve or to receive first. The chooser can also decide whether he wants
to start at a particular end of the table, but then gives up the right to decide the service
order.
In either case, service order and table ends are switched at the beginning of each new
game in a match ( a match shall consist of the best of any odd number of games).Also,
in the last possible game of a match the players switch ends when the higher score
stands at five points.
A game shall be won by the player or pair first scoring 11 points unless both players
or pairs score 10 points, at which point the game shall be won by the first player or
pair subsequently gaining a lead of 2 points.
These Rules were taken from a broader set of regulations set out by the
International Table Tennis Federation, and were slightly modified for easier
readability.