Table tennis (ping-pong) – an Olympic sport in which two players or two teams of two (doubles) compete with each other by trying to throw a special racket ball (over the net on the playing table) to the opponent’s side so that the opponent was not able to reflect it. The ball must touch the opponent’s half of the field at least once.
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) was established in January 1926 and governs all table tennis in the world. The federation is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland.
History of origin and development of table tennis
It is difficult to say now in what country table tennis had its begining. Some believe that table tennis first appeared in Japan or China, others believe that its birthplace is France or England. Some historians are looking for the origins of the game in ancient Rome. Despite all these disputes we can say with confidence that the history of tennis goes back to the distant past.
Who invented table tennis?
Most of the experts think that the English or the French invented table tennis.
The first games were played at ordinary desks, with books instead of a net. Pieces of cardboard were used as rackets. Later appeared the net and rackets of different shapes. The game began to rapidly gain popularity.
In 1900 the first rules were invented, and tennis equipment manufacturers could breathe freely, as there was some certainty in tennis equipment.
Since 1901 the game began to bear the proud name “Ping-Pong”; before that there were many other similar variations (“Flim-Flam”, “Wiff-Waff”, “Gossima”), but they all failed to catch on. It came out of a combination of two sounds: “ping” – the sound the ball makes when it hits the racket, and “pong” – when the ball bounces off the table. The name was officially registered by the American John Jakves, later it was sold to the Parker brothers.
Who named table tennis ping-pong?
The name was officially registered by the American John Jackwes.
In 1908, table tennis was included in the Olympic Games in London.
The real revolution in table tennis came in 1930, when table tennis rackets with rubber coating were used for the game. With the advent of these rackets changed absolutely everything tactics of the game, training methods, increased the game dynamics and competitions have become much more entertaining.
In 1927, the first World Championship was held in London. At that time table tennis leaders were Hungarian athletes, who invariably became world champions for several years.
In 1958 the first European Championship was held.
Nowadays table tennis is dominated by Chinese athletes. It goes so far that athletes cannot find a place in the Chinese team and leave to play for other teams.