WHAT IS TABLE TENNIS??

HÜSEYİN CEM YUMUK9-K

ABSTRACT

I want to prepare a booklet about table tennis because I like playing table ten-nis and I want to know much more

about table tennis. I will talk to all of the people who are interested in table tennis and play table tennis in their lives as a hob-by or being professional. I will talk about the history of table tennis. After that, I will talk about the equipment for table tennis, gameplay and finally I will talk about type of strokes.

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GENERAL INFORMATION

HISTORYTable tennis, also known as Ping Pong ,

is a recreational and competitive game for singles or doubles competition. The ob-ject of the game is to hit a small ball over a net stretched across a table so that it hits the opposite side of the table. Points are scored when one player fails to return the ball over the net so that it bounces on the opponent’s side. The ball is put into

play with a serve, and each player has five consecutive turns serving.

The game originated as a sport in

England during the 1880s, where it was played among the upper-class as an af-ter-dinner parlour game. It has been suggested that the game was first de-veloped by British military officers in India or South Africa who brought it back with them. A row

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of books were stood up along the center of the table as a net, two more books served as rackets and were used to con-tinuously hit a golf-ball from one end of the table to the other. Alternative-ly table tennis was played with paddles made of cigar box lids and balls made of champagne corks. The popularity of the game led game man-ufacturers to sell the equipment commer-cially. Early rackets were often pieces of

parchment stretched upon a frame, and the sound generat-ed in play gave the game its first nick-names of “wiff-waff ” and “ping-pong1”. A number of sourc-es indicate that the game was first brought to the at-tention of Hamley’s of Regent Street un-der the name “Gos-sima”. The name “ping-pong” was in wide use before British manufactur-er J. Jaques & Son 1Somewhere in the World peo-ple use the word “Table Tennis” or some of them use the word “Ping-Pong”4

Ltd trademarked it in 1901. The name “ping-pong” then came to be used for the game played by the rather expensive Jaques’s equipment, with other manufac-turers calling it table tennis. A similar sit-uation arose in the United States, where Jaques sold the rights to the “ping-pong” name to Parker Brothers.The next major inno-vation was by James W Gibb, a British enthusiast of table tennis, who discov-

ered novelty cellu-loid 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, rub-ber to the wooden blade. Table tennis was growing in pop-ularity by 1901 to the extent that table tennis tournaments were being organ-ized, books on table tennis were being

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written, and an un-official world cham-pionship was held in 1902. During the early 1900s, the game was banned in Rus-sia because the rulers at the time believed that playing the game had an adverse effect on players’ eye-sight.[citation need-ed]In 1921, the Table Tennis Association was founded in Brit-ain, and the Interna-tional Table Tennis Federation followed in 1926. London hosted the first of-

ficial World Cham-pionships in 1926. In 1933, the United States Table Tennis Association, now called USA Table Tennis, was formed.EQUIMPMENTBall

The interna-tional rules specify that

the game is played with a light 2.7 gram, 40 mm diameter ball. The rules say that the ball shall bounce up 24–26 cm when dropped from a height of 30.5 cm on to a standard

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steel block thereby having a coefficient of restitution of 0.89 to 0.92. The 40 mm ball was introduced after the 2000 Olym-pic Games. How-ever, this created some controversy as the Chinese Na-tional Team argued that this was mere-ly to give non-Chi-nese players a better chance of winning since the new type of balls has a slower speed, while at that time most Chinese players were play-ing with fast attack

and smashes. A 40 mm table tennis ball is slower and spins less than the origi-nal 38 mm (1.5 inch) one. The ball is made of a high-bouncing air-filled celluloid or similar plastics ma-terial, colored white or orange, with a matte finish. The choice of ball color is made according to the table color and its surroundings. For example, a white ball is easier to see on a green or blue table than it is on a gray table. Stars on

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the ball indicate the quality of the ball. Three stars indicate that it is of the high-est quality, and is used in official com-petition.TableDiagram of a ta-ble tennis table showing the unof-ficial dimensions

The table is 2.74 m (9 ft) long, 1.52 m

(5 ft) wide, and 76 cm (30 inch) high with a Masonite (a type of hardboard) or similarly manu-

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factured timber, lay-ered with a smooth, low-friction coating. The table or playing surface is divided into two halves by a 15.25 cm (6 inch) high net. An ITTF approved table sur-face must be in a green or blue color. Concrete tables with a steel net are some-times available in public parks. PaddleMain article: Table tennis racketPlayers are equipped with a laminated wooden racket cov-ered with rubber on

one or two sides de-pending on the grip of the player. The official ITTF term is “racket”, though “bat” is common in Britain, and “paddle” in the U.S.The wooden portion of the racket, often referred to as the “blade”, commonly features anywhere between one and seven plies of wood, though cork, glass fiber, carbon fiber, aluminum fiber, and Kevlar are some-times used. Accord-ing to the ITTF reg-

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ulations, at least 85% of the blade by thick-ness shall be of natu-ral wood. Common wood types include Balsa, Limba, and Cypress or “Hinoki,” which is popular in Japan. The aver-age size of the blade is about 6.5 inches (16.5 cm) long and 6 inches (15 cm) wide. Although the official restrictions only fo-cus on the flatness and rigidness of the blade itself, these dimensions are op-timal for most play styles.

Table tennis regu-lations allow differ-ent surfaces on each side of the racket. Various types of sur-faces provide vari-ous levels of spin or speed, and in some cases they nullify spin. For example, a player may have a rubber that pro-vides much spin on one side of his rack-et, and one that pro-vides no spin on the other. By flipping the racket in play, differ-ent types of returns are possible. To help a player distinguish

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between the rubber used by his opposing player, internation-al rules specify that one side must be red while the other side must be black. The player has the right to inspect his oppo-nent’s racket before a match to see the type of rubber used and what color it is. De-spite high speed play and rapid exchang-es, a player can see clearly what side of the racket was used to hit the ball. Cur-rent rules state that, unless damaged in

play, the racket can-not be exchanged for another racket at any time during a match.

GAMEPLAY

Table tennis play-ers toss a coin to de-termine who serves first. The server plac-es the ball on the palm of the hand, throws it up verti-cally, and hits it with the racket. When throwing the ball, the server must keep the fingers straight and together, and the thumb extended. The

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hand must be be-hind the end of the table when the serv-er hits the ball. The ball must bounce on the server’s side of the net, clear the net, and bounce on the opponent’s side.Service and returnIn game play, the player serving the ball commences a play. The server first stands with the ball held on the open palm of the hand not carrying the rack-et, called the free-hand, and tosses the ball directly upward

without spin, at least 16 centimeters (ap-proximately 6 inch-es) high. The serv-er strikes the ball with the racket on the ball’s descent so that it toucahes first his court and then touches directly the receiver’s court with-out touching the net assembly. In casual games, many play-ers do not toss the ball upward; howev-er, this is technically illegal and can give the serving player an unfair advantage.

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The ball must remain be-hind the end-

line and above the upper surface of the table, known as the playing surface, at all times during the ser-vice. The server can-not use his body or clothing to obstruct sight of the ball; the opponent and the umpire must have a clear view of the ball at all times. If the umpire is doubt-ful of the legality of a service they may first interrupt play and give a warning

to the server. If the serve is a clear failure or is doubted again by the umpire after the warning, receiver scores a point.

If the service is “good”, then the receiver must

make a “good” re-turn by hitting the ball back before it bounces a second time on receiver’s side of the table so that the ball passes the net and touches the opponent’s court, either directly or af-ter touching the net assembly. Thereaf-

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ter, the server and receiver must alter-nately make a return until the rally is over. Returning the serve is one of the most difficult parts of the game, as the server’s first move is often the least predictable and thus most ad-vantageous shot due to the numerous spin and speed choices at his or her disposal.

Scoring

A point is scored by the player for any of several results of the

rally: • Opponentfailstomake a correct ser-vice or return.• Aftermakingaservice or a return, the ball touches any-thing other than the net assembly before being struck by the opponent.• Theballpass-es over the player’s court or beyond his end line without touching his court, after being struck by the opponent.• Theopponentob-structs the ball.• Theopponent

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strikes the ball twice successively. Note that the hand that is holding the racket counts as part of the racket and that mak-ing a good return off one’s hand or fingers is allowed. It is not a fault if the ball ac-cidentally hits one’s hand or fingers and then subsequently hits the racket.• Theopponentstrikes the ball with a side of the racket blade whose surface is not covered with rubber.• Theopponent

moves the playing surface or touches the net assembly.• Theopponent’sfree hand touches the playing surface.• Asareceiverun-der the expedite sys-tem, completing 13 returns in a rally. • Theopponenthas been warned by umpire commits a second offense in the same individ-ual match or team match. If the third offence happens, 2 points will be giv-en to the player.[30] If the individual

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match or the team match has not ended, any unused penalty points can be trans-ferred to the next game of that match.

A game shall be won by the player first

scoring 11 points unless both play-ers score 10 points, when the game shall be won by the first player subsequent-ly gaining a lead of 2 points. A match shall consist of the best of any odd number of games. In competi-tion play, matches

are typically best of five or seven games.TYPES OF STROKESOffensive strokesSpeed drive

A direct hit on the ball pro-pelling it for-

ward back to the op-ponent. This stroke differs from speed drives in other rack-et sports like tennis because the racket is primarily perpendic-ular to the direction of the stroke and most of the energy applied to the ball re-sults in speed rather

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than spin, creating a shot that does not arc much, but is fast enough that it can be difficult to return. A speed drive is used mostly for keeping the ball in play, ap-plying pressure on the opponent, and potentially opening up an opportunity for a more powerful attack.Counter-drive

The coun-ter-drive is usually a

counterattack against drives, normally

high loop drives. The racket is held closed and near to the ball, which is hit with a short movement “off the bounce” (imme-diately after hitting the table) so that the ball travels faster to the other side. A well-timed, accurate counter-drive can be as effective as a smash.Smash

The offensive trump card is the smash. A

player will typical-ly execute a smash when his or her op-

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ponent has returned a ball that bounces too high or too close to the net. Smash-ing is essentially self-explanatory—large backswing and rapid acceleration imparting as much speed on the ball as possible. The goal of a smash is to get the ball to move so quickly that the op-ponent simply can-not return it. Because the ball speed is the main aim of this shot, often the spin on the ball is some-thing other than top-

spin. Sidespin can be used effectively with a smash to alter the ball’s trajectory sig-nificantly, although most intermediate players will smash the ball with little or no spin. An of-fensive table tennis player will think of a rally as a build-up to a winning smash; only a calculated se-ries of smashes can guarantee a point against a good oppo-nent. However, most players will be able to return at most one or two smashes con-

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sistently. Provided that the opponent is not too close to the table or too far away from the ball, a smash can be lobbed, chopped, blocked or even counter-looped, albeit with some dif-ficulty. A player who smashes generally works out a series of smashes (and pos-sibly drop-shots) to rush the opponent out of position, put him off balance, or both. Smashers who fail to do this find it difficult to win a point against an ex-

cellent defense.Defensive strokes

ChopA chop is the defen-sive, back-

spin counterpart to the offensive loop drive. A chop is es-sentially a bigger, heavier push, tak-en well back from the table. The racket face points primarily horizontally, perhaps a little bit upward, and the direction of the stroke is straight down. The object of a defensive chop is to match the topspin of the opponent’s shot

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with backspin. A good chop will float nearly horizontally back to the table, in some cases having so much backspin that the ball actually ris-es. Such a chop can be extremely difficult to return due to its enormous amount of backspin. Some de-fensive players can also impart no-spin or sidespin varia-tions of the chop.Block

The block is a simple shot, but nonethe-

less can be devas-

tating against an at-tacking opponent. A block is executed by simply placing the racket in front of the ball right after the ball bounces; thus, the ball rebounds back toward the op-ponent with nearly as much energy as it came in with. This is not as easy as it sounds, because the ball’s spin, speed, and location all in-fluence the correct angle of a block. It is very possible for an opponent to exe-cute a perfect loop,

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drive, or smash, only to have the blocked shot come back at him just as fast. Due to the power in-volved in offensive strokes, often an op-ponent simply can-not recover quickly enough, and will be unable to return the blocked shot. Blocks almost always pro-duce the same spin as was received, usu-ally topspin.Effects of spin Backspin

Backspin is where the bot-tom half of the

ball is rotating away from the player, and is imparted by strik-ing the base of the ball with a down-ward movement. At the professional lev-el, backspin is usu-ally used defensively in order to keep the ball low.[43] Back-spin is commonly employed in service because it is harder to produce an offen-sive return, especial-ly on a short serve. Due to the initial lift of the ball, there is a limit on how much speed with which

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one can hit the ball without missing the opponent’s side of the table. However, backspin also makes it harder for the op-ponent to return the ball with great speed because of the required angular precision of the re-turn. Alterations are frequently made to regulations regard-ing equipment in an effort to maintain a balance between de-fensive and offensive spin choices.[citation needed] It is actual-ly possible to smash

with backspin offen-sively, but only on high balls that are close to the net.Topspin

The harder-to-learn topspin stroke has a

smaller influence on the first part of the ball-curve. Like the backspin stroke, however, the axis of spin remains roughly perpendicular to the trajectory of the ball thus allowing for the Magnus effect to dic-tate the subsequent curvature. After the apex of the curve,

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the ball dips down-wards as it approach-es the opposing side, before bouncing. On the bounce, the topspin will accel-erate the ball, much in the same way that a wheel which is already spinning would accelerate upon making con-tact with the ground. Again, the most sig-nificant change ap-pears when the op-ponent attempts to return the ball (with a smooth, pimples inwards rubber). Due to the topspin,

the ball jumps up-wards and the op-ponent is forced to compensate for the topspin by adjust-ing the angle of his or her racket. This is commonly known as “closing the racket”. The speed limitation of the topspin stroke is minor compared to the backspin stroke. This stroke is the predominant technique used in professional com-petition because it gives the opponent less time to respond. In table tennis top-

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spin is regarded as an offensive technique due to increased ball speed, lower bio-me-chanical efficiency and the pressure that it puts on the op-ponent by reducing reaction time. (It is possible to play de-fensive topspin-lobs from far behind the table, but only high-ly skilled players use this stroke with any tactical efficiency.) Topspin is the least common type of spin to be found in ser-vice at the profes-sional level, simply

because it is much easier to attack a top-spun ball that is not moving at high speed.

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