Table tennis is a modified and miniaturized version of
other kinds of tennis; it is played with extremely light,
hollow plastic balls and rubber-faced wooden paddles.
The sport is played in homes and recreation centers
worldwide; it is also credited with improving relations
with the Peoples Republic of China during the Nixon
administration. Table tennis became part of the
Olympic Games in 1988.
History
Table tennis—often known by the English Jaques and
the U.S. Parker Brothers trade name of “Ping-Pong”—
is generally considered to be of English origin. Miniature “tennis” was played indoors in England in the
1880s and 1890s, largely among the formally dressed
gentlefolk as a mixed-company after-dinner diversion.
Table tennis began to find mass acceptance at the
turn of the century, and quickly spread to every continent. The game was inexpensive and athletic and provided wholesome family entertainment. Ping-Pong
postcards, party invitations, and even musical pieces
were the order of the day. Strangely, as incredibly fashionable as table tennis had become in England and the
United States for those few years at the beginning of the
century, it just as incredibly became unfashionable.
In 1922, however, a Cambridge University student,
Ivor Montagu (1904–1984), began to interest himself
in codifying the laws of the game, including the retention of the double-bounce serve. In January 1926, England’s Montagu, along with representatives from four
other countries—Austria, Germany, Hungary, and
Sweden—founded the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). World championships began in 1926.
On its formation in 1933, the U.S. association (in 1993
renamed at its Colorado Springs Olympic Headquarters as USA Table Tennis or USATT) immediately affiliated with the ITTF.
Rules and Play
Though table tennis carried over much from lawn tennis (even perpetuating for a time lawn tennis scoring or
variations in court-dividing line-markings), it was immediately apparent that some modification had to be
made to the “single-bounce” tennis serve (where the
server’s ball could not bounce until it was on his opponent’s side). Obviously, since serving overhand would be
viciously absurd, a quite early rule that had been popularized demanded an underhand one-bounce serve.
During the seven decades of serious tournament
play, controversy has inevitably emerged—over, for example, the use of various illegal serves (still a bone of
contention today) or over nonattacking, interminably
slow play—and consequently have brought necessary
rule changes.
One major controversy has been over the use of
sponge rubber jackets, initiated by Japanese players in
the 1950s. It is fair to say that there is table tennis before sponge, and table tennis after sponge. They are almost two different games. Players may use the shakehands or penholder grip down through the years (and
which is a seemingly never-ending controversy itself),
but with regard to the sport’s essential characteristics
of speed and spin, and the new athleticism that serious
play requires, the technological changes in the racket
coverings in the last 40 years have brought about profound changes.
Today the standardized “Expedite Rule” stresses a
15-minute time period for any one game. Then, if the
game isn’t finished, players must alternate services for
the rest of the match, with the stipulation that if the
server’s opponent successfully returns a thirteenth ball
he automatically wins the point.
Table Tennis around the World
The multiethnic, multicultural appeal of table tennis
remains strong today as can be seen from the 80 ITTF
member-countries that sent players to the 1995 Tianjin, China, world championships. In 1995, of the top 10
men and top 10 women players in the USATT, half were
from China, another 5 were from Vietnam, Yugoslavia,
Nigeria, South Korea, and Romania, and only 5 were
native-born (Dunn 1995).
Meanwhile, the best table tennis players—most recently, the Chinese and Swedish men and the Chinese
and South Korean women—continue to thrive, as do
their lesser counterparts, in professional leagues and
increasingly larger prize money tournaments in both
the East and West.
In the begining, Hungarians dominated table tennis,
particularly Victor Barna, perhaps the most famous
name in table tennis. The 1940s saw the emergence of
Asian players and by the mid-1970s Chinese players
were at the top. From 1956 through 1969, Japanese
women won six out of seven world women’s singles titles,
and Japanese men were also successful. For the last 25
years, however, the Japanese women and for the last 15
years the Japanese men have been unable to match the
achievements of their Chinese and Korean neighbors.
In 1971, after emerging from their Cultural Revolution, the Chinese coined the diplomacy phrase,“Friendship first, competition second,” and proceeded to reacquaint the world, especially the so-called “Third World”
of Asian, African, and Latin American countries, with
their table tennis expertise . . . and their friendly propaganda. China’s diplomacy went so far as to sometimes allow Chinese players to take it easy on their opponents, even, it was thought, in major championships.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, a new wave of Swedish
athletes wrested away championships that had seemed
second nature to the Chinese. These victories illustrated what a country—with a total population less
than any one of China’s three major cities—could do, at
least for a generation or two, with a superb table tennis
development program, a unifying team spirit, and a
will to win.
Today, however, the Chinese have come back to capture men’s, women’s, doubles, and team titles. There are
good reasons for this. The Chinese have strong veteran
players and also exceptional young players who are just
out of their teens.
—TIM BOGGAN
Bibliography: Barna,Victor. (1962) Table Tennis Today. London: Arthur Barker. Boggan, Tim. (1976) Winning Table
Tennis. Chicago: Henry Regnery. Clark, Coleman. (1933)
Modern Ping-Pong. New York: John Day. Craydon, Ron.
(1995) The Story of Table Tennis—The First 100 Years.
Hastings, UK: English TTA.