The History of Ping Pong (Table Tennis)

Many of the authorities agree that table tennis is of English origin and that it was played first with an improvised dining-room tables equipment on the late 1800s. When celluloid balls began to replace rubber and cork balls in around 1900, the game became very popular in England and in the United States. Early manufactured sets were called Gossima, Whiff-Waff, and, more commonly, Ping-Pong, the latter being a patented trade name. Its popularity as a parlor game quickly waned, but a simultaneous movement started in several parts of the world in the early 1920s, to revive table tennis as a serious sport.

Held a meeting in Berlin, Germany in 1926, it resulted in the formation of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), still the international governing body for the sport. The USA Table Tennis Association founded in 1933 (USATT—formerly known as the United States Table Tennis Association), governs tournament competition in the United States. The annual national championships consist of about 60 different classifications matches, such as men’s and women’s singles and doubles, junior and senior events (with players ranging from under the age of 10 to over 80), and wheelchair competition. Other major tournaments are the U.S. Open, which is held annually in a number of categories, and the annual North American Team Championships, in which groups of three to five players team up much like in tennis’s Davis Cup competition.

The ITTF, composed of about 190 member nations, sponsoring the annual world championships that alternate individual and team play every other year. The ITTF sponsors also a professional tour with prize money. Since the 1960s Chinese players have dominated tournament play , especially in women’s competition. Since table tennis was made an Olympic sport in 1988, however, South Korean and European players—most notably from Sweden—have emerged as strong contenders.

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· Filed Under Tennis & Ping Pong