Dave Robson
30th December 2007, 06:46 PM
Table Tennis is one of the most popular games in the world, but its origins have never been exactly pin-pointed. Historians can agree, however, that it arose out of England in the late 19th century having descended, along with lawn tennis and badminton, from the ancient medieval game of tennis.
The earliest known form of the sport, called Indoor Tennis, was played in the early 1880's by British army officers in India and South Africa, using cigar box lids as bats and rounded corks from wine bottles as balls. A row of books set up across the centre of a table formed the net.
The game was also played back in England as a parlour game by the upper class, but even the wealthy players were improvising, using balls made of rubber, string and cork. Racquets would be made from thick cardboard and all sorts of other materials.
Other versions developed in England during the 1890's with names like Gossima, Flim Flam, Whiff Waff and various pther strange names.
John Jacques, registered "Ping Pong" as a trade name in 1901 and sold American rights to Parker Brothers, who came out with a new kit under that name.
The game was becoming a highly competitive international sport through the 1930's, as the U.S. joined European countries as a Table Tennis power.
The game was banned in the Soviet Union from about 1930 to 1950 because of the danger it was thought to pose to the eyes this was later thought as rediculous for obvious reasons.
Central European dominance continued for a time after World War II, but Asian players took over the sport beginning in 1953. One factor in the sudden emergence of Asian stars was the introduction of the foam rubber in 1952, which made the game faster and also allowed players to put even more spin on the ball. Asian players also developed the "pen-holder" grip, in which the bat handle is held between forefinger and thumb, which allows the player to strike the ball with the same face on any stroke.
Sweden started to become the dominant force with players taking and making full advantage of mixing and matching speed with spin and variation.
China then making their extreme impact with incredible speed and total discipline.
Jan-Ove Waldner of Sweden won the Gold 92 with an amazing display of his usual talent and ability to stay calm under pressure dropping only one in six games, since being crowned the best player of all times.
Table Tennis is still one of the fastest games on earth, with very little apart from the introduction of new equipment meaning speed and more spin applied to the ball, which itself changed to 40mm from the original 38mm. The ITTF has already gone through a major re-shuffle to try and make the sport more entertaining as a viewer with the scoring system moving from the 21-up as many will remember to the new and less long 11-up, all of these changes are things to "slow" the game. The most recent and most radical was to implement a ban on glue with toxic materials which soften the sponge, giving it elasticity creating more speed.
The rest as they say is history, unfolding as we speak and play with more and more changes being looked at, oneday we may have a net that reaches the incredible limits of 12inches high !
http://www.tabletennisuk.info/history/images/gossima.jpg
The Gossima Range
http://www.tabletennisuk.info/history/images/ttmiltonbradley.gif
The Milton Bradley Range
http://www.tabletennisuk.info/history/images/ttsalaset.gif
The Sala Range
More fantastic pictures of early table tennis sets courtesy of the TableTennisUK website
The earliest known form of the sport, called Indoor Tennis, was played in the early 1880's by British army officers in India and South Africa, using cigar box lids as bats and rounded corks from wine bottles as balls. A row of books set up across the centre of a table formed the net.
The game was also played back in England as a parlour game by the upper class, but even the wealthy players were improvising, using balls made of rubber, string and cork. Racquets would be made from thick cardboard and all sorts of other materials.
Other versions developed in England during the 1890's with names like Gossima, Flim Flam, Whiff Waff and various pther strange names.
John Jacques, registered "Ping Pong" as a trade name in 1901 and sold American rights to Parker Brothers, who came out with a new kit under that name.
The game was becoming a highly competitive international sport through the 1930's, as the U.S. joined European countries as a Table Tennis power.
The game was banned in the Soviet Union from about 1930 to 1950 because of the danger it was thought to pose to the eyes this was later thought as rediculous for obvious reasons.
Central European dominance continued for a time after World War II, but Asian players took over the sport beginning in 1953. One factor in the sudden emergence of Asian stars was the introduction of the foam rubber in 1952, which made the game faster and also allowed players to put even more spin on the ball. Asian players also developed the "pen-holder" grip, in which the bat handle is held between forefinger and thumb, which allows the player to strike the ball with the same face on any stroke.
Sweden started to become the dominant force with players taking and making full advantage of mixing and matching speed with spin and variation.
China then making their extreme impact with incredible speed and total discipline.
Jan-Ove Waldner of Sweden won the Gold 92 with an amazing display of his usual talent and ability to stay calm under pressure dropping only one in six games, since being crowned the best player of all times.
Table Tennis is still one of the fastest games on earth, with very little apart from the introduction of new equipment meaning speed and more spin applied to the ball, which itself changed to 40mm from the original 38mm. The ITTF has already gone through a major re-shuffle to try and make the sport more entertaining as a viewer with the scoring system moving from the 21-up as many will remember to the new and less long 11-up, all of these changes are things to "slow" the game. The most recent and most radical was to implement a ban on glue with toxic materials which soften the sponge, giving it elasticity creating more speed.
The rest as they say is history, unfolding as we speak and play with more and more changes being looked at, oneday we may have a net that reaches the incredible limits of 12inches high !
http://www.tabletennisuk.info/history/images/gossima.jpg
The Gossima Range
http://www.tabletennisuk.info/history/images/ttmiltonbradley.gif
The Milton Bradley Range
http://www.tabletennisuk.info/history/images/ttsalaset.gif
The Sala Range
More fantastic pictures of early table tennis sets courtesy of the TableTennisUK website