Table Tennis Today It.s the most popular racket sport in the world and USATT's rating list, a computerized ranking of all the second most popular participation sport. A sport active tournament players. After you have played with over 20 million active participants in the U.S. in a tournament, you too will be listed. alone and, as of 1988, an Olympic sport. Ask most How do you join the USATT? Contact the USATT people to identify this sport and they'd immediately office for a general information packet and member­ name that other well-known racket game. They'd be ship information. It will include full information on wrong. clubs, tournaments, and how to get involved in the You know what sportwe are talking about or you fastest growing and most played racket sport (more wouldn'tbelooking at this book. Table tennis-never so than tennis) in America! Here's the address: call itPing-Pong except to other players!-has prob­ USATT ably gotten the worstpress of any comparable sportin One Olympic Plaza the world. Manypeople think ofitas, yes, Ping-Pong, Colorado Springs, CO 80909 a game where a small white ball is patted back and (719) 866-4583 forth untilsomeone misses. You and I know better. So [email protected] and www.usatt.org do the many millions throughout the world who play the game competitively. Even in the U.S., more people Before you leap into the world of table tennis you play table tennis each year than soccer or baseball. should know a few things aboutpracticing. Although At the beginning level about all anybody does there are drills at the end of each section, they are is just pat the ball back and forth. This is where its directed toward beginning and intermediate play­ image as aneasy sportprobably came from, as ittakes ers. You might find yourself practicing in a different practice to learn to keep the ball going at a fast pace. environment. But once leamed it's a skill for life. Table tennis is biggest in Asia and Europe. In METHODS OF PRACTICE the U.S. it is getting bigger very quickly. USA Table There are five methods of practicing table tennis, all Tennis (USATT) has over 7,000 ranked tournament of which have their advantages and disadvantages. players and over 300 sanctioned clubs nationwide. You can choose the methods that best suit you. Its Colorado Springs headquarters is staffed by seven full-time workers involved in everything from the • Practicing with another player. This will running and sanctioning of tournaments and coach­ probably be your most common practice ing camps to fund-raising and public relations. There method, and it is usually the simplest. You and are even two full-time coaches for the U.S. National your partner can take turns choosing drills. It and Olympic teams, as well as a number of other is assumed throughout this book that you have resident table tennis athletes. a practice partner. Among otherbenefits, membership in the USATT • Practicing with a coach. This is probably the entitles you to play in any of the over 250 sanctioned best way to practice, as you'll be able to con­ tournaments in the U.S. each year. The largest and centrate on your weak points instead of taking most prestigious is the U.S. Open held every June, turns with an opponent, and because you'll be withabout800 participants, including representatives getting coached at the same time. The disadvan­ from over 40 countries. There are also many other big tage is that you have to find and possibly pay tournaments, such as the U.S. Team Championships for a coach. eachNovember (with as many as 800 players) and the • Practicing alone. You can shadow-stroke the U.S. National Championships held each December. various shots and techniques without a ball. Membership also qualifies you to represent the U.S. You can also get a bucket of balls and practice in international play sponsored by the International serves. Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), including the U.S. • Multiball. This is a method of practice for Open-if you're good enough. If you're not-well, two players where one player practices while that's why I wrote this book! the other feeds. You'll need a bucket of balls. You'll also get the USATT's magazine, USA Table The feeder stands to the side of the table and Tennis Magazine, which I edit. In it you'll find articles picks up and hits the balls to you one at a time on everything from coaching to profiles, tournament in whatever speed, spin, and direction needed writeups, results, and schedules. You'll also find the for you. This is an excellent way to learn shots, 1 2 Table Tennis: Steps to Success but it has the disadvantage that only one player pionships with a strange new type of racket. Itwas a can practice at a time. This method is often used woodenblade covered by a thick sheet of sponge. He by coaches, who do the feeding. easily won the tournament, and table tennis hasn't • Robots. Owning a table robot is almost as good been the same since. as having a person feed you multiball full time. Over the next 10 years nearly all the top play­ Robots can be set for any speed, spin, or direc­ ers switched to sponge coverings. Two types were tion that you maywish. They canbe expensive, developed: inverted and pips-out. The inverted but owning one gives you a tireless practice type enabled players to put far more spin than was partner who never misses. Contact the USATT possible before, and both types made attacking and for information on getting one. counterattacking far easier. The U.S., which was a To fully enjoy the sport of table tennis, you should table tennis power up until this time (the top seed at know something about the sport itself, its history and the 1952 World Championships was Marty Reisman rules. of the U.S.) was slow to make the change, and by the 1960s was near the bottom of the world rankings. A SHORT HISTORY OF TABLE TENNIS In the early 1960s, players began to perfect Table tennis is believed to have started out in sponge play. First they developed the loop shot (a the 1880s in England. It began as a parlor game and heavy topspin shot), and soon looping became the around the turn of the century swept England and most popular style. Spin serves were developed, as the U.s. in a craze that soon died down. was the lob (a high, defensive return of a smash), the It became popular again in the 1920s, and clubs main weapon of 1967 World Champion Nobuhiko were formed all over the world. The original name, Hasegawa of Japan. Ping-Pong, was a copyrighted trademark of Parker Japan dominated the game during the 1950s, Brothers, so the name was changed to table tennis. mostly because its players were all using sponge. The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) They also introduced the penhold grip, which gave was formed in 1926. The United States Table Tennis them dominating forehands. China, at first using Association was formed in 1933. only the penhold grip but later the shakehands grip As a parlor game the sportwas often played with as well, began to dominate at the start of the 1960s. cork balls and vellum rackets. (A vellum racket had They dominated the game almost continuously until a type of rubber stretched on a twisted stick.) In the the 1989 World Championships whereSwedenpulled 1920s, wooden rackets covered with rubber "pips" off the upset of the decade, beating China 5-0 for were first used. These were the first hard rubber the team championship. Both Men's Singles Final­ rackets, and they were the most popular type used ists were Swedish, with Jan-ave Waldner defeating until the 1950s. Jorgen Persson three games to two. Sweden repeated During that time two playing styles dominated: at the next World Championships in 1991, this time hitters and choppers. Hitters basically hiteverything beatingYugoslavia in the final. Waldner and Persson while choppers would back up 10 or even 20 feet, repeated as finalists, but this time Persson won, three returning everything withbackspin. Aplayer's attack games to zero. China dropped to seventh, but most with hard rubber was severely limited and so, more tournament results show that they are back to being and more, choppers dominated. This became a prob­ at least the second best in the world. lem whenever two choppers played each other: Both China staged a comeback in the mid-1990s, with would often just push the ball back and forth for most (butnot all) of their players playing shakehands hours, waiting for the other to attack and make an with inverted, like the Europeans. From 1995 on, error. This was stopped by the advent of the expe­ they mostly dominated the sport. On the women's dite rule. The rule helps players finish a game lasting side they almost never lost, with stars such as Deng longer than 15 minutes. From the time expedite is Yaping, Wang Nan, and Zhang Yining. On the called, players alternate serves, and whoever serves men's side, they also dominated, with stars such as must win the point within 13 shots, including the Kong Linghui, Liu Gouliang, Wang Liqin, and Ma serve. Under expedite, and umpire counts the shots Lin. However, Sweden won the 2000 Men's Team aloud and awards the point to the receiver if he or Championships; Austria's Werner Schlager won she returns 13 consecutive shots.