Table Tennis is one of the popular games of the world. Although it has been mastered by the Chinese, but still there are some countries which are trying hard to match their abilities. Here we would like you to know everything about Table Tennis so that you can keep your knowledge about the game, updated.
All Information About Table Tennis
Table tennis, which is also known as ping-pong is a ball game in which two or four players are involved when playing. The game is played on a table which is divided by a net and is played by a very lightweight ball and table tennis rackets.
History of Table Tennis
The game of table tennis was first invented in England during the decade of 1880s. At that point of time it was a game played by the English upper class as an after-dinner parlor game. Later the game was developed by the British military officers who were serving mostly in India and South Africa by using two hard books and a golf ball. Later in the year 1921 the Table Tennis Association was founded in the Great Britain and the current governing body the International Table Tennis Federation or ITTF was also founded in the year 1926 and the first ever official World Championship for Table tennis was held in the same year. A Few years later in the year 1933 the United States too got interested into the game and founded United States Table Tennis Association. Table tennis became the Olympic sport in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Change of the Rules in Table Tennis since 2000
After the 2000 Sydney Olympics were over the ITTF changed many rules of the game which were actually to gain more attention towards the game so that it becomes more popular on television.
- The 38 mm (1.50 inch) balls were replaced by 40 mm (1.57 inch) balls.
- The thickness of the sponge on table tennis rackets were also increased.
- The game was reduced to 11 point scoring system from the 21 point system.
- Serve rotation was changed to 2 points from 5 points.
- The server was disallowed to hide the ball while serving.
All these rules were changed to make the game more balanced and fast for the viewers’ delight and till now the general feeling is that the rule changes have served its purpose.
