Table tennis

• Table tennis


  Also known as ping-pong, a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball back and forth across a table using a small bat/paddle
• Origin of table tennis

  1. Towards the end of the 19th century in England, upper-middle class Victorians turned their dining room tables into miniature versions of the traditional lawn tennis playing field

  2. Used everyday objects like a line of books as the net, lids from empty agar boxes as rackets, and a ball of string or champagne cork/rubber ball as the ball
• Table tennis


  • The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net
  • The player must allow a bounce off on his/her side of the table before returning the ball
• Early names for table tennis

  • Whiff whaff
  • Gossima
  • Flim flam
• Penhold grip


  • Grips the racket similarly to the way one holds a writing instrument
  • Penhold players use only one side of the racket to hit the ball during normal play
• Shakehand grip


  • Racket is grasped as if performing a handshake
  • Also referred to as the "Tennis" or "Western" grip
  • Simpler and more versatile than penhold grip
• Seemiller grip


  Places the thumb and index finger on either side of the bottom of the racquet head, holding the handle with the rest of the fingers
• 1. V-grip


  The forefinger and the middle finger sandwich the blade
• Table tennis ball


  • Lightweight, weight 2.7 gram, 40 mm diameter, made of high-bouncing gas-filled celluloid, colored white or orange, with a matte finish
• Table tennis table


  • 9 ft long, 5 ft wide, 30 inches high, with a masonite or similarly manufactured timber, layered with a smooth, low-friction coating, divided into two halves by a 15.2 cm high net
• Table tennis racket


  • Composed of a wooden blade covered with rubber on one or two sides, materials can include kevlar, titanium, arylate, aramid, aluminum, cork, glass fiber, and carbon fiber, average size is 17 cm long and 15 cm wide