7 interesting facts about Table Tennis

Table Tennis.. A game that is played and loved by people all over the played. Just whip out a table, couple of rackets and a ball and just start playing indoors or outdoors.

The versatility makes it one of the most popular fun time sport in the world.

To make Table Tennis more fun for you, here are some interesting facts about Table Tennis.

1. It is the most popular indoor sport in the world.

With over 227 Associates from various countries and territories affiliated with the International Table Tennis Federation, the sport is watched and played by millions of people around the world.

The sport in featured in majority of Sports events such as Olympics, Paralympics, Commonwealth Games etc.

The games us well known due to it's versatility and can be played by anyone regardless of their age.

2. Table Tennis first came into scene in England during the 1880s

This is mostly due to many game makers trying to emulate lawn-tennis down to smaller proportions. Hence, many game-makers came up with different names for the sport like Ping Pong, Indoor Tennis, Gossima, Whiff-Whaff. Some of the early variations of the games included card games, board and dice games... it was weird.

Eventually, the name Table Tennis was set for the International Sport.

3. ITTF- The Governing Body of Table Tennis came into being in 1926

The Founding countries included representatives from Austria, England, Germany and Hungary.

After the initial meetings, India, Czechoslovakia, Wales, Sweden were invited to become the Original members of ITTF.

They Okayed the first constitution and original set of rules for Table Tennis were sent in December of 1926, which have largely remained unchanged.

4. 1971 was when the Ping Pong diplomacy happened

In 1971, China invited England, USA, Canada and Colombia for some friendly matches. This shocked the world as it was first instance where China made contact with rest of world in 6 years.

The media around the world nicknamed it the "Ping Pong Diplomacy"

5. China currently dominates the sport

Fan Zhendong(Black) and Ma Long(Red)
World No.1 and 2 respectively 

This is one is quite obvious since Table Tennis is their national sport. If you have seen Table Tennis, chances are you have seen a Chinese play and even their matches.

Players start their training at a very young age wallowing them to develop exceptionally fast reflexes and muscle memories.

China has won 122 out of 145 World Championships since 1981

6. 1600+ types of rubbers available

Rubbers are an important aspect for Table Tennis professional. Only authorized rubbers can be used when playing ITTF tournaments.

Rubbers are either smooth or pimples which helps in putt various kinds of spin on the ball.

I have previously reviewed a Rubber that is most commonly used and you can read all about it here.

7. Table Tennis balls are made or Plastic

Even though this sounds like an obvious one, it's not. Before 2014, the balls were made out of celluloid. But after the new rules set by ITTF, the balls that are used to play in tournaments must be made of plastic.

Plastic balls are mostly denoted by 40+ symbols. 

You can read more about the Table tennis balls from my guide.

So that's it for now, hope you learned something new about Table Tennis. These are very brief facts, you can always google them and do a deeper dive into it's History!!

Till next time!!