PE 203 (BASIC TABLE TENNIS)

I. INTRODUCTION

1927 1 st official world championship held in

London
1988 introduced as an Olympic sport

A. DEFINITION

2000 some changes in the ITTF rules

Table tennis, also known as ping pong, is a sport in

which two or four players hit a

a. POINTS 21 reduced to 11 points = to make

games more

lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table

tennis rackets. The game takes

fast-paced and exciting

place on a hard table divided by a net. Except for

the initial serve, players must allow
a ball played toward them only one bounce on their
side of the table and must return
it so that it bounces on the opposite side. Points are
scored when a player fails to
return the ball within the rules.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_tennis)
B. HISTORY
1880s England (after dinner, upper-middle class
Victorians mimicked the
game of Lawn Tennis in an indoor environment
using line of books that
served as the net, champagne cork or knot of string
as the ball, and empty
cigar boxes as the racket).
Became popular and was named whiff-whaff and
gossima
1901
registered by the name Ping-Pong
James Gibb - celluloid ball
1903 E. C. Goode the racket
1902 1 st Unofficial world championship
1920s revived the name and sport in Europe
as Table Tennis
1926 International Table Tennis Federation
(ITTF) founded in Berlin

b. SERVICE no more hiding of the ball thus

reduces servers
advantage
c. BALL - 38 mm to 40 mm = increase balls
resistance and
slowed down the game
* 44 mm to even significantly slow down the game
C. FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT
BALL
Celluloid ball
2.7 g., 40 mm in diameter
White or orange in color depending on the color
of the Table
(white best seen in green or blue colored Table)
3 stars highest quality
TABLE
2.74 m. long or 9 feet
1.525 m. wide or 5 feet
76 cm. height from the floor or 30 in.
15.25 cm. height of net or 6 in.
Made up of masonite (hardboard) and layered
with a smoothfriction coating

RACKET [includes a wooden blade and a rubber

(smooth or pimpled) with or

Game play

without sponge

Starting a game

15 cm. across or 6 in.

In top-flight competition, service is decided by a

coin toss. At lower levels it is

25 cm. long (including the handle) or 10 in.

D. GRIP

common for one player (or the umpire/scorer) to

hide the ball in one or the other

2 KINDS:

hand (usually hidden under the table), allowing the

other player to guess which hand

PENHOLD commonly used by the Chinese,

Japanese &
Koreans; similar to holding a writing instrument;
curling the 3
fingers at the back of the blade
SHAKEHAND also known as the western grip;
looks like a
handshake; Your fingers should lie roughly parallel
with the
straight edge of the rubber at the base of the racket
head. This
enables you to have good control over the racket
angle. The
remaining three fingers are wrapped around the
handle to
provide stability.
II. BASIC TABLE TENNIS STROKES
1. The Backhand Push - The purpose of this stroke
is to stop your opponent from

the ball is in. The correct or incorrect guess gives

the "winner" the option to
choose to serve, receive, or to choose which side
of the table to use.
Service
the ball (which is not hidden from the sight of the
receiver) is held behind the
endline of the table, with the ball in the palm of the
free hand - over the
table's height - and the racket in the other, the
server tosses the ball without
spin, upward, at least sixteen centimeters
(approximately 6 inches) and then
falls without touching anything before being struck.
He or she then must hit the ball such that it
bounces once on his or her half of
the table, and then bounces at least one time on
the opponent's half.

playing an attacking stroke.

If the ball strikes the net but does not strike the
opponent's half of the table,

2. The Forehand Drive - The purpose of this stroke

is to play aggressively and stop

then a point is awarded to the opponent. However,

if the ball hits the net, but

your opponent from playing an attacking stroke.

nevertheless goes over and bounces on the other

side, it is called a let (or

3. The Backhand Drive - The purpose of this stroke

is to play aggressively and stop
your opponent from playing an attacking stroke.
4. The Forehand Push - The purpose of this stroke
is to stop your opponent from

net-in). Play stops, and the ball must be served

again with no penalty. A
player may commit any number of lets without
penalty.

playing an attacking stroke.

If service is "good", then the opponent

must then make a "good" return.

III. RULES, SCORING AND SYSTEMS

OF PLAY FOR SINGLES EVENT

Any hitting of the ball must be done such that the

ball passes over or around

Definition of terms:

the net. If the opponent cannot return it over (or

around) the net and make it

Match = number of games (3, 5 or 7)

Game = 11 points
Deuce = 10-all, advantage of 2 points (no limit)
Scoring Rally-point system

bounce on your side, then you win the point.

Scoring
Points are awarded to the opponent for any of
several errors in play:
Allowing the ball to bounce on one's own
side twice
Double hitting the ball. Note that the hand above
the wrist is considered part
of the racket and making a good return off
one's hand or fingers is allowed,
but hitting one's hand or fingers and
subsequently hitting the racket is a
double strike and an error.
Allowing the ball to strike anything other than the
racket (see above for
definition of the racket)
Causing the ball not to bounce on the
opponent's half (i.e., not making a

alternates after each point, until one player gains a

two-point advantage.
End of a Game
Players will change ends and the succeeding
server will be the receiver during the
start of the 1 st game (alternate service at the start
of each game)
IV. RULES, SCORING AND SYSTEMS OF
PLAY FOR DOUBLES EVENT
Doubles game
In doubles, all the rules of singles play apply except
for the following:
A line (3 mm white line) painted along the long
axis of the table to create
doubles courts bisects the table. This line's
ONLY purpose is to facilitate the

"good" return)

doubles service rule, which is that service, must

originate from the right hand

Placing one's free hand on the playing

surface or moving the playing surface

"box" in such a way that the first bounce

of the serve bounces once in said

Offering and failing to make a good serve (i.e.,

making a service toss and

right hand box and then must bounce at least once

in the opponent side's

failing to strike the ball fairly into play)

right hand box.

Making an illegal serve: (e.g., one preceded by a

player's hiding the ball or

Play then continues normally with the exception

that players must alternately

his failing to toss the ball at least 16 centimeters

(six inches) in the air).

hit the ball.

Hitting the net with racket or any body part, or

moving the table.
Let

The point proceeds this way until one side fails to

make a legal return and the
point is then awarded to the other team.

A let is called if:

When the game reaches the final set, the teams

must switch side and the

1. The ball touches the net during a good serve

without interruption by either player.

team that receives the service must switch receiver

when one of the teams

2. Play is disturbed by circumstances beyond the

control of players.

reach 5 points.

3. The service is delivered when the receiving

player or pair is not yet ready,
provided that neither the receiver nor his partner
attempts to strike the ball.
Alternation of service
Service alternates between opponents every two
points (regardless of winner of the
rally) until a player reaches 11 points with at least a
two-point lead, or until both
players have 10 points a piece. If both players
reach 10 points, then service

Alternation of service
In doubles, service alternates every two points
between sides, but also rotates
between players on the same team. At the end of
every two points, the receiving
player becomes the server, and the partner of the
serving player becomes the
receiver.

History of Ping Pong

(http://www.tabletennismaster.com/page/history-ofping-pong)
Many people hold the wrong notion that table tennis
originated in China, because the Chinese name
ping pong is also used for
the sport and because the Chinese dominate the
game nowadays. However, ping pong was actually
started by the upper class
Victorian gentlemen in the 1880s in England, as an
after dinner indoor relaxation, mimicking outdoor
tennis. They used dayto-day objects, like using a line of books as the net,
a knot of strings or a rounded top of a Champagne
bottle cork as the ball
and a cigar box lid as the racket.
The name ping pong was derived from the sound
when the sport was played. That name was
trademarked by an English table
tennis equipment manufacturer, J. Jaques &
Son Ltd. in 1901. The name, ping pong, was used
when the sport was played with
the expensive Jaques equipment, while other
manufacturers called their equipment as table
tennis equipment. Later, Jaques
sold the rights of ping pong to Parker Brothers in
the United States. However, nowadays, ping pong
is used as a generic name

was held in London in 1927. Table tennis was

introduced as an Olympic Sport at the 1988
Olympics.
In the 1940s, sports goods manufacturers, S.W.
Hancock Ltd., introduced rackets that had a rubber
sheet along with an
underlying sponge layer. This facilitated play with
greater spin and speed. In 1949, Johnny Leach
won the World
Championships using a Hancock racket. Later, the
use of speed glue enhanced the speed and spin
even further.
This resulted in matches that were played at
tremendous pace. When the television viewers
started growing more and more in
numbers, a demand for slowing down the game
started to emerge. With the purpose of achieving
this, the International Table
Tennis Federation (ITTF) introduced several
measures at the end of 2000, to slow down the
game. The 21-point format was
reduced to an 11-point format to make the sport
more exciting and enjoyable.
The ball size was increased from 38 mm diameter
to 40 mm diameter, so that the air resistance on the
ball increased, slowing

for table tennis.

down the pace of the game. The ITTF also banned

the players from hiding the ball while serving, so
that the advantage for the

In 1901, an English table tennis enthusiast, James

Gibb, visited the United States and discovered
celluloid balls, finding them

server would be reduced and longer rallies could be

made possible. Now, there is a demand to increase
the size of the ball to a

ideal for the game. In 1903, E.C. Goode fixed a

sheet of stippled or pimpled rubber sheet to the
wooden blade and the modern

44 mm diameter, so that the game could be slowed

down further. This is because modern day players
had increased the

racket was born. In 1902, an unofficial world

championship was held. In 1921, the Table Tennis
Association was founded in

thickness of the fast sponge layer on their rackets,

making the sport a very fast paced one and difficult
to follow on television.

England. The International Table Tennis Federation

was formed in 1926 and the first official world table
tennis championship