Table tennis, also known as ping pong, is considered by most Americans to be more of a hobby than a sport.
According to sporteology.com, table tennis is a sport “in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball back and forth using table tennis rackets.”
The game is played on a small, hard table that is divided by a net. Players must allow a ball only one bounce on their side of the table and must return it so that it bounces on the other; this is on all plays except for the initial serve. It is easiest to think of it like tennis but on a smaller scale.
Play can be fast in table tennis, so it requires quick reaction times. Spinning the ball alters its trajectory limiting an opponent’s options, which gives the hitter a greater advantage.
Professional players do not get paid much for this sport, with compensation ranging from a few thousand to a few hundred thousand dollars.
Table tennis is governed by a worldwide organization called the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), which has several event categories and its own handbook.
This sport is known, though, for its gender equality because there is room for both women and men to play on the amateur or professional level, and it gets high rankings for the equality it allows.
Table tennis is a popular sport during the summer Olympics, which is the only time this sport is popular in mainstream American media. In addition to the Olympics, the World Table Tennis Championships are held every two years.
In the Olympics there are the men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles and women’s doubles. Since 2008, a team event has been played instead of doubles.
After the 2000 Olympics, the ITTF made several rule changes that were aimed at making table tennis a more viable televised spectator sport. First, the balls were resized and became bigger. This increased the ball’s air resistance and effectively slowed down the game. A few months later the game was changed from a total of 21 points to 11 points needed to win.
At Elizabethtown College, there are ping pong tables in almost every dorm and students have “tournaments” that serve as community-building activities for residents of those dorms. Etown students love to watch the tournaments and take part in the friendly competition.
