Ping Pong

Butterfly Table Tennis Table Cover

Price: $40*
(Online Sports)

Protect your table tennis table for years of continuous use! Durable nylon cover to help prolong the life and look of your table tennis table. Zippers allow you to cover the table during storage or play position. Nylon handle allows you to hang cover during play. Fits most tables.

Merchant: Online Sports

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Prince Recreation Table Tennis Table

Sale Price: $342.99*
Retail: $480 (29% off!)
(Mercantila)

Enjoy your free time! An official table tennis table with a green top, lateral support, standard net, and racket-ball holders....click to read more about the Prince Recreation Table Tennis Table!

Merchant: Mercantila

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Martin Kilpatrick Table Tennis Table Cover

Sale Price: $19.99*
Retail: $24.99 (20% off!)
(Sport Chalet)

Made from heavy duty nylon that will last for years, the Martin Kilpatrick Table Tennis Table Cover helps prolong the life and look of your table tennis table. Measuring 60.5" L x 29.5" W x 59" H, it is designed to fit most tables.

Merchant: Sport Chalet

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Supreme Pro Table Tennis Table

Price: $999*
(WillyGoat)

The official table of the 2003 and 2004 World Table Tennis Championships. The most widely used DHS table in important international competitions.

Merchant: WillyGoat

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6-Color Table Tennis Kit, 24 Paddles/Balls: SP

Price: $84.15*
(Kalyx)

Table tennis kit includes 24 poly paddles - 4 each red, blue, yellow, green, orange and purple; one gross (144 ea.) good quality Halex table tennis balls and a nylon mesh carry/storage bag...

Merchant: Kalyx

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Solution Table Tennis Table

Price: $529.88*
(S&S Worldwide)

The Solution to your table tennis needs! Our exclusive design consist of four independent 2-1/2'W x 4-1/2'L tables that lock together to form a full size (5'x9') table tennis table.

Merchant: S&S Worldwide

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General description

Table tennis is a sport where two players hit a ball back and forth to each other, with a racket on a table, in a manner similar to tennis. The rules are slightly different, but the concept is essentially the same. Table tennis is an Olympic sport, "ping-pong" is the recreational version of the same sport. Spin, speed and strategy play an important part in competitive table tennis matches. The speed of the ball can vary from slow spinny serves to fast smashes that travel as fast as 110km/h.

The playing surface is a 9 ft × 5 ft × 30 in high (2.7 m × 1.5 m × .762m) hard rectangular table with the surface usually colored green, dark blue, or black. A 6 inch (15.2 cm) tall net divides the table in half (much like a tennis court) and is strung to extend 6 inches (15.2 cm) beyond the table on each side.

The paddles, also known as bats or rackets, are usually about 10 inch long, with a hitting surface that is approximately 6 in × 6 in (15.8 cm × 15.8 cm), although the rules specify no limitations in size or shape. The paddle is covered with pimpled rubber on one or both sides. Modern table tennis paddles are usually covered with rubber, and may have the pimples pointing outwards or inwards, and a thin layer of sponge between the plywood and the rubber.

Spin plays a large part in the modern game of table tennis, and the composition of the rubber and the combination of sponge and rubber is designed to maximize the amount of spin and speed a player can impart to the ball. Other technological improvements include the use of carbon or other synthetic layers as part of the blade to increase the sweet spot or the stiffness of the blade. The ball used in table tennis is a 40 mm diameter ball, made of celluloid, completely hollow and lightweight. A three star rating on a ball usually implies a top quality ball, in bounce and roundness.

Play is fast and demands possibly the quickest reactions of any sport. A skilled player can impart spin to the ball which makes its bounce difficult to predict or return with confidence. Spin combined with speed makes table tennis an exciting sport to play as well as to watch. The difference between Olympic level play and the average home recreational player is tremendous. Often a proper foundation of table tennis skills is required to understand how competitive players can do what seems impossible to the untrained eye.

The winner is the first to score 11 points, with each player alternating serves every two points. At 10-10 (or deuce) the players alternate with every serve. The winner is the first person to gain a clear two points advantage over his opponent. The 11 point game is an International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) change which occurred in 2001. The 21 point game is still widely played at recreational level. All games played at national level and at international tournaments (ITTF) are played to 11 points in either a best of five (5) games (preliminaries) or best of seven (7) games format (championship matches).

Equipment

The ball

The international rules specify that it is played with a light (2.7 gram), 40 mm diameter, high-bouncing hollow celluloid ball.

The table

The table is 2.74 m (9 ft) long, 1.525 m (5 feet) wide, and 76 cm (30 inches) high with a masonite or similarly manufactured timber, coated with a low-friction, smooth coating. The table or playing surface is divided into two halves by a 15.2 cm (6 inch) high net.

The racket

Players are equipped with a wooden racket (also called bat or paddle) covered with rubber on one or two sides. The rubber may be pimpled rubber, with the pimples outward, or it may be a rubber that is composed of two materials, a sponge layer, covered by a pimpled rubber, with the pimples pointed inwards or outwards.

Players today, have many choices and variations in rubber sheets on their racket. Although rackets may be purchased with rubber by the manufacturer, most serious tournament players will create a customized racket. A player selects a blank blade (a racket without rubber), based on his playing style. The type of wood and synthetic layers used to make up the blade will provide a slower or faster blade. The player can choose from different types of rubber sheets which will provide a certain level of spin, speed and specific playing characteristics.

Normally, a sheet of rubber was glued to a blade using rubber cement and not removed until the rubber wore out or became damaged. In the 1980's, a new technique was developed where the player would use a special glue called speed glue to apply the rubber every time he played. The glue would help provide more spin and speed by providing a "catapult" effect. This technique is known as "regluing" and has become a standard technique for top players.

Table tennis is the only racket sport that allows different surfaces on each side of the racket. The different types of surfaces provide various levels of spin or speed, or in some cases, nullifies spin. For example, a player may have a rubber that provides much spin on one side of his racket, and no spin on the other side of the racket. By flipping the racket in play, different types of returns were possible. To help a player distinguish between different types of rubber used by his opposing player, international rules, declared that one side must be red while the other side must be black. The player has the right to inspect his opponent's racket before a match to see the type of rubber used and what color it is. During high speed play and rapid exchanges, a player can see clearly what side of the racket was used to hit the ball.

Different types of rubber sheets include:

:Reverse (European style): One of the most widely used rubber types. This enables the player to generate high levels of spin and speed. Spin is mainly generated not by the topsheet, but by the ball sinking into and being gripped by the sponge, before being catapulted from the racket.

:Reverse (Chinese): These rubbers usually have avery sticky topsheet, and it is sometimes possible to pick the ball up from the table with the bat. Spin is generated mainly by the topsheet, as opposed to the sponge. Because the ball is held on the surface of the rubber, due to the stickyness, chinese sponges are usually hard to compensate from the loss of speed.

:Short pimples: Short, pimples out rubbers are usually used by close to the table hitters, e.g Liu Guoliang. They do not generate as much spin as reverse rubbers, but also make the user less susceptable to the opponents spin.

:Long pimples: Long pimple out rubbers do not have the abilty to generate any real spin of their own, but feed off the opponents spin, to allow the user to confuse the opponent and upset their rhythm. Usually used by close to the table blockers, or choppers. They are usually only used on the backahnd side, as they offer very limited attacking capabilities.

:Anti Loop: Anti loop, like long pimples, cannot generate any real spin, but just allows the user to produce a no-spin ball. Also used to confuser the opponent, and not very widely used at international level.

Gameplay

Starting a game

In top flight competition, service is decided by a coin toss. At lower levels it is common for one player (or the umpire/scorer) to hide the ball in one or the other hand (usually hidden under the table) allowing the other player to guess which hand the ball is in, the correct or incorrect guess gives the "winner" the option to choose to serve, or to choose which side of the table to use.

With the introduction of the 11 point game, the serve has become more critical, and the choice to serve first is the most popular decision. Depending on playing conditions, glare, background distractions, etc. it may be to a player's advantage to choose side over serve. If player wins the toss and chooses side, the other player decides to serve or can give the first player the serve.

Service

In game play, a point is commenced by the player serving the ball. Standing behind the end of the table, with the ball in the palm of one hand and the racket in the other, the server tosses the ball without spin, upward, at least six inches.

He or she then must hit the ball such that it bounces once on his or her half of the table, then bounces at least one time on the opponent’s half. If ball strikes the net but does not strike the opponent's half of the table, then a point is awarded to the opponent. However, if the ball hits the net, but nevertheless goes over and bounces on the other side, it is called a let. Play stops, and the ball must be served again with no penalty. A player may commit any number of lets without penalty.

If the service is "good," then the opponent must then make a "good" return — by returning the ball before it bounces a second time. Returning the serve is one of the most difficult parts of the game, as the server's first move is often the least predictable.

Scoring

Points are awarded to the opponent for these errors in play:

During play

• allowing the ball to bounce on one’s own side twice
• not hitting the ball after it has bounced on one’s own side
• having the ball bounce on one’s own side after hitting it
• double hitting the ball. Note that the hand below the wrist is considered part of the bat 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 (making a "good" return)
• failing to allow the ball to bounce once in one’s own side ("volleying"); hitting the ball before its first bounce is an automatic loss of point
• placing one’s free hand on the playing surface or moving the playing surface

Service errors

On the serve,

• offering and failing to make a good serve. That is, making a service toss and failing to strike the ball fairly into play. (See section on Service)
• making an illegal serve (one deemed outside the rules—e.g., hiding the ball, a toss lower than 6 inches, etc.). A warning is usually offered on the first occurrence, a point awarded to the other player subsequently.

Alternation of service

Essentially a player must make a "good" return as described above. Failure to do so results in the other player being awarded the point. Serves alternate every two points (regardless of the winner) until a player wins with a two-point lead or until a "deuce" game is required, then serve alternates after each point. Typically, games are played to 11 points and a player must win by at least a two point difference. Should each player reach 10 points a "deuce" game comes into effect, players serve alternates after each point as mentioned above and the game is won by the player who gains a lead of 2 points.

In doubles, service alternates every two points between sides, but also rotates between players on the same team. For example, 'player A' serves the ball twice then service alternates to the opposing team and 'player B' takes position to receive service. After two points served by the opposing team and received by 'player B', 'player B' becomes the server. Service continues rotating between team members in this manner until the end of the game. In addition to rotating service between players of the same team during a game, service also alternates between server-receiver with each new game. If 'player A' on 'team 1' serves the first game to 'player A' on 'team 2' (A1-A2), the next game 'player A' on 'team 1' serves to 'player B' on 'team 2' (A1-B2). Thus, doubles play is evenly matched between teams and neither team has the advantage by order of play.

In the old 21 point game, service alternated every 5 points. If both players reached a score of 20, then service would alternate every point until one player had a 2 point advantage.

Series of games

After each game, players switch sides of the table and in the 5th or 7th, game "for the match", players switch sides when the first player scores 5 points, regardless of whose turn it is to serve. In competition play, matches are typically best of five or seven games. Before 2001, players alternated serves every 5 points and games would be played to 21 points and had to be won by at least 2 points. This is also true in recreational play, especially when more than a few people are waiting to play.

Doubles game

In addition to games between individual players, table tennis may also be played by pairs. In doubles all the rules of single play apply except for the following. The table is bisected by a line painted along the long axis of the table to create doubles courts. This line’s only purpose is to facilitate the doubles service rule which is that service must originate from the right hand "box" in such a way that the first bounce of the serve bounces once in said right hand box and then must bounce at least once in the opponent side’s right hand box (far left box for server). Play then continues normally with the exception that players must alternate hitting the ball. For example, after a player serves the receiving player make his or her return, the server’s partner returns the ball and then the service receiver’s partner would play the ball. In wheelchair doubles table tennis, a player hits when the ball reaches their side. The point proceeds this way until one side fails to make a legal return and the point is then awarded to the other team. Singles and doubles are both played in international competition, including the Olympic Games since 1988 and the Commonwealth Games since 2002. In 2005, the ITTF has announced that doubles table tennis will only be featured as a part of teams events in the 2008 Olympics.