The History Of Table Tennis Goes Back Hundreds Of Years
The history of table tennis is one that dates back to the 12th century when an indoor game known as Royal Tennis was played in medieval times. Variations of the game continued to be played throughout the world and in Victorian times it was played as an after dinner game by the upper classes and was known as ‘wiff waff’. In this version the net was made up out of books and each player used a book as a paddle to hit a golf ball backwards and forwards.
In 1901 Parker Brothers were sold the name ‘ping pong’ by the English company J. Jaques & Son Ltd and the modern era of table tennis began. Fortunately table tennis supplies have come along way since then. The story of table tennis during the modern era would not be complete without a mention of Chinese table tennis history. During the 80’s Chinese players dominated the sport, but with the advent of table tennis as an Olympic sport this dominance gradually began to fade, with players from countries like Sweden and Korea beginning to dominate. Perhaps the most important contribution the Chinese made not only to the popularization of the sport in China, but also to the beginning of the thaw in Cold war relations between the United States and China came in 1971.
On April the 6th 1971 the US Table Tennis Team was invited to China for an all expenses paid trip to play against Chinese opponents, the team accepted and this is widely seen as the beginning of the end for cold war relations between the two countries. President Nixon visited China shortly after this historic occasion. Never before or since has such a small ball had such a major impact.
If one were to offer a short history of modern table tennis it would go something like this; in 1881 bored British soldiers in Australia and South Africa played a game not unlike table tennis. They used cigar box covers as bats and carved a ball out of a champagne cork and batted the ‘ball’ across a net made of books. During the very early 1900’s a variety of boxed sets were sold for use by the upper classes as a parlor game. These boxed sets show that the game was enjoyed by both men and women of the time. The popularity of the game at this time was probably due to the invention and introduction of the celluloid ball in 1900. Prior to this the game had fallen out of favor because the cork balls used had too little bounce and the rubber ball also in use had a wildly unpredictable bounce. Table tennis rules have remained pretty consistent during the ages.
From this time forward the history of table tennis was one of increasing innovation and from 1922, growing popularity, starting in Europe (its popularity had been fading after 1904). In 1926 the first world championship was held in London. In 1936 the tenth world championship was held in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The longest rally took place, with the first point taking over two hours. The 1950’s until the 1970’s has been termed the age of the sponge bat and saw the emergence of Asian dominance of the game. In 1959 Rong Guotuan is the first Chinese world champion in any sport and racket standardization laws enacted. 1980 sees the first world cup held in Hong Kong. In 2001 the game score was changed from 21 to 11 points per set at The World Championship held in Osaka, Japan. In 2004 during the Olympic Games in Athens, table tennis is ranked 5th among all sports for television viewing audience.
Of course this is not a complete history of table tennis, but if you choose to take up this fascinating and entertaining game you will be among millions of people from every country around the globe, who enjoy this sport everyday.
