Let's put it on the table
BY RONDA ADDY

For those of you unfamiliar with table tennis or ping pong as it is sometimes known, the sport involves two or four players hitting the ball back and forth with paddles on a table divided by a net. The ball must bounce only once before it returned to the opponent's side of the table. Table tennis is a fast-paced game that requires a quick reaction time. As sports go, it is a relatively young one. Despite its newness, it is among one of the most popular sports in terms of the number of players, especially in East Asia. Let's take a look at this very popular game.

As far back as the early 1880s, British army officers stationed in India and South Africa played a sport called indoor tennis. The paddles consisted of cigar box lids, the nets of books set across the table and the balls of rounded wine bottle corks. The game's increasing popularity led manufacturers to create equipment specifically for it. Early paddles were pieces of parchment stretched on a frame, and the sound generated during the game led to the names "whiff whaff" and "ping pong."

The first instance of the name "table tennis" occurred in 1887 on a board and dice game manufactured by J.H. Singer of New York. Three years later, David Foster manufactured the earliest game of table tennis. In 1901, English manufacturer J. Jaques & Son Ltd. trademarked the name "ping pong," leaving other manufacturers to refer to their version of the game as table tennis. Jaques sold the rights to the name to Parker Brothers in the United States, which then came out with a kit called "ping pong." That same year, Englishman James Gibb discovered the hollow celluloid ball while on a trip to the United States in 1901. Two years later, E.C. Goode invented the pimpled rubber on the wooden paddle.

Table tennis became increasingly popular with the first tournament held as early as 1901 with over 300 participants. In 1902, the first unofficial world championship was held, books were written and the Ping Pong Association was founded. In 1926, representatives from England, Sweden, Hungry, India, Denmark, Germany, Wales, Austria and Czechoslovakia met in Berlin to form the Federation Internationale de Tennis de Table. The first world championship tournament took place in London, starting Hungary's domination of the sport that lasted until WWII.

Table tennis thrived in the United States. In 1930, the American Ping Pong Association was formed, but membership was limited because only Parker Brothers equipment could be used. In 1933, the U.S. Amateur Table Tennis Association and the National Table Tennis Association were formed. In 1935, the three organizations merged into the U.S. Table Tennis Association, which became U.S.A. Table Tennis in 1994.

In 1953, Asian players began to dominate the sport due to Horoi Satoh's introduction of the foam rubber paddle in 1952. This new paddle made the game faster and Asian players devised a grip that allowed them to strike the ball with the same face of the paddle on any stroke. In 1971, the U.S. table tennis team was invited to play a tournament in China. This was the first officially sanctioned Sino- American cultural exchange in 25 years and led to a follow-up visit from President Nixon.