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Table tennis is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of two, players take alternating turns returning a light, hollow ball over the table's net onto the opposing half of the court using small rackets until they fail to do so, which results in a point for the opponent. Play is fast, requiring quick reaction and constant attention, and is characterized by an emphasis on spin relative to other ball sports, which can heavily affect the ball's trajectory.
Beer pong, also known as Beirut, is a drinking game in which players throw a ping pong ball across a table with the intent of landing the ball in a cup of beer on the other end. The game typically consists of opposing teams of two or more players per side with 6 or 10 cups set up in a triangle formation on each side. Each team then takes turns attempting to throw ping-pong balls into the opponent's cups. If the team "makes" a cup - that is, the ball lands in it, and stays in it - the contents of the cup are consumed by the other team and the cup is removed from the table. The first team to eliminate all of the opponent's cups is the winner.
Ping-pong diplomacy refers to the exchange of table tennis (ping-pong) players between the United States (US) and People's Republic of China (PRC) in the early 1970s, that began during the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan as a result of an encounter between players Glenn Cowan and Zhuang Zedong. The exchange and its promotion helped to humanize the people in each country after a period of isolation and distrust. It paved the way for President Richard Nixon's visit to Beijing in 1972, and is considered a turning point in relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China.
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is the governing body for all national table tennis associations. The role of the ITTF includes overseeing rules and regulations and seeking technological improvement for the sport of table tennis. The ITTF is responsible for the organization of numerous international competitions, including the World Table Tennis Championships that has continued since 1926.
Glenn L. Cowan was an American table tennis player.
Beer pong is a drinking game loosely based on ping pong that involves the use of paddles to hit a ping pong ball into cups on the opposing side. The origin of beer pong is generally credited to Dartmouth College.
Ping Pong is a 2002 Japanese sports film directed by Fumihiko Sori. It is based on Taiyō Matsumoto's manga series of the same name and is about the friendship between two high school table tennis players. The film concentrates on these two friends, their two mentors, and three players who they encounter at high school table tennis tournaments. It explores the different motivations and philosophies that they have towards table tennis and tries to portray the excitement and subtlety of the sport.
Hardbat table tennis is the classical table tennis playing style that existed prior to the advent of sponge rubber in the 1950s. The main difference between hardbat and modern table tennis lies in the racket used, which greatly affects the dynamics and strategy of the game. Hardbat rackets use short outward "pips" with no sponge, resulting in decreased speeds and reduced spin compared to rackets using sponge rubber. This results in slower shots, and a more strategic game rather than the fast-paced, heavy topspin attacking style that dominates regular table tennis. Although the older term 'ping-pong' is often used as a synonym for table tennis generally, hardbat is sometimes referred to specifically as 'ping-pong' in contradistinction to modern 'soft-bat' table tennis.
Leah Thall-Neuberger, nicknamed Miss Ping, was an American table tennis player. She was ranked the # 3 table tennis player in the world in 1951.
Andrew Baggaley is a professional table tennis player from Milton Keynes. He is England's leading table tennis medal winner of all time in the Commonwealth Games, winning two gold medals in Manchester, England (2002), 1 silver medal in Melbourne, Australia (2006), 1 silver and 1 bronze medal in Delhi, India (2010) and 1 silver in Glasgow, Great Britain.
John Alfred Leach MBE was a British table tennis player, coach, and author. He began competing at a relatively old age, 17, before serving in World War II. During the war, he greatly elevated his game and, in 1946, achieved a world ranking. In 1949, Leach became Great Britain's second World Champion singles player. After winning the title, he achieved widespread fame within the United Kingdom, appearing on television and writing for News of the World. Two years later, Leach added a second singles title. In 1953, he was part of the team that won Great Britain's first, and as of 2023 only, team World Championship. He also won 13 bronze and silver World championship medals between 1947 and 1955. As of 2014, Leach is just one of 11 players from any country to win two singles championships.
USA Table Tennis, colloquially known as USATT, is the non-profit governing body for table tennis in the United States and is responsible for cataloging and sanctioning table tennis tournaments within the country. It was founded in 1933 as the United States Table Tennis Association. In addition to processing tournaments, USATT maintains a national rating and ranking system. It also oversees the USA National Teams. In total, USATT has over 9,000 members. The headquarters of USA Table Tennis is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States, which is also home to the United States Olympic Training Center. USA Table Tennis offers a $100,000 incentive for American Olympic table tennis athletes, though no American athlete has ever won a medal for table tennis.
Ichiro Ogimura was a Japanese table tennis player, coach, president of the ITTF and former World No. 1 who won 12 World Championship titles during his career. Ogimura was also a key figure in the Ping Pong Diplomacy events of the early 1970s, as well as being instrumental in Korea playing as a unified team at the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships.
Stanislav Kolář was a male former international table tennis player from Czechoslovakia.
The World Championship of Ping Pong, also known as WCPP, is an annual ping pong tournament that has been held since 2011. The current champion is Andrew Baggaley, who beat Alexander Flemming in the 2020 final to beat Maxim Shmyrev's record of winning three championships, and become the record-breaking four-time champion.
Maxim Shmyrev is a male table tennis player from Moscow, Russia. He is a multiple Russian National Champion in table tennis, winning Men Singles title five times. He is also a three-times world champion of ping-pong (sandpaper), having won the first three world championships in that discipline, from 2011 to 2014.
Shizuka Narahara is a Japanese former table tennis player. From Hiroshima, she was in the city on 6 August 1945, when the first of two atomic bombs was dropped on Japan.
Ping pong with obstacles, or Pingpongo, is a sport that consists of a variation of ping pong or traditional table tennis, by adding material and/or mental obstacles. It was created in Argentina in 2010 but is also officially played since 2013 in Norway and Uruguay.
Richard Pugoy Gonzales is a Filipino table tennis player and the No. 1 ranked player in the Philippines as of January 2014.
Soo Yeon Lee is a South Korean former table tennis player, model, actress and coach. Lee started playing table tennis at a very early age and was also trained extensively in the sport by an Olympic gold medalist Jung Hwa Hyun in South Korea. Soon thereafter she went on to successively win the Korean National Junior Championship six times since the age of 12. She has been featured in advertisement campaigns for a number of prominent brands including Nike, Adidas, K-Swiss, Red Bull, and Target. She is the brand ambassador for SPiN, a chain of table tennis restaurants and bars.
References
- ↑ "Super Max Makes it Three in a Row!". World Championship of Ping Pong. Archived from the original on 6 January 2014. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
- ↑ "Sandpapier-WM: Shmyrev zum dritten Mal Weltmeister!". myTischtennis. Retrieved 6 January 2014.