History of Table Tennis
Even the sport table tennis tournaments are all over the world, a lot of people still do not really take this seriously. But with regards to that, do we know the history of this sport? Let us take a glimpse about this sport’s origin and history so that we will be able to understand it better.
Table tennis began as a mild diversion. This game is more fondly called by others as “ping-pong.” At first, it was viewed with lack of seriousness as the lawn tennis and badminton games. Table tennis became popular in England in the late 19th century and it was known during that time as “gossima” and “whiff-whaff.” J. Jaques and Sons introduced the name ping-pong. It was named as that because of the sound produced made when hitting and striking the table tennis ball. And also, it was during that time were paddles for ping pong were not yet invented, instead vellum bats were being used in playing the said sports. Ping pong became a very fashionable game and craze. During that period, lot of paintings were made that have people playing the said game and usually in a home setting.
In the early 1990s, the table tennis game started to develop its characteristics as like as what we all know about this game nowadays. But it was still seen by most people as not a very serious kind of sports but only an after dinner entertainment. During that time, publications found it that they could warn people about what proper dress and attire they must wear when playing the game. Such as not wearing tight fitting clothes, yet, those were seen by the people as an obvious satire because of the fact that the game was not taken seriously by the people.
The game became popular in Europe between 1905 and 1910 until it finally became popular also in Japan, Korea and China. Today, table tennis is seen and treated as a very serious and competitive sport in China because not just more than four million Chinese plays table tennis.
In the mean time, after having its way to Japan, China, Korea and other Asian countries, this game slowly started to subside in the European scene. But it is in the year 1920s when it was again rekindled in England. During that time, the name “ping pong” had actually became a registered trademark of table tennis, yet the term “table tennis” was still retained for serious organizations, federations and other groups that take the table tennis as an actual and serious sports.
After the next 60 years, table tennis was developed into a worldwide sport and yet it never got the recognition like the recognitions they give in other major sports such as basketball, volleyball, badminton and tennis. From the time where they use vellum bats up to replacing those by table tennis paddles, the game has remained relatively the same as the past periods. The paddles used in table tennis have gone through lots of modifications as far as they have produced and created the best but most of its parts remained unchanged until the early days.
This game did not gain the right respect, that some say it deserves, in the same way as other major sports. Most of the people who plays this game admits that the game is very hard but is very fun.