Indoor Table Tennis Table History
The modest indoor table tennis table was contrived by Jaques of London, not as you may expect by the Chinese whilst they have all the top players these days. It was formulated from an improvised parlour game played in England in the late 1800’s where the “bats” were cigar boxes and the “ball” was a champagne cork. Jaques named it ping pong and the rest is history.The game of table tennis is now a huge sport and played in the Olympics. It is hard to believe that frrom such modest beginnings it is now an worldwide sport. The game has its own regulatory body, the ITTF or International Table Tennis Federation and they dictate the stipulations of the table and the bat and ball. The ball size for table tennis was expanded to 40 mm to decelerate the game down for TV and they are merely air filled hard plastic balls which as you have no doubt acknowledged are really simple to demolish when trampled on.
The game is now really popular and billions of people around the world play it each week, because the gear is very affordable and so the game is reachable to all and great fun, I play it frequently myself and my topspin serve rocks!
Now as for an indoor table tennis table, they are just 2 wooden sheets adjoined together to construct a 9 ft by 5 ft table 30 inches high as per the ITTF rules with a thin net across the centre. It could not be easier really, a table adaptation of the game of tennis. To win the game the new rules state it is the first to 11 points, (it used to be 21) and to be ahead by at least 2 points. The tables start at around $150 complete with bats and a ball so there’s no excuse for not acquiring yourself a brand new indoor table tennis table.