The Wonderful World of Ping Pong
Ping pong (also known as table tennis to those who take it seriously) is a sport enjoyed all over the world, even here in the United States (though you may not have heard much about it). In almost every city or decent sized town you will find a table tennis club of some form where a few hardy souls (or dozens of them) gather regularly to match skills and wits across a table tennis table.
Table tennis is a game of speed, coordination and athleticism. While many Americans play the game known as ping pong and have fun tapping the ball back and forth across the net to each other, others take the sport to a whole new level. This website is for them, or for those who would like to be one of them.
I have been playing the game for a few years now after learning how to play it in college (and burning quite a few hours of study time away in the rec Hall in the process) and so I have learned a few things along the way. I thought I would try to impart as much of that as I could to my readers, and research some things that I DON'T know about and hopefully learn along with you as I continue to increase my skill and knowledge in the game.
One of the biggest limitations in the game is simply having enough room and the equipment to play it. A table tennis table (a.k.a. ping pong table) does take up quite a bit of room. Then, when you add the amount of space needed to actually be able to back up and hit the ball well, it takes up too much room for most people's living quarters. I guess that's why you find quite a few ping pong tables in the garage -- or even in the backyard (shudder). Well if that's the only place that you have room to set up your table, then don't let it stop you. Playing ping pong in the garage or even playing in the backyard where you may be swinging your ping pong paddle at mosquitoes as much as at flying ping pong balls, is still better than not being able to play all.
In all honesty I wasn't able to improve my skills very much in the game until I moved into a place where I was able to have a ping pong table set up where it could stay up permanently, and actually have room to play around it. I was even able to go out and get myself a table tennis robot (more on these handy little devices elsewhere in this site) and then I was REALLY able to increase my skill fairly quickly to a point where I was competitive in the clubs.
And while we're on the subject of table tennis clubs, if you can find one in your area definitely go and check it out. They're usually populated with a host of very friendly people who are eager to spread the word about how much fun table tennis really is. In some of the larger clubs you will even find coaching and lessons available, usually at very reasonable prices. And if you have any inklings about entering a ping pong tournament at any point in time (just to really test your mettle) then getting into a club and starting to play in a competitive environment is absolutely necessary.
One of the neatest things I have found in playing this game is meeting folks from other countries who learned to play it over there, and then came over here. To them I say a big "hello". Hopefully you will find something in this site that is useful as well. Like so many other sports that are played internationally, different vocabulary exists over there than we use here in America. For instance, "ping pong paddles" are called "table tennis bats", "table tennis rackets", "table tennis racquets" (for our friends north of the border) and all sorts of other things. The game is still the same and can serve as a common point for many different peoples, regardless of race color or creed.
Anyhow, please feel free to browse around and let me know what you think!
