| Product: |
Table Tennis - General |
| Date: |
13/03/08 (50 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Very fun, Addicting, Don't need to be really fit to play, Buy your own table & bats
Disadvantages: Hard to find a club/sports centre with table tennis, Expensive to buy your own table & equipment
Table tennis in fact originated from England as an after-dinner amusement for upper-class Victorians in the late 1880s. It is a fabulous sport and I love playing it. The down side is that it doesn't give you much exercise and is really quite hard to find a club where you can play table tennis. However, from around £250 you can buy your very own table tennis table and then get your own bats to start playing with your family and friends!
The game is now an Olympic sport and the 2001, 2005 and 2007 world champion is Wang Liqin, from China. It is a very fast-paced game and each player requires very quick reactions to play at the professional stage. When having a hit around with your friends, it is much more relaxed obviously and it takes more skill than you think to be good at this game.
The table itself is just over 1.5m wide so it is quite small. It can only be played by 2 players, who stand at one end each. A coin is normally tossed to see who serves first, and then the game is on! There is a net of height 15.25cm, which goes across the middle of the table. You must serve into the diagonally opposite area for a valid service. You bounce the ball on your side first and it must land in that diagonally opposite area.
The bats used are very small and are held in one hand. The best ones I have found have a rubber coating on the outside. This gives complete control to the ping pong ball, which also follows the well-known name of this game. The rubber coating allows you to spin the ball easily as it makes good contact with the ball when touching and the rubber has good grip against the light ping pong ball, therefore allowing it to be spun. You can buy plastic bats for under £10, but they really suck. A good bat can be bought for £25. If you want the very best, then it may cost you up to or even over £50 for one of the best bats! What makes them so good? The wooden handles are normally light to suit exciting and quick play. They are also made of the very best material to enable you to give the very best spin to the ball.
As you can imagine, the Olympic level of this game is very difficult. With each player constantly spinning the ball and hitting it so fast, it is a very rapid game that requires ultra concentration and mega quick reactions. You can win points in many ways really. If the opponent hits the ball to your side and misses the table (it goes off), then you get a point. However, if they hit your body then they actually get a point! You must beat the opponent by doing such good shots so that they can't possibly return them. This way, they will miss the ball and as long as you landed it on their side, then you gain the point. There are many other rules, but I'm not going to go through them all! When serving, you must bounce the ball on your side and then into the diagonally opposite corner. Professional players can do excellent rapid serves to catch you out. Serving is the easiest way to score in a way if you are good at it. Whether you spin it off the table making it hard for them to reach or you hit it right on the edge, you have a good chance in gaining the point.
Table tennis is a very fun game overall. The flaws are that it's expensive to buy a table and equipment. It also is very hard to find a club or somewhere that has table tennis as a sport you can take part in. Places may have it just for fun such as a cruise ship, hotel or arcade, but it's hard to join a club. If you look, there are many around as I know a friend who goes to one very local to me and I know there are more too, but they are just hard to find. I would suggest you try it out one day. The rules are easy to learn and it is easy to get into. You don't have to be mega fit to take part as there isn't much movement beside that of your arm and feet a bit. You need quick reactions and a speedy hand around the table if playing against someone good. Try it out and see what you think!
Thanks for reading,
- Recon -
Summary: A very rapid game that requires speed and quick reactions
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