Home » Sports & Recreation » Sporting Events » Olympic Games

All About Olympic Table Tennis - Larger Balls - Better Rubbers

0 Comments

11 Like

Like 11

Pin It

Ranked #3,375 in Sports & Recreation, #90,077 overall

A guide to playing the world's most popular table top sport

More than most sports, there's more to table tennis than meets the eye - that is, if you can actually follow the ball. Table tennis is one of the fastest sports on earth, with balls travelling up to 100 km/h across a table less than three metres long, requiring its players to have lightning-quick reflexes and be able to assess situations and incoming shots instantly.

The game is so fast that the International Table Tennis Federation opted to use a larger (40 versus 38-millimetre diameter) ball following the Sydney Games. The hope was not only that the ball would be more visible to spectators, but also that the game would be slowed and be easier to follow.

The ball size is in many ways a natural reaction to improvements in racket materials and glues that have increased ball speed by as much as 30 km/h.

Another change since Sydney is the score needed for victory in a game. The quicker games today play until 11 as opposed to the traditional 21 points.

There are three basic kinds of players. Attacking players tend to stand closer to the table and use power, speed and quick reflexes to win points. Spinners stand further back from the table and return shots with a variety of spins, looping the ball back to the table. Their stance away from the table allows them to return even the hardest shots.

A less common style is purely defensive; these players don't concern themselves with spin or power, but instead expend their energy on countering the opponent's power or spin. These players thrive on the mistakes of their attacking opponents. In doubles, partners tend to have opposite and complementary styles.

Go to that next level

Winning Table Tennis: Skills, Drills, and Strategies

by: Daniel Seemiller, Mark Holowchak

Amazon Price: $6.66 (as of 05/27/2012)

Ideal for intermediate-level players who want to progress up to "professional" level. This book describes all the major strokes and footwork. It's the only book that describes the various services both forehand and backhand.

Table Tennis Spins

Sidespin - Usually applied on serves to change the trajectory of the ball in mid-flight and upon bouncing in the opponent's court.

Backspin - Usually used defensively, it sends the ball travelling far in the air, but bounces low with a loss of speed upon striking the table. It's difficult for the opponent to return with any height.

Backhand topspin - The ball dips in mid-flight and picks up speed upon hitting the table. It rises on impact with the opponent's racket, making returns difficult to control.

Forehand topspin - Used in attacking shots or to return long balls. It's most devastating in the forehand loop shot, in which the a swooping upward motion of the racket only grazes the ball enough to give it forward momentum, sending it spinning mightily for huge curves.

About Butterfly

Hikosuke Tamasu founded Tamasu Co., Ltd. in the small town of Yanai City, Japan in 1950. This was the beginning of a company career which is almost unique in table tennis. A renowned international for Japan,

Tamasu fulfilled his dream of a lifetime when he made his hobby his profession. At that time, he could hardly imagine that he would make Butterfly the leading brand worldwide. Creativity, durability, and a profound technical knowledge meant success.

0ver and over again he looked for new possibilities in order to optimize techniques by innovative playing material. Tamasu realized that each player is different and has strengths and weaknesses. By offering individual playing material Tamasu wanted to help players right from the beginning to emphasize their individuality. Since 1983 Butterfly has its own training and research center in Tokyo. Highly qualified scientists co-operate with world class players and coaches for the development of rubber and blade technology.

Butterfly's rubbers and blades are used by more than half of the participants at World and European Championships.

Format

Table tennis for both men and women were included in the Olympic program at the 1988 Seoul Summer Games. The event has been contested regularly at the Olympics after the1988 Games.

At the Olympics, the format of table tennis matches is generally best-of-five games. The events contested during the Olympics table tennis competition are-
Men's singles
Men's doubles/ team
Women's singles
Women's doubles/ team

Table tennis at its best: by arunmd1 | video info

1 rating | 390 views

curated content from YouTube

Keep Your Eye on the Ball

More opportunities for young table tennis talent: by Low Lin Fhoong SINGAPORE - There may soon be more opportunities for young table tennis talents in Singapore to further their development. Yesterday, the winners of the Crocodile Challenge Cup were crowned at Velocity@Novena Square, which included ...
Age aside, it's still about competition: Phyllis Hughes, 84, reaches for a shot in a 2012 Heart of Illinois Senior Olympics doubles table tennis match Friday at RiverPlex. Hughes, of Urbana, was the 2010 Senior Games singles world champion in 2010 and is regaining her game after a hip ...
London 2012 Olympics: Ariel Hsing looks to end American table tennis medal drought: By Matt Brooks In the six summer Olympics since table tennis was added to the competition, the United States has never won a medal. But unlike young prodigies in China ? which has won 41 of the 76 table tennis medals to date ? the 16-year-old Hsing ...
Lee Bee Wah justifies Sports School strategy: By Lim Say Heng SINGAPORE - Her dream is big - to have at least half of Singapore's future Olympic table tennis team consist of local-born paddlers. To achieve that, things had to change, Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) president Lee Bee Wah ...

Featured

All About Olympic Table Tennis - Larger Balls - Better Rubbers

A guide to playing the world's most popular table top sport

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance

Speed, Spin, Placement

Go to that next level

Table Tennis Spins

About Butterfly

Format

Featured

All the Summer Olympic Sports

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

Please pick your widget size and display. Then click "Make the Widget" to get the code that's just right for you.

Voila! Just copy and paste this code into your own site. Have fun!

Oopsey! Please login to Squidoo in order to add this module to your lens.

by jeffryv

Explore related pages

Related Tags

Want our Newsletter?