I went to a Table Tennis exhibition at Parma Heights Baptist Church last weekend and learned several things I didn't know about it. The main difference between Table Tennis and Ping Pong is the speed of the ball. In Table Tennis at the Olympic level, the ball makes approximately 8,000 revolutions per minute as opposed to two or three in ping pong. That is a huge difference! Here is a list of some of the other facts I found interesting:
- There are as many as eight different spins you can put on the ball. They gave the spectators an opportunity to try to return the serve from one of the second top-ranked player in Ohio, Keith Pech. Several tried and one was actually very good. I didn't because I didn't want to make a fool of myself.
- Table Tennis has passed up soccer as the number 1 sport with the most participants in the Olympics.
- A game used to consist of 21 points, but it's been changed to 11 to make it more interesting to the spectators.
- Another change is that instead of serving five balls in a row, it is now just two in a row.
- Colleges now give scholarships for Table Tennis and the top ranked player who also is a Table Tennis Coach/Instructor charges $55 for an hour lesson but guarantees his students who take lessons from him four years will be able to get an $80,000 scholarship.
- In singles, you can serve the ball anywhere on the table and from either corner. He said you should serve from the left corner of the table if you are right handed so are in position to return the shot with a forehand stroke.
- They can call time outs to dry their hands off and some players wipe them off on the table near the net.
- Players at this level recover their paddles once a month.
- In tournament play, players must wear a shirt that is a different color from the ball.
- Every so often, the players switch sides like in tennis, but I don't remember how often they do that (I took notes in my head so I'm relying on my memory here).
- To determine who serves, they do not p-i-n-g and hit the ball until someone misses. Instead, they used one of these ways: (1) flip a coin, (2) rock-paper-scissors, or (3) on player hides the ball in one hand and the other guesses which hand it is in. If he guesses right, he gets to serve, if wrong, the player hiding the ball gets to serve.
- A person burns approximately 700 calories an hour at this level of play (varies depending on weight).
Hope you learned something by reading this post. Now I feel like playing some ping pong.
This is just a short clip of their warm-up before they played a game. See how far away from the table they are? That's because the ball is moving so fast.
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