Individual Games

T able T ennis History Table tennis, also known as ‘Ping-Pong’, is a popular indoor recreational sport in India. The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) was founded in . Table tennis made its Olymp ic debut at the Seoul Games. At present, there are member nations affiliated to International Table Tennis Federation.

Table Tennis Federation of India is one of the founder members of ITTF and officially started playing table tennis with the establishment of Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) in . Table tennis has been contested at the Asian Games since . Table tennis competition has been in the Commonwealth Games as an optional sport since . World Team Table Tennis Championships, which include men’s team and women’s team events, started in the year .

World Table Tennis Championships have been held since , and biennially since . Earlier the game was played up to points, which was changed to points effective from September . The change of rule made the game faster. The ITTF also changed the rule of five services by one player at a time to two services effective from .

All the table tennis events since are now being played with a new poly material ball. Facilities and Equipment Required Table tennis is an indoor game requiring a racket, net, net posts, a table and a ball. . m .

m cm Fig. . : Table of table tennis •• Surface of the table shall be rectangular, . m long and .

m wide, and shall lie in a horizontal plane cm above the floor. •• The playing surface may be of any material and shall yield a uniform bounce of about cm when a standard ball is dropped on to it from a height of cm. •• The playing surface shall be uniformly dark coloured and matt, but with a white side-line, cm wide, along each . m edge and a white end line, cm wide, along each .

m edge. •• For doubles, each court shall be divided into two equal half-courts by a white centre line, mm wide, running parallel with the side lines; the centre line shall be regarded as a part of each right half-court. •• The net shall be suspended by a cord attached at each end to an upright post . cm high, the outside limits of the post being .

cm outside the side line. Do You Know? Sharath Kamal is a famous Table Tennis player of India, who was conferred Padma Shri by the Government of India. Fig.

. : Net used in table tennis •• The top of the net, along its whole length, shall be . cm above the playing surface. Ball •• The ball shall be spherical, with a diameter of mm and weigh .

g. •• It shall be made of celluloid or similar plastics material and shall be white or orange in colour. Racket •• Racket may be of any size, shape or weight, but the blade shall be flat and rigid. •• At least per cent of the blade by thickness shall be of natural wood; an adhesive layer within the blade may be reinforced with the fibrous material, but shall not be thicker than .

per cent of the total thickness or . mm, whichever is the smaller. •• A side of the blade used for striking the ball shall be covered with either ordinary pimpled rubber, with pimples outwards having a total thickness including adhesive, of not more than . mm, or sandwich rubber, with pimples inwards or outwards, having a total thickness including adhesive of not more than .

mm. Fig. . : Table tennis ball Fig.

. : Table tennis racket Do You Know? Manav Thakkar of India secured top position in the junior world ranking of International Table Tennis Federation during the first month of . Activity .

Check the Table Tennis tables of your school by bouncing a Table Tennis ball as per the rules. Playing conditions The playing space shall be rectangular and not less than meter long, meter wide and meter high. The four corners may be covered by surrounds of not more than . meter length.

For para event, F.O.P. (Field of Play) shall not be less than × meter. In an international event, the light intensity equally measured at the height of the playing surface shall be at least lux uniformly over the whole playing area. Definitions •• A rally is the period during which the ball is in play.

•• The ball is in play from the last moment at which it is stationary on the palm of the free hand before being intentionally projected in service until the rally is decided as a let or a point. •• A let is a rally of which the result is not scored. •• A point is a rally of which the result is scored. •• The racket hand is the hand carrying the racket.

•• The free hand is the hand not carrying the racket; the free arm is the arm of the free hand. •• A player strikes the ball if he or she touches it in play with his or her racket, held in the hand, or with his or her racket hand below the wrist. •• A player obstructs the ball if he or she, or anything he or she wears or carries, touches it in play when it is above or travelling towards the playing surface, not having touched his or her court since last being struck by his or her opponent. •• The server is the player due to strike the ball first in a rally.

•• The receiver is the player due to strike the ball second in a rally. •• The umpire is the person appointed to control a match. •• The assistant umpire is the person appointed to assist the umpire with certain decisions. •• Anything that a player wears or carries includes anything that he or she was wearing or carrying, other than the ball, at the start of the rally.

•• The end line shall be regarded as extending indefinitely in both the directions. Functional Rules of Table Tennis •• The right to choose the initial order of serving, receiving and starting at a particular end shall be decided by toss and the winner may choose to serve or to receive first or to start at a particular end. •• When one player or pair has chosen to serve or to receive first or to start at a particular end, the other player or pair shall have the other choice. •• After points have been scored, the serving player or pair shall become the receiving player or pair.

This will continue until the end of the game, unless both the players and pairs score points or the expedite system is in operation, when the sequence of serving and receiving shall be the same but each player shall serve for only point in turn. Fig. . : Player playing table tennis •• In each game of a doubles match, the pair having the right to serve first shall choose which of them will do so and in the first game of a match, the receiving pair shall decide which of them will receive first; in subsequent games in the match, the first server having been chosen, the first receiver shall be the player who served to him or her in the preceding game.

•• In doubles, during the change of service, the previous receiver shall become the server and partner of the previous server shall become the receiver. •• The player or pair serving first in a game shall receive first in the next game of the match and in the last possible game of a doubles match, the pair due to receive next shall change their order of receiving when the first pair scores points. Do You Know? India has won a total of five medals in the th Commonwealth Games.

Fig. . : Left arm service in table tennis •• The player or pair starting at one end in a game shall start at the other end in the next game of the match and in the last possible game of a match, the players or pair shall change ends when the first one player or pair scores points. •• If a player serves or receives out of turn, play shall be interrupted by the umpire as soon as the error is discovered and shall resume with those players serving and receiving who should be server and receiver respectively at the score that has been reached, according to the sequence established at the beginning of the match and, in doubles, to the order of serving chosen by the pair having the right to serve first in the game during which the error is discovered.

•• If the players have not changed ends when they should have done so, play shall be interrupted by the umpire as soon as the error is discovered and shall resume with the players at the ends at which they should be at the score that has been reached, according to the sequence established at the beginning of the match. •• In any circumstances, all points scored before the discovery of an error shall be reckoned. •• The expedite system shall come into operation after minutes’ play in a game or at any time when requested by both the players or pairs except that expedite system shall not be introduced in a game if at least18 points have been scored. •• If the ball is in play when the time limit is reached and the expedite system is due to come into operation, play shall be interrupted by the umpire and shall resume with service by the player who served in the rally that was interrupted; if the ball is not in play when the expedite system comes into operation, play shall resume with service by the player who received in the immediately preceding rally.

•• Thereafter, each player shall serve for point in turn until the end of the game, and if the receiving player or pair makes good returns in a rally, the receiver shall score a point. •• Introduction of the expedite system shall not alter the order of serving and receiving in the match. •• Once introduced, the expedite system shall remain in operation until the end of the match. Scoring System • • A match shall consist of the best of any odd number of games.

•• A game shall be won by the player or pair first scoring points unless both the sides score points each, when the game shall be won by the first player or pair subsequently gaining a lead of points. Fundamental Techniques of Table Tennis (Grip) The racket can be held with two different types of grip. •• The penhold grip mainly used by Chinese and Japanese. •• Most commonly used grip is called ‘shakehand’ grip.

Fig. . : Pen hold grip and shakehand grip (left to right respectively) Service There are different kinds of services that may be done from forehand or backhand such as long service, short service, flat service, spin service (side spin, back spin, top spin) low toss and high toss service. Activity .

Play doubles and mixed doubles in Table Tennis with your classmates by following the laws of the game. Fig. . : Backhand low toss service Types of Strokes •• There are offensive and defensive strokes played by a table tennis player including backhand and forehand.

•• The offensive strokes in table tennis include drive, loop drive, loop, loop kill, hook, counter drive, flip and smash. •• The defensive strokes in table tennis include push, slice, block, drive, lob, drop shot and spin (side backhand top). Most commonly used skill is forehand push, which can be played in the following way— •• This stroke is mainly used if a player cannot play a more aggressive attacking stroke. •• It is used when the opponent plays the ball short to the forehand with back spin.

Right foot is the leading foot to return the ball with body weight transferred onto the right foot. •• The racket moves in a downward forward direction to contact the ball just in front of the body with slight follow through. Fig. .

: Forehand service sequence (left to right repectively) Activity . Revise the fundamental skills of Table Tennis game. •• The ball travels in upward direction from the racket. •• Initially the stroke is practised when there is little back spin on the ball from the opponent.

T able T ennis I. Long Answer Questions . Briefly write the history of Table Tennis. .

Briefly write the scoring system in Table Tennis. . Write about the expedite system in Table Tennis. .

How many types of strokes are there in table tennis? Explain. II. Short Answer Questions .

How does a standard Table Tennis game end? . Besides the green colour? Which colour table can be used for the table?

. What should be the height of the ball when tossed for the service? . Which country has won the most international titles in the 20th century?

. What is the size of Table Tennis table? III. Fill in the Blanks .

In Table Tennis, penhold grip is used by players. . Diameter of the Table Tennis ball shall be mm. .

Table Tennis became an Olympic sport in . . Height of the table from the floor is . IV.

State whether True or False . Table Tennis was included in Asian Games in in Tokyo. . Table Tennis racket may be of any size, shape or weight.

. . Table Tennis Federation of India was established in . .

Table Tennis is an indoor game.