Table Tennis

It is thought that Table tennis was created in 1881 by bored British Officers who carved a ball from champagne cork and used cigar box covers to bat it back and forth across a barrier of books dividing a table. Like many other sports, it began as a mild social diversion, descended, along with lawn tennis and badminton, from the ancient medieval game of tennis. It was popular in England in the second half of the nineteenth century, when it was also known as Gossima and Whiff-Whaff.

Then, Ping-Pong (an imitation of the sound made by the ball) was introduced by Jaques & Son and it became a fashionable craze. By the early years of this century, Ping-Pong had already acquired some of its present day complexities, though it was still seen by many as an after-dinner amusement rather than a sport.

The game was popular in Central Europe in 1905-10, and even before this is a modified version had been introduced to Japan , where it later spread to China and Korea.

Modern table tennis at national and international level is a rigorous in its demands for the highest degree of physical fitness and mental concentration, attained only by arduous training to develop natural skill.

No other sport requires faster reactions and more delicate muscular co-ordination than the game of today.