24 Jan, 2020
FACTS: Table-tennis or, yes, ping-pong is indeed a sport (most people don't know that). Thi s sport is for EVERYONE! It can be played for someone's whole life! You can be male or female, young or old, disabled or able-bodied and can compete against each other. No matter if you're 18 months old or 100, you can still master this game! It is the third largest participation sport in the world right after soccer and cricket. The best player in history is Sweden (nope, not Chinese...GASP). His name is Jan-Ove Waldner or “The Mozart of Table Tennis” as he is known in this sport. Before his retirement in 2016, he had won 16 World Championships medals AND a gold and silver medals in the Olympics. HISTORY: The game as we know it started in England in the 1800's. The creators tried to mimic the popular lawn tennis for the indoors. We would say that they succeeded. Names such as Ping-Pong, Indoor Tennis, & Gossima were originally trademarked names form the earliest manufactures all for the same game, table tennis. In the 1920's, owners of the "Ping-Pong" name actually threatened legal action for anyone using that name without using their equipment. This is around the time that "Table Tennis" became the official name of the sport. HEALTHY BENEFITS: It puts less stress on the joints if played recreationally and provides some with needed exercise. Table-tennis has been shown to activate more parts of the brain than any other sport. Doctors recommend table-tennis to the elderly to help battle mental diseases such as Alzheimer’s & dementia. Exercise keeps the body young and table-tennis is an excellent way to keep the brain young. Don't believe us? Check out this story from ABC News: This is Your Brain on Ping Pong Playing table tennis improves hand-eye coordination. Playing stimulates mental alertness, concentration and tactical strategy as well. This makes it the perfect game for young people to sharpen reflexes, and for older people to refine tactics. Considering the fact that the sport is entertaining and can be fast paced, it can be a fun and easy way to burn calories. As with any sport, this is a great opportunity to meet new people and make new friends which is great for your mental health. RANDOM FACTS: There is an actual Governing Body & Constitution of Table Tennis called the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF)...It's not as scary as it sounds we hope! The rules have mostly remained the same for over 100 years. Ping Pong reunited China with the world! In 1971, China invited the USA, Canada, England & Columbia to play a friendly ping pong tournament. This was after China had not spoken to these countries in over 6 years. This tournament became known at the Ping Pong Diplomacy. After this, political relations between the US & China started to soften up a bit and in 1972, President Richard Nixon visited China in order to develop collaboration between the two countries. China has over 100 million table tennis players with 40,000 of those being pros. Table tennis was banned in the Soviet Union from around 1930 to 1950. They believed that the sport was harmful to the eyes.