Follow the Bouncing Ball

Ping-Pong Pandemonium
The most popular sport in the world is soccer, but I’ll bet you didn’t know that number two is table tennis—also known as Ping-Pong. It’s so large that the table tennis world championships have to be held every other year, because organizing the huge event is so difficult. Imagine a stadium with 100 tables blanketing the floor and twice as many athletes. It’s Ping-Pong pandemonium!

“Sure,” you’re saying, “lots of people have Ping-Pong tables and play the game, but that’s what it is—a game, not a sport.”

Actually it’s both. When played in the basement or garage by recreational players—which is how most Americans know the game—Ping-Pong may raise your heart rate a bit. But it’s mostly just for fun—two people paddling a little ball back and forth over the net.

When the greats face off, however, table tennis is one of the fastest and most entertaining sports. And it’s way too explosive to be contained by the average rec room.

Faster Than a Roger Clemens Fastball
The table is only five feet wide by nine feet long, but top players can place the ball so precisely and deceptively that their opponent must sprint madly to reach it. Powerful forehand and backhand strokes called loops produce tremendous topspin that makes the ball shoot off the table or curve wildly. Players often stand 15 or 20 feet from the table to handle the speed and spin. And the action is way fast. During a point in championship play, the ball may cross the net four times in the same amount of time it takes a Roger Clemens fastball to reach home plate.

And Clemens has nothing on table tennis’ top pitchers. Service is a major part of the game and the best servers hide the ball when they strike it so you can’t see what spin they’re putting on it. On one serve, the ball may barely drop over the net; on the next, it’ll rocket down the line for an ace. When you finally get a read on the server’s stuff and try to stroke a ball over the net, you may misread the spin and pop it up, giving your opponent an easy kill shot.

The Perfect Complement to Aerobic Sports
At the top level, players are super-fit. They do drills at the table for up to four hours a day, lift massive weights to build power, perform brutal footwork drills, and stretch like crazy to remain limber. Visualization and drills to build focus are crucial, too, because controlling your nerves is vital.

What I love about table tennis is that it’s the perfect complement to aerobic sports. When I’m riding or running, it’s often painful to push hard enough to achieve my fitness goals. With races, the suffering can go way up.

At the Ping-Pong table, though, I never suffer like that. The fitness I have from aerobic sports lets me get to more balls than most players, and my level of play is higher because of it. I also like the game aspect—no clock to beat, no need to rev my heart and lungs to searing limits. All I have to do is follow the little ball and try to land it on the table more than my opponent. If I can, I win. It gets addictive. And I maintain fitness while having a blast.

It’s a Game of Spin
One reason table tennis is so challenging and fun is that athleticism is just a part of the puzzle. Fitness helps, but much more crucial is understanding what’s going on. It’s a game of spin. If you understand how to spin the ball in different situations—and how to read and react to your opponent’s spin—you usually win. You can’t just whack the ball.

Sports scientists who have studied table tennis recognize it as one of the most difficult sports to master. To reach the highest level, you must move quickly, have the stamina to play matches all day, hit perfect strokes, and be able to concentrate intensely. And, most difficult of all, you have to adjust in a nanosecond to the ever-changing spin, speed and direction of the ball.

It’s a combination of skills that can humble even awesome athletes. They may have the speed, strength, coordination, and fitness to get to the ball and hit it hard. But only the rarest player develops the touch and focus needed to return a ball that feels as heavy as a rock because an opponent set it spinning at 1,500 rpms with a vicious slice.

Everyone’s Sport
Even so, table tennis is a game for everyone. Take the other night at my local club: Several wheelchair players were visiting. One played on the blue table, which is reserved for the best members. This guy played a total of four quality able-bodied players and destroyed them. Games are played to 21 points and no one got more than 12 against him. It was like trying to hit through a wall. And he could move blink-quick.

In what other sport would you face a wheelchair player, an eight-year-old, or a grandmother—and lose? That happens all the time in major table tennis tournaments. In that way, it’s one of the fairest sports.

In championship play, there are separate categories for kids, women, men, seniors, wheelchair players, and so on. But anyone may also play in the general rounds, which group people according to ability rather than sex, age, or physical condition. That’s where some of the most fun match-ups occur. But you don’t have to enter tournaments to face varied opponents. That’s also the format at table tennis clubs.

How to Get Involved
Sound like something you’d like to try? Or maybe you think you’re pretty good and want to test yourself in the real world. Most major cities and many smaller ones have table tennis clubs that welcome new members. At some you may pay a yearly fee, but most also charge per visit. (The going rate is about $3 to $5 per night.) Usually a club has up to a dozen tables. You put your paddle on the floor next to a table to signal that you want to play the winner of the match. Matches are usually the best two out of three games, with the winner remaining at the table to play the next opponent. Some clubs do it differently, but they’ll fill you in when you contact them.

This club system makes table tennis a great sport for travelers. By joining the United States Table Tennis Association ($25 for a year’s license that allows you to play in USTTA-sanctioned events), you’ll receive a list of clubs across the country. Pack your paddle, sneaks and shorts, and you can get a great workout, make new friends and have fun while away from home. It’s an indoor sport, too, so you needn’t worry about the weather.

Table Tennis Rules Quiz True or false? (answers below) A score of 7 or 11 to 0 is a "skunk" (game over). You must serve so the ball lands in the right box on your side and on your opponent’s side of the table. If you serve so the ball bounces twice on your opponent’s side before going off the end or side, you lose the point. If you serve twice, and both times the ball hits the net on an otherwise good serve, it’s a point for your opponent. Paddles with a sandpaper surface are best. All the great players come from China. To decide who serves first, you hit the ball back and forth until someone misses-but it must cross the net at least three times, or you have to start again. You must win by at least two points. Your paddle may be as big or as small as you want. In China, many public parks have cement Ping-Pong tables for public use. Answers False. You must reach 21 points to win the game and a 21-to-0 score is possible. False. The ball can strike anywhere, which is one reason a good serve is such a lethal weapon. False. Short serves are perfectly legal and great for preventing your opponent from attacking. False. When the ball hits the net on an otherwise good serve, it's called a net serve and you get to serve again. Even if you do this a dozen or more times in a row, you don't lose the point. You get to keep trying. False. Sandpaper paddles are not allowed at most tournaments and clubs, though usually no one cares if you practice with one. (You can't really spin the ball with sandpaper). False. Though the Chinese have dominated international play in recent years and have the greatest number of top players, great players have come from all over. The current world champ is Liu Guoliang from China. But two years ago it was Jan Ove Waldner from Sweden, known as the Mozart of Table Tennis for his ability to invent shots during play. Many still feel he's the best of all time. False. There’s a much easier and quicker way: Hide the ball in one of your hands and have your opponent guess which hand it's in. If he guesses right, he chooses whether to serve or receive. True. If the game reaches 20-20, you alternate serves. The game ends only when one player is two points ahead. True. But varying the size of your paddle is usually a disadvantage. True. Perhaps it helps explain why so many Ping-Pong phenoms come from China.