Table tennis as a sport was highly limited as a spectator sport in the early days because of camera technology at the time. The speed of the ball, its size, and a couple of other factors discouraged fans from watching the games.

Today, there are 4K cameras that can capture videos at high frames per second (FPS) and this has led to the steady growth of table tennis as a sport. There are also numerous ambassadors on YouTube like Adam Bobrow and Pongfinity (you might have come across them on TikTok or YT shorts) that popularize the sport.

The aim of this thread is to give a detailed history of table tennis and garnish this thread with updates as things happen in the table tennis space. There is insufficient knowledge about the sport and I'm looking to change that, especially on Nairaland.

You can leave comments if you have any questions or contributions about the sport.

I'll start table tennis history with Jan-Ove Waldner since he's the most memorable player from the 20th century. Remember when you played table tennis on the streets and immediately your opponent was about to smash, you knew that you'd lost the point?

Not Jan-Ove Waldner.

In the 80s, Waldner was the first table tennis player to develop a technique called blocking with redirected smashes to the area left free by the opponent. In turn, this made opponents afraid to loop the ball against the Swedish champion who simply bamboozled them by returning the smashes effortlessly.

The Chinese feared JO Waldner since he was the first foreigner ever to give them a tough time. Table tennis is widely considered the national sport in China and the presence of Jan-Ove threatened the superiority they over the game.

You can check the video below to see how blocking works.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgXcUeJ9_gA&pp=ygUYamFuIG92ZSB3YWxkbmVyIGJsb2NraW5n

Jan-Ove Waldner was the first to win what is known as a table tennis grand slam. To win the grand slam, you need to win three major gold medals in the the singles category.

1. Olympics Gold
2. World Table Tennis Championship Gold
3. World Cup Gold

These gold medals are arranged in descending order of difficulty. Only four other players have achieved this feat including Ma Long, Zhang Jike, Liu Guoliang, and Kong Linghui.

If you’re new to table tennis, you might be surprised about the sheer number of Chinese champions. You’ll have to get used to them since they’re the dominating nation in the sport.

Nevertheless, players like Alexis Lebrun, Truls Moregard, Aruna Quadri (Nigeria’s 001) are challenging them better in matches

HOW IS PROFESSIONAL TABLE TENNIS DIFFERENT FROM THE STREET VERSION (I) ?


Professional table tennis is very different from the street table tennis games (on carpenter-made tables and with wood as bats) that most of us started with when we were younger.

First, the rubbers on the bat are of a different quality. You hear them slap the ball and you don’t need to put too much effort to return the ball.

1. If your bat is 7k or less, then it’s not a professional grade bat

2. If you can hear the sound of the wood hitting the ball when you return the ball, it’s not a professional grade bat

3. Another test you can try is to take a table tennis ball and drop it on the ball from 6 inches above. If it bounces high just thrice or less, it isn’t professional grade.


Professional table tennis bats create a crazy amount of spin even with very little contact which can cause the interesting ghost serve effect.

You can check out the cool ghost serve in the video below


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXzIdqX3UMs

THE REASON BEHIND CHINESE DOMINANCE IN TABLE TENNIS (I)

Even if you've never watched professional table tennis, you might have heard claims about the Chinese (and Asians) being the best at the sport.

The Chinese are the most dominant set of people in table tennis because it is considered their national sport. Just like how Brazilians think of football as their national sport and Americans think about basketball as their game.

Nevertheless, the love for the sport in China became even more pronounced when Mao Zedong, the legendary Communist leader of China declared table tennis as their national sport in 1949. Over time, the Chinese have developed techniques and unique rubber technology to give their players an edge in the sport.

I'll briefly talk about some of the most dominant Chinese players since the mid-1990s till date. They include:

• Liu Guoliang
• Wang Liqin
• Wang Hao (my favorite)
• Ma Lin
• Xu Xin (table tennis's Ronaldinho)
• Zhang Jike
• Ma Long
• Fan Zhendong

THE REASON BEHIND CHINESE DOMINANCE IN TABLE TENNIS (II)

Liu Guoliang was the first person to consistently beat Jan Ove Waldner, the Swedish who used to be considered the GOAT of table tennis until Ma Long came on the scene.

Back then, you could legally hide your serve with your arm so that the opponent would be unable to read your spin.

Although it's not so common in street table tennis since the bats we use can't create as much spin, you'll find some players serving easy serves and chopping the ball down. Meanwhile, you'd get deceived and try to return the ball in a normal way, causing the ball to enter the net and leaving you confused.

Liu Guoliang used this type of spin ( that spin that returned the ball over the net in the YouTube video I wrote two posts back) along with sidespin to win matches. Liu's matches heavily relied on his serve and when hiding services became illegal, he retired at the age of 27.

He became the Chinese men's team coach and has produced some of the best ever Chinese including most of the players on this list.