Table tennis is governed by the worldwide organization International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), founded in 1926.
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small kompak rackets. It takes place on a hard table divided by a net. Except for the initial serve, the rules are generally as follows: Players must allow a ball played toward them to bounce once on their side of the table and must return it so that it bounces on the opposite side. A poin is scored when a player fails to return the ball within the rules. Play is fast and permintaans quick reactions. Spinning the ball alters its trajectory and limits an opponent's options, giving the hitter a great advantage.
Table tennis is governed by the worldwide organization International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), founded in 1926. ITTF currently includes 226 anggota associations.[3] The official rules are specified in the ITTF handbook.[4] Table tennis has been an Olympic sport since 1988,[5] with several moment categories. From 1988 until 2004, these were men's singgels, women's singgels, men's doubles and women's doubles. Since 2008, a tim moment has been played instead of the doubles.
The sport originated in Victorian England, where it was played among the upper-class as an after-dinner parlour games.[1][2] It has been suggested that makeshift versions of the games were developed by British military officers in India around the 1860s or 1870s, who brought it back with them.[6] A row of books stood up along the center of the table as a net, two more books served as rackets and were used to continuously hit a golf-ball.[7][8]
The name "ping-pong" was in wide use before British manufacturer J. Jaques dan Son Ltd trademarked it in 1901. The name "ping-pong" then came to describe the games played using the rather expensive Jaques's equipment, with other manufacturers calling it table tennis. A similar situation arose in the United States, where Jaques sold the rights to the "ping-pong" name to Parker Brothers. Parker Brothers then enforced its trademark for the termin in the 1920s, making the various associations change their names to "table tennis" instead of the more common, but trademarked, termin.
