Table Tennis

Table tennis is an indoor game,which can be played as singles,doubles or mixed doubles. It is played on a table provided with a net in the middle and a light ball is thrown across the net with the help of bat.

The exact time and place for the origin of this game is not known till now due to lack of proper records.But the credit goes to England for the development of this game.Sir James Gibbs developed this game in England in 1889 A.D. At the very first, this game was called Gossima and later it was called Ping Pong and in 1922 A.D. it was renamed as Table tennis. For the further development of this game,'The International Table tennis Federation' was established in 1926 A.D. In 1927A.D. the first world  championship was organised which helped a lot to spread this game in different parts of the world. the game begins with a toss. The winner of the toss chooses either the side or conduct the service. In singles a player conduct sevice for five times regularly and the turn to conduct service changes. But in doubles the team to conduct service decides the player to conduct the service first and the opponents also decide the player to receive the service. After completing the five services, when the former server receives the service.Again after completing 5services the turn changes and the second player of the first team becomes the server and the next player of the second team becomes the receiver. They too conduct the services for 5times each.

The player or team to score 21points first becomes the winner. If both the team obtain 20 points each,than any one of them has to lead by 2points to win the game.
Point is scored by a player or team if the opponent breaks the rally,throws ball outside the table,hit the net with the ball and does not cross,touches the table with his hand while playing,etc.

Basic skills of table tennis:-
Different basic skills are necessary to be a good table tennis player. Some of the basic skills have been discussed briefly below.
1. Stance:
Stance is the position in which the player becomes ready to hit the ball. In this position, the right-handed player should stand with his left foot a bit forward and look at the opponent. He should slightly bend his body and hold the bat just above the table facings the bat towards the opponent as shown in the figure:

2.Grip:
The process of holding the bat is called grip. Generally,there are two methods of holding bat. They are; shake-hand grip and pen-hold grip. In shake-handle of the bat whereas in pen-hold grip , the bat is gripped with thumb and fore-finger similarly as we hold pen.






3. Stroke:
Hitting ball with the bat is called stroke. In table tennis, we apply push stroke and drive to hit the ball.
There are two types of stroke;
a. Push stroke
b.Drive stroke

4. Service:
Service is done to begin the game or rally.It is condidered  be one of the continuously in their turn. In service, the ball is kept on the palm of an open hand and is shown forward. It is then thrown upward. The ball should be stroke in such a way that it crosses the net.Service is done in two different ways ; forehand service and back hand service.
Forehand service is performed from the right hand side. The ball can be delivered in different ways such as backspin, sidespin, etc.. Here we discuss about forehand service and back hand service.
The ball should be held on the open palm and the bat should be held at an open angle near the ball. Now, the ball is thrown up and stuck from up to deliver the ball down across the net.