Inventors of ping-pong say Mayor Boris Johnson is wrong

 

Fiona Hamilton, London Correspondent

The claim, made on the world’s biggest stage about one of its most popular games, was a challenging one: that ping-pong was less a part of Chinese sporting history than of Victorian England’s.

Now Boris Johnson’s assertion in Beijing that the game started life as “whiff-whaff”, played on the dining tables of the upper classes, has drawn indignation of another kind — from game-makers and historians who accuse the Mayor of London of rewriting a small chapter of social history.

Joe Jaques, the commercial director of Jaques of London, the world’s oldest sporting and games manufacturer, told The Times that Mr Johnson had his facts “completely wrong”. He accused the mayor of doing his family a disservice by failing to acknowledge that they had been first to codify the game and had invented the name ping-pong years before whiff-whaff — devised by a business rival — was even thought of.

“I was quite outraged that he could get it so wrong and not give us the appropriate credit for it,” Mr Jaques said. “You would think that if he is going to be so proud of the sport, and tell the world that ping-pong is coming home, he could get his facts straight.”

Times Archive, 1901: Table tennis

In typically flamboyant fashion, Mr Johnson declared at the Olympics that it was a common misconception that table tennis had been invented in China. In comments broadcast widely across the world, the mayor said: “Ping-pong was invented on the dining tables of England in the 19th century and it was called whiff-whaff.

“The French might look at a dining table and see an opportunity to eat. We looked at it and saw the opportunity to play whiff-whaff. And I say to the Chinese, and I say to the world, ping-pong is coming home.”

However, according to Mr Jaques, whiff-whaff was a poor imitation of a game invented by John Jaques, his great-grandfather, and which was manufactured many years earlier.

There is much speculation about the origins of ping-pong. Some historians believe that the game was derived from outdoor tennis. Others say that it was originally played by British soldiers in India.

However, the Jaques family claim that they commercialised the game, providing nets, balls, bats and formal rules. Mr Jaques said that the game was originally called gossima and was produced by Jaques of London from 1891, using a cork ball and bats coated with pigskin.

“The story about India was an old wives’ tale because it was only played there with cigarette boxes and cork balls,” Mr Jaques said. “It was not until we patented gossima that the game was properly invented, because it actually had rules.”

While Mr Johnson’s performance drew hilarity from most of the world, Mr Jaques said that his family was extremely upset. “It’s very clear that we invented the game. It’s absolute rubbish to say that whiff-whaff came first. It was basically the same thing, but we were definitely first.”

Mr Johnson, who prides himself on his historical knowledge, was unrepentant yesterday. He said: “I stand by my assertion that whiff-waff and ping-pong are one and the same thing, with the ‘whiffs’ predating the ‘pongs’. Regardless of semantics though, it is a sport of which we should be proud and I look forward to watching it in 2012.”

Gerald Gurney, a sports historian and author of Table Tennis: the Early Years, said that Mr Jaques was right. “I have researched table tennis for 50 years, and you can only say that it was gossima and ping-pong first, whiff-whaff later.”

The Jaques game plan

— Established in 1795 by Thomas Jaques

— Despite numerous offers, is still family-owned and run

— Was the first manufacturer to make the Staunton chess set, made available in 1849. The style, named after the English chess master Howard Staunton, became the universal standard

— Introduced croquet into England in 1851

— Invented classic games such as happy families, tiddlywinks, ludo and snakes and ladders

— Still produces ping-pong bats and tables

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article4657126.ece

Grip for Beer Pong!

 

When playing beirut (beer pong), there is no correct way to grip the ball. However, if you are having difficulty aiming your shot, or maintaining consistency, you might want to consider one of these grip alternatives.

Basic Overhand Grip

The vast majority of beirut (beer pong) players grip the ball with the one finger or two finger basic overhand grips. The ball is held between the tip of the thumb, and the tip of the index finger or the tips of the index and middle fingers. When shooting the ball, the ball is released quickly and smoothly with a slight snap of the wrist.

Hooked Overhand Grip (The Trigger)

A much less frequently used beirut (beer pong) grip is the hooked overhand grip, sometimes called the trigger because it is similar to the grip used when holding a gun. The ball is held between the first phalange of the thumb and the entire index finger. The ball can be aimed by lining up the tip of the thumb and the first knuckle of the index finger with a cup. When shooting the ball, the ball is released with a quick snap of the wrist that imparts a small amount of topspin to the ball.

Reverse Overhand Grip (The Web Slinger)

Another seldom used beirut (beer pong) grip is the reverse overhand grip. This grip is also called the web slinger, because the motion used when shooting the ball resembles the motion used by Spider Man when he shoots webs out of his arms. The ball is held between the tip of the thumb and the tips of two or three fingers, with the back of the hand facing the cups. When shooting the ball, the hand is pulled away from the body with a flick of the wrist at release.

Split Finger Overhand Grip (Peace Grip)

The most rare and unusual beirut (beer pong) grip is the split finger overhand grip. This grip is known by many names including: the peace grip, the rock-paper-scissors grip, and the kung fu action grip. The ball is held between the first phalange of the index and middle fingers with the side of the hand facing the cups. When shooting the ball, the ball is released quickly and smoothly with a slight snap of the wrist.

From: http://beirut-guide.com/strategyguide_grip.php

Ping Pong Playa

C-dub (Jimmy Tsai) must take his brother's place in the big ping pong tournament in "Ping Pong Playa."

By this point, we’ve seen so many movies about the underdog, the Big Game and the rescue of the family honor, that it’s almost impossible to tell that kind of story with a straight face. Which is what makes “Ping Pong Playa” such a surprising treat — this low-budget comedy keeps its tongue in cheek while simultaneously making us actually care about who wins the tournament.

With the sport being table tennis, of course, the tournament isn’t exactly the last five minutes of “Rocky.” But when the characters are this charming and the dialogue is this smart, you won’t mind watching a little white ball clonk its way from paddle to tabletop and back again.

Christopher Wang (Jimmy Tsai), or “C-Dub” to his friends, is a loudmouth slacker who speaks almost entirely in a b-ball patois and laments the genetic failings that have kept him from being an NBA star. His laziness alone would make him a disappointment in his parents’ Asian-American community — their friends all brag about their kids being doctors and lawyers — but C-Dub has also turned his back on his family’s legacy of ping pong domination.

Starring: Jimmy Tsai, Roger Fan, Elizabeth Sung, Peter Paige
Director: Jessica Yu
Run time: 1 hour, 36 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13

C-dub’s older brother Michael (Roger Fan) has won the annual ping pong tournament for years, which has in turn benefited the table-tennis-supplies store that the Wangs manage. But when Mrs. Wang (Elizabeth Sung) and Michael get into a car accident, C-dub must take over his mother’s ping pong class at the community center and, ultimately, play for the family in the tournament.

This year, winning the National Golden Cock Tournament means more than a date with Miss Chinatown — C-dub has to defend the sport from Gerald (Peter Paige), a snotty interloper who wants to open up his own Anglo-centric table tennis academy.

You may be able to guess the ultimate destination of “Ping Pong Playa,” but the film chooses an interestingly circuitous route in getting there. From C-dub’s embrace of his athletic destiny to his relationship with the kids in his mom’s class — not to mention his flirtation with Jennifer (Smith Cho), the older sister of one of his students — the film finds a way to tell its story and embellish its characters while poking gentle fun at Asian overachievers and white people’s obliviousness about Asian culture.

Documentary filmmaker Jessica Yu (“In the Realms of the Unreal,” “Breathing Lessons”) makes an assured narrative debut here, even though it’s clear she’s working from a limited budget. (Full disclosure: I’ve known Yu for years from when her films screened at the USA Film Festival in Dallas, where I was once artistic director.) “Ping Pong Playa” has a sweet shagginess to it that matches C-dub’s lackadaisical nature. The idea of using basketball sound effects to cover up profanities is an awkward choice — it would work better for the film’s eventual ABC Family debut than for a theatrical movie — but beyond that, the script (by Tsai and Yu) keep the laughs consistently in play.

“Ping Pong Playa” doesn’t have the angry edge of other groundbreaking comedies about race, but perhaps its amiability makes it even more subversive. Whether or not Asian-Americans embrace its unique sense of humor, table tennis fans will no doubt be elated to be able to cleanse “Balls of Fury” from their collective palates.

© 2008 MSNBC Interactive

the mrbrown show: beat it (the singapore ping pong song) music video!

A jibe at STTA Chief for the mistiming of announcing the dismissal of Singapore's Table Tennis Manager Anthony LEe

'I've breastfed four children so basically my breasts look like ping pong balls in a couple of bin liners"

Ulrika Jonsson is having a breast reduction after her chest grew to a 34I cup during her fourth pregnancy.

The 41-year-old, who gave birth to her fourth child Malcolm 10 weeks ago, says she's also having a lift because they look like 'ping pong balls in bin liners'.
She told GMTV today: 'I've been endowed with a rather large bosom, and when I'm pregnant and breastfeeding I go up to a 34I cup, I'm wearing a G cup at the moment.'I've been thinking about it for a number of years, it's not something I've just thought of in the last couple of weeks.

'All other women are having augmentations, but I'm having what I call corrective surgery - I feel that I've done my bit for my babies.

'I've breastfed four children so basically my breasts look like ping pong balls in a couple of bin liners - they need a bit of help!'

But the TV presenter, who says she's put on five stone while pregnant, insists she won't be having any surgery on her face.

She said: 'I'm going to wait for my body to get back to normal, then I'm going to find the best surgeon in the country.

Cats Playing Ping Pong!

Ping Pong Robot!

Table Tennis Hot Shots Of Olympics!

More here!

A Comprehensive History of The Table Tennis

Presented By ITTF. Click Here

Plans to 'sex up' table tennis rebuffed

3:00 AEST Thu Aug 21 2008

 

America’s Gao Jun stood by shorts and men's t-shirts. (Getty Images)

By ninemsn staff

 

Zhang Yi Ning has posed for glamorous photo shoots. (Getty Images)

Eva Odorova of Slovakia played in a mini-skirt. (Getty Images)

A table tennis official's bid to "sex up" the sport to attract more spectators has angered some fans.

The vice president of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), Claude Bergeret, wants ping pong's women to polish their appearance and wear more flattering clothes at competitions.

"We are trying to push the players to use skirts and also nicer shirts — not the shirts that are made for men, but ones with more curves," she said.

Ms Bergeret referred to an expression used in France which translates to "You don't want to be dressed like a sack of potatoes."

"It's just a question of being well-dressed," she was quoted as saying in The International Herald Tribune.

China’s table tennis legend Zhang Yi Ning, who has put herself in front of the lens for glamorous photo shoots, backed Bergeret but hoped the revamp would also "maximise speed and spinning the ball".

"I'd love to see tighter and shorter sleeves," she said.

The contrast in competition attire was seen at the Games last week when America’s Gao Jun sported a pair of baggy shorts while her opponent, Eva Odorova of Slovakia, played in a mini-skirt.

There have been previous attempts to combat the event’s lack of television coverage — including speeding up the scoring system and using bigger balls — and not everyone agrees adding sex appeal is best for the game.

"The only reason the ITTF wants to sex it up is to try to get the attention of ignorant and arrogant Americans who insist on believing it's just a basement game for kids and drunks," one wrote on USA Today’s 'Game On' blog.

Others branded the idea "degrading".

"I would agree on giving them shirts made for women ... but 'sexier' ping pong?

"Personally, I get terribly annoyed at the skimpy bikini bottoms the women wear for beach volleyball … it seems to be more about the teeny tiny outfits than the sport, " another reader said.

- Source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/olympics/article.aspx?id=618471

Official Table Tennis Balls Dimensions

40 mm, 44 mm, and 54 mm celluloid Table Tennis balls

The international rules specify that the game is played with a light 2.7 gram, 40 mm diameter ball. Generally, it is the most-used ball. The rules say that the ball shall bounce up 23cm when dropped from a height of 30cm thereby having a coefficient of restitution of 0.88. The 40 mm ball was introduced after the 2000 Olympic Games. However, this created some controversy as the Chinese National Team argued that this was merely to give non-Chinese players a better chance of winning^{[citation needed]}. A 40 mm table tennis ball is slower and spins less than a 38 mm one. The ball is made of a high-bouncing gas-filled celluloid, colored white or orange, with a matte finish. The choice of ball color is made according to the table color and its surroundings. For example, a white ball is easier to see on a green or blue table than it is on a grey table. Stars on the ball indicate the quality of the ball. 3 stars indicates that it is of the highest quality. - Wikipedia

 

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Balls for international play must be from a list of approved manufacturers and models maintained by the ITTF, see below.

• Color: white or orange, with a matte finish.
• Mass: 2.7 grams ideally, but 2.67 to 2.77 grams is acceptable. In qualifying manufacturers, the ITTF tests a set of 24 balls, and no more than one can be outside this range.
• Diameter: Since October 2000, 40 millimeters, with a minimum diameter of 39.5 mm and a maximum of 40.50 mm. See below. 
        The ITTF has an interesting way of testing for a property they call "veer," which reflects both the ball's sphericity and the distribution of mass, which might be nonuniform due to variations in the thickness of the wall or in the density of the material.  A ball is rolled 100 millimeters down a plane inclined 14° to the horizontal, onto a level surface.  The ball is expected to continue to travel along a straight line perpendicular to the line where the planes join. If within 100 centimeters the ball rolls more than 175 mm away from the line, it fails.  Each ball is tested twice, once rolling on the seam, and two times in any other position. If more than 1 out of 24 balls fails this test, the brand is not approved.
• Bounce: when dropped from a height of 305 mm onto a steel block, must bounce at least 230 mm but not more than 250 mm. 
• Stamp: no larger than 280 square millimeters, in one or two colors.  It must include:
  • a trademark or brand name
  • the ITTF approval, which may be simply "ITTF"
  • "40" or "40mm"
  • the name of the country where the manufacturer is headquartered.
• Seam: only one is allowed, and that as inconspicuous as possible.
• Packaging: must include a date or datecode.

The ball has always been made of celluloid, but this is not a requirement. In fact, the ITTF is encouraging manufacturers to find a better material.

On 1 October 2000, the diameter of the ball was increased to 40 mm from 38 mm.  The ITTF estimated that the increase would decrease the speed of the ball by 4 to 8%, and the spin by 10 to 13%.  The purpose of the change was to produce longer rallies and to make the ball more visible on television, in the belief that this would make the game more interesting to spectators.

International Table Tennis Federation.
The Ball.
ITTF Technical Leaflet T3.
April 2000, updated July 2000.

The Law of Table Tennis

The Official Rules of Table Tennis here.

Table Tennis Memorabilia : 1987 Postage Stamp

in Deutsche Demokratische Republik

Table Tennis Playing Levels - What Level are You?

 

Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced - What's the Difference?

By Greg Letts, About.com

The USA's Mark Hazinski is definitely an advanced player!

Photo © 2007 Gerry Chua

In many table tennis communities, it's common to separate ping-pong players into three broad groups - beginners, intermediate players, and advanced players. But what exactly do we mean when we say that Fred is an intermediate player, while Jim is only a beginner? And at what point does an intermediate player become worthy of advanced status?

In this article, I'm going to touch briefly on the ten main attributes that separate these three main groups. For each of these attributes, think of a sliding scale, with the beginner level at one end and the advanced level at the other, with intermediate status in the middle.

You can then assign a fairly accurate standard to a particular player by deciding where the majority of his attributes lie on the scale.

• Beginners will have a majority of beginning level attributes, with maybe a couple of intermediate level.
• Intermediate level players will have mainly intermediate level attributes, with maybe a couple of beginner level attributes (for lower level intermediate players), or a couple of advanced level attributes (for higher level intermediate players).
• Advanced level players will have mainly advanced level attributes, with maybe an intermediate level attribute or two.

Ten Beginner Level Attributes for Table Tennis

1. Mistakes - beginners make the most mistakes, especially unforced errors. Their level of consistency is low.
2. Points - most points are won from an opponent's unforced mistakes, instead of being won by pressuring a mistake from the opponent. Beginners who play safe and try to avoid errors will tend to defeat beginners who attempt to play attacking strokes, due to the amount of mistakes their opponents make.
3. Strokes - beginners often make poor stroke choices, attempting strokes with a low percentage of success, when better options are available.
4. Strengths/Weaknesses - beginner players tend to have more weaknesses in their ping-pong game than strengths.
5. Footwork - new players often move too much or too little. They reach for balls instead of taking a small step, and move too far and get too close to balls that are far away.
6. Spin - in the beginning level game spin is a magical and frustrating element. Beginners have problems using spin and adapting to an opponent's spin.
7. Tactics - are limited at best. Most of the player's focus is on himself and successfully playing strokes, rather than on what his opponent is doing. Beginners also have difficulty executing tactics successfully due to lack of consistency in their strokes.
8. Fitness - the level of play is less dynamic than advanced levels, so fitness plays much less of a role.
9. Rallies vs Serve/Serve Return - beginners tend to view the rallying strokes as the most important, and prefer to train these strokes over serve and serve return, which are viewed simply as ways of starting the point.
10. Equipment - interestingly, equipment is one area where beginners are often closer to advanced players than intermediate players. To a beginner, just about all of the blades and rubbers are much faster and spinnier than they are used to, so a beginner player is usually happy to use what other players recommend, instead of obsessing about their equipment.

Ten Intermediate Level Attributes for Table Tennis

1. Mistakes - the number of unforced errors is less, but still significant. Intermediate players will also make more mistakes under pressure than advanced players.
2. Points - the ratio between winning points by forcing mistakes and from an opponent's unforced errors becomes more even. An intermediate player who plays a safe game, taking few risks and making few mistakes, and only attacking easy balls, will rise quickly from beginner status towards the top of the intermediate level players. More aggressive players who take more risks and attack more often will rise less quickly in general, improving in level as their attacking consistency gets better.
3. Strokes - intermediate players will make better stroke choices, choosing the correct stroke most of the time. Their ball placement is still not so good though.
4. Strengths/Weaknesses - this is much more even at intermediate level. Most intermediate players will have a couple of strengths and a couple of weak points in their game.
5. Footwork - improves as the intermediate player learns the importance of balance and recovery in allowing multiple attacks. Footwork is faster and used more often, but the player is not always as good at knowing where he should be moving to in order to best prepare for his next stroke.
6. Spin - intermediate players have got past the frustrating period, and can now apply and adapt to most spin variations. They will still struggle with unusual serves or players that can use good deception when applying spin.
7. Tactics - are getting better, as the player needs to concentrate less on his own strokes, and can now spend more time focussing on his opponent. There can be a tendency to try to copy tactics from high level players that the intermediate player does not have the ability to consistently execute. As the player continues to improve, the ability to plan tactics, then adapt his tactics as required during matches also improves.
8. Fitness - will become more important over the course of a day, if several matches are played, as fatigue builds up. Often the player will be much worse in standard at the end of the day, as his body tires and mental focus slips.
9. Rallies vs Serve/Serve Return - intermediate players recognize the importance of serve and serve return. They just aren't generally willing to due the necessary training to improve it! Those that do work on their serves clearly stand out from the rest at this level. Most of the intermediate player's time is spent training the flashy rally strokes, such as power loops and smashes. The short game is often neglected.
10. Equipment - there is a tendency to obsess about equipment at intermediate level. Since training time is often limited due to other commitments, players often look for improvement by trying to find the perfect blade and rubber combination.

Ten Advanced Level Attributes for Table Tennis

1. Mistakes - unforced mistakes are much rarer now, due to the level of training performed. The level of consistency on all strokes is high.
2. Points - most points are now won through forcing mistakes from the opponent. Safe players who rely on their opponent's mistakes will find it difficult to rise through the advanced ranks, and generally learn to force mistakes by spin variation (for backspin defenders), or placement (for blockers). Attacking players who take calculated risks dominate at this level due to the advantages of controlled topspin aggression coupled with modern technology and speed glue.
3. Strokes - good stroke choices are made the majority of the time, and sometimes the player may have more than one choice at his disposal.
4. Strengths / Weaknesses - the advanced player will have several strengths. His weaknesses are generally weak only when compared to the rest of his game, and he has usually developed ways to make it difficult for his opponent to exploit his weaknesses.
5. Footwork - is used to allow the player to play his best strokes as often as possible, while remaining balanced and able to recover for the next stroke. The player also anticipates well and moves to the correct location for the next stroke most of the time.
6. Spin - is there for the advanced player to manipulate at will, in order to achieve whatever effect he desires at the time.
7. Tactics - the player will have developed a good tactical game, and can adapt his tactics depending on his opponent and the situation.
8. Fitness - high levels of fitness are needed to play at optimum levels in each game, and during long tournaments. Not to mention the need to survive the high training workload!
9. Rallies vs Serve/Serve Return - the advanced player knows all too well the critical importance of serve and serve return, and gives serve and serve return training the time and effort it deserves. Advanced players know that a good short game can shut down an opponent's power game, and work on their short game accordingly.
10. Equipment - advanced players tend to worry less about their equipment than intermediate players. Good technique and plenty of training far outweigh the small differences between different rubber and blade combinations. While advanced players may try a few different rubbers and blades in the off season, they already have a good idea of what types they like, and stay mainly within that range. Once a decision is made they stick with it during the tournament season.

Singapore Table Tennis Association Chief Under Fire

FURIOUS Singaporeans lambasted the shock decision by table tennis president Lee Bee Wah to remove team manager Antony Lee and to refer the fate of Liu Guodong, the team’s head coach, to a coaching committee.

By 8pm yesterday, The Straits Times received nearly 200 e-mails and letters from readers - almost all of whom voiced disbelief and outrage. Many more flamed Ms Lee in Internet blogs and postings.

Most of them took issue with the timing of the news, which came just before Singapore’s Olympic paddlers were due for a victorious homecoming this afternoon.

‘This sudden announcement has certainly cast a dark cloud over the shining achievements of the table tennis team,’ banker David Chee lamented.

‘Just as people should be given time to mourn their loss, they should also be given time to celebrate their achievements. Anything short of this is just plain disrespectful.’

Mr Lee was held responsible for Gao Ning’s third-round defeat in the men’s singles at the Games. Gao, the Republic’s top male paddler, had to play without a coach by his side.

Sick Ping Pong Tricks!

When play turns to ping pong, Chinese rule the table

By George Schroeder

The Register-Guard

Published: August 14, 2008 12:00AM

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Sol Neelman/For The Register-Guard

Wu Jia Mu Wa, 9, practices table tennis at the Beijing Shichahai Sports School. He hopes to one day win a world championship.

BEIJING — One after another, the plastic balls rocket through the air. Impossibly fast, the players fire balls back and forth, and you realize:

This is not your basement ping pong game.

It’s also not the Olympics. Those guys are much better. These tiny kids we’re watching at the Beijing Shichahai Sports School, they’re “OK,” says a coach. “For their age.”

Which is why, when you get to the Olympic table tennis venue, across town at the Peking University Gymnasium, you see the intensity from the fans in the packed house. You check out the rosters — 40 of 48 women’s players are from China. And you realize at least in one category, China’s desire for world domination has been achieved.

Ping pong diplomacy?

Last weekend, President Bush was here for the Olympics. He issued some blunt statements about human rights issues in China, and he met with Chinese President Hu Jintao, where they apparently discussed the same issues.

Let’s hope they didn’t agree to settle things with a friendly game, because Hu has a reputation as an above-average player. And you should know, says Team USA’s David Zhuang, who grew up in China:

“Here, if you say you can play, you can really play.”

In recent years, the Chinese have gone crazy for basketball. They love badminton, they like volleyball, and soccer is very popular.

But, says Zhuang, “there is always table tennis.” Back in the 1950s, Mao Tse-Tung proclaimed it the national sport, and it’s deeply woven into the cultural fabric.

To understand why China dominates the sport, leave the Olympic gymnasium and find the nearest park, and watch people playing on concrete tables. Think basketball in America’s inner cities, with pickup games running nonstop, and you’ve got a rough idea what it’s like. Or in a more recent development, go to one of the many ping pong clubs, where for a small fee, you can grab a table and find a game.

You’d better bring a good game, though, because everyone here has one.

Zhuang says nine of 10 people on a Beijing street will tell you they play ping pong. He’s exaggerating, but the estimates on recreational players start at 200 million. More than 10 million are registered (like a tennis rating or a golf handicap), and 4 million are tournament players (the United States has 4,000).

For more on world domination, we travel across town to the sports school, where children train year-round in eight sports — 3½ hours a day, 6½ days a week, with Saturday afternoons off — part of China’s official emphasis on developing athletic potential.

In the ping pong hall, children are practicing ping pong on 18 of 25 tables. The game’s familiar clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop instead sounds like CLIPCLOPCLIPCLOPCLIPCLOP — unfortunately, it cannot be written or read fast enough or loud enough for an accurate description.

As a coach feeds balls, 9-year-old Wu Jia Mu Wa slides back and forth, easily smacking the ball to precise places on the table. During a break, he says he loves ping pong, and when you ask his goal, he points to a photograph of Olympic gold medalist Zhang Yining, a graduate of the school.

“I want to win the world championship,” Wu says through an interpreter, and watching him, it sure seems he could. A foreign reporter challenges the kid. She’s played the game before and she’s pretty good, but Wu toys with her, ending points whenever he wants.

The coach, an older woman named Liu Ya Chin, isn’t ready to project greatness.

“He’s still young,” she says, also through an interpreter. “It all depends on how he develops. There are so many factors. There are so many people playing ping pong in China.”

That last part is the biggest key. Recall the 4 million tournament players? Maybe 700 are good enough to make the roster of one of 33 province-level teams. The national team is selected from that pool.

Team USA’s Gao Jun worked her way up through the system. Sports school in Baoding at age 5, the Hebei province team at age 11, the national team at 16.

She won a silver medal in Barcelona in 1992, and emigrated two years later to the United States.

“China has so many good players,” Gao says. “When I said I wanted to leave the team, they said, ‘OK.’ They don’t care if you want to leave the team, because there are so many behind you.”

When someone asked Gao on Tuesday whether the Americans could close the gap on the Chinese, she just laughed for a minute. The U.S. women had just lost to Singapore — the No. 2-ranked team, with a roster that’s entirely Chinese. It wasn’t close. Gao was blunt.

“We all played OK. But they are so much better.”

This isn’t your basement. This is ping pong hegemony.

HHHH

George Schroeder can be reached at george.schroeder@registerguard.com. His updated blog from the Olympics is at registerguard.com/olympics.

Ping Pong Prank!!!

Unbelieveable Ping Pong Tricks!

Google's for Table Tennis Olympics!

Google's Logo for Bejing 2008 Table Tennis Olympics!

by sunsfinancial

Free Online Table Tennis Game!