Description
Table Tennis, or "ping-pong" is the second most popular sport in the world, behind soccer. Many Americans consider it as just a fun, "basement" sport to play at parties or any time. To them, it is known as ping-pong. But, there is a whole other side to the sport. In America, about 1% of the people who play table tennis, play it competitively. To this minority, Table Tennis is just like basketball, football, or soccer. These people don't call it ping-pong.
The game is played by two or four players using paddles, batting a ball back and forth over a net dividing a table. For more a more detailed explanation, see USATT Official Rules
Table Tennis is played competitively by men and women aged 7-75+. Playing the sport provides exercise for the "legs, arms, and brain" as stated by Bing Li, #2 in Rhode Island. Most Table Tennis Professionals are Asians, notably Chinese. But, Table Tennis is becoming increasingly popular in Europe as well. Sweden, the world power in Table Tennis, has produced world champions in 1991 and most recently, 1997. Jan-Ove Waldner, a Swede, is currently the #1 player in the world.
Table Tennis is not played competively by just batting a ball back and forth. Professionals exert many different kinds of spins on the table tennis ball, the most common being topspin.