Table Tennis Blog

Heres a couple of tips to improve your game.

1. Holding the bat

Holding the bat correctly gives you more control over the speed and angel which you hit the ball.

The main way to hold the bat is the Shakehand Grip.

Using a light grip place your index finger on one side of the bat and your thumb on the other. wrap your other fingers around the handle.

2. How to serve

Follow these rules to create the perfect serve.

Before Serve:

• Feet must be 45 degrees to endline of table.
• keep legs slightly apart and knees bent. Relax.
• The playing elbow must be bent at 90 degrees, Hold the free hand slightly in front of the bat.
• Throw the ball vertically - not at an angle.

After throwing the ball

• Once the ball is thrown and at is highest point the bat must be in the middle of the swing (furthest point away from table).
• Focus on the ball.

Hitting the ball with the bat

• When just about to hit the ball the bat must be vertical.
• Slightly lean your body forward from the waist.
• Move the ball downwards and forwards to hit the ball.

After hitting the ball

• Continue watching the ball
• Just after hitting the ball move your bat upwards and forewards to create topspin.

These are the official World Ranking of both male and female table tennis players form Sept 2008:

Women Top 10:

1. ZHANG Yining CHN
2. GUO Yue CHN
3. LI Xiaoxia CHN
4. WANG Nan CHN
5. GUO Yan CHN
6. LI Jia Wei SIN
7. WANG Yue Gu SIN
8. JIANG Huajun HKG
9. FENG Tianwei SIN
10. TIE Yana HKG

Men Top 10

1. WANG Hao CHN
2. MA Lin CHN
3. MA Long CHN
4. WANG Liqin CHN
5. SAMSONOV Vladimir BLR
6. CHEN Qi CHN
7. BOLL Timo GER
8. RYU Seung Min KOR
9. JOO Se Hyuk KOR
10. OH Sang Eun KOR

Yining Zhang has been number 1 since January 2003 and shows no signs of slowing. The same can be said for Hao Wang who from October will have held the male number 1 title for one year. Two bright stars to watch out for are Long Ma and Yue Guo both from China. They have been working hard the last year perfecting their game and now show signs of extraordinary talent.

However people look at Table Tennis it has changed a lot since its former state as an after dinner lawn game in the 1890’s. Today there is big money involved as players buy and play with high-tech rackets and volley the ball at awesome speeds reaching up to 160 kilometers per hour. Table Tennis has now become one of the world’s top sports with schools teaching pupils how to play and the sport being held in the Olympic Games like the recent Beijing Olympics. With over 40 million players worldwide and thousands of millions playing casually, table tennis has reached an all time best. Table Tennis first hit the Olympic seems in 1988 at Seoul, where people used cigar-box lids for rackets and a carved champagne cork for a ball. Today players use unique rubber coated, fibre-glass bats, and a celluloid ball. The table tennis equipment industry is becoming more and more powerful, some glues are even banned from the Olympics, as they make the ball travel to fast

The Beijing Olympics finished off this years summer of sporting excellence with a stunning ceremony at the bird’s Nest stadium to close the Paralympics on Thursday

In possibly the most spectacular performance yet, produced by film directory Zhang Yimou, 2,000 elegant dancers in wonderfully colourful costumes dazzled the 91,000 crowd with a performance to the theme of “a letter to the future” to bid Farwell to the 4,000 Paralympians

“These are the greatest Paralympic Games ever,” (IPC)

“The spirit that is ever bright in our movement found here in China a kindred spirit … one world, one dream, one people has become a reality.”

In China the disabled have often been stigmatised and suffered from a lack of facilities and chief Beijing organiser Liu Qi said he thought the success of the Games would leave a great legacy.

“This Paralympic Games has been a great event to arouse public interest and to promote the cause for people with a disability,” he said.

“Public accessible facilities have been significantly improved and an accessible bridge has been formed to join our hearts.”