Table Tennis History and other facts! By: Emora Baggett Over 0 million players participate in table tennis tournaments around the world. Table tennis is globally the most popular racket sport

Table tennis tournaments
Tournaments
Like other sports, table tennis has tournaments. Teams 
from all over Saskatchewan come to these tournaments. Keep in 
mind that these aren’t professional tournaments that I am 
explaining, these are just the ones I am used to going to. When 
you get there, we usually help set up and wait for everyone to 
arrive. Once all the teams are there, the organizers will call groups 
of three at random. If your name gets called then you go to the 
selected table to meet your group. This group is called a round 
robin. In the round robin you decide which two players will 
participate first, the other player will score keep. After all three 
players have competed, you will take the recorded score to the 
judges. This is when you will be placed into the A, B or C category. 
If you won all the games you will be in the A category. If you won 
one game and lost one game, then you will be in the B category. If 
you lost both of your games, then you will be in the C category. 
For the rest of the tournament you will be in this category. You 
will continue to play people and give the recorded score to the 
judges. At the end of the tournament if you won enough games 
you will get a medal. 

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History of Table Tennis
History
Table tennis originally came from England in the 1880s. It was made by Englishman David Foster. 
Table Tennis was used as a substitute for lawn tennis when it was too cold in the winter. It caught on as a game you 
could play for people who didn’t have a big lawn to play tennis in the summer. In 1901 the ping pong association 
was formed. This sport continued to be played in only England but by 1920s it was being played all around the 
world. By that time table tennis started to be taken more seriously as a sport. In 1921-1922 ping pong got its official 
name table tennis. Then, the first ever table tennis championship was held in London in 1926. Lastly, in 1988 table 
tennis became an olympics sport with singles and doubles. Table tennis continues to be enjoyed all around the 
world, both for fun, and competitive. 

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How I got started
I started playing table tennis regularly in the 
year of 2017. I remember the first time I ever 
played table tennis. Sheena Koops, one of my 
coaches and my auntie, set up a time to introduce 
some kids to table tennis. I remember we did 
exercises like: bouncing a ping pong ball up and 
down on your racket, hitting a balloon with your 
racket and blowing a ping pong ball across the 
table to improve your hand eye coordination. I do 
not exactly know what year this was, but it was 
much earlier than 2017. After that table tennis 
practice I didn’t start playing, but my older 
cousins and siblings did. It was 2017 when I started 
going to the practices. Then in 2018 I was in my 
first tournament. The tournament was in Fort 
Qu'appelle Elementary Community School, that is 
the school I go to. I didn’t win any metals but it 
was very fun. Later that year I won my first metal 
in Carry the Kettle, it was a bronze medal in the C 
category. 

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Table Tennis Spins