Editing Table tennis (section)

== History ==
[[File:Ping-Pong 2.jpg|thumb|Parker Brothers Ping-Pong game]]
The sport originated in [[Victorian England]], where it was played among the upper-class as an after-dinner [[parlour game]].<ref name=H2/><ref name="Letts"/> It has been suggested that makeshift versions of the game were developed by British military officers in [[British Raj|India]] around the 1860s or 1870s, who brought it back with them.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20190103100431/https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/table-tennis-pingpong-or-whiff-whaff-victorian-parlor-game-returns-home-for-london-olympics/2012/07/27/gJQAXnpmDX_story.html WashingtonPost.com.] Accessed 2 August 2012.</ref> A row of books stood up along the center of the table as a net, two more books served as rackets and were used to continuously hit a golf-ball.<ref name=ITTFhistm>{{cite web |url=http://www.ittf.com/museum/history.html |title=A Comprehensive History of Table Tennis |work=www.ittf.com |publisher=ITTF |access-date=29 August 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150313051738/http://www.ittf.com/museum/history.html |archive-date=13 March 2015}}</ref><ref name="FH">{{cite news|last=Hamilton|first=Fiona|title=Inventors of ping-pong say Mayor Boris Johnson is wrong|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/inventors-of-ping-pong-say-mayor-boris-johnson-is-wrong-2dnkvwxjwjv|access-date=6 November 2010|newspaper=[[The Times]]|date=2 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108045809/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/inventors-of-ping-pong-say-mayor-boris-johnson-is-wrong-2dnkvwxjwjv|archive-date=8 January 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1883, British sporting goods company [[Slazenger]] filed a patent for a net for table tennis.<ref>{{cite news |title=It's table tennis, NOT ping-pong |url=https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/its-table-tennis-not-ping-pong |access-date=6 June 2024 |publisher=NBC Olympics}}</ref>

The name "ping-pong" was in wide use before British manufacturer [[Jaques of London|J. Jaques & Son Ltd]] [[trademark]]ed it in 1901. The name "ping-pong" then came to describe the game played using the rather expensive Jaques's equipment, with other manufacturers calling it table tennis. A similar situation arose in the United States, where Jaques sold the rights to the "ping-pong" name to [[Parker Brothers]]. Parker Brothers then enforced its trademark for the term in the 1920s, making the various associations change their names to "table tennis" instead of the more common, but trademarked, term.<ref>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110530032353/https://www.fredlaw.com/areas/trademark/Articles/trade_0808_drk3.html |archive-date=30 May 2011 |title=Are There Any Trademark Rights Left In The Term Ping-Pong? |author=Dean R. Karau |date=August 2008 |url=https://www.fredlaw.com/areas/trademark/Articles/trade_0808_drk3.html|publisher=Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.|website=www.fredlaw.com}}</ref> The U.S. trademark for "Ping-Pong" is currently owned by Indian Industries, Inc. [[d/b/a]] [[Escalade Sports]].<ref>{{US trademark|71295230}}, {{US trademark|71295231}}, {{US trademark|71564016}}</ref>

The next major innovation was by James W. Gibb, a British table tennis enthusiast, who discovered novelty [[celluloid]] balls on a trip to the US in 1901 and found them ideal for the game. This was followed by E.C. Goode who, in 1901, invented the modern version of the racket by fixing a sheet of pimpled, or stippled, [[Natural rubber|rubber]] to the wooden blade. Table tennis was growing in popularity by 1901 to the extent that tournaments were being organized, books were being written on the subject,<ref name=ITTFhistm/> and an unofficial world championship was held in 1902. In those early days, the scoring system was the same as in [[tennis|lawn tennis]].<ref name="EB1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Ping-pong|volume=21|page=626}}</ref>

Although both a "Table Tennis Association" and a "Ping Pong Association" existed by 1910,<ref name="EB1911"/> a new [[Table Tennis Association]] was founded in 1921, and renamed the [[English Table Tennis Association]] in 1926.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Origin of Ping-Pong Diplomacy: The Forgotten Architect of Sino-U.S. Rapprochement|author= M. Itoh|date= 26 September 2011|isbn=9780230339354|page=1|publisher= Springer}}</ref> The [[International Table Tennis Federation]] (ITTF) followed in 1926.<ref name=H2/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ittf.com/museum/archives/index.html |title=International Table Tennis Federation Archives |work=www.ittf.com |publisher=ITTF |access-date=29 August 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110301103409/http://www.ittf.com/museum/archives/index.html |archive-date=1 March 2011}}</ref> London hosted the first official [[World Table Tennis Championships|World Championships]] in 1926. In 1933, the [[USATT|United States Table Tennis Association]], now called USA Table Tennis, was formed.<ref name=H2/><ref name=USATTabout>{{cite web|title=About USATT |url=http://tabletennis.teamusa.org/about-usatt|publisher=United States Olympic Committee|access-date=6 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101104073948/http://tabletennis.teamusa.org/about-usatt |archive-date=4 November 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the 1930s, [[Edgar Snow]] commented in ''[[Red Star Over China]]'' that the Communist forces in the [[Chinese Civil War]] had a "passion for the English game of table tennis" which he found "bizarre".<ref>Edgar Snow, ''Red Star Over China'', Grove Press, New York, 1938 (revised 1968), p 281.</ref> On the other hand, the popularity of the sport waned in the 1930s Soviet Union, partly because of the promotion of team and military sports, and partly because of a theory that the game had adverse health effects.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ttfr.ru/rus/russian_table_tennis_history/|title=Отечественная История настольного тенниса|website=ttfr.ru|access-date=24 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925113502/http://ttfr.ru/rus/russian_table_tennis_history/|archive-date=25 September 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the 1950s, paddles that used a rubber sheet combined with an underlying sponge layer changed the game dramatically,<ref name=H2/> introducing greater spin and speed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ittf.com/museum/indextech2.html |title=Thick Sponge Bats 1950s |work=www.ittf.com |publisher=ITTF |access-date=29 August 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100418014450/http://www.ittf.com/museum/indextech2.html |archive-date=18 April 2010}}</ref> These were introduced to Britain by sports goods manufacturer S.W. Hancock Ltd. The use of [[speed glue]] beginning in the mid-1980s increased the spin and speed even further, resulting in changes to the equipment to "slow the game down". Table tennis was introduced as an Olympic sport at the [[1988 Summer Olympics|Olympics in 1988]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ittf.com/museum/Olympicgames.html |title=Table Tennis in the Olympic Games |work=www.ittf.com |publisher=ITTF |access-date=29 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071217101311/http://www.ittf.com/museum/olympicgames.html |archive-date=17 December 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref>