Table tennis is perhaps the most famous game in all of South Asia and one of the most popular games in the world. It is also commonly called ping pong. It is a game which requires excellent athletic abilities, extremely fast reflexes, and quicker-than-light kind of reactions. Table tennis is a very demanding game in general, thanks to its speed. It is played between two individual players or two teams comprising of two players each. It is an indoor game which is played on a table. This could be actually considered a variant of the very popular tennis game, since it shares a lot of similarities with tennis. In table tennis, the players try to hit the ball to the opponent, making the ball bounce once in his court area. In this case though, the court area is nothing but the other half of the table. In this game, there is a table which serves as the court for players, as the name suggests. The table is divided by a net which marks the territory or court of each player. The ball is very light in weight, just about 3 grams, which makes it travel extremely fast in air, giving the opponents little or no time to prepare and react. It is filled with high bouncing gas and hence it is also called celluloid ball. In fact, some of the shots played in table tennis are so fast that the ball travels in a speed excess of 100 kilometers per hour. However, the game is also known for its calculative, tricky slow serves.

The bat used by the players is made of wooden blade which is covered by rubber on either one of the sides or both sides. The rubber could be of different varieties depending on the playing style of the player. In fact, table tennis is one of the few games which allow the players to design their bat according to their style, at least to some extent. The rubber sheets designed on the bats could be anything from Chinese style inverted, non-Chinese style inverted, short pimples, long pimples, and anti-spin. The player can choose the kind of rubber sheet he wants according to his wish and style of play. Each kind of rubber creates a different effect and veteran players know exactly how to convert it into their advantage while playing. While playing, the players hit the ball very fast and the reaction time to the opponent is very less. It is for this reason that table tennis is considered one of the most demanding games, physically. You need to have extraordinary hand-eye coordination, extremely quick reflexes, and lightning fast athletic ability. In fact, if you see some of the games played by the Orientals, it is hard to believe that they are able to control the ball which is so fast on a table which is so small. The game starts with a coin toss, to decide which player or team will begin first. The player or team that wins the toss will start the first serve. The concept of first serve is similar to that of tennis and the game starts from then on. Every time a player hits the ball, it should bounce on the opponent’s side and he should try to hit it back to this side. If a player misses the ball or fails to bounce it back on the opponent’s side, the opponent wins a point. This is the way the game is played and it is very, very fast in nature.