It’s hard to go out with a girl who is better at a sport than you are. Unlike most girls who grew up playing with dolls or dressing up in their mother’s clothes and shoes, my girlfriend Cindy’s favorite recreation is ping pong. She had been playing the game since she was five years old and is now a member of her school’s ping pong team. Yes, she’s that good.

I also know a thing or two about ping pong and actually considered myself quite handy at the game. That is, until I started playing against Cindy. She humiliates me at ping pong quite regularly, as a matter of fact. And because of this, I have become an ardent student of the game. I even know the history of ping pong.

Ping pong, which is also known as table tennis, actually has its origins in merry old England where it was a popular after-dinner recreation for the upper class Victorians during the 1880s. The game started as a table imitation of tennis, particularly in an indoor environment and, in the beginning, normal household objects were used as equipment in the game. For instance, a row of books would serve as the net, the rounded top of a champagne cork or some string would serve as the ball and the paddle would simply be the lid of a cigar box.

However, the game became popular and a number of enterprising manufacturers began to sell ping pong equipment commercially. For paddles. they used pieces of parchment paper that were secured around a frame which produced a sound like “ping pong” which is how the game came to be known by that name.

In 1901, an English enthusiast of the game named James Gibb produced the next major innovation when he discovered novelty celluloid balls while vacationing in the United States. He quickly adopted these balls to the game.

By 1903, E.C. Goode had invented the modern version of the racket by combining a sheet of pimpled rubber to a wooden blade. By 1901, ping pong tournaments were sprouting up everywhere and by 1902, the first unofficial world championship of ping pong was staged.

By: Jonathon Hardcastle