Bat, racket or paddle - what do you call it?

says Table Tennis - the sport for life.
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I'm referring to a complete bat here, blade + rubbers. I've always wondered where the different terminology comes from. Most people in my region (South Australia) call them bats, but I've come across racket or paddle too, especially on forums.

What do you call them in your region?
 
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I don't personally like how the term bat sounds coming out of my mouth. I think of a bat as more like a club or what you would use in baseball. So I don't use bat. Although I also think of bat as a way in which someone from somewhere in Great Britain and maybe Australia and/or New Zealand might refer to these things we use. So if I hear Dan say "bat" it sounds fine to me. :) But if I say it, it sounds all wrong. :)

I don't like paddle, because I associate that with something like a sex toy or what a recreational player would call it.

I call the wood, a blade or the wood. I call the rubbers, rubbers. And when you put the rubbers on the wood, I personally call that a racket. Racket sounds more like something that you would use in a sport. Whereas, a paddle, to me, for TT, sounds more like a toy.

So, if I was talking to someone who doesn't really play TT and didn't realize that with a real piece of equipment you buy the blade and rubbers as separate items and put the rubbers onto the blade, I might say, "So you get the wood, and you take the rubbers and you glue the rubbers onto the wood, and then you cut them to size; and that is how you assemble your racket." :)
 
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I don't like paddle, because I associate that with something like a sex toy or what a recreational player would call it.

I call the wood, a blade or the wood. I call the rubbers, rubbers. And when you put the rubbers on the wood, I personally call that a racket.
Oh boy, you are one kinky moderator (hihi). Now I know why you are up at 2.30 am ET...;)

On the other hand, I refuse to call a blade wood and I also avoid using the term rubber, because of all the sexual connotations...(I am a little prudish). I prefer to use the actual name of a blade or a rubber...
 
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Down here in scenic sunny arid southeastern Tucson, Arizona in the American southwest, where the city slogan is either "not much" or "bear down", we call a blade plus rubber a rig. As in "whut kinda rig yuh drawin' down with, hoss?"

This sounds far cooler than the object deserves. Something that's called a rig shouldn't cost less than 2000$. LOL:D
 
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I think bat is the right word. In dutch we say "batje" a lot. Racket is for tennis. Paddle is just stupid word.
 
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In German we say 'Schläger' which literally translated means hitter.
But i've also heard things like 'Keule' and 'Gerät'. In swabian german one guy also said 'Batscher' which would be a slang word for hitter. I guess regional slangs like bavarian, hassian or north german have a few terms more.

Speaking internationally most german people i know use the word racket. No one says bat here.
 
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Palet is indeed the belgian word for bat. A frame they call "houtje" what translates in 'small wood'.
 
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Palet is indeed the belgian word for bat. A frame they call "houtje" what translates in 'small wood'.

Yes. We also use ‘plank’ and ‘plankje’ colloquially, strictly indicating the blade but quite often loosely referencing the full gear. A pars pro toto, exempliary.
 
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In German we say 'Schläger' which literally translated means hitter.
But i've also heard things like 'Keule' and 'Gerät'. In swabian german one guy also said 'Batscher' which would be a slang word for hitter. I guess regional slangs like bavarian, hassian or north german have a few terms more.

Speaking internationally most german people i know use the word racket. No one says bat here.


Yeah, "Schläger" is probably the most common name for a tt setup in Germany, at least within the club scene. When I was younger me and my pals used the word "Kelle". It was all cheap premade stuff that we played with (at school, in the garden etc.). So in my book Schläger equals racket while Kelle equals paddle. Kelle/paddle is predominantly used in the recreational circle by people who do not play in clubs and don`t know that much about tt and the equipment being used.
I wouldn't really know what to do with "bat" from a linguistic point of view. I guess I somewhat dislike it for its ambiguity (bat = bat(man). In that context: There is a ttd member who posts equipment reviews here and on mytt every now and then. Since the reviews are not in English, he uses automatically generated subtitles, occasionally creating gems such as "...you have to keep the Fledermaus flat, the Futter is very katapulti..." (Huh, what???).
That being said I am not really that familiar with southgerman dialects, but I would associate "Batscher" with a word for slapping (someone in the face)...:)
 
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Yeah, "Schläger" is probably the most common name for a tt setup in Germany, at least within the club scene. When I was younger me and my pals used the word "Kelle". It was all cheap premade stuff that we played with (at school, in the garden etc.). So in my book Schläger equals racket while Kelle equals paddle. Kelle/paddle is predominantly used in the recreational circle by people who do not play in clubs and don`t know that much about tt and the equipment being used.
I wouldn't really know what to do with "bat" from a linguistic point of view. I guess I somewhat dislike it for its ambiguity (bat = bat(man). In that context: There is a ttd member who posts equipment reviews here and on mytt every now and then. Since the reviews are not in English, he uses automatically generated subtitles, occasionally creating gems such as "...you have to keep the Fledermaus flat, the Futter is very katapulti..." (Huh, what???).
That being said I am not really that familiar with southgerman dialects, but I would associate "Batscher" with a word for slapping (someone in the face)...:)

Hahaha... Great. Your knowledge of german is pretty impressive.
In fact i´ve also heard the term 'Kelle', but as you said mostly used by youngsters that just started playing. The word 'schläger' applies as well as for a Tennis racket, Squash racket, but also for a golf club and for a cricket bat or even a baseball bat.
Whereas the word Keule would rather be translated with a (spiked) baseball-bat.
Unfortunately i haven´t seen any reviews of your mentioned TTD member yet. But i´m always open for a good laugh.
:)
 
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The reason Americans prefer 'Paddle' is to disambiguate the word from a baseball bat which is an iconic symbol in American sports. In fact, in the American sports vernacular, there are no other types of bats other than a baseball bat to probably 99.9% of the population. It's that ubiquitous.

Only people who play sports that are largely considered obscure here (Cricket, TT) would use the term 'bat' otherwise.
 
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Hahaha... Great. Your knowledge of german is pretty impressive.
In fact i´ve also heard the term 'Kelle', but as you said mostly used by youngsters that just started playing. The word 'schläger' applies as well as for a Tennis racket, Squash racket, but also for a golf club and for a cricket bat or even a baseball bat.
Whereas the word Keule would rather be translated with a (spiked) baseball-bat.
Unfortunately i haven´t seen any reviews of your mentioned TTD member yet. But i´m always open for a good laugh.
:)


Actually I'm pretty sure you know him (or his reviews I should say). At least his profile says that you have visited his page...
I'll give you a hint: said ttd member is from Poland...
 
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I have always called a paddle a paddle.
WHY?
Paddle Palace is close by relative speaking although they hav moved away..
A racquet has strings. A tennis racquet has strings . You can use a racquet to row a boat. Not effectively
You can't use a ping pong paddle to bat a ball or a bat to hit a ping pong ball. Not effectively.
I could use a ping pong paddle to row a boat.
However, after all the logic I still call my paddles with pips out on both sides and no sponge hardbats.
 
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