Who invented Ping Pong?

[IB66]

Another source says a British Company trademarked in 1901, although it wasn’t 100% clear in this article whether Ping Pong or Whiff Whaff was trademarked!! The trademark was later sold to a company called Parker Brothers.

In fact it appears that J Jaques and Son Ltd was a British company and trade marked in 1901 as Ping Pong, they sold to Parker Brothers who enforced the trademark rights in the 1920’s making the various associations change their names to ‘table tennis’
This is interesting as the 1st bat my parents bought for me was a J Jaques bat!!

in 1910 there was a ‘Table Tennis Association’ and a ‘Ping Pong Association’

it would appear that a novelty celluloid ball was discovered in the USA by a British enthusiast James W Gibb in 1901 and found they were perfect for table tennis!!!

E C Goode apparently invented the 1st modern version of the racket when he stuck a sheet of pimpled or stippled rubber to a wooden blade!! 1901

The above was taken from Wikipedia.

 

[Gtsnake]

This is an interesting juxtaposition. Bad form
if Ma Long indeed says he plays Ping Ping. Huh?

Just watch any interview that Ma long did. He only refers the sport as ping pong. He's never said anything close to table tennis.

For that matter ask anyone in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan what they call it. It's only called one name.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Just watch any interview that Ma long did. He only refers the sport as ping pong. He's never said anything close to table tennis.

For that matter ask anyone in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan what they call it. It's only called one name.

You do know I agree with you, right? I think it is silly to get hung up on the different names for the same sport/game. I believe I was the one who brought up that in many countries like China, that Ping Pong (or Ping Pang) is the term used for the sport.

Does anyone know if there are other countries where the term Ping Pong is looked at as a derogatory term by some.

In the USA where I have come across this idea and attitude is from club level players who want to distinguish what they do from what so many in USA do when the refer to Ping Pong: garage or basement level players. As far as I see it, even if they don't understand the subtleties of the sport, basement players (read low level players) play because it is fun even if they don't understand how to read or generate spin.

I think, if you get people playing and having fun, the rest does not matter and all kind of play and involvement are good for the sport.

 

[Gtsnake]

You do know I agree with you, right? I think it is silly to get hung up on the different names for the same sport/game. I believe I was the one who brought up that in many countries like China, that Ping Pong (or Ping Pang) is the term used for the sport.

Does anyone know if there are other countries where the term Ping Pong is looked at as a derogatory term by some.

In the USA where I have come across this idea and attitude is from club level players who want to distinguish what they do from what so many in USA do when the refer to Ping Pong: garage or basement level players. As far as I see it, even if they don't understand the subtleties of the sport, basement players (read low level players) play because it is fun even if they don't understand how to read or generate spin.

I think, if you get people playing and having fun, the rest does not matter and all kind of play and involvement are good for the sport.

I know you agree and I'm just agreeing more. lol I'm just addressing it to people that can't seem to accept that PP and TT are the same game and doesn't matter what you call it. There is no basement name nor professional name. It's just too bad that in the US it's not that popular yet. Hopefully it will keep growing to the point of interest similar to the EU maybe even to the point like in Asia.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

TT not popular in USA?

TT associated with recreational play?

TT is not a serious sport in USA?

From where I see, you guys achieved a whole lot without you realising it.

Your US Open is so well organised and a big / huge event from what I see.

You people produce Olympians and players with noticeable ITTF world ranking such as Lily Zhang, Kanak Jha et al.

What more do you want?

 

[ILuvPingPong]

TT not popular in USA?

TT associated with recreational play?

TT is not a serious sport in USA?

From where I see, you guys achieved a whole lot without you realising it.

Your US Open is so well organised and a big / huge event from what I see.

You people produce Olympians and players with noticeable ITTF world ranking such as Lily Zhang, Kanak Jha et al.

What more do you want?

I love your enthusiasm for TT in the US. But I do want more. I want table tennis in public schools, and I want the sport to be a serious college sport as well, it's only then will the US be able to compete at the top of international levels.

 

[OldUser]

Actually in France any table tennis player, being amateur semi or pro is called a "pongiste", see the root of the word here right ? Many clubs playing in official leagues are named Ping Pong Club followed by the name of the city, I've started in the PPC A (first letter of the city), then PPC F, even played in an ASP (Association Sportive de ... Pongistes, can be translated by "Pongists Sport Association"), french pros always talk about "le ping" when they talk about it. I think english spoken people should transition to this and name TT players pongists, I mean... you can play basket ball casually too on a 1v1, football (the true one not the american thing) on a 1v1 or a 2v2 in a park with shirts on the ground for the goal posts, it's still named the same thing sure, but it's played differently, and nobody argues about the name it should be given to it. Ping Pong and Table Tennis are actually the same thing, played differently, Table Tennis is only the accurate description of it with the ITTF rules.

 

[Gtsnake]

TT not popular in USA?

TT associated with recreational play?

TT is not a serious sport in USA?

From where I see, you guys achieved a whole lot without you realising it.

Your US Open is so well organised and a big / huge event from what I see.

You people produce Olympians and players with noticeable ITTF world ranking such as Lily Zhang, Kanak Jha et al.

What more do you want?

Obviously you don't live in US. If you compare TT in the US to all the other sports that people play TT is probably not even in the top 20. It is mostly looked at as a basement sport. Some times when new people come to my club for the first time they are the king of their family basement league and when they come to the club they get destroyed. They have no idea of how high of a level TT is played.

 

[OldUser]

Obviously you don't live in US. If you compare TT in the US to all the other sports that people play TT is probably not even in the top 20. It is mostly looked at as a basement sport. Some times when new people come to my club for the first time they are the king of their family basement league and when they come to the club they get destroyed. They have no idea of how high of a level TT is played.

Even for some sports the US have invented, Volley Ball for example, the guys and gals have to travel abroad and get into european championships, Russia included, or Japan, if they want to make it a living and be pros. US is basically egocentric, it's only about 3 sports they've invented: basket ball, base ball and american "football" + Ice Hockey for the mens, women's coverage being only two sports, Basket Ball and Football (the real one again) because... European clubs have massively invested in the US, the pro US franchise are euro clubs subdivisions, like OL Reign owned by french club Olympique Lyon that is a multiple times Women UCL winner.

Europe is the most complete pro sports continent, with the most passionate fans too, the only 2 sports that are not pro ones are Base Ball and American "football", all the other ones can benefit from investers, even US investers come here, they know football is the most important sport worldwide, their problem is they don't learn about the football culture before investing, that's why many times it's been a fail (Manchester United, PSG, OM, and so on)

 

[James Z]

It is mostly looked at as a basement sport.

The keyword is "sport". If it is considered a sport, it is OK. But it is NOT. It is considered a silly basement "game" like as in beer pong
I have noticed lot of crazy posts in this thread starting with OPs question itself. & usual case of giving the "right answer to the wrong question" in forums
The question is as silly as newbies repeatedly asking over & over in forums asking " What is the best short pips for chopping" or 'What is the best available blade for chopping" or 'What is the best long pips for chopping (on ITTF LARC in the 40+ ONLY PLASTIC ball era)" etc. and getting 100s of answers equally as silly whicle the simple one word answer for above question is "None"

Anyway if I may indulge & put some words into OPs mouth I think what the OP really meant to ask was “Who invented table tennis”
Yet the discussion got derailed by the likes of DukeGaGa , Gozo, OldUser etc into as to why Chinese trademarked table tennis as ping ping or ping pang or what is table tennis called in their native language.
I clearly explained this. I am not contesting as to what table tennis is called in some languages in far east Asia. I am only saying that it is wrong & they should use the proper phrase in their own language. Table tennis is bord tennis in Swedish, Tisch tennis in German , tenis de mesa in Spanish & Portuguese. tennis de table in French etc. So what is the damn problem in using a similar phrase for table tennis in Chinses or Japanese or Korean or whatever.
BTW Italians & Greek also seem to screw up the name by calling it ping pong just as Far East Asians
I am also by no means suggesting that Chinese etc are doing this purposely. But people like Lollo Hammerlunf tried to address this but the issue has not been addressed
What people like DukeGaGa don’t understand is the fact that this cerates a bad image for the sport in USA & worldwide. I can understand some clueless American ping pong gamer showing up in a table tennis training center thinking he is a legend of tabletennis. But a Chinese person in America like DukeGaGa must know better to educate such ping pong gamers instead of arrogantly insisting that ping pong is the right phrase for tabletennis. Maybe you should all change the name if ITTF to IPPF then,
All I am saying is that the Far East Asians negate all the amazing work to promote the sport by calling the sport with the wrong name & projecting a bad image for the sport.

 

[OldUser]

I love your enthusiasm for TT in the US. But I do want more. I want table tennis in public schools, and I want the sport to be a serious college sport as well, it's only then will the US be able to compete at the top of international levels.

TT is not taught in public schools in France nor Germany, or only 1 hour a week by a very few schools in the country because the teacher is an amateur TT player that can teach them fundamentals, you have to go in a club at a very young age and then be in the top kids of your age to be enroled in a "public structure" that is run by the federations, in France it's called "Sport Etude" and now "Pole Espoir" (Hopes Centers): it's basically coaches paid the FFTT in clubs arenas: Flavien Coton (U15 world champion) for example goes to Wattignies Pole Espoir near Lille, and comes back to Bruille to play the Pro B league matches. When he's at the pole espoir, he goes to a public school outside of the pole espoir in Wattignies, with non-sporty kids. The school has a contract with the FFTT to ensure the kids have a good education with specific shedules tailored for them. But it's actually not all in the same building or center. The FFTT is a public structure, benefiting from public taxes given by the Ministry of Youth and Sports. I have a fulltime job, some of the taxes I pay are actually used to train Flavien Coton, and I'm proud of it, of being a link of this chain, even in a very small portion.

Not a college sport too then, the kids are coached because they are playing in official leagues that can be pro ones, that's the problem with the US being too much american-centric with college sports, as I've said with VB: Volley Ball is a college sports, and a very good one, but you have to go to Europe to make it a living and be a top pro. Even some young euro players go to the US after the high school graduation (Baccalauréat in France) at 18 to learn VB in US colleges, but they'll have to come back in europe to be pros.

If you want TT to be the same big thing, it's a complete no-no for the Republicans for example: the american dream basically is "you can be anything you want, you can get any help you need... just pay for it, yeah it's not cheap nor easy, but who cares ! the country won't pay for your dreams."

 

[James Z]

In some respects I think the name Table Tennis can be just as derogatory as Ping Pong.

Ping Pong sort of sounds a bit funny, sort of like the name for a child’s game rather than an actual sport…but at the same time Table Tennis makes it sound like some sort of little brother to Tennis; with Tennis being the proper sport and Table Tennis being the indoor/miniature game version of Tennis. Maybe it’s time the sport adopted a new name - no idea what that would be, though.

WTT & TTX is not confusing enough for you ? LOL

Seriously as a former tennis addict (who also will never was or will be as good in tabletennis as I was in tennis) I am tempted to agree with you.
But yes ping pong does sound very funny & childish as you said a child's "game" rather than what it really is, (one of) the most complex individual sports (& also the best at both ends of life spectrum for brain development of children (coincidentally here) or therapy for Alzheimer's ,dementia & Parikinsons etc) . This is my biggest objection as far as giving a bad image for tabletennis
But tabletennis is sort of tennis played on a table. I even wonder if a slightly modified tennis scoring system will attract more tennis players to table tennis

But after almost 100 years of the (corrupt) ITTF, a name change would only lead to more confusion, though I am all for dissolution of ITTF (& its expulsion from Olympics to be replaced with pole dancing) & a fresh start of a new pure sport with no pips or anti.

 

[Lazer]

The keyword is "sport". If it is considered a sport, it is OK. But it is NOT. It is considered a silly basement "game" like as in beer pong
I have noticed lot of crazy posts in this thread starting with OPs question itself. & usual case of giving the "right answer to the wrong question" in forums
The question is as silly as newbies repeatedly asking over & over in forums asking " What is the best short pips for chopping" or 'What is the best available blade for chopping" or 'What is the best long pips for chopping (on ITTF LARC in the 40+ ONLY PLASTIC ball era)" etc. and getting 100s of answers equally as silly whicle the simple one word answer for above question is "None"

Anyway if I may indulge & put some words into OPs mouth I think what the OP really meant to ask was “Who invented table tennis”
Yet the discussion got derailed by the likes of DukeGaGa , Gozo, OldUser etc into as to why Chinese trademarked table tennis as ping ping or ping pang or what is table tennis called in their native language.
I clearly explained this. I am not contesting as to what table tennis is called in some languages in far east Asia. I am only saying that it is wrong & they should use the proper phrase in their own language. Table tennis is bord tennis in Swedish, Tisch tennis in German , tenis de mesa in Spanish & Portuguese. tennis de table in French etc. So what is the damn problem in using a similar phrase for table tennis in Chinses or Japanese or Korean or whatever.
BTW Italians & Greek also seem to screw up the name by calling it ping pong just as Far East Asians
I am also by no means suggesting that Chinese etc are doing this purposely. But people like Lollo Hammerlunf tried to address this but the issue has not been addressed
What people like DukeGaGa don’t understand is the fact that this cerates a bad image for the sport in USA & worldwide. I can understand some clueless American ping pong gamer showing up in a table tennis training center thinking he is a legend of tabletennis. But a Chinese person in America like DukeGaGa must know better to educate such ping pong gamers instead of arrogantly insisting that ping pong is the right phrase for tabletennis. Maybe you should all change the name if ITTF to IPPF then,
All I am saying is that the Far East Asians negate all the amazing work to promote the sport by calling the sport with the wrong name & projecting a bad image for the sport.

I can tell you in Sweden we almost never call it “table tennis” nor “ping pong”, we all it “pingis” a kind of abbreviation of ping pong…
Please lighten up a little bit it doesn’t matter and whoever wants to use short pips on their weak side don’t need to ask for your permission…

Cheers
L-zr

 

[DukeGaGa]

The keyword is "sport". If it is considered a sport, it is OK. But it is NOT. It is considered a silly basement "game" like as in beer pong
I have noticed lot of crazy posts in this thread starting with OPs question itself. & usual case of giving the "right answer to the wrong question" in forums
The question is as silly as newbies repeatedly asking over & over in forums asking " What is the best short pips for chopping" or 'What is the best available blade for chopping" or 'What is the best long pips for chopping (on ITTF LARC in the 40+ ONLY PLASTIC ball era)" etc. and getting 100s of answers equally as silly whicle the simple one word answer for above question is "None"

Anyway if I may indulge & put some words into OPs mouth I think what the OP really meant to ask was “Who invented table tennis”
Yet the discussion got derailed by the likes of DukeGaGa , Gozo, OldUser etc into as to why Chinese trademarked table tennis as ping ping or ping pang or what is table tennis called in their native language.
I clearly explained this. I am not contesting as to what table tennis is called in some languages in far east Asia. I am only saying that it is wrong & they should use the proper phrase in their own language. Table tennis is bord tennis in Swedish, Tisch tennis in German , tenis de mesa in Spanish & Portuguese. tennis de table in French etc. So what is the damn problem in using a similar phrase for table tennis in Chinses or Japanese or Korean or whatever.
BTW Italians & Greek also seem to screw up the name by calling it ping pong just as Far East Asians
I am also by no means suggesting that Chinese etc are doing this purposely. But people like Lollo Hammerlunf tried to address this but the issue has not been addressed
What people like DukeGaGa don’t understand is the fact that this cerates a bad image for the sport in USA & worldwide. I can understand some clueless American ping pong gamer showing up in a table tennis training center thinking he is a legend of tabletennis. But a Chinese person in America like DukeGaGa must know better to educate such ping pong gamers instead of arrogantly insisting that ping pong is the right phrase for tabletennis. Maybe you should all change the name if ITTF to IPPF then,
All I am saying is that the Far East Asians negate all the amazing work to promote the sport by calling the sport with the wrong name & projecting a bad image for the sport.

Yet another false claim by you, what a champ. It was you who brought up the subject, but was wrong. We corrected you and you are just trying to cover your ass. Also, you brought up the whole football soccer thing, which was also wrong, I commented what historians said about the matter but you seem to just ignore those as well. And no, Asian countries calling the sport a different name is not demoting the sport, and has nothing to do with what you're saying, but you seem to can't understand that either.

So all I'm saying is, what you're saying on this forum is full garbage, and all you're trying to do is to get people to argue, or in other words, you're just a troll.

 

[James Z]

....

Happy New Year 2023 to you too

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

I was having a hard time trying to understand why James Z is so adamantly trying to separate TT & PP, branding one as LOL sport while the other as real sport. He recalcitrantly refuse to live & let live that TT & PP means the same activity in the Rest of the World.

Then it hit me!

In USA they have Beer Pong. Something that is very localised. Its an US thingy that us non-Americans, we will have to get used to a wee bit.

That is why he adamantly needs to differentiate TT & PP.

 

[James Z]

I was having a hard time trying to understand why James Z is so adamantly trying to separate TT & PP, branding one as LOL sport while the other as real sport. He recalcitrantly refuse to live & let live that TT & PP means the same activity in the Rest of the World.

Then it hit me!

In USA they have Beer Pong. Something that is very localised. Its an US thingy that us non-Americans, we will have to get used to a wee bit.

That is why he adamantly needs to differentiate TT & PP.

It is no different than you & DukeGaGa etc adamently refusing to accept the fact that Far East Asian countries could be using the proper name for the "sport" of tabletennis in their language just as the Swedes, Germans, French, Spanish / Protuguese etc do in their own languages.
It is no different than you & DukeGaGa etc refusing to admit the simple fact that the phrase Ping Pong makes TableTennis sound like a silly basement "game" and not a sport. Stuart even pointed out that it even makes it sound like a children's game.
As I said it is the ITTF .It is not IPPF.
If you far east Asians still insist on using a childish name for a sport and nagate all the great work you do for promoting the sport, by creating a bad image, there is not much i can say about that.

 

[DukeGaGa]

It is no different than you & DukeGaGa etc adamently refusing to accept the fact that Far East Asian countries could be using the proper name for the "sport" of tabletennis in their language just as the Swedes, Germans, French, Spanish / Protuguese etc do in their own languages.
It is no different than you & DukeGaGa etc refusing to admit the simple fact that the phrase Ping Pong makes TableTennis sound like a silly basement "game" and not a sport. Stuart even pointed out that it even makes it sound like a children's game.
As I said it is the ITTF .It is not IPPF.
If you far east Asians still insist on using a childish name for a sport and nagate all the great work you do for promoting the sport, by creating a bad image, there is not much i can say about that.

It is you that refuse to admit that all this nonsense you are taking about is your problem , and your problem only.

 

[Gtsnake]

It is no different than you & DukeGaGa etc adamently refusing to accept the fact that Far East Asian countries could be using the proper name for the "sport" of tabletennis in their language just as the Swedes, Germans, French, Spanish / Protuguese etc do in their own languages.
It is no different than you & DukeGaGa etc refusing to admit the simple fact that the phrase Ping Pong makes TableTennis sound like a silly basement "game" and not a sport. Stuart even pointed out that it even makes it sound like a children's game.
As I said it is the ITTF .It is not IPPF.
If you far east Asians still insist on using a childish name for a sport and nagate all the great work you do for promoting the sport, by creating a bad image, there is not much i can say about that.

I seriously doubt in Asia they purposely call it PP to belittle the sport. In China the other name for TT is "Guo Chiu" which means "national sport". How can that possibly be demeaning?

 

[James Z]

I seriously doubt in Asia they purposely call it PP to belittle the sport.

If you read post #54 in this thread, I clearly stated that Chinese were not doing it purposely.

In China the other name for TT is "Guo Chiu" which means "national sport". How can that possibly be demeaning?

Did I ever say other Chinese phrases were demeaning? I clearly said over & over that all the great work that Far East Asians do to promote tabl etnnsi can be negated by this simple error.
My comments were limited to use of the phrase "ping pong" or "ping ping" or whatever as some officilly trademarked name for tabletennis & how it effects the worldwide image & not just within China only. You obviously want to ignore the fact that Spanish,Portuguese, Swedes, French, Germans etc use the proper phrase of tabletennis in their own languages.
I see that you will continue on insisting that Far East Asians must continue to use a childish sounding name like "ping pong" & not much I can do about it if you want to go in circles over &over.
.