Your friends say table tennis isn't a sport?

I usually take them to practice and have them do the same multiball drills that we do then do a game afterwards. They'll see why we sweat and bleed...

I will show them a ZJK vs Ml match.

^+1.. it alwasy helps putting those who doubt through the ring of fire so they can experience it for themselves

a while ago (after a few days of heavy drinking in germany) a mate of mine reckoned he could take me on at table tennis as "it's a game, not a sport". i hadn't played for about 14 years at the time so was a fair bit rusty. so we found a table and started playing.

he ate those badly chosen words along with a veritable barrage of all-out smashes, causing him many large bruises from getting hit by the ball and diving out of the way. a few people watching us were literally rolling on the floor crying with laughter.

he's never agreed to a "re-match"

This is a great topic and I often hear this expression how "Table Tennis isn't a real sport" etc, especially during my college years. Luckily for me I work in a table tennis environment so I often challenge these people to a game. Then they soon see how crazy it becomes when they cannot even receive the serve. I also put them into a multi ball practice like previous users have already mentioned.

I have often used this one to. Gavin Rumgay and the Scottish team once did a bleep test against the Scottish football team and the results were very similar, so I tell them that story

I think when people watch table tennis on TV they struggle to see how difficult the sport really is.

World is full of ignorant idiots. Luckily, people who actually know a thing or two about sports rarely make such remarks. My friends used to tease me like this just to get on my nerves, but they're fully aware of the SPORT that table tennis is.

First I ask: "Why not?". Then they try to give a definition for the word "sport" and I finish with "Well, table tennis fits in your definition"

Or then I just show them this:

My class thought that at first,too but then on an excursion I played table tennis with my french teacher(they don't like her) and let her run for the ball in front of them. They couldnt stop theirselves from laughing, so I think they like it now ;P

Well first of all most people dont even know the definition of the word sport. 95 % of the TV sport fans watch basketball football soccer (whatever you wanna call it) american football baseball and voleyball. So everyone has a different opinion and most people tend to name an activity as being "Sport" when it has to do with competition through physical activity and is spectacular at the same time. Most people underestimate other sports just because they arent as spectacular as basketball or soccer and thats pathetic...

Personally i am not so narrow minded to put "labels" on any kind of activities, because every activity has a different value. For me table tennis is the best and more interesting/difficult sport in the world (i have played soccer basketball and chess competitively) cause it combines physical skills along with mental toughness + smart unpredictable tactics, and demands lots of different attributes in order to be competitive.

I think sport is anything that has to do with physical+brain stimulation at the same time.

Table tennis for those who have played it in a good level, is a fast paced combination of balanced dancing+chess+tennis (in a smaller table and with more spin of course).

I think that chess is also a sport but it is somehow "limited" because it arouses only the mind (a sport of the mind would be an exact definition), perhaps it could be a sport if every pawn weighed 50 kilos so it would be called weightlifting chess or bodybuilding chess haha

Table tennis can be considered as art when you see guys like Waldner executing a soft block with tremendous accuracy to the opposite corner of the opponent who has just gave an all out shot/loop/smash.

So...even dancing can be considered as a sport when you do it competitively, take ice dance for example. The dancers are something like "sport artists"

TTFrenzy said:

Well first of all most people dont even know the definition of the word sport. 95 % of the TV sport fans watch basketball football soccer (whatever you wanna call it) american football baseball and voleyball. So everyone has a different opinion and most people tend to name an activity as being "Sport" when it has to do with competition through physical activity and is spectacular at the same time. Most people underestimate other sports just because they arent as spectacular as basketball or soccer and thats pathetic...

Personally i am not so narrow minded to put "labels" on any kind of activities, because every activity has a different value. For me table tennis is the best and more interesting/difficult sport in the world (i have played soccer basketball and chess competitively) cause it combines physical skills along with mental toughness + smart unpredictable tactics, and demands lots of different attributes in order to be competitive.

I think sport is anything that has to do with physical/brain stimulation.

Table tennis for those who have played it in a good level, is a fast paced combination of balanced dancing+chess+tennis (in a smaller table and with more spin of course).

I think that chess is also a sport but it is somehow "limited" because it arouses only the mind (a sport of the mind would be an exact definition), perhaps it could be a sport if every pawn weighed 50 kilos so it would be called weightlifting chess or bodybuilding chess haha

Click to expand...

there is always chess boxing

htfu said:

there is always chess boxing

Click to expand...

haha thats right!

TTFrenzy said:

Well first of all most people dont even know the definition of the word sport. 95 % of the TV sport fans watch basketball football soccer (whatever you wanna call it) american football baseball and voleyball. So everyone has a different opinion and most people tend to name an activity as being "Sport" when it has to do with competition through physical activity and is spectacular at the same time. Most people underestimate other sports just because they arent as spectacular as basketball or soccer and thats pathetic...

Personally i am not so narrow minded to put "labels" on any kind of activities, because every activity has a different value. For me table tennis is the best and more interesting/difficult sport in the world (i have played soccer basketball and chess competitively) cause it combines physical skills along with mental toughness + smart unpredictable tactics, and demands lots of different attributes in order to be competitive.

I think sport is anything that has to do with physical+brain stimulation at the same time.

Table tennis for those who have played it in a good level, is a fast paced combination of balanced dancing+chess+tennis (in a smaller table and with more spin of course).

I think that chess is also a sport but it is somehow "limited" because it arouses only the mind (a sport of the mind would be an exact definition), perhaps it could be a sport if every pawn weighed 50 kilos so it would be called weightlifting chess or bodybuilding chess haha

Table tennis can be considered as art when you see guys like Waldner executing a soft block with tremendous accuracy to the opposite corner of the opponent who has just gave an all out shot/loop/smash.

So...even dancing can be considered as a sport when you do it competitively, take ice dance for example. The dancers are something like "sport artists"

Click to expand...

I absolutely agree to your comment TTFrenzy you've discussed it well...and i like that chess pawn weighing 50 kilos to be called sport hahahaha...
yeah, start with the word sport and try to find anything in that word that doesn't fit to Table Tennis...
...TT has speed as well as spin if you would like to compare it to racing ..
...TT is also a physical game with arms swinging, body language, diving, ball chase, even cartwheels, sometimes body contact also...
...TT triggers the mind, mental alertness, tricks, reflexes, deception, and the like.
...TT is a dance and a song, it has rhythm, it has tempo...

who will say Table Tennis is not a sport? i will let them hold a racket and let them try to shield my smashes, spin and drives...that's when TT becomes a little like boxing when you can't block it...

Loved the Table Tennis but personally disgusted with the music selection it doesn't belong as featured background music to such a classy sport!!!!!
TheMurf

Wasn't there a thread about this same thing a few years ago?

Personally, I would not show a video that had someone on crutches making a shot as a video that was showing how Table Tennis is a sport; no offense to the person making the shot or the skill involved. I would use something simple and clear.

This would be the first thing I showed:


That shows something most people can immediately understand as physically challenging and requiring speed and skill.

Then I would show this video:


That is a match between Kong Linghui and Joo Se Hyuk in 2003. They were both at the top of their game and the pace and the amount of movement, and the intensity of the rallies and the number of good, long rallies is something that a person who does not understand table tennis would understand. The fact that Joo is playing defense but, back then, was attacking soooooo much, also makes it something that makes people who don't really understand table tennis, able to see that this is amazing stuff. Whereas, if they saw a whole match between Ma Long and Zhang Jike, they might not get how good they are as quickly because of how many rallies are ended quickly. These rallies are mostly long with a lot of movement, lateral movement and moving further back and then coming back in.

Oh yeah, of course, making them try multiball is a great idea. Make em sweat. Trouble with that is, most people who would say table tennis is not a real sport suck so badly that they would not be able to take a good stroke and move for multiball footwork drills. hahahahahaha

ask him or her to play a game against me / show him or her some statistics about table tennis / show him or her some beautiful table tennis videos !!!

I figured I might as well give the other side of the story here. This is the reason that this can sometimes be a hard sell. What has been shown on this thread so far is that you can play the game with a high degree of physicality. There is no doubt about that.

However, you can be totally fat, out of shape, lazy and look like you are incapable of any high level performance sport and still be really, REALLY good at table tennis. Here is my example which I believe I also used in the thread that appeared 2 years ago on this same subject:


That video is of Richard DeWitt vs Adam Hugh.

Adam Hugh is one of the top players in the USA. He was one of the guys trying to qualify to play in the Olympics for North America for the 2012 games. He was edged out by Timothy Wang who was the only American male to go to the 2012 games for North America.

Richard DeWitt is not young, he is FAT, he cannot move and he barely moves in this game, he does not use pips, those are smooth rubbers, AND, he is giving Adam a seriously hard time, in spite of all of the advantages Adam has based on his physical fitness level and level of training. Now Richard is actually pretty amazing, he is rare, when he was younger he was not in such bad shape and actually played that physical looping style. He went to Sweden in the 80s or 90s to train for a good part of a year. So he has real training. But, you cannot say there is anything athletic about him and yet is really darn good.

So we need to distinguish, here, the physical fitness aspect that you can have and can get from table tennis if you want to, and the high degree of technical skill that you need in order to be really good, that has nothing to do with physical fitness level.

You can be on crutches or in a wheel chair and play really well. You can be fat and out of shape and play really well. You can in your 70s and 80s and play really well. I have seen all of these things. A pro who was top 10 in the world in his 20s-30s can still be top 50 in his 40s-50s. Most sports, that is not possible.

So while table tennis is a sport, and can be used to develop high levels of physical fitness. We have to acknowledge that someone who is old or handicapped or out of shape, can still play at a very high level. This is because, strength and power are not as important in table tennis as technique and skill. A woman who is not strong can still be competitive with a man who is strong in table tennis. Part of this also has to do with the weight of the ball. Good technique will make that little ball go much more than brute strength with bad technique will. In Tennis, there is no way that a top woman can compete with a man who is at the low end of the top 300. I have a friend who is a college tennis coach and he tells me that the top women would have no chance against his top guys and they are not even in the top 300.

While table tennis is a sport and can potentially have some of the strength and physical fitness requirements of some sports, we need to also recognize its uniqueness and not fall in that trap of insisting it must be as athletic as other sports. What it does require, in my opinion, is more technical skill than almost any other sport. The one exception I can think if is the amount of technical skill required in soccer (real football): combining the high speed of constant running with lateral movements and the footwork to control the ball and deceive your opponents can be pretty amazing.

The technical details I am talking about for table tennis are: tracking and intercepting a ball that has so much side and topspin on it; brush contact and the precision needed for that; footwork--the subtle shifts and adjustments of placement, sometimes moving only 2 or 3 inches to be in the right place for the stroke; the mechanics of the stroke--start slow, accelerate on contact, elbow snap for acceleration; reset (this is really part of the stroke)--you need to be set for the next stroke before the ball gets to your opponent so you can be watching his racket on contact and know where the ball is going as it contacts his racket--seeing the ball that extra fraction of a second earlier is crucial to being able to footwork to where the ball is going so you are in position and have your feet set for the next stroke; creating and varying spin; reading the spin your opponent has put on the ball.

I think that about sums it up. LOL