Nothing that happens on a table tennis table is inexplicable as long as you are aware of the basic laws of physics. As we can see from (J) there is a big difference looping close to the table and executing a similar stroke three metres back. Early years of international competitions were dominated by European countries and is the major sport in England, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Often it can be a question of the ball ‘sliding’ through. Both will strike at the same time, as the resistance due to air is almost exactly equal. However the difficulty in switching from topspin to smash often means that many players prefer to spin even in this ‘high ball’ situation. A tennis ball's spin barely decreases during flight, and actually increases when the ball hits the court. This is one of the big factors in what separates the greats of table tennis, from the top A grade players. Whether it is a matter of standing right, moving in the right way or placing the ball in the most advantageous position, one can have a great deal of help from pure geometrical analysis. If the mass of the bat is high, then it will also result in more Energy in the shot. Intriguingly, the other major area of research addresses fluid mechanics in sport including aerodynamics of flying arrows and spinning balls used in baseball, and recently table tennis balls. As well as providing something different the purpose is to help make the site self-sufficient, so please feel free to sample these as and when. We don’t always experience this on the table as we often play with care against the short serve, however even a small lack of touch can lead to a ball in the net or a high return. Once the ball has left the racket, the trajectory and direction is determined by the power and spin fed into the stroke. Eventually a number of things crystallized out. It is obviously important that the outer surface of the rubber has high friction, while the sponge can vary in hardness depending on whether the player needs more spin or speed. For instance, if a Table Tennis ball was in your hand and you remove your hand quickly, the ball would start to fall (due to gravity). A lesson with Table Tennis Coach. Forget the figures to the left of the 0.1 and work with the right end of the curve. There is a difference in this time between an audio stimulus and visual stimulus. As this occurs, the ball's potential energy starts to be converted to kinetic energy. Site users will note that we now have short stories for sale. European players on the other hand take the ball at ‘peak’ or after the top of the bounce. However with the modern game both close and deep, movements which retain a square position are preferable. We always acknowledge your contributions! Here with a quarter rotation backwards, taking the ball off the left hip and using good rotation and very fast forearm action, the stroke can be upgraded to a similar power and speed as the FH. Important Table Tennis Rules for Ping-Pong Beginners, Maximizing the spin on the ball. Often in the boy’s game even from an early age it is a good idea to work with topspin as this gives high speed and also a high level of safety. Whether you're playing singles or doubles, the rules of table tennis are essentially the same. The float ball will lose speed after the bounce but will acquire a weak topspin due to the bottom part of the ball being held by the table and the top part rolling forward (Diagram F). It is therefore important that defenders take the ball as early as possible and above table height. Bear in mind that the variations to be found in the use of spin, speed, length and placement will often be sufficient to cause problems for opponents and it is important that your players can use the same serve in differing ways and execute differing serves with the same or similar actions. This is usually a circle. Please let us know by leaving a comment below. For a top player to execute strong topspin from FH and BH corners with FH and BH consecutively takes around 0.6 of a second. To play ping pong, also known as table tennis, have each player or pair of players stand at opposite ends of the table, and flip a coin to determine who will serve first. Often they have less time to move and to react between shots. This is quite a big time difference at top level. The ball therefore comes through with maximum retained spin. In order to increase Force, the third equation must be examined. Very strong topspin is of the same magnitude as gravity and the ball will sink much more quickly. This contact is therefore a little more unsafe and requires practice (a short arm movement is important in this stroke). Equally such insight gives perception into one’s own capabilities and how these should develop. Because the serve must bounce from one half of the table to the other this means a minimum upwards and downwards movement of around 34 - 35 centimetres (17 + 17). ‘Braking’ or frictional forces can have a major effect on the rotational values (spin) and the rotational energy can be changed, exhibiting itself as an increase in speed or as a dramatic change in direction. However in the case of the loop against a backspin ball where the racket angle is much more open the advantages or disadvantages are not so critical. This is the correct notation. If the stroke is not played absolutely cleanly then strong vibrations can be created in the blade with ensuing energy losses. When players talk about a ‘hall’ being slow or fast this is a subjective experience. You need to toss the ball up at least 6.3 inches and hit it as it falls back down to qualify as a legal serve. Looping against backspin means that you play with the spin which needs much less friction but a considerably more open racket angle. The short serve will therefore always have a measurable spin which can be reckoned by the number of revolutions per second, while the long serve can have stronger rotation due to the increased power input. In elite levels of the sport, even being the smallest fraction of a second (1/1000ths) faster starts to make a difference. The edges of the table are part of the legal table surface, but not the sides. However no amount of training can increase the power of the flick beyond what the natural laws allow. When it hits the ground, the kinetic energy starts to change back to potential energy, till the ball reaches the peak of its bounce, and starts to fall again. Some common places are: Technically hitting the ball harder (with a higher velocity) also increases the Torque, as this increase in velocity results in a direct increase in the acceleration of the ball. He wrote the eBook, "How to Win at Table Tennis.". Only the results of Energy can be observed. When you deal with objects of low mass like a table tennis ball, air resistance is a major factor in slowing it down. Diagonal play would give the higher figure of about 10.0m/second (36.0 k/hour) dropping by 10% (32.4 k/hour or 9.0 m/sec) if the ‘safer’ diagonal stroke were attempted. It is equally vital that the elbow drops down after the stroke (especially the BH counter) so that the forearm is in the best possible position to move in either direction. Once the ball has left the racket, the trajectory and direction is determined by the power and spin fed into the stroke. Good players (even average players like myself) can still deduce a lot of what the opposition is doing, simply by listening to the noise the ball makes when it contacts the bat. The blade also has its part to play and even under the rubber and sponge it can deform against a hard hit. However, as the initial velocity is coming towards you, its value is negative. These factors can make the difference between success and failure at top level. The result of the calculation between the brackets must be calculated first (it's a mathematical law). I am a lower level league type player and I need some pointers on how to develop my loop. Far more significant variations occur in air pressure when we talk about height above sea level for example. Sidespin has the rotational values at right angles to the table’s surface which means directly that as the point of the axis is in contact with the table, there is little or no loss of spin. In order to gain more power in your shots, you have to do more work or take less time in your shots. Use small movements over the table and the large action further back where you require more power and precision of placement. Theoretically, this should continue forever, as Energy cannot be created or destroyed (except in a nuclear reaction, which involves what is probably Science's most famous equation: E = mc2). In table tennis you dont need to play over the net, the ball just has to hit the other half of the table. Energy is described in two forms (ignoring a smattering of other forms, which, without getting extremely technical in chemistry and nuclear physics, are beyond the scope of this article). The initial velocity is something you have no control over, as it is how hard the opposition hits the ball at you. A similar stroke will always produce a similar result in terms of spin, speed and direction. BASIC RULES OF TABLE TENNIS AS PER THE ITTF. In the Philippines, it also fast becoming a popular sport. At 1000 metres air pressure sinks by 12% and at 3000 metres by up to 30%! With lots of training and lots of practice, this can be reduced to 0.18 of a second. As F = ma, an increase in a leads to a direct increase in F, which in turn leads to a direct increase in Torque. Reverse rubber is very sensitive to spin and the racket must be at the right angle with reference to the incoming spin and speed. Gravity is always equally strong and always directed downwards. Therefore you want to maximize the acceleration, minimize the initial velocity. With lots of training and lots of practice, this can be reduced to 0.18 of a second. Obviously the further you back away from the table the more time you will have to prepare and the more time to set yourself and hit the ball harder. With the help of unusual or deceptive actions the server tries to hide the spin, speed or direction so as to gain an advantage over the opponent, lengthening his reaction time or making it harder for him to read the spin. It accurately explains how objects move from the scale of interstellar objects (galaxies, stars, planets, SERIOUSLY BIG STUFF etc. The ease and relative affordability of table tennis has made it one of the most popular sports in the world today in participation. The difference in usable reaction time gives Asian players a real advantage by preventing opponents from coordinating and organizing their best strategies. The energy which one imparts to the stroke, the motion energy, can be of two types, rotational or speed value. (Among the top European men because of the increase in the basic minimal speed many now use the BH from the middle or even from the FH side against the serve. If you assume that two top players take the ball about 20 - 25cms off the end of the table then in a rally the ball would reach average speeds of around 12 — 14 m/second (43.2 - 50.4 kms per hour, straight and diagonal respectively). Explosive speed is an inherited characteristic and players who don’t have it are rather limited in what they can do to train up this aspect. Theoretically the preferred contact should be as the ball bounces up (1). In Table Tennis, the average total time to react to a shot is usually around 0.25 of a second. Game Time and Timing Regulations 1. Note that a pure sidespin ball will have a distinct arc when seen from above. All games will be played at UREC Table Tennis tables. There are obviously several advantages in playing closer to the table which many top men are now coming to appreciate in the framework of our much faster modern game (the women have used these advantages for many years). In the case of any stroke where an arc is used we can have a positive or negative arc (Diagram I). Certainly in the future it is becoming obvious that in the light of the speed of the modern game, play will become more and more ‘symmetrical’ and that this will be the way forward. The result will be a bounce which can reach a height of approximately 70% of the trajectory’s high point in flight. 10. a racket:composed of a blade and 2 rubbers. This explains why a serve with a high ball toss is more dangerous than one tossed only 6 inches high. It is possible to feed in approximately 10 - 15% more speed into the diagonal flick because of the increased distance involved. However as we have intimated this is extremely difficult in the case of a low over-the-table ball. Then they have the opportunity of a low ball over the net and a lower ball after the bounce, as the ‘speed’ element tends to take precedence over the effect of the spin and the ball skids through off the table surface. Also overall their physical capabilities can be reckoned as between 15 - 30% lower than the male. Every other shot thereafter are simply techniques applied to these two basic positions. The negative arc places much higher demands on exact timing. This is because the mass and energy terms are both directly proportional to the Energy. Good topspin can create a safer stroke but often it is not easy to achieve this over the table. An ‘unclean’ hit always gives slower speed. Usually the balls are manufactured in either white or yellow color. Some people say that when the ball strikes the table they can tell whether the ball is top spun or under spun. When you compare this with the flick, the latter stroke would not achieve speeds in excess of two-thirds of counter play or around 10.0 m/second (36 kms per hour). or 70.0 mph.) H. Choose your initial velocity, say 20 m/second which gives you a mark of around 0.1 seconds on the curved line and a figure of 3 on the baseline. My friend and I were arguing about this. There will be a big difference between the topspin and backspin strokes and even the best of attackers will make mistakes. Website by Look Lively Web Design Ltd, To Walk on Water You need first to get out of the Boat, The Radius of the Stroke and Angular Velocity. Therefore, in order to increase the Work done, the second equation must be examined: If the amount of Force is increased, then the Work coefficient is increased. Length is also crucial for defenders, either very long or very short, so that opponents have little opportunity to smash. The earliest surviving action game of Tennis on a table is a set made by David Foster, patented in England in 1890 (No.11037): Parlour Table Games, which included table versions of Lawn Tennis, Cricket and Football. Obviously when playing the FH from the BH corner playing on the opponent’s BH diagonal gives the most advantageous return angle. 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