Table Tennis is one of the few games I enjoy. I have been playing on and off since I was 6, and recently picked it up again. I have been thinking about why I always end up going back to this sport. The fact that this is one of the games that constantly requires super fast reaction time is something that excites me. I found a few YouTube videos (1, 2, 3) that talk about the science of Table Tennis, and they are quite interesting. Not that the other sports are not fast… but the combination of short travel distance, size of the ball, size of the table, power, spin and raw speed, makes table tennis one of the games that requires absolutely undivided attention. In a high-speed game, you hit the ball and the ball could be returned to you in less than half a second. I like that. Your mind has no time to wander but to react. You are constantly striking a balance between responding and reacting. The more you manage to respond, the better you probably are as a player. I am pretty much stuck in the react phase.
Table Tennis has actually evolved, namely the size, material and weight of the ball have changed. In short, the ball is now bigger and heavier, resulting in a slower ball with less spin. These changes were done for the sake of spectators (and I suspect the ‘watch-ability’ on TV). As a result, the way top players play has also changed, but don’t worry, it is still plenty fast!
I have been playing with my old blade (10+ years old) for the past few months. It is a Stiga Carbo 7.6 WRB with Butterfly Tenergy 80 on one side, and Donic Baracuda on the other.
After some research and message-exchanges with a Table Tennis shop, I decided to get the Butterfly Timo Boll ZLC with Butterfly Tenergy 05 on one side, and the relatively new, and supposedly more ‘forgiving’ Rozena, on the other side.
Just received it today! Look forward to trying it out later this week!
ws.fermata 