LONG PONG

We aim to make it an Olympic Sport - maybe by 2040 or 2060 or so...

(yeah, yeah, I know it will take a while)

 

Rules are simple:

1. SET-UP: Two table tennis tables are set up with a space of 12 feet (3.5 m).
For professional / Olympic competition the space can be increased to 15 feet (4.5 m).

2. SERVE: Any serve can be used as long as the ball hits the surface of the other table. It
doesn't have to hit your table first (more like tennis). It doesn't need to hit a particular half of the other table.
a) You must contact the ball between the extension of your table's end lines. (No stepping out for extreme angles - you get those with spin)
b) If the ball hits the net and then the table, the serve is good
- no: Excellent - an ace, most of the time, but not always as the clip below shows.

 

3. RETURN: After the ball hits your table you must return it so it contacts the other table's surface.
a) Edges: If the ball hits the inner edge of a table it must proceed over the table to be good. If it
doesn't break the vertical plane over the table's inner edge it is not good.
b) Side edges and those at the end are judged as in regular table tennis.
c) If a ball hits the net, it must also hit the table surface to be good.

 

A brief history : In the late 1980s, Hungarian player Zoltan Pusztai introduced the players of the Hollywood Table Tennis club to this form of
table tennis non-sense. Since it's way too much fun to ignore, we have kept it alive at the Westside Club, standardizing the intricate rules above.
We were pleased to see that when Jan Ove Waldner and Zoran Primorac were at our old club to practice for the 1996 Gilbert Cup, they were fully aware of
this variation on the sport - except they were playing with the tables 40 or 50 feet apart. Watch them here.