Table Tennis has been an Olympic Sport since 1988. There are some
impressive statistics associated with this sport: It is the sport
with the second highest number of participants in the world - second
to soccer only. More Americans played table tennis in 1990 than
baseball (20 million vs. 15.5 million). With less than half a second
time between a player's contact and his opponents', it is also the
fastest racket sport.
In the U.S., there is a great need to improve communication between
the organized sport of table tennis and the large numbers of players
who might play frequently at their house or in a friend's backyard.
We hope to succeed in opening up lines of communication, since there
are literally millions of people with tons of questions, and an
association waiting to provide answers. Check the USATT homepage
(http://www.usatt.org) for details.
The discrepancy of levels between even lower ranked tournament
players and home players is so great, that often, the latter are
shocked, when they first go to a club and find it hard to score any
points at all. After a while, though, and after getting some
appropriate equipment, most of the ones, who are not too badly
discouraged by that first shock and keep coming, adjust and are able
to apply many of the things they have developed in their years
playing at home. There are many coaching materials available that
will help them in acquiring more orthodox strokes, and USATT has a
list of accredited coaches.
In the U.S. is home to a some of the top players and coaches in the
world, although not all of them are still active. There are USATT
affiliated clubs throughout the 50 states. A list is available from
USATT.