Hooked For LifeOlympics this year? Not so interesting
By Rich Schwartz
Are you watching the Olympics? Previous to this last week, I’m sorry to say these games had probably generated the least amount of interest for me and that’s saying something as I’ve never been a big fan. Some of the sports are so foreign to me that I can’t seem to get into them. There has always been an enormous amount of corruption attached to the Olympic committees and some countries (Russia) clearly have had systematic doping scandals and it all adds up to a “so what” from me. I recognize that is not fair to the thousands of “clean” athletes and the dedication they’ve demonstrated in their pursuit of excellence. I’ve tried to get excited about these games and it just has not happened for me UNTIL I saw some Table Tennis the other night. You probably know it as Ping Pong but if you watch these players this is clearly not the same game you grew up playing in your basement!
So how about a little education on Table Tennis? Like most other sports, table tennis had humble beginnings as a “parlor game,” open to anyone with access to a table, paddle, and ball. The game began in the 1880s, when lawn tennis players adapted their game to play indoors during the winter. It is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball back and forth across a table using a small paddle. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net. Except for the initial serve, the rules are generally as follows: players must allow a ball played toward them to bounce one time on their side of the table, and must return it so that it bounces on the opposite side at least once. A point is scored when a player fails to return the ball within the rules. Play is fast and demands quick reactions. At the Olympics players are often as much as 10-15 feet from the back of the table slamming the ball back at their opponents.
Ping-Pong is actually a trademark name for table tennis and associated equipment. The name “Ping-Pong” was invented by the English firm J. Jaques and Son at the end of the 1800s and later trademarked in the United States by Parker Brothers, the board game company. The game quickly caught on, and as early as 1901, tournaments were being conducted with over 300 participants. The Ping-Pong Association was formed but later renamed The Table Tennis Association in 1922. But the game really exploded when in the early 1900s when a visiting Japanese university professor took the game back to Japan, where he introduced it to university students.
The first world championships were held in 1927 and were won by a Hungarian, Dr. Jacobi. Apart from the famous Fred Perry redressing the balance for England in 1929, this was to be the start of an unprecedented run of success for the Hungarians, who completely dominated the game throughout the thirties. The 1950s saw the game turned upside down by the invention of the sponge or sandwich rubber, this new material for bats, which, up until now, had been a relatively simple affair with a universal thin covering of pimpled rubber. Until this time, spin had played only a minor part in a game that had been dominated by the defensive style of play. But these new paddles, introduced by the Japanese, had the capacity to move the ball around in an almost magical way – kind of like a whiffle ball. The ITTF, the game’s governing body, was quick to legislate in a bid to control this new development, seen in some quarters as equipping players with an unfair advantage. The thickness of the sponge and rubber sandwich was controlled and remains so to this day. But the nature of the game had been changed, establishing the fast attacking speed and spin style of the modern game.
The culmination of this has been its recognition as an Olympic Games sport, being featured for the first time in the 1988 games in Seoul. Television coverage of the men’s singles final attracted an incredible worldwide audience of 2 billion. In China, the game is played by literally millions at work, in school, and in community parks. It’s been suggested that Chinese top players are regarded as national heroes with pop star statuses. You can get hooked for life on a lot of things. I’ve always loved Ping Pong and was fairly good at it as a kid. We had a table in the basement; my wife had one on her screened in porch in Monmouth Beach. Also, one of the first things I ever bought for my first house was a Ping Pong table. This is a fun game and when you see Olympians competing you’ll be amazed!
Something else that my brother, Elliot {Aka; “The Big E”} and I have been discussing is how to make the games more exciting OR the events more compelling. We’ve come up with quite a few ideas that would make the ratings off the charts. How about you ponder some of the changes we would propose . . . on most events we should light the equipment on fire! Gymnastics would be so much more exciting if the balance beams were ablaze and they light it up just as the gymnast jumps on! Archery is a no brainer and they could even move it to night time with explosive targets and slow motion explosions. In swimming and many other track and field events we’d like to add live animals to the event. You want to see some fast swimming? What if we changed the water to salt water and had a great white shark in the pool? The blood testing could be done right before the medal events so just a drop of blood might be present as they enter the pool. You want an Olympic or World Record? How fast do you think a swimmer would swim knowing that a shark was about to take a bite of out of them? Many of the swimmers are wearing these one piece black suits so they already look like seals. For track and field we would introduce lions and tigers on the track just to give them some added adrenalin. My favorite new event would really be a throwback to the Roman games of the coliseum – Gladiator like combat. Actually we already have that outside the Olympics in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fights so it’s just a matter of time before this makes it back as an Olympic event. If the trampoline can be considered an Olympic sport anything could get in! All kidding aside, congratulations to our American champions it’s been very exciting to see our dominance in the pool and gymnastics. Track and Field will be throughout this next week and no doubt it will provide some exciting moments but throw in a Lion or two and that would be “must see TV’!
