Table Tennis Tournaments Worldwide

Now that table tennis is already a worldwide sport, there are now also many table tennis tournaments held almost all year round in various countries. In countries like Japan and China where table tennis is a certified hit, they have table tennis tournaments everywhere.

They have non-professional tournaments for players who just want to compete to determine their current level and to see how they can improve their games to move on to the next level. Professional table tournaments also abound to prepare players for the international competitions.

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is the main governing body that looks after all member national table tennis associations from different countries. As of present count, there are over 195 member organizations that are affiliated with the federation.

The headquarters of the federation is located in Lausanne, Switzerland. The person responsible for the federation these days is its president, Canadian Adham Sharara. The federation has been around for 80 years already since it became effective during the first international table tennis tournament that took place on January of 1926 in Berlin. Some of the original member countries were Austria, Germany, Hungary and Sweden.

The role of the federation in table tennis tournaments especially those that are held in the international arena is very crucial. The rules and regulations are regularly reviewed by the federation. They decide on which of the rules and regulations are now obsolete and thus should be improvised, replaced or taken out of the rule book.

They also champion the advancement of table tennis as a sport meaning they make sure that table tennis as a sport is at par with other popular sports like basketball and football. This will ensure that more and more people will be added to the roster of table tennis players in the world and also that more fans will enjoy watching the matches whether live or on television.

In order to catch up with the games being televised, the ITTF came up with some changes in the rules. The 38 mm balls were replaced with heavier ones weighing in at 40 mm. This was supposed to make the play slower so it can be seen easier when watched over the television. The players though also began increasing the thickness of the fast sponge layer on their paddles or rackets.

This innovation on the part of the players made the plays very fast still. The rule on scoring was also changed. Before every set is won by the player who first scores 21 points but the ITTF shortened the sets, in recent games the first one to score 11 points wins the set. However, a player should have 2 clear advantage points before being declared as winner. Both of these changes are geared towards making the matches more exciting than it already is.

Equipment specifications are also carefully given notice and rigorously enforced to make sure that the table tennis as a sport stays as a competition of human skills and if there are technological developments then they are also taken into consideration. The ITTF also safeguards table tennis tournaments so that no game fixing will ever happen because such controversies dampen the spirits of people who are in one way or another related to table tennis and the federation. So far the ITTF has succeeded in keeping their goals.

Copyright 2006 Jim Sterling - All Rights Reserved

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