Understanding the rules and recent changes in Table Tennis
International Table Tennis Federation amends and implements the rules for the game of table tennis which is played between two or more players. Players must play the ball after one bounce in their court except the service in which the ball should be allowed
to bounce on both sides of the table divided by a net in the middle. After the initial service players must hit the ball with calculated amount of force so that it lands on the other side of the net before reaching the player. There are different skills used
by players these days most of common of them is spinning the ball and making it harder for opponent to return it back. If a player fails to return the ball on his opponent’s side he loses a point.
ITTF has published a handbook which illustrates the official rules of the game and updates it regularly as rules of Table Tennis have undergone different changes over the period of time. The rule 2.13.1 of ITTF suggests that the game starts with a coin toss
to decide which player is to do the initial service. The winner of the toss wins the right to start the game and gets to choose the side of the table. To start the service, the player must hold the ball in one hand and racket on the other. Ball is placed in
the palm in a way that it is visible to the opponent, it is then tossed in the air without spin and player hits the ball as it comes down. For a successful service, the player must make sure that the ball touches his court first and then his opponent’s court
and shall not touch the net on the way through.
The service is changed after every two points till the end of game which extends up to 11 points and the player scoring 11 points with a minimum lead of two points is considered to be the winner. The 11th point is required to score in the scenario
when both the players have secured 10 points each.
The game has undergone many changes over the years and the most recent of them was observed during the recent Baltic Championships in Dobele. The event was scheduled from September 17 to 18, 2011 and was played under the ITTF rules guidelines. There was
a little change in the rule as it was decided before the match that the player losing the point will get the next serve instead of having two services each time.
Apparently, it was not the first time the idea had been implemented as back in 2001 when the sport was undergoing a lot of changes and even the size of the table tennis ball was under consideration. The idea of the losing player getting the next service
was not much anticipated back then as it was again proposed in 2007 but failed to impress the ITTF Rules Committee.
Egils Purinsh was the referee at the Balkan Championships who previously was an International Umpire since 1984 and an International Referee from 1994. He proposed the idea to implement the rule as he said, “As we were applying the rules for the first time
many players were not ready; therefore many of them were against such changes. However, I think that it is necessary to continue to study, discuss and explain to the players why such changes have been proposed.”
The whole idea behind the suggestion is that a player cannot win while he is serving because in order to win a game two consecutive points are needed. It will be interesting to see if the new rule makes its place in the ITTF handbook. The game has undergone
a lot of changes as players used to have five services each and the game normally stretched to 21 points.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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