"All I have to do is dream." EVERLY BROTHERS
Jose Marty Nava, son of murdered broadcaster Josef, is planning to revive table tennis, a "lost glory" in Iloilo.
"We were trained as boxers but we played table tennis since we were kids," quipped Nava, who was only 17 when a lone gunman pumped a bullet on his father’s nape while they were on board a pedicab on their way home in Calumpang, Molo in 1989 (the case remains unsolved until today). Said table tennis or ping pong is "the most underestimated" sport in the country today.Nava blamed sports officials for ignoring table tennis which accounts for the most number of gold medals won by other lightly regarded Southeast Asian nations not known for dominating the Southeast Asian Games.
"We (Ilonggos) used to dominate table tennis even in the Palarong Pambansa," enthused Nava, who is planning to hook up with the revitalized Iloilo Table Tennis Association to put up at least one table tennis table in every barangay starting in the City Proper.
"We will tap the resources of the barangay," Nava said. "The local government code allows the Sangguniang Kabataan and the barangay sports council to allocate funds for sports development program."
Nava said table tennis began as a social hobby in England toward the end of the 1800’s. Dining-room tables and balls of cork made up some of the early equipment were used. These early pioneers may have referred to their sport as gossima, flim-flam, or ping-pong. Around the turn of the century, the game underwent a few changes in England. A person introduced a celluloid ball to the game, while another added pimpled rubber to the wooden paddle.
He added that the recreational game lost some of its popularity when various groups around Europe revived it as "table tennis" in the 1920s. The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) was formed in 1926. The sport soon spread to Japan and other Asian nations. The Japanese dominated the sport for much of the 50s and 60s, however the Chinese soon closed the gap. China alone dominated the sport for much of the 60’s and 70’s, but after Table Tennis became an Olympic event in the 1980’s, other nations such as Sweden and South Korea have joined the top ranks.
PING-PONG DIPLOMACY
(April 6 - 17, 1971).
A research in the internet showed that one of the first public hints of improved U.S.-China relations came on April 6, 1971, when the American Ping-Pong team, in Japan for the 31st World Table Tennis Championship, received a surprise invitation from their Chinese colleagues for an all-expense paid visit to the People’s Republic of China. Time magazine called it "The ping heard round the world." On April 10, nine players, four officials, and two spouses stepped across a bridge from Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland, ushering in an era of "Ping-Pong diplomacy." They were the first group of Americans allowed into China since the Communist takeover in 1949.
Ten journalists, including five Americans, were also invited to cover the team’s visit, ending the information blockade from the People’s Republic of China in place since 1949. From April 11th to 17th, a delighted American public followed the daily progress of the visit in newspapers and on television, as the Americans played—and lost— exhibition matches with their hosts, toured the Great Wall and Summer Palace, chatted with Chinese students and factory workers, and attended the Canton Ballet.Premier Chou En-lai worked the public relations opportunity beautifully, receiving the Americans at a banquet in the Great Hall of the People on April 14. "You have opened a new chapter in the relations of the American and Chinese people," he told the unlikely diplomats. "I am confident that this beginning again of our friendship will certainly meet with majority support of our two peoples." He also extended an invitation for more American journalists to visit China, provided they do not "all come at one time." That same day, the U.S. announced plans to remove a 20-year embargo on trade with China. A Chinese table tennis team reciprocated by visiting the United States.
Ping-Pong was "an apt metaphor for the relations between Washington and Peking" noted a Time reporter, as each nation signaled, in turn, its openness to change. Despite the public warming trend, Nixon and Kissinger decided to keep their back-channel negotiations with China to themselves. It was not until July 15, after Kissinger’s secret mission to Beijing, that Nixon announced that he, too, would make the journey the following year, as the first American president to visit China.Wang Liqin winning a forehand drive against Jorg Rosskopf.
Table tennis is one of the most popular sports in the world in terms of player numbers, as well as being one of the newest of the major sports. (Ping Pang Qiu) is the official name for the sport in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. (Takkyu) is the official name for the sport in Japan. (Tak-ku) is the name for the sport in Korea.
Table tennis is a sport where two players hit a ball back and forth to each other, with a racket on a table, in a manner similar to tennis. The rules are slightly different, but the concept is essentially the same. Table tennis is an Olympic sport, "ping-pong" is the recreational version of the same sport. Spin, speed and strategy play an important part in competitive table tennis matches. The speed of the ball can vary from slow spinny serves to fast smashes that travel as fast as 110km/h.
The playing surface is a 9 ft × 5 ft × 30 in high (2.7 m × 1.5 m × .762m) hard rectangular table with the surface usually colored green, dark blue, or black. A 6 inch (15.2 cm) tall net divides the table in half (much like a tennis court) and is strung to extend 6 inches (15.2 cm) beyond the table on each side.
The paddles, also known as bats or rackets, are usually about 10 inch long, with a hitting surface that is approximately 6 in × 6 in (15.8 cm × 15.8 cm), although the rules specify no limitations in size or shape. The paddle is covered with pimpled rubber on one or both sides. Modern table tennis paddles are usually covered with rubber, and may have the pimples pointing outwards or inwards, and a thin layer of sponge between the plywood and the rubber.
Spin plays a large part in the modern game of table tennis, and the composition of the rubber and the combination of sponge and rubber is designed to maximize the amount of spin and speed a player can impart to the ball. Other technological improvements include the use of carbon or other synthetic layers as part of the blade to increase the sweet spot or the stiffness of the blade. The ball used in table tennis is a 40 mm diameter ball, made of celluloid, completely hollow and lightweight. A three star rating on a ball usually implies a top quality ball, in bounce and roundness.
Play is fast and demands possibly the quickest reactions of any sport. A skilled player can impart spin to the ball which makes its bounce difficult to predict or return with confidence. Spin combined with speed makes table tennis an exciting sport to play as well as to watch. The difference between Olympic level play and the average home recreational player is tremendous. Often a proper foundation of table tennis skills is required to understand how competitive players can do what seems impossible to the untrained eye.
The winner is the first to score 11 points, with each player alternating serves every two points. At 10-10 (or deuce) the players alternate with every serve. The winner is the first person to gain a clear two points advantage over his opponent. The 11 point game is an International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) change which occurred in 2001. The 21 point game is still widely played at recreational level. All games played at national level and at international tournaments (ITTF) are played to 11 points in either a best of five games (preliminaries) or best of seven games format (championship matches).
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POSTCRIPT:
Eighteen-year-old Sarah Geronimo has been tapped to sing the Philippine national anthem during the Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales "Grand Finale" on November 18 in Las Vegas, Nevada one of the three remaining major sports events before the year ends. The two other gigantic sports events worth the full media attention are the 2006 World Pool 9-ball Championship on November 4-12 and the 15th Asian Games in Doha, Qatar on December 5-15.
Apache leader Geronimo (1829-1909) was of Mexican descent but he certainly was not related to the young Pinay diva who is expected to perform better than the mediocre Jen Bautista, daughter of Games and Amusement Board commissioner Angel Bautista, who goofed during the first Pacquiao-Morales fight in January this year./MP mailto:madyaas_pen@yahoo.com
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