Ping Pong

Now, onto sports, I’m going to talk about a very interesting sport called Table Tennis or better known as Ping Pong. This sport was first played in the year 1880 in England, it was played by the wealthy, and they would usually play it after dinner. The English called it “wiff waff”, and they would grab a table and rows of books would be put together in the middle of the table representing the net. They played with other hard books as a racket and would use a golf ball. As the years passed, all the equipment started to develop such as the ball, which changed into a light weighted hollow ball and instead of books a net. Even the name changed from “wiff waff” to “Ping Pong”. The reason for this was because of the noise the ball made when it would be hit by the racket. The Table Tennis Association was founded in Britain in the year 1921 and five years later, London held the first World Championship Ping Pong tournament. I have always found this sport so entertaining and fun since it is like tennis although completely resized. When I was small I knew what Ping Pong was but I never really saw a real live table, but it wasn’t until I was 6 years old that I played for the first time.  This took place in Ricardo Blohm’s house and he also taught me how to play and made me the player I am today. I would play for long periods of time in his house, and in the summer of 2008 my parents bought my brother and I a Ping Pong table. I have paid my dues by practicing and today very few people can beat me. In the Ping Pong tournament at school (total of 32 participants) I reached the semi-final and lost 11-9 against an 11^th grader, called Victor Gomez whom I had beaten before. I probably just had a bad day.