Gossima: The Culture of Ping Pong

Ping! London Map

 

Ping! London

 

• 4 weeks

• 100 tables

• 4,000 bats

• 10,000 balls

On July 23, ping pong tables will pop up across London in parks, train stations, squares and shopping centers for Ping! The London Ping Pong Project. The tables are open for anyone to play on. In addition to free play, there are a host of programmed activities, such as a literary ping pong quiz at the British Library, Round the World at the Natural History Museum, Whiff Waff at the Geoffrye Museum, and Sing ‘n’ Ping at the Victoria Embankment Gardens, among many other tournaments and events. You can also host your own event. Check out pinglondon.com for more details. Ping! London is produced by Sing London, the arts organization that last year in London produced, along with Luck Jerram, Play Me, I'm Yours.

Ping Pong

乒乓		Pīngpāng		China
ピンポン		Pinpon		Japan
Ping Pong		Ping Pong		Hungary
Ping Pong		Ping Pong		Czechoslovakia
Ping Pong		Ping Pong		Sweden
Ping Pong		Ping Pong		Romania
Ping Pong		Ping Pong		Germany
핑퐁		pingpong		South Korea
Ping Pong		Ping Pong		Austria
핑퐁		pingpong		North Korea

Back from Spring Hiatus

Hello Gossima fans, I'm back from taking some time off from Gossima: The Culture of Ping Pong. It's been a very exciting spring and early summer for ping pong: the Puma PT3 tournament; NYTTF 6^th anniversary; the brand new SoHo Pong; Puma's Social Club at South Street Seaport; the U.S. Table Tennis Open in Grand Rapids; Spin's World Champion event and their announcement of expansion to other cities; among lots of other ping pong news. Stay tuned this summer for more frequent postings about the amazing wide world of ping pong.

Sydney's Ping Pong Underground

PPU Paddle
Photo by ©Matthew Hungerford Pike
All rights reserved

Ping Pong Underground (PPU) started in a dusty garage in north Sydney, Australia. Inspired by the ping pong scene in New York, the “Whaley boys," Puerto, Tim, Luke and Leon, brought Ping Pong Underground to the L.A. (Little Avalon) Bar every Wednesday night from September 23, 2009 to January 27, 2010. Check out their blog, A Whales Life.

Ma Lin

MA Lin celebrates victory over Timo Boll
2004 World Team Table Tennis Championships
Photo courtesy of the ITTF

Full name:  Ma Lin (simplified Chinese: 马琳; traditional Chinese: 馬琳)
Nationality:  Chinese
Grip:  Pen hold
Blade:  Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive Pen hold
Rubber (backhand):  Butterfly Bryce/Bryce Speed
Rubber (forehand):  DHS Skyline 2
Playing Style:  Offensive–consistent forehand loop; known for powerful third ball attacks. Ma Lin uses a reverse pen hold backhand, using the underside of the blade. While the reverse pen hold backhand is becoming more popular, the reverse backhand is somewhat unusual for a pen hold player.

He'll Be Back - Stronger, Faster, Smarter - TOPIO

photo from TOSY

"The machines rose from the ashes of the nuclear fire..., but the final battle would not be fought in the future. It would be fought here, in our present."

Happy Chinese New Year!

A huge Chinese New Year celebration took place last weekend at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. Li Ning, a leading Chinese sporting goods apparel company, sponsored the event, which included ping pong.

The Table Tennis Ball Collection Part 2

I originally posted an entry about Stanislaw Schmidt's collection of table tennis balls back in September. The post can be found here. His collection includes over 1,000 unique table tennis balls. You can see the collection of balls at the Web site ttballe.org.  The balls are categorized by rating, size, ball color, stamp color and design, number of stars, country of origin, and information about the producer. If you are a collector, this is an incredible resource. He exchanges balls; just look for the exchange link under the individual balls. 

Here are more my favorites: a 38mm Schildköt ball from Germany; a 38mm Rabbit ball, country unknown; and a Giant Dragon 40mm ball from China.

                 

Images © Stanislaw Schmidt 2006-2009

History of Table Tennis in China

This is a short video from BBC on the history of table tennis in China. Matthew Syed, the former number 1 British table tennis player, narrates the video.