History of adapted table tennis

What is adapted table tennis?

Adapted ping pong is one of the table sports that gives Spain the most joy in the Paralympic Games and in all the major international competitions.

It is a Paralympic sport organized under the rules of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).

In this there is a slight adaptation of the general rules of table tennis for wheelchair athletes. Although athletes with other disabilities also participate.

How was born the modality of adapted ping pong?

As we said at the beginning, ping pong was one of the pioneering sports in terms of disability. Among other things, for being present since the beginning of the Paralympic movement. So it has existed for more than fifty years.

In fact, it is one of the few sports that entered the Paralympic Games, before the Olympics. It started in the first Paralympics, in Rome 1960, 28 years before its Olympic debut, in Seoul 1988.

The first subcommittee of this modality was formed in 1970 under the figure of the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (now ISMWSF). Although it was only responsible for athletes in wheelchairs.

For this reason, in the first Table Tennis World Cup for all disabilities, which took place in 1982, the different subcommittees separated by pathologies decided to create a game system that would unite all disabled athletes, to later also form a single governing entity. . That is when adapted table tennis was born as we know it today.

Adapted Table Tennis Rules

The rules are almost the same as conventional table tennis. There are individual, team and individual, male and female competitions. In addition, there are eleven different categories, depending on the degree and type of disability.

• Players with physical disabilities, or cerebral palsy, compete in categories from one to ten.
• From one to five, people in wheelchairs compete
• From six to ten, those who compete standing
• Category 11 is reserved for athletes with intellectual disabilities

The scoring system is the same as in conventional table tennis . The matches are played to the best of 5 sets. But each of them is awarded by the one who reaches 11 points first. Although in the case of arriving tied at ten, you have to have a difference of two points to proclaim yourself the winner.

Otherwise, players who play standing do so under the same conditions and with the same rules as Olympic table tennis.

In wheelchair table tennis, the regulations vary a bit:

In the serve, the ball must come out from the bottom line of the table, if it comes out from the side, the match will be null. Serves cannot be made lateral, if they were, they would have to be repeated.

In doubles matches, the members of the pair do not have to hit the ball alternately.

It is played a lot on short serves or deep long serves.

Conclusion

If you are thinking of getting started in this exciting sport, we invite you to visit our online ping pong store. You will find everything you need to get started in adapted table tennis, become a professional or simply enjoy all the benefits that this sport provides, both in its conventional and adapted modalities.