I’ll never forget the time when I was a kid and my Dad came home with a big surprise for the family. A table tennis table along with a couple of table tennis rackets. To me it will always be known as ping pong, and not table tennis. Although the rest of the world rejects the name ping pong as being an American aberration of the proper name of table tennis, I prefer ping pong. In the good old USA ping pong is ping pong, football is not soccer, and soccer is not football. Perhaps I see things funny but I’m too old to change.
This brings up another question of what do we, or what should I call ping pong rackets? Are they table tennis paddles, table tennis racquets or ping pong rackets? Paddles may be one of the correct terms but my recollection of paddles growing up were something that your father took you out into the woodshed to show you, or one of those hard nosed teachers that you had growing up let you experience firsthand.
**Order Your Ping Pong Rackets Here**
Now that I’ve cleared up those messy sticky points, lets get back to my favorite game of Ping Pong, and discuss just how far it has come with the advent of new technologies, especially as how they relate to the construction and availability of some really great rackets or paddles. I never would have thought that there could be so much thought, so much engineering that could go into a simple table tennis racquet. Boy was I wrong. Technology transcends the bounds of everything, from cars to cell phones to yes, table tennis rackets.
There are a number of very good and high quality manufacturers of paddles today. Names such as Stiga, Butterfly, Mega Spin all make good quality products. When looking at the different types, first decide what type of blade that you need. There are blades constructed out of many different kinds of material from the most basic up to carbon layered materials. Keep it simple starting out and as you improve in your game you can always move up to a more expensive blade. Make sure that the grip type is the type of grip that you are comfortable with. You can choose from a variety of rubbers as well but again I would stick to the more basic types until you have mastered the game to a level and style where you are more familiar with the different nuances between the various types of rubbers.
Choose your table tennis rackets wisely and you will enjoy years of great ping pong play out of them.
