Table Tennis vs Ping Pong – What's the Difference?

What is Ping Pong?

Table tennis and ping pong are of course just the same sport, but we still want to think about it because many people don't know what the differences are, or think that ping pong is offensive.

Ping-pong is not an offensive term in itself as it is derived from 'ping pang qiu' in Chinese, but in fact the Chinese equivalent is just an accurate transliteration of the colloquial English language (imitating the sound of the ball's collisions) which had been used for over 100 years before ping-pong was exported to Asia around 1926.

The term "ping-pong" is actually a sound term that originated in England, where the sport was invented. The Chinese word "ping-pang" was borrowed from English, not the other way around.

While it's not necessarily offensive, it's simply better to use table tennis, at least it seems you know what you're talking about.

Are the rules of Ping Pong and table tennis the same?

Ping pong and table tennis are essentially the same sport, but since table tennis is the official term, ping pong generally refers to garage players while table tennis is used by players who formally train in the sport.

In that sense the rules of each are different and table tennis has the stricter official rules while ping pong follows your own garage rules.

That's also why you often have a discussion about myths in the rules, because the ping pong rules aren't really clearly agreed upon and you get into an argument about whether the point is for you because the ball hit the opponent, for example.

What is the difference between table tennis and ping-pong?

Before 2011, “Ping Pong” or “Table Tennis” was the same sport. However, serious players prefer to call it table tennis and consider it a sport.

As we just mentioned, Ping Pong generally refers to "garage players" or amateurs, while table tennis is practiced by players who formally train in the sport.

Is Ping Pong played on 11 or 21?

A game of table tennis is played until one of the players scores 11 points or there is a difference of 2 points after the score is tied (10:10). The game was played up to age 21, but that rule was changed by the ITTF in 2001.

What is ping pong called in China?

Remember this was a time when everyone still called the game Ping Pong.

That sounds very Chinese, but strangely enough, the Chinese had no character for Pong, so they improvised and called the game Ping Pang.

Or to be more precise, Ping Pang Qiu, which literally means Ping Pong with ball.

Is ping pong a good workout?

Yes, playing table tennis is a great cardio workout and good for muscle development, but to improve your strength and endurance you need to do more.

After regular practice you will look and feel better and you will probably want to increase your table tennis level, improve your running times and train with heavier weights at the gym.

Joost Nusselder, the founder of referees.eu is a content marketer, father and loves to write about all kinds of sports, and has also played a lot of sports himself for most of his life. Now since 2016, he and his team have been creating helpful blog articles to help loyal readers with their sports activities.