Table tennis is an Olympic sport that is pretty much dominated by one country, China.  In fact, China has won 20 of the 24 available gold medals in this sport since it joined the Olympics 1988. That is a very impressive record.  Perhaps the reason Americans are not doing so well in this sport is that we sometimes call it by a different name, ping pong.  I’m just kidding about this, but it is good to know that ping pong and table tennis are the same thing.  It is especially good to know this if you watch the movie clip below about ping pong from the movie Forest Gump, because they do not use the words table tennis in the clip.  This is a funny clip from a very famous American movie.  I hope you have the time to watch this video and practice your English language listening comprehension skills.  First though why not read about how the game of table tennis or ping pong is played?

Table tennis is based using the same basic principles as regular tennis, but it has a different scoring system, a smaller ball, smaller paddles, and a smaller playing field. Competitions are called ‘matches’ and they are played over the best of seven games.  The first player to 11 points wins each game.  In doubles matches, there are two players on each side and players take turns to hitting the ball, with one hit each before alternating*.  Both the singles matches and team events are run in a knockout format**. Players and teams play other players or teams until they are eliminated or the make it to the finals. Table tennis is played at high speed and players need lightning reflexes***, agility, attention, and high levels of fitness.

Here is a video showing table tennis being played by the movie character Forest Gump:

*alternating = occur in turn repeatedly, one turn after another
**knockout format = a form of competition in which one loss means you are done playing, as opposed to playing the best of 5 out of 7 or 2 out of 3
***lightening reflexes = very fast reactions that happen almost automatically
****agility = gracefulness associated with being quick