The Evolution of the Table Tennis bat

The Evolution of Table Tennis Bats

Around the year 1890 Strung rackets for a table version
of lawn tennis were first tried. Sheepskin battledores,
borrowed from the shuttlecock game, were used in the
Gossima game of 1891, and became very popular when
the celluloid ball was introduced to the game around
1900. The next type of bats were the wood bats, with
amazing veriety of surfaces, reflecting over 100 years of
racket technology. Some of the surfaces were plain
wood, grooved wood blades, leather, sandpaper, painted
blades, cork, aluminum, felt, early textured rubber ...
and some unusual shapes. Of special note are intri-
cately carved fretwork bats, as well as a diverse array
of bats with unusual features, including pyrographic
art, handles with intricate inlays, sterling silver,
tortoise shell, carved bone... and several examples of the
earliest thick foam rubber bats introduced in the 1950s.
In the evolution of bats the wood bats were used as a
medium for art. Of special importance is a magnificent
pair of early wood bats with original portraits in oils of
a man and woman Table Tennis player, both holding a
Table Tennis bat. Also very rare , a fantastic set of 4
painted bats with portraits of a 1903 Table Tennis team,
and an extensive group of pyrographic (woodburned)
art bats with a range of motifs. An original pen & ink
portrait of the famous Gibson Girl is another out-
standing bat. The first wood bats were plain wood bats
with no surface covering. Such wood bats were quite
popular during the early years; Hungarian stars O.
Jacobi used a plain wood bat with elongated handle to
win the 1st World Championships in 1926. Some
blades have grooved or textured patterns in the wood to
enhance spin. The wide variety of grip styles is esp-
ecially interesting. The collection includes some very
fine and elegant examples. The next bats were wood
bats with cork surfaces. Cork faced bats were intro-
duced as early as 1902, persevering into the 1950s as
they were ideally suited for the defensive specialist
with its spin absorbing qualities. Cork surfaces are also
found on one side of early combination bats. Grips
were sometimes covered with a veneer or inlay of cork
to absorb perpiration. Another type of bat was a wood
bat with sandpaper or emory coverings. The sandpaper
bat was very popular, with its abrasive surface offering
both defensive and offensive capabilities. However, the
ITTF banned the sandpaper bat in 1959 as part of the
Racket Standardization rules, because of their excessive
wear on the ball. The next wood bats were pebbled or
pipped rubber surfaces. Legend has it the pimpled
rubber bat began with a mat used of coins at the cash
register of an apothecary. The earliest commercial
models had short nubby or pyramid shaped pips. By
the 1920s the hard rubber bat was the preferred
weapon of most serious players, though bats with cork
and sandpaper surfaces were also used. Despite the
popularity of the sponge bats, hardbat devotees have
persevered, organizing hard bat events in Europe &
the USA. 3-ply bats are generally preferred by de-
fensive choppers, while 5-ply bats are favored by
attackers. Other bats have wood with leather surfaces
or combination bats with different surfaces on both
sides. Unusual varieties are also included, such as the
Spalding VILLA bats with honeycomb covering -
rubber was a scarce commodity during WW II.
The next wood bat coverings were the thick sponge
surfaces from the 1950s. Of the early experiments with
sponge surfaces, perhaps most notable was Waldemar
Fritsch of Austria, but it was not until the Japanese
Satoh won the 1952 World Chanpionships in Bombay
that the sponge became a major technical development
that would change the sport forever. The sponge bat
threw the ITTF into a crisis that lasted 7 years, until
a compromise was reached between the technologists
and the traditionalists. After the thick sponge bat was
introduced in the early 1950s (see previous), much
controversy occurred, some nations even banning the
sponge bat. But ITTF Founder President Ivor Montagu
staunchly defended such technology, and in 1959 the
ITTF formulated a set of racket standardization
requirements, banning the thick sponge but allowing
a sandwich bat with a layer of sponge and top layer
of rubber, pips in or pips out. Since that time tech-
nology has dominated the modern era, and thousands
of varieties of the sponge bat and specialized rubber
surfaces have been developed, with differences in speed,
spin and control. It is not possible to collect and show
all varities, so the presentation must be selective. In my
opinion all the sponge rubber bats with the varying
degree of spins has made Table Tennis a more difficult
sport than it was meant to be and I think that there
should be a standard bat with a certain degree of spin
factor and texture. I use a sponge rubber bat that I am
comfortable with, but when I play other players that
have greater spin I am at a loss because I don't know
how to counter the severe spins that these bats use.
I believe that the ITTF should again look at the bats
being used and try to find some standard bat that can
be used by all.