OOAK Table Tennis Forum

For those into hardbat and table tennis history like I am, I'll start adding links to interesting articles and information in this thread.

The Evolution of the Table Tennis Racket: From 50 cm Long Handles to Boosters (and Everything in Between)
Great read.

Archive of issues of the English Table Tennis Magazine going back to the 1930s!
Awesome resource!

Newsletters from an unfortunately now inactive hardbat organization
Interesting interviews and tips from about 15-20 years ago.

Dead Man Winning
Article about legendary full-time hardbatter Ralph Stadleman, who overcame death and still wins.

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The MNNB Blog has had some pretty amazing stuff lately. Just click this text to check it out. | My OOAK Interview
Table Tennis Video Links: itTV | laola1.tv | ttbl | fftt | Challenger Series | mnnb-tv

My whole set-up costs less than a sheet of Butterfly Dignics

I thought these grip images out of the Lazlo Bellak book were interesting. By today's standards, all these grips would be considered wrong.

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The MNNB Blog has had some pretty amazing stuff lately. Just click this text to check it out. | My OOAK Interview
Table Tennis Video Links: itTV | laola1.tv | ttbl | fftt | Challenger Series | mnnb-tv

My whole set-up costs less than a sheet of Butterfly Dignics

Added some new stuff to the first post.

_________________



The MNNB Blog has had some pretty amazing stuff lately. Just click this text to check it out. | My OOAK Interview
Table Tennis Video Links: itTV | laola1.tv | ttbl | fftt | Challenger Series | mnnb-tv

My whole set-up costs less than a sheet of Butterfly Dignics

Great reads! That first link finally explained why Damien Eloi's racket looks like he smashed it against a table one too many times (seen at 2:40)

Added a link in the top post to an article about legendary full-time hardbatter Ralph Stadleman, who overcame death and continues to play and win.

_________________



The MNNB Blog has had some pretty amazing stuff lately. Just click this text to check it out. | My OOAK Interview
Table Tennis Video Links: itTV | laola1.tv | ttbl | fftt | Challenger Series | mnnb-tv

My whole set-up costs less than a sheet of Butterfly Dignics

This article answer alot of my questions on how and why table tennis equipment came to be. But there is still one I don't understand. In the 50 years hardbat was played before sponge was invented. Why was the default pimple out? I thought the pimple out was to reduce the surface area to be less sensetive for incoming spin but there wasn't alot of spin back then?