Table tennis originated in England. At the end of the 19th century, tennis was popular in Europe. However, due to restrictions on venues and weather, some British college students moved tennis indoors, using the dining table as a table, books as nets, parchment as rackets, and playing on the dining table. . In 1890, several British naval officers stationed in India accidentally discovered that playing tennis on a small table was quite exciting. Later, they switched to solid rubber instead of a solid ball with little elasticity, then to a hollow plastic ball, and used a wooden board instead of a tennis racket to play this novel "tennis game" on the table. This is where the name Table Tennis comes from. .

Not long after Table Tennis appeared, it became a popular sport. At the beginning of the 20th century, the United States began to produce sets of table tennis competition equipment. It is the number one racquet sport in the United States, with more than 200,000 Americans playing table tennis. Initially, Table tennis had other names, such as Indoor tennis. Later, an American manufacturer coined the new word Ping-pang based on the sound made by the impact of the ping-pong ball, which was used as a patented registered trademark for the "ping-pong ball" he manufactured. Ping-pang later became another official name of Table tennis. When it spread to China, people coined the new word "table tennis".

At the beginning of the 20th century, table tennis flourished in Europe and Asia. In 1926, the International Table Tennis Invitational Tournament was held in Berlin, Germany. It was later regarded as the first World Table Tennis Championships. At the same time, the International Table Tennis Federation was established.

In 1926, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) was formally established and decided to hold the first World Table Tennis Championships. The development of table tennis has gone through approximately three stages. In the early days, although the rackets used by athletes had different shapes, they were all made of wood. The ball bounced out slowly and with little power, and had no rotation skills. The method of playing was also very simple, which was to push the ball back and forth between the two. .

In 1936, the 10th World Table Tennis Championships was held in Prague, Hungary. An amazing situation occurred in the competition. The men's team championship match was held in Romania and Austria. The match starts at 21:00 on Sunday. The clinker and clinker sides sent three chippers. Since the playing styles were the same, the level of both sides was close, and they both used mushroom tactics. They were unwilling to easily challenge and tried to win from the opponent's mistakes. At three o'clock in the game, it was still 2:2. Local regulations stipulated that public places must close at 3 o'clock, which prompted police intervention. In the end, it took 31 hours for Austria to win 5:4.

In 1903, the Englishman Goode invented the rubber racket, which effectively promoted the development of table tennis technology. From 1926 to 1951, players from all over the world mostly used rubber rackets with cylindrical particles on the surface. When hitting the ball, the elasticity and friction are increased, which can cause the ball to rotate to a certain extent. Therefore, the defensive style of playing the ball with backspin has emerged. This style of play has been popular in Europe for a long time, and many athletes have won world championships using this style of play. The advantages of table tennis during this period were in Europe, among which the Hungarian team had the most outstanding results. Among the 117 world championships, they won 57, accounting for half of the European teams. But this kind of racket can only produce backspin. Everyone is like this, grinding and grinding, even if they win the championship, it is meaningless.

The widespread development of table tennis has led to great improvements in rackets and balls. The original racket was a slightly processed wooden board. Later, someone put a layer of sheepskin on the racket. With the development of modern industry, Europeans attached rubber with rubber particles to the racket. In the early 1950s, the Austrians invented the sponge racket. The original ball was a rubber ball similar to tennis. In 1890, British player Gibb brought back some celluloid balls as toys from the United States for table tennis.

After Rong Guotuan won the men's singles championship at the 25th World Table Tennis Championships in 1959, Chinese athletes began to enter the international table tennis scene. Gradually, a pen-hold shooting and close-to-table fast attack style with a technical style of "fast, accurate, ruthless, and changeable" was formed.

In the 26th World Championships in 1961, the Chinese team not only passed the European level, but also defeated the Japanese players who used the long draw and secret weapon of "Loop Ball" to win the men's team title for the first time. World Champion. And won the 27th and 28th consecutive men's team championships. The advantages of China's close-to-the-table fast attack are its close stance, fast speed, flexible movements, and ease of use of forehand and backhand. It is a big step forward compared to Japan's long-to-the-table long-stroke style. In the 1960s, China's table tennis technical level was at the forefront of the world, and the advantage of table tennis shifted from Japan to China. This is the second major improvement in the level of table tennis.

While China's table tennis is developing, European athletes have learned lessons from their failures. After nearly two decades of hard work, they have finally taken advantage of Japan's loop ball technology and China's near-table fast-break style. Create an advanced style of play that is suitable for them, that is, a style of play based on loop balls combined with fast breaks. Representative figures are Hungary's Krampal and Jonil. A style of play that focuses on fast breaks combined with loop shots. It uses forehand and backhand fast breaks as the main technique, uses backhand quick breaks to strive for the initiative, and uses forehand loop shots to find opportunities for smashes as a scoring method. The representative figures are Bengtsen of Sweden and Orlofsky of the Czech Republic. The characteristics of these two playing styles are strong placement, fast speed, the ability to pull and hit, low pull and high hit, and a large room for maneuver. Table tennis has advanced to a new level where placement and speed are closely combined. This is the third major improvement in the level of table tennis.

Since the 1970s, due to the strengthening of international exchanges and study and research, various playing styles have learned from each other's strengths, resulting in faster development and improvement of table tennis technology. For example, China's close-to-the-table fast break, pen-hold fast break combined with loop shots, and horizontal fast break combined with loop shots have all developed and innovated, and have achieved excellent results in international competitions. The International Table Tennis Federation has 186 member associations and is one of the largest sports organizations in the world.

In 1992, the International Olympic Committee passed the decision to list table tennis as an official Olympic event from 1988, which promoted the faster development of table tennis.