Re-Thinking Table Tennis as a Team Sport

A new horizon for Table Tennis is presented, with its traditional singles and doubles configurations extended to a real Team Game, with three-player teams facing each other on a round (or quasi-round) table: TRIPLES. This overcomes the limitations in present competitive table tennis TEAM events (Olympics, World Championships), which mostly have 3-player teams who never play each other as teams.

The rationale, development history, equipment design and construction, as well as rules for Triples are described, as are other new table tennis game variations spawned by the round table shape. Various photo- and video examples of games in action are included, and a successful 10-year application/competition case study, with up to 8 Triples teams of various standards, is described. It is concluded that Triples is a practically acceptable new version of table tennis, ready for introduction into the serious/international game repertoire. Some suggestions on possible next steps complete the presentation.