Over the past few decades Table Tennis has strived to make play continuous. There were periods in the 1970s 80s and 90s where the matches would take forever because of the breaks that were taken between points. I remember watching a Womens’ match at the Asian Championships in 1990 where the umpire was literally yelling at the players to continue play. This however didn’t even deter them enough to keep the match moving. It made for extremely slow play. Even though the match was fought out between two of the leading players in the world at the time, spectators became disinterested. Rules have been better enforced since then to ensure smoother running of the game and a better spectacle.

During the upcoming World Championships in Yokohama, Japan, between 28th April and 5th May, you may see players taking breaks and wonder how long they are allowed. Over the next few Blogs I will cover the rules relating to Intervals in play.

Another blight on the game was that players were using their towel to wipe down whenever they felt they needed a break or wanted to change the momentum of the match. As a result the ‘Towelling rule’ has been brought in for this specific purpose. Now you are only allowed to use your towel every 6 points from the start of each game. Sometimes it takes a bit of calculation to work it out. Who said learning Mathematics at school is useless?

This is probably a rule that is not enforced much at the club level but enforced strictly at the International level. Players are required to keep their towels in a specific area during the match so that it is easier for the umpire to enforce the rule. At the upcoming World Championships watch out for it being enforced and notice where the players are required to keep their towels.

So if someone is using that tactic against you to slow play down, you can quote the ‘Towelling Rule’.

This is how it is written in the ITTF rules.
3.04.04.01.02 brief intervals for towelling after every 6 points from the start of each game and at the change of ends in the last possible game of a an individual match.

I will cover other breaks in future Blogs.