Table tennis in the context of "FC Schalke 04"

A youth center or youth centre, often called youth club, is a place where young people can meet and participate in a variety of activities, for example table football, association football (US soccer, UK football), basketball, table tennis, video games, occupational therapy and religious activities. Youth clubs and centres vary in their activities across the globe, and have diverse histories based on shifting cultural, political and social contexts and relative levels of state funding or voluntary action.

A racket or racquet is an item of sporting equipment used to strike a ball or shuttlecock in a variety of sports. A racket consists of three major components: a widened distal end known as the head, an elongated handle known as the grip, and a reinforced connection between the head and handle known as the throat or heart. The head of the racket forms a flattened firm surface, known as the face, which is used to strike the ball or shuttlecock.

In the strictest sense, the word "racket" specifically refers to a striking implement with a mesh face made of interlaced, tightly stretched strings fixed on an ovoid frame known as the rim. This type of racket is used in sports such as tennis, badminton, and racquetball. Some rackets have a rigid one-piece head with a solid or fenestrated face instead of a meshwork of strings. Such rackets are called a paddle or bat, and are used in sports such as table tennis, pickleball and padel. Collectively, sporting games using rackets and paddles are all known as racket sports.

TOPIO ("TOSY PIng Pong Playing RobOt") is a bipedal humanoid robot designed to play table tennis against a human being. It has been developed since 2005 by TOSY, a robotics firm in Vietnam. It was publicly demonstrated at the Tokyo International Robot Exhibition (IREX) on November 28, 2007. TOPIO 3.0 (the latest version of TOPIO) stands approximately 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) tall and weighs 120 kg (260 lb).

Pickleball is a racket or paddle sport in which two or four players use a smooth-faced paddle to hit a perforated, hollow plastic ball over a 34-inch-high (0.86 m) net, until one side is unable to return the ball or commits a rule infraction. Pickleball is played indoors and outdoors. It was invented in 1965 as a children's backyard game in the United States, on Bainbridge Island in Washington State. In 2022, pickleball was named the official state sport of Washington.

Aspects of the sport resemble tennis and table tennis played on a doubles badminton court, but pickleball has specific scoring rules, paddles, balls and court lines. On each side of the net is a 7-foot area (2.1 m) known as the non-volley zone (or kitchen); a player standing there may not strike the ball before it has bounced. The hard plastic pickleball produces less bounce than a tennis ball. The limited bounce, non-volley zones, and underhand stroke, with which all serves must be made, give the game a dynamic pace. Slow soft shots in the non-volley zone, called dinks, are used to limit the opponent's ability to attack, while balls that are returned too high might be struck with a powerful drive or overhead smash shot.

Racketlon is a multisport competition in which competitors play a sequence of four popular racket sports: table tennis, badminton, squash, and tennis. It originated in Finland and Sweden and was modeled on other combination sports like the triathlon and decathlon.

In sports, backspin or underspin refers to the reverse rotation of a ball, in relation to the ball's trajectory, that is imparted on the ball by a slice or chop shot. Backspin generates an upward force that lifts the ball (see Magnus effect). While a normal hit bounces well forward as well as up, backspin shots bounce higher and less forward. Backspin is the opposite of topspin.

In racket sports, the higher bounce imparted by backspin may make a receiver who has prepared for a different shot miss or mis-hit the ball when swinging. A backspin shot is also useful for defensive shots because a backspin shot takes longer to travel to the opponent, giving the defender more time to get back into position. Also, because backspin shots tend to bounce less far forward once they reach the opposite court, they may be more difficult to attack. This is especially important in table tennis because one must wait for the ball to bounce before hitting it, whereas in tennis the opponent may volley the ball.

The Richmond Olympic Oval (French: Anneau olympique de Richmond) is an indoor multi-sports arena in the Canadian city of Richmond, British Columbia. The oval was built for the 2010 Winter Olympics and was originally configured with a speed skating rink. The venue has since been reconfigured and now serves as a community multi-sport park and includes two ice hockey rinks, two running tracks, a climbing wall, a rowing tank and a flexible area which can be used for, among other sports, basketball, volleyball, indoor soccer and table tennis.

The Olympic bid called for the oval to be located on the grounds of Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Burnaby, but Richmond was instead selected in 2004. Although twice the price of the SFU alternative, the location was selected because the city offered to cover all costs exceeding $60 million. Construction started in 2006, cost $178 million CAD and the venue opened on 12 December 2008. In addition to speed skating at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the venue has hosted the 2009 World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships. Designed by CannonDesign, the oval's elements are made to resemble the heron.

Iran participated at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, China. The country's delegation consists of 72 competitors in nine sports: football 7-a-side, goalball, judo, powerlifting, shooting, table tennis, track and field athletics, volleyball, and wheelchair basketball.