Hiroji Satoh ~ the first sponge rubber /1952

1950's - 1970's - Sponge Bat Era, Rise of Japan and China

1952 - Hiroji Satoh of Japan becomes notorious for his use of a wooden racket covered in thick foam sponge rubber, which produces much more speed and spin than conventional pimpled rubber rackets. He wins the 1952 World Championships over Jozsef Koczian of Hungary, and begins a period of Asian male domination in the sport which will last until Sweden rises to supremacy from 1989 into the early 1990's.

1957 - The World Championships changes to a biennial event (once every two years), due to the logistics of hosting an event of such size, and difficulty in finding suitable venues.

1958 - The first European Championships is conducted in Budapest, Hungary, and sees the USSR's debut in international table tennis.

1959-1960 - The ITTF standardizes the thickness of ordinary pimpled rubber and sponge rubber.

Category:

Sports

[BicolBandit]

Great history, but there's obvious hardbat bias here. It's Reisman's usual flair for hyperbole.

[wturber]

Obvious hardbat bias? Where? Seemed like a pretty matter of fact representation to me.

[gdounito]

marty reisman talks about japanese as they are some kind of cheaters ...what an arrogant prick he thinks euro and usa players dominate the game?

[tadmats]

青森県出身の佐藤博治さんですね。戦後初の世界チャンピオン。こ­の時なぜか、藤井則和さんは優勝していない。Awesome movie!

[halsamdu]

I had one, but did not like it and played then ...only with wood!

[TheManinMoscow45]

One baaaad motherfucker.....killed those players with their own spin... That's why whenever I see grass or anti it's deadball serves all day long.

[JBrandonBehik]

Is that a sponge? or a thick rubber? @ 3:50

[bdsamlal]

What a silly game-equipment has always been the winner-from sponge to funny rubbers to speed glue-jeeez