Why Do Table Tennis Players Blow On The Racket and Ball?

If you are a delicate table tennis enthusiast, you will find that some table tennis players like to blow air at their rackets or on the ball before they serve. Furthermore, they will rub with their hands or jerseys, or wipe with the towel after blowing it.

Many people wonder what is the reasoning behind it. Does the blowing action reduce stress, or offer a better chance of winning?

This is generally a behavior that players do during the preparation stage, whether it is blowing air to the racket or the ball.

After blowing air, they wipe their hand’s their clothes or towel. Such a habit seems common among Chinese athletes.

Here, I will try to figure out what is the purpose for them to do so.

Table of Contents

Blowing Air On The Racket

The purpose of the table tennis players blowing air is very simple because we know that the racket surface is made of rubber which is very delicate.

The constant hits on the rubber during the game are often exposed to the air. It will definitely get some dust after playing for some time and this is likely to affect the performance of the racket.

Therefore, blowing air on the racket is just to restore the racket to the initial state, to prevent these from affecting the outcome of their game.

Blowing Air On The Ball

Some table tennis players blow air on the ball, to make sure the ball is dry enough when they serve. This can increase the friction on the rubber surface.

It is because the temperature and humidity are different when the game is held in different places. The temperature in some places may be very low and the racket may be stained by water mist. Therefore, to get rid of the mist, the players will blow the air on the ball to make it dry to avoid the ball slipping off from the racket when they serve.

Blow on the new ball

If it is a new ball, most players will blow on it. After all, there will be particles and dust on the surface of the new ball which will affect the spin and speed when using the racket to hit the ball.

This will affect the quality of the playing stroke. Some players will even put the ball in their pockets to rub with the purpose to remove the dust and particles from the ball.

Caused By Sweating

Another reason is that, during the match, the palms sweat. When holding the ball, the sweat may stick to the racket and the ball.

To have better control of the ball, the players will blow their hands as well as the ball to keep it dry.

For this reason, some table tennis players will form such a relatively habitual movement, and you will find that many players have such a habit.

In addition to keeping the racket and ball in a better state, a player can also give himself some time to calm down and release tension during the game.

Physical Experiments

In related physical experiments, it was found that under the influence of cold, hot, wet, and dry conditions, the elasticity of ping pong balls will change significantly.

Many professors at the Jiangxi University of Materials Science and Engineering said that the difference in humidity and temperature has an impact on ping pong balls. The difference between dry and wet conditions is particularly obvious.

From a physical point of view, the wetter the surface of the ping-pong ball, the greater the friction, and the ball’s resistance will increase. It can be strenuous for players.

The lower the temperature of the ball’s surface, the stronger the ball’s rigidity; the smaller the friction, the easier it can be played.

On the contrary, if the surface temperature of the ball becomes higher, the rigidity of the ball becomes weaker and the frictional force becomes more.

However, some professors also saying that blowing air on the ball does not make any significant changes in terms of wet, dry, cold, and warm of the ball.

So it may be that the surface of the ball is stained with dust. Blowing air can make the ball to become smoother and cleaner so that the player can do a better serve.

Unconsciousness Habit

Table tennis players who often do this kind of action will become habitual over time. They will also calm themselves down and use this short period of time to think about the next strategy.

Of course, these are the scientific explanations of some people. For more reasons, I still feel that this is a habitual problem. Each player will form his own unique training method in the training routine.

Often, some players find the time to calm themself down and think. Sometimes this kind of action may make the player feel relieved.