Pan Pong (also Panpon, Pan-Pon or Pang-Pong) is a hybrid of

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

and

ping pong Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

. The name comes from the sound when the ball is being hit from one side to the next, pan - pon - pan - pon and is played on asphalt with racquets made of wood, a soft

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and a net in form a wooden plank. Rules are similar to tennis or ping-pong but is played in shorter matches of 3 games.

History

The game was invented in 1922, during the Taisho era (1912-1926), on the

Hitachi () is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...

Ltd. factory campus in Japan. Pan-Pon was started as a lunch exercise, but has since has grown into a local sport in

Ibaraki Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, Tochigi Prefectur ...

. Tournaments within Hitachi plants, between plants, and among citizens in Ibaraki prefecture in Japan are organized. Outside Japan the sport is little known, but tournaments have been organized in

Harrodsburg, Kentucky Harrodsburg is a home rule-class city in Mercer County, Kentucky, United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 9,064 at the 2020 census. Although Harrodsburg was formally established by the House of Burgesses after Boonesbor ...

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, connected to the Hitachi Automotive plant there.

Rules

Court

Pan-pon is played on a rectangular flat court, normally outdoors on asphalt alternatively indoors on plastic floor. The court is 7 x 2.5 m with an inner serve area of 5.5 x 1 meter. The net is made of a 3-meter wooden plank, placed 40 cm above ground.

Equipment

Pans from the kitchen are made of wood, 30 x 20 cm and ca 10 mm in thickness. A simple ledge can be mounted on one of the short sides to make it easier to hold. The ball is an air-pumped rubber ball, size like a tennis ball (ca 70 mm diameter). If the ball is dropped from 1 meter altitude it should bounce back up 50–60 cm if it is correctly pumped.

The game

Before the match a coin is flipped to determine the first server. One of the players will serve to start the game and the serve is hit into the receivers inner serve area without touching the net/plank. The receiver will hit the ball back into the servers court side.

Scoring

A game consists of a sequence of points played with the same player serving. The game is won by the first player to have won at least four points in total. If the score is 3-3 it is necessary to win by two points. At 4-4 it is enough to win by only one point.

Serve

The serve is alternated between the players, point by point. The server must stand behind the base line and between the side lines. The receiver can stand at any place in the court. It is not allowed to hit the serve with the racket above the waist. The server only has one attempt to make a successful serve. The receiver is not allowed to hit the ball before it has touched the ground.

Doubles

If team A meets team B, first player A1 will serve with B1 as receiver. In the following game B1 serves to A2, then A2 against B2, etc.

Nordic Pan-Pon Championships 2014

In connection with the Nordic Microscopy Meeting, Scandem 2014, in Linköping, Sweden, on June 9–13, 2014, the first Nordic championship in Pan-Pon will be held.

References

{{reflist Racket sports Sport in Japan Sports originating in Japan Hitachi