If you think that buying a ping pong table is not worth it because you will eventually get bored of playing ping pong, you are wrong. With a little bit of imagination and a few things that everybody has at home, you can come up with a lot of other fun games, appropriate for all ages (so no beer pong for you!), such as:

Basketball;

Ping pong blow;

Hockey;

Marble shooting;

Target bounce;

Around the world.

So, let’s see what each of these games is all about!

Basketball on Your Ping Pong Table

Your ping pong table can be easily transformed into a mini basketball court. Just take two plastic cups and tape them to two opposite ends of the table. Then take turns and bounce a ball across the table, trying to get it inside the cup from the other side. You can protect your cup from the opponent’s ball with a plastic straw. The scoring can be similar to the one used for basketball, or you can invent your own rules.

Ping Pong Blow

This is another game that you can enjoy with your whole family. It is very easy and fun, and the only extra things that you need, apart from the table and some ping pong balls, are a few plastic straws – one for each contestant. In order to win, you have to place your ball on your side of the table; then, by blowing air through the straw, try to make it move as quickly as possible across the table until it goes past your opponent’s line. The one who does that first gets a point. To make it more challenging, you can play with one ball – place it in the middle of the table and then each opponent will be allowed to blow it once in the opposite direction.

Hockey

You can design a rectangular shaped hockey rink on your ping pong table. It is simple, just use books or blocks to build the "walls". Leave two empty spots in the "walls" on opposite sides of the rink. You can use a paper ball or a ping pong ball as a puck, and an ice cream stick as hockey stick. Place the ball in the middle of the rink and let the fun begin! Hit it with the stick and try to score in your opponent's goal, while they try to regain the puck from your possession. Just pay attention so you will not knock over the books or blocks you used for walls. And do not hit your opponent by mistake – an elbow in the face is not the kind of fun your contestant is wishing for!

Marble Shooting

Take a box and cut five holes in it, of different sizes. Then write some points for each hole – the smaller the hole is, the more points it is worth. Place it against one end of the ping pong table and mark a starting point using tape on the opposite end. Take turns rolling some marbles with an ice cream stick and aiming for the smaller and more valuable holes. After five tries (or less, or more, depending on the rules that you come up with) sum up the points, and the person with the highest score wins!

Target Bounce

Place a variety of objects on the ping pong table – any objects, like a shoe or a hat, an empty cereal box, a paper bag, etc. – whatever you can find around you. Imagination is required because the game gets funnier and more difficult when the objects are weirder! You – the owner of the table, the host, the master (!!!) will be the caller and you will decide which one of the objects is the target. The players will take turns bouncing a ball and trying to hit the target that you told them to aim for. The ones who miss will leave the game and the last one who stays is the winner!

Around the World

This game requires both ping pong skills and physical endurance, so it is great for kids when they have too much energy. Two teams of two players each stand at the opposite sides of the table. The first player hits the ping pong ball with his paddle, then leaves the paddle on the table and runs to the other side; one player in the opposite team hits the ball again and runs to the other side, and so on. If the ball happens to be hit off the table, the player who hit it is out. The last player standing is the winner.

Bottom Line

All in all, you have tons of possibilities to have fun and sometimes make fun of your friends when you have your own ping pong table! Besides its main use, you can come up with a lot of crazy challenging games, so do not hesitate to buy one, and don’t forget to use your wild imagination!