If you have a pool table, then you should really consider buying a table tennis conversion top. This will take up no further space, nor will it cost as much as a “full” table tennis table. It is really the ideal way to deal with a limited amount of room in order to turn one game into two.
The kids will love you forever if you do this. Many like to play ping pong; maybe you have noticed. The way a conversion top works is that it hooks onto or rests on top of your normal pool table. They cost much less than their alternative, and are made by companies like Stiga, Butterfly, Kettler, etc. I’d expect to pay a minimum of $150 plus shipping and handling. Most people report that’s it’s an easy process to get them on and off, and thus they end up playing the sport whenever they feel like it.
In the end, there are only so many solutions which one can have in this arena. The greatest sport in China is of course table tennis, but if you were to go to say Japan, where they live in much closer quarters, a conversion top would probably solve many problems caused by this crampness.
The kids will end up playing for hours and having a ball in the meantime. It’s just that fun. Most tops won’t come with a net or posts, so you may want to get those in some sort of a package deal depending on who you buy it from. Think about it: how else are you going to fit a ping pong table down in that basement of yours? Or up into that rec room?
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