What is a Table Tennis Bat called?

The surface of the covering material on a side of the blade, or of a side of the blade if it is left uncovered, shall be matt, bright red on one side and black on the other.

the rules of table tennis state that one side of the racket shall be bright red and the other side black.

This rule was introduced because of the increased use of "combination" rackets in the late 70s and early 80s.

Players were using the same colour rubber on each side of their racket - but each side was a different type of rubber - and this made it very difficult for the opponent to know what type of spin was being imparted onto the ball.

So if you're planning on taking part in authorised table tennis events, make sure that you buy the correct colours.

In table tennis the two color rule is used to ensure that the opponent has a fair chance of telling which side of the bat has been used to hit the ball. Before the two color rule was introduced, any color could be used for table tennis rubbers, and players were using combination bats with the same color on both sides and twiddling the bat, making it very difficult to tell which side was hitting the ball.

This was considered to produce table tennis which was not spectator friendly, since it was difficult for uninformed spectators to understand why players were making seemingly simple mistakes.