Headis, Header Table Tennis

HEADIS is hybrid of head and tennis and was invented in 2006 by René Wegner, a Saarbruecker sports science student at the time, at "Wesch", a pool in Kaiserslautern, Germany. The soccer field was occupied, that was why they started heading the ball back and forth at the table tennis table. During his study he developed the idea with his common student and friend Felix Weins. In 2008 HEADIS became part of the sport program at the University of Saarbruecken. That is when HEADIS started to spread throughout Germany. HEADIS is easy to start, fun to play and simple that is why more people join in and start playing every day. There is a huge media interest (both print and TV) in HEADIS and it got awarded as one of the finalist at the 2010 "ISPO brandnew Award" in Munich, the world's largest start-up competition in the sporting goods industry.
In 2008 the German wide tournament series was founded. There are around 10 -12 tournaments per year where men, women and youth are separately battling for points and ranking positions in the world - ranking. At the end of the year the most successful player of the HEADIS-Cup series gets awarded. Each tournament itself is ranked, depending on the size of the tournament from one to five stars. The number of stars multiplies with 40 equals the amount of points the winner gets. There is only one five star event each year, the HEADIS worldchampionship, which is going to be held for the fourth time 2010 in Göttingen. 2007 it took place in Kaiserslautern, 2009 at the University of Saarbrücken where more than 120 participants of 6 nations played. Top ranked players as well as qualifiers of the first day of the event this year the 30th of July qualify for the worldchampionship at the 31st of July. The worldchampion 2008 and 2009 is Marvin Löscher (Nickname: Marvelous 96) from Barsinghausen (Hannover).