Abstract: Created and developed in England, Table Tennis went through a series of evolutions until it reached current standards and became a mass sport, with millions of practitioners around the world. Currently, Table Tennis is officially practiced in 150 countries, surpassing the mark of 15 million practitioners, being among the seven largest federations in the world. At school, Table Tennis provides students with great joy and motivation, in addition to developing various skills, both motor and cognitive and affective. This modality can be characterized as the sum of skills that, together, make up the game, where the practitioner performs different types of efforts, requiring reaction speed, muscular resistance and ability to concentrate during the game, thus developing the physique, the motor technique, psychological and social aspects. Knowing that this modality helps in the development of the student’s potential, its use in Physical Education classes is justified, however, in the city of Rio do Sul, Santa Catarina, table tennis is left aside in these classes. Therefore, this investigation sought to analyze the main factors that impede the development of this modality in the institutions investigated. The research was carried out in the 6th and 7th year classes of the Paulo Cordeiro State Basic Education School and Municipal Educational Center Municipal Prefeito Luiz Adelar Soldatelli, in the municipality of Rio do Sul-SC, one state and one municipal. With the aim of investigating why table tennis is little used in relation to other sports in Physical Education classes, questionnaires were administered to Physical Education students and teachers from these two schools. Thus, it was found that this modality is used with little intensity in the schools studied, as well as without appropriate planning, methods or materials, but the vast majority of students show interest when using this modality in Physical Education classes. Regarding the teachers surveyed, they demonstrated that they understand that this modality has the same importance in the school environment as other sports, however, they believe that for a better development of the same, they must prepare themselves through specialized courses, exchanges of information and practical experiences, so that you can plan your classes with refined methods and techniques that can motivate, encourage and adequately provide opportunities for students every day, giving them the conditions to progress not only in Physical Education classes, but also throughout his student career. Thus, it was found that in addition to the lack of specialization on the part of teachers in this modality, the limitations that the schools surveyed have in terms of physical space and material resources, as well as the lack of of knowledge that students have about the basic rules and lack of incentive to practice the sport.

Keywords: Table tennis; Elementary School; Physical Education.