Learn To Play Now

A table tennis learning site for all beginners

STAGE ONE

• How to hold the racket- The Grip
  In table tennis, professionals play with either the Shakehand grip or the penhold grip.
  
  
• Some Basic skills (fore-hand attack, back-hand push, services and drop shot)
  1. The Drive

     Drives, a light topspin stroke that produces a low ball trajectory, are the primary offensive strokes in table tennis. One employs drives to force errors and to set up winners. The mastery of both the forehand and backhand drives is important because it will give your opponent less options when using attacking strokes of his/her own. In executing this and all other offensive strokes, the usage of the entire body in unison is important for consistency and power. Keep in the ready position until you are ready to execute the shot and remain relaxed but responsive(this is very important).

  2. FOREHAND DRIVE

     Keep the upper arm close, but not flush, to the torso. The forearm(form a rough 90 degree bend with the upper arm) should be drawn back to the 3 o'clock position, and let the waist turn naturally along with the arm(this is where relaxing is important). Shift your weight toward the right foot at the same time. While shifting your weight back to your left foot, swing forward with a slight upward motion, with the waist providing additional force in the swing. Use the elbow as a pivot point; it should not move so much up and down, but also should be allowed to move slightly forward in the follow-through. Contact with the ball should be made slightly to the side of the body after the top of the bounce. Make sure the paddle is somewhat closed(or facing downwards at an angle), and remains that way throughout the stroke. Follow-through should finish when racket is parallel with the left shoulder. Immediately return to the ready position. The left foot should be slightly in front of the right for support.

  3. BACKHAND DRIVE

     From the ready position, the waist turns left with the racket pointing towards the 9 o'clock position. When following through, contact with the ball is made in front of the body, slightly after the top of the bounce. Let the elbow again act as the pivot point, and snap the forearm forward in a slightly upward direction. Make sure the paddle is closed. Follow-through should finish naturally(about 12~1 o'clock) after contact with ball. The left foot should be slightly ahead of the right.

  4. The Push

     Pushes are the basic backspin shots, used to change the pace of an exchange or to return certain very low and close shots such as backspin serves. A generally defensive shot, it allows placement anywhere on the table that is difficult to attack when executed properly. All pushes should be done with the right foot stepping in. The ball is contacted right after the bounce with an open racket. How open the racket is depends on the intensity of backspin on the ball. Heavier backspin requires a more open racket to return over the net. Try to keep the ball low, varying the amount of backspin and racket angle.

  5. FOREHAND PUSH

     Bring the racket slightly up and back, while keeping the elbow at your waist. Bend the wrist back. Swing forward with a downward motion, and when the racket reaches the ball snap the wrist forward for extra racket speed. With an open racket, graze the bottom half of the ball. An ideal contact point is right after the ball bounces. Never push a ball at the top of the bounce, because the resulting return will pop the ball high enough for the opponent to execute a smash. Try to hit the ball in front and slightly to the right of your body. Follow through forward and slightly down, and return to the ready position

  6. BACKHAND PUSH

     Bring the racket slightly up and back, close into your stomach while cocking the wrist back. This time try to contact the ball directly in front of your body, and remember to keep the elbow still while the forearm and wrist move forward and down. Graze the bottom of the ball and follow through.

  7. The Block

     Blocking allows a player to use the opponent's force against him/her, and is done immediately after the bounce so that maximum control and speed are retained. Adjusting the racket angle depends on the severity of topspin on the ball; the more topspin there is, the more you should close the racket. Being essentially a cut-down drive, there is very little backswing and follow-through. Think of blocking as a backup shot that can be used when there isn't enough time for a full drive or loop. Depending on how much control you have over the block, it can be used offensively as well. Use your wrist to vary the direction of these block-returns, and make sure footwork takes you to the most choice areas to hit in.

  8. The Smash

     The smash, or kill, is the put-away stroke of table tennis. Any ball that is high enough and close enough to the opponent's side can be smashed, although some opportunities are better than others. Smashing combines waist, forearm, and wrist movement to the fullest extent. A good smash is very hard to return, but it can be done. Do not dawdle after you have executed a smash. The ball is contacted at the top of the bounce at its highest point

  9. FOREHAND SMASH

     Similar to the drive, the key differences include: a.. A longer backswing b.. Greater weight transfer during swing c.. Faster, more intense snapping of the forearm when contacting ball d.. Depending on ball height and position, the racket is closed more than usual to keep the ball in the court e.. Longer follow-through, but don't forget to anticipate a possible return!

  10. BACKHAND SMASH

      Again, use the guidelines above and apply them to the backhand drive. Be sure to snap the wrist more as you contact the ball and finish in a long follow-through.

  
  
• How to serve the ball
  Like other racket sports, the serve is an important table tennis skill. The serve starts each rally, getting every point underway. A talented server can control the flow of a rally with proper ball positioning, speed or style of serve.
  
  Basic Service Techniques
  
  The following are the basic rules of service:
  1. The ball must be held above the table level in order for the opponent and umpire to see it.
  2. The ball must be held in the palm of the hand with fingers stretched, and tossed vertically at least six inches.
  3. The ball must be struck only on the way down.
  4. The ball must be struck behind the end line. Serves are entirely up to the player; there are no specific serves that must be used by everybody. But to begin with, there are some basic serves that should be experimented with. Imparting spin on these serves should be concentrated mostly on the wrist.

STAGE TWO

• How to strike the ball

  Two, not one, motions are involved in striking a ball. You should start with a "receiving" backward swing first, then the "sending-off" forward swing. The receiving swing should be the reverse identical of the sending-off swing. The receiving swing serves as an aiming mechanism. It's the skill you would really need to learn to become steady at hitting the ball back.

  This skill, however, is the first but the least important. It is presented first because it is the minimum skill you should learn, especially for those any-way-you-want players. For those who want to be continually improving in their ping pong career, please consider this skill as a potential cause of distraction. It's those skills that involve the eyes and the legs are where you should always keep your mind on.

• How to Jump in returning serve

  In returning a serve, jump at the moment the ball bounces on the other side of the table. Notice you need two quick hops now to respond to what happens on the other side of the table. This is the one of the two reasons why returning the serve is the most difficult skill in ping pong. But if the two-hop motion is too tough, just jump on the ball's bounce on the table.

• How to return a serve

  This is very much the last skill you need, for you may never really get it in your life time. For even world class players, it seems most of them stop short at just hopping and jumping in sync with the served ball.

  But if you want to become better than world-class, you need learn how to attack the serve. To attack the serve, besides the hopping and jumping, you need to either "rub" the ball or "chase" the spin of the oncoming served ball aggressively. Rubbing means braking the spin by swinging into the ball in the opposite direction of the spin and then send it off in the same direction into which the ball is rolling off the paddle. This, however, should only be applied to side- and top-spin serves.

  To rub the ball, your stroke should move your paddle in the same direction, such as left to right, as the direction the server stroke. In so doing, you would not only "brake" the ball, but also following it out in the same direction. The braking gives you the control over the ball, while the following gives you longer contact time. Naturally, once you get used to do it, you would want to be aggressive in your return. Teeing off on a super spin serve is really entirely possible, if you can rub it right.

  A word of caution is due here. When you first try this, you would find your reflex slows down considerably. This is because you are now using the slow-reacting brain, rather than the automatic reflex motor muscle. Luckily most of us ping pong players can still have a lot of fun without this strange skill.

  To chase the ball, you swing in the same direction as the spin. This is the only way you can attack a downspin, or chopped, ball. And you achieve this by move your paddle in the opposite way as the server. Be sure to hold the paddle lightly while you are doing it, for you need a lot of speed to chase pass the ball.

• How to Serve Legally in Table Tennis

  Stand on your side of the table with the ball in your non-racket hand. Place the ball in the center of your palm. Be sure your hand is higher than the table surface and behind your end line. Keep the ball above the table's surface at all times during the serve. Toss the ball upward a minimum of six inches. Make contact on the descent with the ball visable during the toss at all time to your opponent. The ball must land on your side of the table first, then your opponent's. If the ball touches the top of the net on its way over, the ball is re-served. The ball can be served anywhere, any angle and long or short. Each player serves 2 points until one reaches 11 or at deuce (10-10) serves alternate.

• Different types of service and receiving
  1. Backspin

     just like pushing or chopping, a backspin serve is executed with an open racket slicing the bottom of the ball.

  2. Topspin

     like driving, topspin serves can be done hitting with a flat racket, or like looping, where the player grazes the top of the ball with a closed racket for more spin.

  3. Sidespin

     simply hit the back of the ball in a left-to-right or right-to-left motion, as desired. To make the stroke easier, try holding the racket in front of you and brushing the bottom of the ball in a pendulum motion.

Introduction to rules of the game

Introduction of doubles play