Rhodesy's detailed table tennis guide!

Welcome to Rhodesy's detailed guide on how to play table tennis!​

Table of contents
1) Introduction.
2) The basics.
3) The rules.
4)The type of player you are.
5)Picking the equipment.
6)Spin.
7)Serves.
8)Following up onto serves.
9)Game situations.

Introduction
Table tennis first originated where I live, in England, it was believed it started after dinner parties as a fun game, it was around the 1880s, people use wine bottle caps, and played it with string, but as the game became more and more popular, companies started producing equipment, and the start of the wonderful game known as table tennis!

In this guide, I'm going to tell you some very important tips on how to play table tennis, how to serve, how to follow up a serve, to choose which player you want to be, picking the right equipment to your advantage, and how to cope in game situations.

First, I play for two teams. My hometown team, on the odd Saturday we play people the same age group, and we have just been promoted to the next higher division last year, and are currently mid table on the top division, so we are doing quite well. Also a pub team, with my friends and we play every Friday or so.


The basics
Before you start anything you will need to just adjust to the game, and get used to playing it. You could go over to your nearest youth centre or sports plaza. Usually these places will supply you with the bats and balls, and have tables there.

Take a friend and play for a few hours, by then, you'll get the overall idea of how to play, and get your co-ordination sorted out, you would of realised that you would need to have your bat on a slight angle going forward with the ball, about, 150 degrees.

The rules.
They are many rules you will have to keep in mind when playing table tennis; I will briefly go over them.
When you serve, the ball must be on your palm, and the opponent can see it, if the ball is under the table for example, and your serve and throw it, that is a fault, and the person gets the point. When you throw the ball, it would need to reach roughly 6 inches from the air and your palm. When you serve, the ball must hit your side, then the opponent’s side, once that’s happened, you have to keep hitting on the opponents side after the serve. If the ball hits the net on the serve and goes on the opponents side, it is called a "let" and the serve is retaken. If the ball hits the net, goes on your side, goes of the edge of the table, you lose the point. If you throw the ball into the air, and you miss the ball, and it hits the floor, you lose the point. When you serve, the ball must be behind the table. If your hand goes onto the table, you lose the point. If you miss the opponent’s side when hitting it, you lose the point. If you hit the net, and the ball does not go over, you lose the point. If you hit the ball, and it clips the edge of the table, and makes a high pitch sound, and the ball clearly hits the point of the table, you win the point. (Note, many sportsmen’s say sorry when this happens, also when the ball hits the net and goes over) However. If the ball hits the side of the table, not the edge, the black bit surrounding the edges, it counts as a miss, it would usually make a low pitched thud, if you are unsure about if it hit the side or edge, call a let, and retake the point. If you are playing and the ball hasn't yet bounced on your side, and you are in front on the white line and you hit it, it classes as a volley, and you lose the point.

Each game goes up to 11 points, with each person serving twice, you can decide who serves first, by flipping a coin or hiding the ball under the table and telling them to pick hands. If the game goes to 10-10. You will need to win by two clear points, and it is alternative serves (one serve each from there)
Example. Jim 10 Bob 10. Jim wins the point 11-10. Bob serves, bob wins the point 11-11. Jim serves, and wins the point 12-11. Bob serves, and loses the point, 13-11 to Jim, and Jim wins the set.

The sets usually go up to three, and the first person to win three sets wins.(Usually it can go up to two, or five.) After each set, you switch sides on the tables. If the game goes to 2-2 and its the 5th set. When someone reaches 5 points, you switch ends.

After the game has finished you must shake hands with the opposite player, and the umpire, umpiring the game. Don't cry like a baby if you lost, and whine you will seriously look an idiot. Be a good sportsmen and smile, even when you have lost.

The type of player you are.
Now that you have overall grasped the rules, you should start to think what type of player you are going to be, there are many categories but the main two are. DEFENSIVE, and ATTACKING.

Defensive if kind of self explanatory in the title, you defend. You would have a bat what slows down the spin, usually pimpled bats, and have a lot of spin. When someone attacks, you would do simple hit back, and never attack. You would put a lot of BACKSPIN (Which I'll cover later) on the ball to slow the rally’s down. Usually the main motives of defensive players is for you to miss, and keep playing until you do, and get you frustrated. If you do play a defensive player, remember keep it on the table, don't go for big hits and play them around the table, read the spin and you'll be ok.

Attacking players are the most common types. They do the opposite of a defensive player they just play shots, play people around the table and when the gaps open, they smash the ball. (I am one of these players). The majority of spin they would use is TOPSPIN, and SIDESPIN (I will also cover these later on). They would use fast spin rubber such as mendo or killerspin.

Picking the equipment.

You'll need some equipment when playing table tennis:
Some baggy shorts.


A loose tee shirt. NOTE: The tee-shirt can not be white, since the ball will blend in with it, and it is illegal.


A table tennis table of course.


And some trainers. (table tennis shoes could be effective, if not any will do)


From the previous step. Pick which player you want to be and then read the section, For the type of bat you would want.

For defensive players, on a low budget, I would just get an ordinary butterfly bat, with spin, since they are very cheep around $15-$20 for the blade and the rubber they have no power, and ideal for defensive players, although they would have spin.



For defensive players on a high budget, I would get a type of bat called Pimples. Pimples is a type of rubber that as the name suggests, Has pimples in the rubber, you can have two types of pimples, short pimples or long pimples. Basically, pimples takes all the speed, power and spin out of a shot, and gives it back dead. It would seem it would have power on and when people hit it back, not putting power on, since there is already power, it would hit the net. Long pimples is just a more extreme version of short pimples and the effects are greater. For the bat and rubber, it would be around $65-$110. If you are really interested table tennis I suggest getting the butterfly one for now, and if you want to take this on on the next step, go to pimpled bat.



(you can see the little pimples on the bat)

For attacking players, on a low budget, I would get a simple globe bat rubber, and simple blade. It's nothing special, it has power, and spin, and is around $20-$30. Ideal for starting off with.



For attacking players on a high budget, I would get either a bat what I have a mendo bat, it has high spin, and fast rubbers. The blade is flared; I've used this bat for about 2 years. It's very reliable, and if you can adapt to it, it is a great bat. Also you could choose a very good bat, if you have a high budget. My brother has this bat, and he bought it with his Uni money. It cost him around $200-$250, It is a killerspin bat, the bat is EXTREAMLY fast, I’ve played with it, and should only get this bat if you are experienced. The blade consist of light titanium in-between the blade what make the blade vibrate power easily as it travels faster for power, and the rubber is very fast, and if looking for all out smash type of player, this is the bat for you.

Mendo


Killerspin


Of course, you don't have to choose the bats I have stated, they are only guidelines to which bat you should choose, go on the internet and explore different bats, until you find one that you would like.


Spin.
Spin is a very important step in table tennis, many players like me, use spin to their advantage there are three types of spin in table tennis. Topspin. Backspin, and sidespin.

Topspin is used to put an unexpected just of power on the ball when the ball bounces on your opponents side, this causes the ball to fly off the table, or the opponent to miss. You can do topspin by having your bat on an angle around about 130 degrees, and then hitting the very top of the ball, this generates a mass amount of spin. This is a very good opening to the game if you play on a professional level, don't worry if you can't get the idea just yet, when you adapt to table tennis more, you will.

Topspin shot.


Backspin is used to slow the game down, if someone is a fast player, and likes to hit the ball a lot, I recommend to use this shot. You hit the very bottom of the ball downwards and your bat angle around 210 degrees.

Backspin shot.


Sidespin is used to put the ball in the position you would want it to be, for an advantage also to drive the ball of the table. You would come across the ball either from the top or the bottom as sidespin can be adjusted into a topspin, and backspin or a block shot.

If you have a very good forehand (presuming your right handed) and want the ball to come to the forehand, do a side spin shot from your left, to your right, and the ball should come there as the spin takes it there.


If you have a good backhand, bring the back from your right to the left hand side, and the ball should come there as well, since the spin drives it there.


Serves

Serving is probably the most important part of table tennis. It opens the game up, and many experienced players use spin on the serve to their advantages, as stated before (see pictures on how to put spin above) on the rules the serves have to be in the eye line of the opponent and must be thrown at least 6 inches in the air.

I have very good serves, and I put a lot of spin on them, so when I play a player I get a lot of points just purely from my serve, since I make the ball travel of the table, or to my desired place.

There are three different types of serves you can do, backspin, topspin and sidespin. People use these to there advantage. For example someone is a defender, I wouldn't want to do a backspin serve now would I? I would want to use a lot of topspin, since they wouldn't be able to hit it back as easily since they are used to backspin.

Now it isn't all spin in serves, there is also, precision, length and height.
Do get a precise serve, make sure you take your time, and slowly serve, not fast, or it'll just mess up. To get the right height make sure it is low, if it is high many players will see a high serve and just smack it past you, to make it go low, come down with the balls height then hit, this will make it just go over the net and hard for the person to return. You choose the length if you are doing a backspin serve I recommend using a short serve and if you are using a topspin serve I recommend doing a long serve.

Following onto serves.
Following onto serves is a very important part of table tennis you have to look at the bat closely and read the spin. If a person is doing sidespin remember this important fact, it will help you a lot. If you see the bat coming from right to left of the spin, place the ball where the bat originally started from so, yes its the right hand side, this will ensure that the spin doesn’t drive your shot of the table.

If it is a backspin shot, make sure if it is a short shot, either a little chop back to them, of a flick of topspin. If it is wide, I recommend top spinning the ball back, controlled, if you have not got the hang of topspin yet, just do a backspin shot back.

If it is a topspin shot, make sure that you take your time and either let the ball hit you bat and keep it at an angle, this will come back to them short, or if it is high just hit it down there backhand.

When you are waiting for a serve, and when you are in a middle of a serve in that matter, make sure your feet are in the right position, always have your left leg, slightly further than your right leg. If it was the other way round you couldn't play your forehand shots. Make sure when your waiting for the ball to come, raise your bat, do not keep it low.

Game situations.
When you are playing a game, make sure too keep your cool, relax and be on the balls of your feet. Believe you can make the shot hit, and it will. Don't get angry; since you'll be thinking of the anger and you wont be thinking about how to play shots etc. Also, if it is a competitive game, if you play a great shot, grasp your fish and say something like "Cmon!" this makes the opponent uncomfortable and give you a psychological advantage over him/her.

So, if you just remember all these tips and use them in practice, you're ensured to win a lot more games, and beat all your friends.
Thanks for reading. Rhodesy.

 

Great guide Rhodesy, layout looks pretty good and there are a lot of detailed pictures that help show and explain the things you were talking about. I think that you just need to fix a few spelling errors. I play table tennis sometimes with friends just for fun sometimes maybe this will help me own them haha. Just run this through spell checker real fast and fix some of the spelling and it will be a VERY good guide.

9.5/10 from me.

 

Thanks a lot drew, the spelling errors have been fixed.

 

The guide was very details, without being a complete essay. I like the amount of pictures you used, you used a suitable amount. One thing that annoyed me rather was your large text, making the text that large was a pain for me to read. Try using

tags too. One last thing I'd like to point out is you used every color on the rainbow. I don't know if it's just me or whatever, but I prefer using just the one color.

It was a good guide nontheless. Thanks for posting it.​

 

good guide, but you left out one major detail, you've gotta be Asian to go pro.

 

Yeah, I tried to use the

​

thing on the introduction bit, it just looked a mess. I also thought if the text was too small, people couldn't read, and colour adds interest. But I can openly admit, too much does make it messy, thanks for taking your time for reading it marrow, most people are like TL;DR.

How did I miss that out!?
Lol. ​