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Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers in a Movie! I was contacted recently by a production assistant for the upcoming French movie " Perdrix. As he explained, "In the movie, one of the characters, a teenager named Marion is a table tennis player and learns from the French translation of your book Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers. As she reads it every chance she gets. The Table Here's the video ad 60 sec - it's a great TT story! Plus they used real players even though it literally takes place in a basement!

It's a terrible loss for our organization. I chair the Selection Committee. Here's the Day 4 Highlights 2: Training Drills or Matches? Here's the article by Tom Lodziak. Here's the article on the world 4 - at age Class of Here's the article. Triangle TT is in North Carolina. SmashTT, the club Michael started and currently runs, will continue with new management taking over. This chapter covers "Past and Present Interactions. Ibrahim Hamato on a Robot Here's the video 1: Haven't seen or heard of him? I've tried this, and it's a lot harder than it looks. Playing Table Tennis on 3 Tables Here's the video 17 sec.

You Need to Watch this Match Point! Here's the video 73 sec, but "the point" is in the first 6 sec, the rest is replay and slo-mo. Off-Stage Exhibition Lobbing Here's the video 49 sec! It starts off slow but gets a bit crazy as it goes on. Waldner Trick Serve Here's the video 12 sec! Watch the ball in his hand closely. Jorg Rosskopf Here's the video 26 sec! That's a lot bigger than the ones used by Bill Gates or Ellen Degeneres! This is from my April 27, blog. This was from a blog in , but hopefully all the links still work. Coaching Subtleties and Attacking the Middle After 42 years of playing and coaching I can pretty much analyze an opponent's weaknesses within a game, based both on what he does, but also on his strokes, stance, footwork, etc.

If a shakehand player has long arms and tends to extend his arm when stroking, and so has a big gap between where they contact their forehand and backhand, I don't need to see the player react to an attack to the middle for me to know there's going to be a weakness there. However, when coaching, you also have to know the player you are coaching to really be effective.

Even if you watch a player for a time you can't always pick up on everything.

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It's not just what your player does, but what he doesn't do - and why. If he isn't playing into an opponent's weakness, is it because he hasn't seen the weakness, or because he can't effectively go after it, at least in some ways? If I played someone who doesn't cover the middle well the transition point between forehand and backhand, roughly the playing elbow , and a coach told me to open with my forehand loop to his middle, it wouldn't work.

The coach saw the opponent's weakness, and seemingly correctly told me to attack it with my forehand. I was a very aggressive forehand attacker. But he has no way of knowing whether I could go after that weakness unless he really knew my game. He'd see me attacking the corners relentless with my forehand, and only attacking the middle with my backhand. So he'd tell me to attack the middle with my forehand - but he'd be making a mistake. Because, like many players, I don't have a good instinct for attacking the middle with my forehand. On the backhand it's easier, since you are looking right at the player, but with the forehand you have to look away, and can only see the opponent and his moving middle with your peripheral vision.

In contrast, the table corners do not move. See Forehand Deception with Shoulder Rotation. But I only got away with it because I really spent a lot of time working on forehand deception, and it still handicapped me in many matches, including players well below the level.

Attacking the middle works at all levels. Against many players, I often should attack the middle first to draw them out of position as well as force an awkward return , and then go to the corners. Except that I had been attacking the corners with my forehand for so long that I simply couldn't attack the middle effectively. This was both because I hadn't trained at finding and aiming at the middle, and because from my normal forehand ready position as I prepared to forehand loop, I had only trained to go two ways, wide to the right and wide to the left, never in between.

Going to the middle was almost like a new stroke. Perhaps with lots of training I might be able to do this, but it would take serious practice. I read once where the great Chinese player and coach Cai Zhenhua said that learning to attack the middle effectively was one of those things you needed to learn early and young, or you could never really do it effectively.

It's a moving target, and you can't just blindly go there since the opponent will sometimes be ready to blast a forehand off that shot if you aren't aware of what he's doing. I think he was mostly referring to attacking it with the forehand, as it's much easier to learn to do this with the backhand. And so the coach, who correctly saw that the opponent I was playing was weak in the middle, and that I wasn't going after it with my forehand, would have given me poor match coaching by telling me to go after the middle.

It would have also been distracting since it would make me aware that the coach didn't really know my game. He would be right to tell me to develop this technique, which is strategic thinking, as opposed to the tactical thinking needed in a match.

Table Tennis

I've faced this type of thing many times. I used to coach Tong Tong Gong at major tournaments, and even after he made the USA National Cadet Team, he was uncomfortable serving short to the forehand, as it opened up an angle to his wide forehand that he not only had difficulty covering, but also pulled him out of position. And so he'd often struggle in matches against players with weak forehand receives versus short serves, since he couldn't take advantage of this. With training, he finally overcame this weakness.

I once told a junior player between games to open with slow, spinny loops, and he said, "I don't know how to loop slow, I can only loop fast. So, what types of tactical weaknesses in opponents have you faced that you were unable to take advantage of because of weaknesses in your game? Have you worked to overcome those weaknesses, as I would now be working on overcoming my forehand-vs-middle weakness, if I were still in training? The first 45 minutes was doubles. I worked with several teams on proper doubles movement for teams of two righties and for lefty-righty teams, plus other coaching on serve, receive, and placement.

Then came singles for 75 minutes, with a number of improvised games to force players to work on specific things - such as learning to play under pressure by starting games with the server down That night I binged watched the final eight episodes of House of Cards, finishing at 3: On Sunday afternoon in the Beginning Class, we started with 25 minutes of various stroking and footwork drills, then ten minutes of pushing practice. Then came the main focus as I introduced them to the forehand loop against backspin.

Then they went out on the tables, rotating so they did multiball looping with the coach, and practiced with other players where they'd serve backspin, receiver would push long, and the serve would then push, and play out the point. That's why I had them do ten minutes of pushing practice. In the advanced Talent Program, I mostly fed multiball for about an hour, doing various drills, mostly fast footwork.

I also worked with them on serve and attack drills. Then came physical training, and then we finished with Brazilian Teams. Table Tennis Books by Larry Hodges Yep, this is one of those periodic postings where I ask you to support a poor relative to Jeff Bezos , starving I had a small breakfast and it's almost lunchtime table tennis writer by buying my books! Here are my table tennis books that are currently sold on Amazon:. Table Tennis Book Collection I now have table tennis books!

Open - Early Bird Deadline is Nov. I'll be there, attending meetings and coaching, and going to Disneyland afterwards. Here are the two finals. Why not browse over them? Alas, I didn't attend, and haven't heard anything yet about what happened. I will likely write something about it next week.

When Choosing a Coach… Here are 20 Guidelines , by Edward John Lynn, which is particularly pertinent to parents, though they apply to all. What is Pause and Snap? Here's the article by EmRatThich. Slow Motion Analysis of Xu Xin vs. Harimoto Tomokazu Here's the video 3: Black Cat Table Tennis Here's their extensive video page. Here's the article by Coach Jon.

Here's the article by Eli Baraty. Tenergy 05 Hard Here's the review from Butterfly. I generally don't link to equipment reviews - too much conflict of interest since I'm sponsored by Butterfly - but this could be a big one. Full title is, "The first-person story of how ping pong saved the life of a New York City kid and took him all the way to North Korea.

He's a table tennis Olympian from Jamaica who for decades has spent much of his time playing and coaching in the U. I'm told there will be at least one more article on this. Vitalii Lievshin - Super Division Here's the video Saive is former world 1. It was held Sunday, Nov. The actual injury happens 24 seconds in. Adam is the Voice of the ITTF on their videos and tournament coverage, as well as an exhibition player, as he's doing here. Nandan Naresh Target Practice Here's the video 16 sec.

Would I Lie To You? Here's the video Steve Worthington sent it to me, and wrote, "It's a British show where 2 panels of 3 are trying to convince each other of various lies, while someone is actually telling the truth. Show Secretin - Purkart Here's the video 3: It's an old video, but still great! They are star players from France. Secretin was one of the best in the world, and he and Purkart French wiki entry, you can translate to English became professional exhibition players. I had a reading read the first two chapters of my novel Campaign Game of Scorpions , which has a lot of table tennis , and a book signing session.

I also went to dinner with 15 other Odyssey Writing Workshop alumni!


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Odyssey is a six-week writing workshop I attended in , with annual nine-day workshops for graduates in July - I've attended nine of those. They hold these periodically. They've had a number of mini-strategic meetings, where the USATT board breaks up into groups to discuss specific issues - I've been to about ten of those. But the last time they had a real Strategic Meeting like this was in , which didn't go well and led to nothing.

I've been to five of them. I was debating whether to attend this one - as Coaching Chair, I was allowed to choose two coaches, and could include myself - but chose not to this time, though now I'm sort of regretting it - I'd like to be there. So I did the next best thing, and wrote the following letter to the attendees, which focuses on learning from the mistakes of past Strategic Meetings, and on Regionalization, which will be a major issue at this meeting.

I apologize for the length of this email, but I think the content is important. I am writing about two things:. I have been to five previous USATT Strategic Meetings, mostly two days long each time, and about ten "mini" Strategic Meetings where we broke into groups at regular board meetings to discuss and plan various Strategic issues. None have been successful. I left each of them depressed because each time the same type of mistakes were made, and each was a wasted opportunity. And yet, in every case, the huge majority of those in the meeting left enthused and patting themselves on the back, thinking they had accomplished a lot, when in reality nothing substantive had been done.

This is why I decided not to attend this time - I've been to too many of these slow-motion wrecks in progress where we can see what's happening but let it happen anyway. Though I now regret it - I rather wish I were attending, and would go if there were an opening. Perhaps I'm like Charlie Brown and the football.

Each time I have brought this up before the latest Strategic Meeting I have been given the same answer - that "This time it will be different. A better answer would be, "What can we do to make sure we are successful this time? Like other Strategic Meetings, it was organized and moderated by an outside professional group that specialized in this type of thing, with great credentials.

I strongly recommend you read it - those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. One note — I was nice in the blog, and didn't say this, but in my opinion, two people with strong opinions on every topic hijacked much of the meeting and led it in a bad direction. But the same had happened in all previous such Strategic Meetings. A person with great experience and success can rarely compete in these meetings with a Type A personality without such success, but who speaks well and looks good in a suit.

One of the big issues at the Strategic Meeting and nearly all past ones is Regionalization. For one thing, it's required by our bylaws. Here is Article VI from our bylaws in its entirety:. The Board of Directors shall divide the United States into geographic regions as the Board determines in its sole discretion will best serve the interests of the sport of Table Tennis. Over the last 20 years there have been a number of "attempts" to fulfill this. I put "attempts" in quotes because, to me, they were not serious attempts, though those who made these "attempts" would likely disagree.

In each case, they did pretty much the same thing, in this order — and I apologize if this is sarcastic, but I've been through this nearly exact sequence many times already. As I explained at the recent USATT board meeting, we did once successfully regionalize the country, or at least were well into the process, when politics intervened and killed the program. Here is what happened, circa While this is ancient history to many of us, the applicability of the program hasn't changed, and has only grown easier, since we now have email and websites.

When I set up and ran the following programs, it was all done by phone and postal mail. I spent years studying and creating these plans, and was able to put them into operation when I became chair of the Club Committee and Coaching Committee. And yes, I had fun with the acronyms below, as you'll see. We also had the advantage of a very supportive President Dan Seemiller.

To create these programs, we ran regular articles in USATT Magazine calling for volunteers, as well as direct mailings to club leaders and coaches, with specific instructions on what volunteers would be asked to do. By giving these specifics, there was little uncertainty, and we were able to get a large number of energetic volunteers. The actual regions were the states themselves, with some exceptions. California, Texas, and New York were divided into two, and could even be three.

Some regions were changed to reflect local table tennis populations. When I refer to a state director below, in some cases it's actually a regional director. The thinking behind the plan was simple. If you create State Directors right at the start, or have large regions of multiple states, there's just too much for one person to do, and little infrastructure to start with. So we start with the infrastructure - appointing State Club Directors to create clubs in the larger cities in their state; State Coaching Directors to get coaches in these clubs; State League Directors to create leagues in these clubs as well as intra-club leagues ; and so on.

When the infrastructure is there, that's when you bring in a State Director to be in overall charge in that state. Until that time, someone has to be in charge of appointing and supervising the State Directors. That person has to spend much time organizing it, calling for volunteers from each state, and working with them to fulfil their goals.

Because we had no Internet in the early s, we did it step by step, year by year, with the goal to build up each state to the point where they could have semi-independent State Associations. These days some states might be able to do several steps at once. In years — including most of the first year just setting things up, so really about two years — USATT certified clubs went from to USATT membership, which had been around for the previous years, went over , with a net gain of over Certified coaches went from about 80 to over This was just a start; the goal was to emulate growth in such sports as tennis.

The sports I most studied in developing these plans were tennis, gymnastics, and martial arts. Tennis is an individual sport like ours with similar equipment demands and huge numbers of league players, just as table tennis does in Europe. Gymnastics is an indoor sport that faces the same equipment storage problems we face. Martial arts is another sport that started out as a primarily Asian sport but spread successfully to America. The purpose of these associations is to develop the sport in their region.

USATT can continue to collect membership fees directly. This is done differently in various parts of the world. At the other extreme is the English TTA, which technically has zero members - but it has over , members in its regional associations, which is what players pay to join. Here is an outline of the program. The main difference I would do now would be more emphasis on full-time professional clubs with full-time coaching and training programs.

At the time I was creating these programs, I was also creating the Maryland Table Tennis Center, the first successful full-time training center in the U. The business model for MDTTC would later be copied and spread nationwide — there are now 93 such clubs that I know of. A club in every city in the U. At the time there were cities in the U. We actually started this program in a few states for six months, had great success, then expanded it nationwide.

A coach in every USATT club, with a later goal of a junior program in every club run by the club's coaches.

Elevating Your Game: How To Choose The Best Ping Pong Paddle

USATT certified coaches went from around 80 to over in about 1. As coaching chair, I created and ran the coaching certification process. A league in every club and a club league system in every state or region. State Tournament Directors witty acronym needed Goal: Regular tournaments in every state or region, including a State Championship. Every state or region organized as a state or regional organization, whose purpose would be to develop table tennis in their state or region in every way possible — clubs, coaches, junior programs, leagues, and tournaments.

The thinking here was as follows. If you try to set up a state association where there's little already organized, it's hard to get it off the ground. But if you first set up club, coaching, league, and tournament directors, and use them to create infrastructure, then you are well on your way to creating successful State Associations that can continue to develop the sport in their region. Unfortunately, we never got this state. In , a new president came in.

One of his first acts was to replace all the pertinent committees with his own people, change the USATT emphasis to officials and tournaments, and cancel nearly every program that was created under the previous administration, including the programs above. Should the above program be copied exactly? Of course not; times have changed, and there are more than one way to do things. But the basic plan worked, and would work today even better, due to better communications. We started the session with about 25 minutes of regular stroking and footwork drills. Then 20 minutes of smashing, either with multiball, with a coach or practice partner fishing.

Then we did ten minutes of serving practice. Then came games the last 30 minutes. The older kids played Brazilian Teams. For the younger ones, I put my water bottle and Gatorade bottle on the table and fed multiball. If they hit the Gatorade bottle, I had to drink its "worm juice.

The last 15 minutes they did the usual cup game, where they built paper cup fortresses on the table and then knocked it down in multiball. In the Talent Program the advanced junior class , as usual I spent most of the session feeding multiball. Lots and lots of footwork! They finished the session with Brazilian Teams. Afterwards we had a Talent Program Party - lots of pot luck Chinese food! After eating, the head coaches met with each of the parents and kids to give progress reports.

Meanwhile, the kids played various games - mini-paddle, big-ball, Chinese yo-yo, and the younger kids had an incredible game of ping-pong dodgeball. Interviews I recently added links to the About section here to a number of interviews I've done. They are both table tennis and science fiction, my outside activity. World Cadet Challenge Here's the home page for the event, Oct. Swedish Open Here's the home page for the event, Nov.


  1. 21 Table Tennis Tips: Never Lose a Ping Pong Game Again!.
  2. A Pilgrimage to Cross Creek;
  3. The Real Secret To Choosing Your Table Tennis Racket.
  4. Der Friede von Hubertusburg 1763 (German Edition).
  5. The Twilight Legacies.
  6. How Important is a Table Tennis Rally? Huntsman World Senior Games Here are the results. Running it is star college player Nathan Hsu, taking the directorial reigns for the first time. It's a double round robin event followed by single elimination. That means you start out in preliminary round robins at 9AM. Based on your performance there you go into a second round robin with about seven players at noon.

    Based on your performance there you go into the single elimination stage at 6: Incredible Point to Finish Comeback Here's the video 2: The point itself lasts about 20 seconds, the rest is the team celebrating. This chapter covers " World Team Cup. Happy Birthday Ma Long!!!

    Here's the video 42 sec as top players wish him a Happy Birthday! Weekend Coaching I did a lot of "scouting" this weekend. By scouting, what I really mean is I watched and studied our junior players in matches and practice and took lots of notes.

    Comparing The Best Ping Pong Paddles, 2019 (Pros and Cons)

    Plus, of course, there was the usual weekend group sessions. I watched our junior players in the Friday night league for 2. I spoke with each of the players on the issues I saw, including both strengths and weaknesses. Some problems I saw included:. I coached in the Saturday Junior League for two hours. It's not a "normal" league - it's really half league, half coaching. We did a lot of doubles the first half, so I worked with players on their doubles footwork and tactics. In singles, we had them play improvised games, such as where they score two points if they serve and attack and win the point not necessarily on the first shot.

    We also played games where each game starts with the server serving down , but wins if they get both points on their serve, plus a few other variations. In the Beginning Class 1. Then we did 30 minutes of regular stroking and footwork drills, followed by games. In the Talent Development Program, I did a lot of multiball and then worked with four on their serves for a time. Then we did physical training, much of it with various ladder exercises. Then all the coaches went out for dinner Japanese food this time where, as always, we went over each of the players.

    I brought my pages of notes for this. Men's World Cup Here's the home page , with complete results, articles, pictures, and video from the event that finished yesterday in a China-German final between world 1 Fan Zhendong and former world 1 Timo Boll. Here are videos, with time between points removed. Eric also finished 7th in and , and 8th in For many years the format was four groups of four with the top two advancing to the quarterfinals, so back then players had to make the final eight to reach the main draw. Ranked 67 in the world at age 18, he upset world 21 Arun Quadri.

    Here are two links. University of Maryland Open Here's the info page and entry form. Butterfly Southeastern Open Here's the results, video, and photo page. This chapter covers " July Tournaments. But Nandan - side balls aren't good in table tennis, so you lost every one of those points!!! Next time you'll have to play off the edge.

    Nandan, 11, is rated Desk Pong Footwork Here's the video 16 sec! How could you possibly go through high school and not do this? This is basically accomplished by footwork.

    Turning to about 30 to 60 degrees from the table enables most of the stroke to move forward even if you swing across the body. Second, the first 20 to 30 percent of the power of the shot comes from rotating the whole body into the ball, towards the table. Boosting the power ever further comes from the acceleration of the whole stroke in the last foot of the swing before the ball is contacted, but still maintaining the same form but more speed as with a slower stroke.

    Keeping the same form for fast and slow shots will greatly improve consistency. And third, the topspin motion should come almost entirely from flexing the elbow, starting with the arm more straight and finishing with the arm more bent at the elbow. So look at your arm at the end of this stroke. If your arm is straight, you got very little if any topspin on the ball. If your elbow is strongly bent, then you had to have put good topspin on the ball. Watch very strong players and see this in action.

    Watch weaker players and try to develop your eye to recognize what they are doing wrong. This recognition can help you recognize what you are doing wrong as well. For most amateur table tennis players this tends to be either a defensive choice, or an even further retreat into passivity… just get the ball back … somehow. When this happens, you are totally at the mercy of your opponent. Maybe you even see it as a dubious strength being unpredictable. Going on the defensive can be an OK choice, depending on your opponent, but passivity is almost always a poor choice.

    So, what to do? There are only a few defensive players in the top 50 international players. The attacker aggressor controls the point. They are always trying to accomplish something, even if it is just trying to keep the rally going for one more exchange. Defending should be active defense, not total passivity. Passivity usually means just getting your paddle in front of the ball with the face tipped upward so the ball will go over the net, but who knows where?

    What do I recommend?

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    Unless you want to be a defensive player an OK choice , I recommend always looking to be aggressive but smart, not just blindly attacking everything. If you are ready to attack and find the situation to be not right, there is time to fall back on a defensive or temporizing shot. If you are already set for a defensive shot, there is often not time to switch to an attacking shot after the ball is already on the way.

    Plan to lean forward, move forward, swing forward. Top-spin helps control the ball down onto the table, substantially improving your consistency. And the stronger players practically never have this problem. So … the problem looks like this — The stroke starts maybe OK but just before the paddle meets the ball you slap at the ball, so the first part of the stroke is almost completely disconnected from the actual hit.

    This means that the first part of the stroke is doing nothing. You might as well hold the paddle out in front of you and just slap at the ball anyway. The appearance is very jerky just before the paddle gets to the ball. Very wasteful of energy and very hard to achieve any consistency. The stroke should appear to flow rather smoothly. Sometimes it helps to swing slowly so you have time to watch yourself. You should adjust the angle of the paddle surface compared to the table top, or floor, or sometimes the incoming path of the ball correctly to handle the spin that your opponent put on the ball.

    This you should do as soon as your opponent starts to swing at the ball. If you see topspin coming, close the racquet angle tip the top forward — how much, you will have to learn with each opponent. Then keep that angle throughout your smooth-flowing shot. If you see back-spin coming, open the racquet angle tip the top back toward you — again, the angle will depend on how much back-spin is coming toward you , and make your shot keeping the angle of the paddle nearly the same throughout the stroke. This plan helps you learn to make decisions as early as possible, instead of waiting until the ball is almost to you.

    If you swing a little early, the paddle angle is OK. If you swing just on time, the paddle angle is OK. And if you swing a little late, the paddle angle is still OK. This greatly improves your consistency. And the next idea, to improve your consistency, is to swing forward along the flight of the ball unless you are trying to hit heavy backspin-chop, or heavy topspin-loop. If you are consistent, improvement comes relatively easily. If your shots are inconsistent all over the place , it is very hard to know how to adjust your strokes. If you are consistently long, this is easy to fix.

    Either hit softer, or tilt your paddle more closed, or swing less up. If you are consistently hitting into the net, either hit harder if you were hitting too softly , or tilt your paddle more open, or swing up a little more with your stroke a little lift. But you have to think about it a little. If you can be consistent, your strokes can be analyzed, and improved.

    And the question is an important one, but the answers are far from simple, and involve elements of both strategy and tactics. First, if we are far stronger than our opponent partner , then we can do just about anything and still win. This is obvious, but how do we want to win? Are we teaching or are we competing?

    If we are just passing time then we do not expect to learn anything or teach anything. But there are aspects of our game that we can practice against weaker players. You should be learning, or practicing, how to control a point, how to control the play of the point. This is hard to learn while playing stronger players, because against them you cannot control the point, they will.

    Against the weaker player you can also try out and improve new skills that might otherwise be too risky, such as tricky or deceptive serves. And, if we are weaker than our opponent, we will frequently be on the defensive, scrambling to stay in the point. So, what can we learn here, besides practicing our defensive skills?

    Certainly we can see how our opponent finds and takes advantage of our weaknesses. What does he do that you can learn to do to others with the same weaknesses? What works well for him, and how can you learn to do the same? And you can see certain shots or strokes in action — something for you to strive for. What can you learn to use against others? And obviously, what weakness do you have that you need to improve. And then we have to decide whether to rely on tricks or to rely on fundamentals.

    If the ball hits the net on an otherwise a legal serve, the serve is a "let," and the serve is repeated with no points scored. While many recreational players award the point to the player opposite of the server after 2 consecutive lets, there is no limit to the number of lets that can be served in table tennis; points are never scored off of lets. While many recreational players play such that on game point the person that is losing is to be the server, in actuality service continues to alternate every two serves as usual until the game ends or a deuce score of is reached; at game point or match point, it is in fact possible to lose on your opponent's serve or due to a service error resulting in a fault on your serve.

    After a serve or return, the ball may be returned over or around the net to any point on the opponent's side of the table. The ball must be returned after it bounces once on your side, but before it bounces twice or hits the floor or any object off the table. If the ball hits the net on a return, but proceeds to go over the net and hit your opponent's side, the ball is still in play, and your opponent must return it. A point is awarded for each rally that is not a let, and either opponent can score a point regardless of who served.

    Here's the gist of it: If your serve goes into the net, goes off the table without hitting the opponent's side, or in doubles hits the wrong half of the opponent's side, the receiving opponent or team scores a point. If you do not make a legal return as described above -- the ball goes into the net or doesn't hit your opponent's side of the table a point is awarded to your opponent.

    If you receive a legal serve or return and hit the ball more than once with your paddle or touch the ball with your body, a point is awarded to your opponent. Note that if your opponent's serve or return doesn't hit your side of the table, you still get the point even if the ball hits you or you catch it after it passes the end of the table. If you touch the table with your free hand or move the table, your opponent scores a point. Many people like to play to 21 or 15 alternating server every 5 points , which is fine for recreational play.

    The official rules, however, state play is to 11 points alternating server every 2 points. In order to win, one must be ahead by two points. If the players or teams are tied at or , for example, the normal order of service proceeds, but the serve alternates sides after every points instead of after every two points. In sanctioned competition, matches are won by the player or team who wins three out of five games.

    The players switch sides after each game, and they also switch sides in the fifth game if a fifth game is necessary when one player or team scores five points. The team or player serving first also changes each game. Generally, things stay as even as possible. No player should have an advantage over the other. Part 1 Quiz What happens if the ball hits the net on an otherwise legal serve? The serve switches sides. The serve is repeated with no points scored.

    The server's team loses 1 point. None of the above. You can become a pretty good ping-pong player quickly with consistent practice. The most important things to practice initially are keeping your eye on the ball, getting a feel for the correct timing, and keeping the ball low.

    From the very first time you pick up a paddle, you should consciously make an effort to follow the ball with your eyes, from the moment it is served to when it hits your paddle, and so on. Your timing will become better with practice -- you just need to get used to it -- but it helps if you listen to the ball as well as watch it closely. Keeping the ball low -- without hitting it into the net -- is probably the hardest skill for beginners to master. It's also one of the most essential, because a high ball can easily be smashed down by your opponent. Try to keep your paddle as horizontal as possible and use your wrist to impart energy to the ball and to aim it.

    Generally, the faster the ball is moving, the easier it is to keep it low. Develop a strong backhand and forehand. You must be able to hit the ball from either side of your body if you want to become good at table tennis, and it's generally not practical to switch hands, so get comfortable with both your forehand and backhand shots. Learn to put spin on the ball.

    This is done by flicking the wrist side-to-side or up-and-down right as the ball is hit. To counter-spin, put spin of your own on the ball. If you have some downtime, practice this against a wall, experimenting with what works for you. Think of chopping the ball -- undercutting the bottom side as it comes to you on its descent. Experiment doing this with your forehand and backhand strike. Smash balls that your opponent hits high. Smashing also called slamming or spiking the ball entails hitting it with force so that it goes fast enough to, hopefully, be unreturnable.

    A slam is a powerful weapon, but it can be difficult at first to use it accurately, and you may find that your slams initially go into the net or well off the other side of the table. Don't be afraid to keep trying them, though. You'll eventually get it. This is similar to volleyball.

    Once you slam, smash, or spike the ball, it's virtually impossible for your opponent to keep the ball in play. This will be one of your most used skills when you cultivate it -- and the most frustrating for your opponent. Develop a killer serve. A fast serve or a serve with plenty of spin on it can become the key to your game as you face better players. If you give your opponent an easy serve, you'll be lucky to get a paddle on his return.

    An easy serve gives him time to wind up and blast you with a slam that you won't even see coming. Speed is definitely important as you move up the ranks, but you have to maintain aim and precision. As you get better and better, you'll be able to predict where the ball will go and how it will behave with each strike.

    As you face better competition, you can't just expect your opponent to make mistakes, even if you're hitting the ball hard. You've got to force errors by taking control of the game and making your opponent move around the table a lot. If you can hit one shot off the right side and then quickly hit another shot to the left side you might be able to prevent your opponent from getting the ball.

    Tricks, such as giving the appearance of a slam and then dunking the ball, or getting into a right-left pattern and then hitting two or three consecutive shots to the right, can also put your opponent off-balance and in position for a slam. Part 2 Quiz How can you put a spin on your ball? Stand farther back from the table. Keep your paddle as horizontal as possible and use your wrist to hit the ball.

    Flick your wrist side to side or up and down right as you hit the ball. Extend your elbow as you hit the ball. Do it like the pros do. Professional players generally stand a little farther back from the table, and as you begin to get into faster rallies, you may find this is a good technique as well.

    The ball is coming so fast and so hard, standing farther back is the only way to continue the rally. And if your opponent favors a side, you should favor the same side as well. In addition to stance, they have different equipment sometimes, too. There are a wide variety of ping-pong paddles available, and while the cheap ones at your local sporting discount store are just fine for beginners, as you get more advanced you may want to get your own custom paddle. Once you've been playing for a bit, you'll automatically notice what your strengths and weaknesses are. Then, you'll pick a strategy that plays up your strengths and plays down your weaknesses.

    Here's the four common styles of players: Just like their name says, they like to have control at all times and thus rarely take risks. They don't smash all too often and keep it traditional. This type of player tries to make their opponent make mistakes as opposed to focusing on their own game.

    This player is generally pretty aggressive, focusing on topspin and consistency. They can place the ball very well and clearly understand spin. No fooling here, power players rely mainly on speed to trip their opponents up. Know who you're playing. As you play your opponent, you'll be able to get a read on what kind of player they are. They'll generally prefer a certain type of stroke and always come back to a default way of play. Here are some things to look for: The counter driver stroke is when solid contact is made with the ball little to no spin at the top of the bounce.

    A player who favors this is best defeated by a mid-table shot -- where they have to quick decide between their forehand and their backhand. The chop stroke is when the underside of the ball is cut during its descent. The amount of spin can vary. To combat this, work the middle and above all, be patient. Alternating your shots will keep them from becoming comfortable.

    Table Tennis - Country Cousins

    Blockers are defensive players. They don't like attacking, so force them to. Vary between short and long shots, and switch up your style.