Table tennis or ping pong as it is also known is a fantastic sport to play and is one of the most popular sports in the world with over 300 million people picking up a bat/paddle at some point.
Anyone can learn to play table tennis. Depending on what level you want to achieve, how quickly you learn is primarily influenced by the basic traits that help you learn any sport.
These traits include your willingness to learn, determination to succeed, practicing hard consistently using repetition, and good hand eye coordination.
It can certainly be possible to reach a high level of play applying these skills regularly; you may even be the next tennis pro!
If you want to play competitions then there are many different levels of competitions across the world that you can take part in. All the professional players started as beginners learning the basic strokes first and achieved their success applying the skills outlined above consistently.
Table Tennis Basic Skills
Contents
Table Tennis Basic Skills for Beginners: Four Basic Strokes
The first step in becoming a great table tennis or ping pong player is to learn the basic skills. This includes learning the 4 basic strokes from which all other advanced strokes are developed, in addition starting to develop your footwork as soon as possible. This combination will help you become a much better player more quickly.
Keeping in mind that “FH” means “forehand” and “BH” means “backhand,” the four basic strokes are: FH drive, BH drive, FH push, and the BH push.
Below, we’ll get into how to achieve these strokes. Your aim for all of them is to make contact with the ball at the peak of its bounce for maximum efficiency.
All of our instructions have right-handed players in mind since it’s more common. If you’re a left-handed player, simply mirror the instructions given (or see how you fare with your right hand!)
How to Play a FH Drive
- Stance: Close to the table, slightly sideways stance to the line of play.
- Body Action: Rotate your upper body with your weight moving onto your right leg. Upper body then rotates to the left with your weight moving onto your left leg.
- Bat Arm: Move your arm upwards and forwards with your elbow behind and below yourwrist; bat angle should be slightly closed. Follow through in conjunction with body rotation finishing in the direction you want the ball to go. The stroke finishes at around head height.
- Free Arm: Helps with balance, rotation and reference point.
How to Play a BH Drive
- Stance: Close to the table and square to the line of play.
- Body Action:- Minimal with this stroke.
- Bat Arm: Pivot at the elbow with a slightly upwards and forwards motion. Bat angle slightly closed. Follow through finishes fairly quickly and towards the direction of play. Stroke finishes in the position as if you are looking at yourself in a hand held mirror.
- Free Arm: Assists with balance and is a reference point.
How to Play a FH Push
- Stance: The same as for the FH Drive.
- Body Action: Similar to FH Drive but less body rotation.
- Bat Arm: Move the bat using your elbow downwards and forwards with an open bat angle underneath the ball. Follow through to finish with your arm partially extended and forward.
- Free Arm: Helps with balance and point of reference.
How to Play a BH Push
- Stance: Close to the table square to the line of play.
- Body Action: None required with this stroke.
- Bat Arm: Move the bat using your elbow downwards and forwards with a slightly open bat angle underneath the ball, short follow through to finish with your arm extended and forward.
- Free Arm: Helps with balance and reference point.
What Are the 10 Basic Skills in Playing Table Tennis? Planning Your Strategy
The following are the top skills you should focus on if you’re looking to get great at table tennis. These skills in addition to masterful strokes will up your game.
Correct Grip
The most common grips are the shakehand grip and the penhold grip. For detailed information on the grip check out our article on how to hold a ping pong paddle.
Stance
Focus on positioning yourself correctly, keeping a consistent well balanced stance to make your shots and be able to move efficiently on the table.
Footwork
Master basic footwork to help you move quickly and efficiently around the table, positioning yourself for the best shots.
Ball Control
Controlling the ball’s placement, speed, and spin, allowing you to keep rallies going and put pressure on your opponent.
FH Strokes
Learn a competent level of FH Drive & FH Push first before moving on to more advanced strokes.
BH Strokes
Learn BH Drive & BH Push to gear up for even more advanced table tennis strokes.
Creating Spin
Learn how to put different types of spin on the ball, including topspin, backspin, and sidespin.
Dealing With Spin
Recognize and adapt your strokes to deal with the different types of spin on the ball, including topspin, backspin, and sidespin. Check out this diagram to help you understand contact points for generating spin:
Service and Receive
Develop different types of serves using different spins, varying speeds and directions. Learn how to read the spin on serves and anticipate the direction of a serve from an opponent.
Game Strategy
Understand the strategies involved in table tennis, such as setting up points, exploiting your opponent’s weaknesses, and adapting your tactics during a match.
What Are the Four Basic Practice Skills in Table Tennis? Practice Makes Perfect!
Here are four skills to practice both in front of the ping pong table and away from it to strengthen your game.
Stroke Technique
Once you have an understanding of the basic stroke techniques, it is now a matter of making those strokes a habit that you do automatically by repeatedly practicing them using training drills.
It is vital that you understand the basic foundations as this will enable you to master the more advanced strokes as you develop as a player.
Footwork
It is vital that as early as possible you start to develop your footwork. If you are to achieve the highest level possible for you, then the better your footwork, the better player you will be. Table tennis is a game of quick, often short movements which can be learnt and developed as you improve your game. The higher level you reach the more important this becomes.
Serve
The serve is the most important stroke in table tennis. You can improve your serves by practicing them regularly. The best way to do this is using a good number of balls and doing repetitions, you do not need a training partner to do this.
You can develop a range of different serves with different spins and combinations of spins using both FH & BH. With these techniques, you can deceive your opponents into making a return of serve error or returning the ball to you in a way that makes it easy for you to win the point.
Receive
Returning serves, especially serves a lot of spin on is something you should practice regularly. This is one of the most challenging skills to master as it can be difficult to identify what spin is on the ball and the direction the ball is going in time to make the correct stroke.
The player serving will always be trying to deceive you with their serve. However, you can really improve this with regular practice.
Ping Pong Techniques: Skills to up Your Game
Below are some key skills for beginners as well as some intermediate skills to up your table tennis game!
Drive
The drive is the first stroke you should learn and master. This is an attacking stroke played with a small amount of topspin on both FH & BH. This helps to gain control over the ball and enable you to direct the ball to where you want it to land on the other side of the table more consistently.
Topspin
This is the most popular type of style and technique to master. It involves making contact with the ball using an upwards motion of your bat, having a slightly closed bat angle brushing the ball with the rubber to generate the spin.
Topspin Loop
A topspin loop is a stroke played slightly more away from the table using a longer stroke which starts around knee height and finishes by your forehead. This is a very attacking stroke and is very popular in today’s modern game.
The stroke generates lots of topspin and the ball will “kick” or jump off your opponent’s side of the table when making contact with it. This makes returning the stroke much more difficult for your opponent.
Block
This stroke is played close to the table, usually making contact with the ball before it reaches the peak of its bounce. This can be a very effective stroke as the ball is returned back to the other side of the table more quickly and can make it difficult for the opponent to react in time. This can be especially effective if changing the direction of play at the same time.
Push
A push is a stroke that is used to get the ball under control adding backspin to the ball when making the stroke. The objective is to make sure the ball hits your opponent’s side of the table and make them hit the ball into the net. The push can be used to ensure a safe return of a backspin serve.
Chop
This is a stroke played by a defensive player away from the table who strikes the underneath of the ball to create backspin. The defensive player relies on an attacking player making an error when trying to return the ball. The more backspin the defensive player can generate on their chop return the more likely the attacking player is to hit the ball into the net.
Lob
This is a defensive stroke which is used when you are forced away from the table and is hit high into the air with some topspin and or sidespin. This is designed to buy you some time to recover your positions and also induce an error from your opponent.
Service
The serve is the most important stroke in table tennis as it is the only time when you have complete control over what spin and speed is on the ball plus which direction the ball is going to go in. You can win a lot of points from having excellent serves. You can improve your serves by practicing them regularly. You do not need a training partner to do this.
Receiving Service
There are a number of options on what stroke you can play on receiving serve. This will be determined partly by the type of serve you are receiving. For example, if the serve is short or long, what spin is on the ball and if it is a fast or slow serve.
The options on return of a short serve are a touch short, flick, or push. With long serves, you can utlize topspin or a push if it’s a backspin/sidespin serve. Keep in mind that you would not usually push a topspin serve unless you were a defensive player.
Why Is Speed Important in Table Tennis?
Table tennis is the fastest of the ball sports and the speed of the ball can reach up to 70mph (or 112kmph).
With the ball being small and light, it travels very quickly from one side of the table to the other, this is important as ping pong table dimensions are 9ft (2.74 meters) by 5ft (1.52 meters).
The other important consideration is how tall is a ping pong net as when returning the ball at speed you need to ensure it goes over the net.
If you can hit the ball consistently with high speed onto your opponent’s side of the table it will increase your chances of winning the point.
You can build up the speed of your strokes gradually with regular training exercises. If you can move around the table at speed then you will become a much better player.
It is important to establish a good solid foundation with the basic stroke techniques before trying to significantly increase the speed of your strokes.
The better your technique, the faster and more consistent your strokes will eventually become.
Conclusion: Ready for the Game!
Mastering the basic table tennis skills doesn’t have to be difficult if you know where to start or what to pay attention to. Refer back to out guide to help you play your best ping pong game, whether you’re a casual beginner or looking to get into the big leagues!