Mastering The Essentials Of Table Tennis

Want to put up a tough competition for your table tennis opponent? Start at the very root of the game. Master the technique of the “Wide Side Spin” and “Ghost” serves as you go.

The first serve is called the “Wide Sidespin” serve. This service is typically effective because it targets a part of the table with which an intermediate-level player is not usually familiar. The trick is to catch them off guard and also, with that, widen the arena where the ball can potentially tip before quickly falling off the table. To master this, you must make sure you play with a combination of a front and backspin. Ideally, tilt your racket a bit and hit the ball from the back side such that you get the first tip of the ball reasonably close to the net, so with the second bounce, it quickly bounces off. However, due to the highly slanted angle, if the opponent picks up this spin, expect to extend your hand movement in the area from which you played the backhand because it will come back at an angle similarly challenging to tackle.

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Ideally, the second serve you can incorporate into your play routine is the “Ghost serve.” For this, you keep the racket positioned flatly and perhaps exaggerate it upwards, contrary to the conventional backhand serve, where you tilt it downwards. Now hit the ball gently at the corner, making sure you keep it at a lower height so that it creates a disrupted pace. What this disrupted pace does is that the opponent hits back within the vicinity of the net, or otherwise, if they dodge the net, the hit back is still defensive and can be easily paired with another move to catch them completely disoriented in the space of the table.