Ping pong is a table tennis game that most people enjoy playing. Whether you are doing it just for fun and a hobby or you want to step up your game there is always space for improvement. Just a few tips and tricks can really improve your game and make you the best on the ping pong play night.

The most important to work on are pace, spin, table variation, and timing of your moves.

1) Spin

Mastering the spin in the game is the most essential for a good pink pong player. If there is a heart of the game, then it’s spin control. Speed may seem like the most important but it comes far later after spin development.

The first thing to pay attention to when you’re working on your spin, is the hit position. If you are hitting the ball badly, spin power won’t be maximized. Make sure that you have good timing when hitting a ball, that you accelerate and that you work on the brush motion which is letting a ball slide into the sponge for a moment.

There’s even a concept in China that refers to preparation for a spin and it’s called “Yin Pai”. Professional players can spin the ball 9000 rounds per minute.

2 ) Mixing up your serve

The good game starts with a good serve and you want yours to be unpredictable.  There are several types of serves. It’s important that you prepare your serves and know how to play once serve is delivered. It’s not just about amazing technique but planning and thinking the game through also. Make sure to avoid illegal serves like hidden serve, throw in and no-toss serve, time abused serve, in the table serve, and a quick-serve.

“Deep serve” is the very useful one that makes your opponent think fast to decide if he will go with forehand or backhand.

There is also a “forehead pendulum serve” which is a very common one since it’s very easy to be learned and it is tricky for the opponent player. There are adjustments that you can make to this service like under-spin, top-spin, side-spin, or no-spin at all. You serve this one from your backhand corner.

“Short serve with spins” is a service that you deliver very low, near to the height of the net. The point with this one is to add lots of spins so it’s hard to return. The best way to learn this technique is to practice a spin serve and then shorten it. Learning it another way around like adding spin to the short serve is much more difficult.

“Ghost serve” is one of the tricky serves with a lot of underspin. This one is very hard to return if you don’t know-how and the ball can easily end up in a net. This service is a short serve type but with a lot of heavy underspin added.

“Reverse pendulum serve” is a normal pendulum serve, just in reverse. What this means is that instead of doing the side-spin from left to the right, you are doing it reversed right to left. This will result in the ball coming back to the right once returned from the opponent.

3) Develop your backhand

Did you know that 70% of players are forehand dominant? There are only 30% of backhand dominant players which means that improving this technique can put you at a big advantage. It will allow you to get balls that wouldn’t be expected, to stand at the middle of the table and cover all areas as well as to develop your serving style and system.

4) Returning the service correctly

It is essential that you don’t react impulsively but control your return and technique. Your opponent shouldn’t be able to predict your next move so whenever you can do a little twist and mix like for the service. Pay attention to your mistakes when it comes to returning the ball, and work on them instead of neglecting them.

5) Attacking first

It’s not always a bad idea to attack first as long as you have it planned and know where to aim. The best places to attack are his/her elbow position, wide backhand, and wide forehand. Make sure that you analyze your opponent’s game style so you know which of those attack points to aim for.

6) Controlling the pace

When you control the pace of the game, you can easily make your opponent make a mistake. Play with a slower and faster tempo and then mix it up a bit. Controlling the rhythm of the game allows you to control your opponent’s game.

7) Master the basic techniques 

Don’t overcomplicate before you master the basics. Every time you get lost in learning more and more of the new stuff, find time to come back to the basics. Some of the basic techniques to pay attention to are forehand drive technique, backhand topspin close to the table, forehand and backhand push, forehand and backhand flick, backhand look with the under-spin ball, forehand attack with the semi-long ball, forehand fast serve, forehand pendulum serve, backhand sidespin.

8) Invest in a good paddle

This is a good start since playing with a toy store paddle will affect your game. Also, make sure to work on your grip and have the paddle feel like an extension of your hand.

9) Improve your footwork

As you know ping pong requires a lot of moving around and if you thought that those movements are random, you were wrong. There are several types of footwork patterns including Two steps footwork, side by side, and a cross-over. Once you have practiced enough, your muscle memory will take care of the rest and you won’t have to think about these patterns while playing.

Conclusion

Don’t forget all the small things that make a difference like a warm-up before the game, consistency, and practicing on your own. To practice on your own you can get a tennis robot and raise the number of practice hours. If you are not sure where to start and what to look for when purchasing a tennis robot, here’s a list of ping pong robots to help you decide.