Ping pong is a common recreational game played in basements and various other casual locations. Table tennis is a more competitive version of the same game. It can be played by young people or adults and amateurs or professionals. The game requires speed, great reflexes and the ability to keep difficult shots in play.
Match Rules
Most table tennis games are played to a score of 21 points, although 11 is frequently used as well. A point occurs when one player hits a ball to his opponent’s side of the table that the opponent cannot return.
In a table tennis match, most competitors will play a “Best-of-five,” in which the first player to win three of the five games wins the match. In a game to 21, the first player to get to 21 points while remaining ahead by two points wins the match. If the players are only one point apart the game continues until one player builds a two-point lead after the 21-point level is reached.
Serving Rules and Sequence
Each point begins with the serve. The server must toss the ball into the air and hit it with a forehand or backhand swing that hits his own side of the court, then the receiver’s side of the court to be considered in play. Each player serves five points at a time before the other player gets a chance. For example, if player A starts the game by serving and leads three to two at the end of those five points, player B takes over and serves the next five overall points of the game. The server announces the score before every serve, starting with his own score. In this case, player B would say “Two to three” before his first serve.
Legal Return
A player must hit the ball after it bounces on his side of the court. If he hits the ball before it lands on the table that counts as an illegal hit and results in a point for her opponent. If the ball hits your side of the table–even if it hits the edge–it is a good shot that must be returned.
About this Author
Steve Silverman is an award-winning writer, covering sports since 1980. Silverman authored The Minnesota Vikings: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and Who’s Better, Who’s Best in Football — The Top 60 Players of All-Time, among others, and placed in the Pro Football Writers of America awards three times. Silverman holds a Master of Science in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism.
