Learning to play a new game always seems to be a mixture of fun and frustration. When you are learning how to play ping pong, you are probably excited about the potential when it comes to playing the game itself, yet you may experience a great degree of frustration if you are trying to learn the rules. Like most games, it can be frustrating at times. However, it does not have to be.
This is a guide that is supposed to be meant for beginners in order to teach them how to play ping pong in a way that is fun and challenging at the same time. After you have done your homework and learned about ping pong tables and ping pong paddles, you want to learn how to play and get really good at the game. This is a guide that you can use for all types of table tennis tables, even for use on an outdoor ping pong table.
In reality, it is not about the type of table that you are using, even though they may have different types of surfaces that cause the ball to respond differently. It is much more about developing solid methods of play and practicing often enough to become proficient.
Table of Contents
How to Play Ping Pong – A Beginner’s Guide
Play For Fun
When you are just starting out, the most effective way to learn how to play ping pong well is to play for fun. If you start out by reading a rule book, you will probably get tired of reading it and abandon the entire idea before you even touch an actual paddle. However, if you find a friend or family member and you just start playing because you enjoy it, you can get excited about the game. Even if you are using some techniques that are less than stellar, you are still learning the basic mechanics that are required to play the game. The more excited you get, the more you want to learn and this makes you become a better player.
Becoming More Proficient
The best way to become more proficient in anything is to simply keep doing it. The more you practice, the better you will get. However, there are a couple of things that you can learn that are more specific, all of which will help you become more proficient almost instantly.
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- Paddle Grip Learning to grip the paddle correctly is one of the easiest ways to get better at the game. If your grip it incorrectly, it will be more difficult for you to play the game and beat an opponent. Learning to have a grip that is firm, yet flexible will help you get better and better as you go along.
- Move Your Feet – For some reason, it seems like a lot of people have a tendency to stand in one place and lurch their body from side to side when they are playing. This makes for an awkward method of play, to say the least. If you simply move your feet while you are playing, you will instantly become a better player and have more fun at the same time.
Basics Ping Pong Skills
Just like anything else, being able to learn basic ping pong skills as you go makes the entire process far more interesting. As you learn how to play ping pong, you naturally become better and better. Of course, there are a few things that help you get as much out of each and every game as you possibly can. It is not at all uncommon to have someone start out that is really not that good and then see them blossom into a truly good table tennis player with a little practice and effort. When you are learning as you go, there are essentially three things that you need to keep in mind that will help you become a better player.
- Learn Body Language- Body language is one of those things that some people take for granted and others use to fake out their opponents. However, your body language will help you become a better player if you learn to be a more relaxed individual. Make sure that your body is not tense and that you are not jerking when it comes to your movements. This will help you get better over time.
- Stay Ready- Even though you want to be with more relaxed, you need to stay at the ready at all times. Good players are able to fire the ball back relatively quickly, so the more that you learn to stay prepared, the better your chances are of returning the ball as opposed to missing it.
So, it can be thought as a good long-term financing that will give hours of fun every week. - Understand Spin- Spin is a technique that is used by advanced players to make it more difficult to return the ball. It is a rather complex thing to learn how to do properly but it is definitely a technique that can be learned as long as you are willing to put in the time and the effort. The sooner you learn how to do it, the sooner you will become a good player.
Basics of the Game
The overall idea of the game is to hit the ball with the paddle and make the other person miss. However, there is really much more to it than that. It starts with learning how to serve correctly. When you are serving the ball, you are generally allowed to serve twice in a row and then the other person, your opponent, has the same opportunity.
This make sure that the game is played fairly across the board while still giving a player an opportunity to defeat their opponent rather quickly. Another part of the game where people usually get tripped up involves scoring points. When you are scoring points, you generally get two points every time that you make your opponent miss. However, that is not always the case.
There are exceptions where you score only one point. This will be discussed in more detail in my previous article, but it is something that you should keep in mind in order to score the game correctly.
Common Terms
Table tennis is just like any other game. It has a set of terms that are all its own. This can sometimes be rather confusing for a beginner because it might be difficult to fully understand what other, more experienced players are actually talking about. For instance, the term rally refers to a ball that is currently in play.
Essentially, the ball is considered to be in play from the time that the first serve is about to occur until the game is over and the winner has been declared. A point means that someone has scored. Regardless of the number of points that have actually been scored by any particular serve, there is usually someone that is scoring the game that simply says point. On the other hand, the term let means that no score has occurred.
There are a lot of additional terms, but this is a good starting point for anyone that is just learning how to play.
Rules to Live By
More often than not, an official game is ruled by a coin toss, just as in football. Its purpose is to decide who will serve first. In addition, there is usually a separate person that is keeping score, as previously mentioned. In order to win, a player must accumulate 11 points in most cases. The sole exception is when a game is termed a deuce, meaning that both players have scored 10 points and the game is tied. In this case, a player must get an additional two points before a winner is declared.
Conclusion
As you can see, there is a lot to learn. With that being said, you can start out playing just for fun and then learn more about the rules as you go along. This guide can also permit you to play on your own, if that is your preference , or if you have no one to play with at any particular time. Hope enjoy this ping pong game has been insightful, Also you can stay my blog for more reviews.
