How To Serve in Table Tennis

Video Transcript

Hi, this is Jared on behalf of Expert Village and in this section I'm going to be talking to you about serving in table tennis. And this is going to be the beginner's section where I show you just the basics. So, the first thing is you need to figure out where on the table you want to be for serving. And this is somewhat of a preference. But for the most part, you want to start to the left. So you will start serving like this, because once you serve you want to be able to open up into your forehand. If you're serving here and they hit back over here it is going to be very hard to stretch with your backhand. So it's an advantage if you start over here, so you're ready here to be able to hit farther with your forehand and here with your backhand. If we're receiving, you want to be right here, and as a rule of thumb it helps if when you're ready, your paddle just barely touches the edge of the table. You want to be like this and you want to have your knees slightly bent and on the toes of your feet. And so, when you're serving the first things is, you have to serve behind the service line. There should be a white line that goes around the table. If you serve here, that's illegal. You have to serve back here. Also, you have to toss the ball six inches in the air. If you were to start like this, off the racket, you're not allowed to do that. You're supposed to serve six inches out of the palm of your hand, and hit it like that. OK. So, that's for serving. And also, you're able to hit anywhere on the table you want. I'm allowed to serve over here, but I'm also allowed to serve over here, to either corner. It doesn't matter. Now, also, for your serving stance, these are some basic guidelines. There are all different kinds of serves and there's all different kinds of stances. But to start, it helps if you have your left foot slightly forward, and your right foot slightly behind. You're bent and you're ready to go like that. Now that's for a forehand serve. For your backhand serve, you want to be facing, basically square with the table, like this. You would serve across like this. And then, most importantly, you want to make sure your opponent is ready. I've seen many points, where someone begins their serve and their opponent is just now getting into position, or isn't ready. This can throw off the whole point and it will have to be decided what happens. So, once the ball leaves your palm, it's in play. You can't catch it again. Once it leaves, it's in play. Even if you miss the ball all together, or you drop it, you lose a point. So you need to make sure your opponent is ready before you serve.

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