Like with any sport, table tennis has its own special terms or slang for all aspects of the game. If you don’t know much of this lingo you could feel lost when reading or talking about TT.
So we’ve created this list (which by no means includes everything) but should definitely be enough to keep you from feeling like a total newb.
General/Gameplay
- TT – Table tennis
- Rally – The time when the ball is in play
- Service – The serve. Learn how to serve here
- Receiver – The player receiving the serve
- Let – When neither side receives a point and the point is replayed, this occurs when a serve hits the top of the net or if there is some sort of an interference. Learn more about Lets here
- Multiball Training – Training with many balls being continuously fed to the player rapidly
- ITTF – International Table Tennis Federation – The governing body for all national table tennis associations, they oversee the rules and regulations
Click here to learn all about the laws and regulations of table tennis.
Types of Ball Spin Variations
- Underspin – A ball with underspin is spinning in a direction that would make the ball roll toward the server if the ball were rolling on a surface
- Topspin – A ball with topspin is spinning in a direction that would make the ball roll toward the receiver if the ball were rolling on a surface
- Sidespin – A ball with sidespin is rotating either counter-clockwise or clockwise when viewed from above. A shot with strong sidespin will curve in the air
- No-Spin – A ball which is not spinning at all (or spinning very little)
You should know that with a cheap ping pong paddle that doesn’t have proper rubbers, you won’t be able to execute these types of spins on the ball. You need to buy a real table tennis racket with proper sponges and rubbers. Check out our budget racket recommendations for beginner players here.
Types of Strokes/Hits/Shots
- Forehand – A shot done with the palm of the hand facing towards the opponent
- Backhand – A shot executed with the back of the hand facing the opponent
- Loop – An offensive shot with strong topspin, the racket slices on top of the ball
- Drive – An offensive stroke with light topspin
- Smash – A powerful, high speed shot with little spin
- Block – A defensive shot executed with the intention of controlling an offensive shot
- Chop – A stroke that puts underspin on the ball by slicing the racket under it and is executed behind the table
- Push – When a chop stroke, (a stroke with underspin) is executed close (over the top of the table.)
- Lob – A defensive shot which returns the ball very high in the air
- Brush – A type of stroke in which the ball is hit at a sharp angle. This type of stroke produces the most amount of spin with the least amount of speed
- Roller – A shot that rolls across the opponent’s side of the table making it impossible to return. This type of shot can only be executed from below the table and around the net
- Short – A shot which can bounce twice or more on the opponent’s side of the table
- Medium Long – A serve that aims for a second bounce right near the edge of the receiver’s side of the table
- Long/Deep – A shot that is hit long and bounces near the end of the table
- Dead Ball – A ball which is returned with no spin
- Drop Shot – A surprise shot which is usually done when the opponent is far back from the table and the ball is gently blocked to keep the ball super short, (close to the net)
Types of Racket Grips
- Shakehand – The most common and natural grip with the thumb on the forehand side of the racket and the pointer finger across the backhand side of the racket
- Penhold – With this grip style both the thumb and pointer finger are on the forehand side of the racket, (like holding a pen)
- Seemiller – Named after Dan Seemiller, it’s similar to the Penhold grip except the end of the pointer finger bends around and grips the edge of the racket
For more details on grip choice read Penhold VS Shakehand: Grip Which Table Tennis Grip is Best?
Racket/Bat/Paddle Components
- Blade – Refers to only the wooden/carbon part of the racket excluding the rubber sheets
- Rubber – The rubber “top” sheets on the outsides of each side of the racket
- Sponge – The layer of spongy material that sits in between the blade and the rubber top sheet
Types of Rubbers
- Inverted Rubber/Pips-In – A rubber that is smooth on the outside with the pimples facing inward, this type of rubber is most commonly used
- Pips-Out – This rubber’s pimpled surface faces outward, theses types of rubbers create more control and speed with little spin
- Short Pips – Pips-out rubber with short length pimples
- Medium Pips – A pips-out rubber with medium length pimples
- Long Pips – Pips-out rubber with long pimples. This type of rubber produces unpredictable spin
- Tacky – Tackiness refers to how sticky the rubber is, tacky rubber will be very sticky and can produce lots of spin by gripping the ball strongly
Now Go and Smash Some Opponents!
I hope this list helped you out. Now that you know all of the major table tennis lingo you can go and talk down to your newbie friends and make them feel inferior.
If you are going to go talk s*** to your friends though, just make sure that you can beat them in a match first.
Check out guide here: Our 7 Day Plan to Learn the Basic Fundamentals Of Table Tennis and you will be sure to humiliate them in any match.
