Ping Pong Serves: A Complete Guide

https://pingpongruler.com/how-to-serve-table-tennis/
 Alex Horscroft
 Last updated June 29, 2023

Many beginner and intermediate players dread having to practice table tennis serving,
often viewing it as a boring and overly repetitive exercise. I mean, it is only one shot,
so it can’t be that important, right?

Well, sorry to disappoint, but your ping pong serve is very important. Your service
remains one of the most important shots in table tennis — a player can never have
enough practice in trying to improve their service game. Think about it. The service is
the only shot in which you have complete control over the ball, so you had better learn
how to do a proper ping pong serve.

To perform a ping pong serve, you must throw the ball with your free hand up
16 cm from an open palm. And as it is falling, strike the ball so that it bounces
once on your side of the table and then onto your opponent’s side of the table.
The ball must also be fully viewable by your opponent at all times.
But this is just a snippet of what you need to know when it comes to serving. Read to
the end to discover all of our serving advice.

Do you want more advanced coaching?

- 20+ Hours of Training
- From Beginner to Master
- Coached by Chinese National Champion

JOIN NOW

Table of Contents
Table Tennis Service Rules
Before learning the different types of serving in ping pong, it’s essential to be familiar
with the service rules so that you know how to serve legally.

Flat Hand With the Ball in Your Palm

The first step of serving in table tennis is holding the ball in an open flat hand with the
ball placed in the palm. You’re not allowed to grip the ball with your fingers. This
prevents players from imparting spin on the ball when they throw it up.

Striking the Ball Behind the End Line of the Table

When serving, you have to throw the ball up behind the white end line of the table,
and you must start your throw above the playing surface. You also have to make
contact behind the line — no leaning forward to hit the ball close to the net.

Ball Toss Requirements

For a legal serve in table tennis, you must throw the ball up into the air at least 6
inches (or 16 cm). You can’t just hit the ball straight out of your hand which is a
common mistake beginners make. To give you an idea of how high you have to throw
the ball, six inches is equal to around the width of your ping pong paddle. You must
also throw the ball up straight into the air. Your ball toss cannot be forward,
backward, or to one side.

Ensuring the Ball Is Not Hidden

One of the most commonly broken rules in table tennis today is hiding one’s serves.
While some people do it purposely, most do it by accident.

During the 1980s and 1990s, players began to completely block the opponent’s view
of the ball when serving. This meant that the opponent could not see the ball being
struck, making it very difficult for them to judge the ball’s type and amount of spin.
And accordingly, play a good return.
As a result, the ITTF changed the official rules regarding serving so that the ball must
remain visible throughout the entire serving sequence. Thereby making it much fairer
on serving receivers, and increasing the average duration of rallies.

Ball Placement When Serving

During a ping pong serve, you can hit the ball from anywhere on your side of the table
to anywhere on the opposing side of the table. It’s only during a game of doubles that
you have serving restrictions (right side to right side). The white line down the center
of the table is an aid to help you determine the legality of serves when playing
doubles.
Read More: Basic Table Tennis Skills
Examples of Illegal Serves
The video below shows some examples of illegal serving in ping pong.

Read More: Best Table Tennis Servers

Ping Pong Serve Techniques
There are many different services in table tennis and it can be difficult to know which
one to pick up. Personally, we recommend learning the pendulum and chop serve at a
minimum, but do try out the other serves on this list to see which ones you like.

Chop Serve
One of the first serves you should learn is the chop serve. It’s loaded with backspin
and fairly easy to keep short which makes it harder for your opponent to attack.

While the chop serve is predominantly a forehand serve in table tennis, you can also
perform it on the backhand side. To execute, strike underneath the ball from backward
to forward to impart backspin. A faint contact helps keep the ball short.

Pendulum Serve
The pendulum is fairly similar to the forehand chop service in table tennis as the setup
is the same, and the striking motion is fairly similar. Rather than hitting directly
underneath the ball just for backspin, you instead strike more of the side of the ball to
impart sidespin.

You should contact the ball on the left-hand side (for righties) and introduce an
upwards angle or downward angle if you want topspin or backspin as well as sidespin.

Reverse Pendulum Serve

The reverse pendulum is the exact opposite of the pendulum. The setup is identical
but you strike the ball in the opposite way to produce the opposing type of sidespin.
This means your racket should travel from left to right.

The reverse pendulum serve is one of the more difficult ones to perform effectively,
so keep that in mind.
Shovel Serve
The shovel serve is similar to the reverse pendulum as it produces the same type of
spin and the setup is very similar. However, the key difference between the two is the
reverse pendulum primarily produces spin from your wrist, whereas the shovel uses
your arm.

This makes the shovel far easier to perform and much simpler to mix up your spin.
Ghost Serve
The ghost serve is a popular option among beginners. It’s a variant of the chop serve
where the ball bounces on your opponent’s side, and the heavy backspin draws it back
to the net.

While this serve looks great in isolation, it’s often a poor match choice. This is
because ghost serves usually bounce high to prevent them from traveling off the end
of the table. However, we all know that high balls are ripe for smashing!
Backhand/Corkscrew Serve
The common sidespin backhand serve in table tennis produces left-to-right sidespin
like the reverse pendulum and shovel serve. While facing the table or slightly to the
left, and your racket arm across your body, cut across the ball from left to right.

Dimitrij Ovtcharov used to use this serve religiously, and his version became quite
iconic! So if you want to see a professional example of this serve, I recommend
checking his out.
Tomahawk Serve
The tomahawk is another ping pong serve with left-to-right sidespin. You produce it
by moving your racket forward at the elbow, much like throwing a tomahawk.

It’s easy to load up on spin when you get the hang of it. I recommend flicking your
wrist on impact for that extra bit of spin.
Reverse Tomahawk Serve
Like the reverse pendulum is the opposite of the pendulum, the reverse tomahawk is
the opposite of the tomahawk. You brush the ball the opposing way from right to left.

This is one of the rarer serves as it is awkward to perform and doesn’t have the best
control.
Read More: Table Tennis Tips
How to Serve in Table Tennis — Step by
Step (Pendulum)
It’s important to know that your serve’s setup depends on the serve you are playing.
For example, your position is very different for a tomahawk compared with a
pendulum. Given the pendulum is one of the most popular serves today, this is the
motion I will explain how to serve in ping pong.

1. Grip: Most players, including myself, switch from a standard

shakehand grip to an altered grip when doing the pendulum
serve. Rather than having your middle, ring, and pinkie finger
gripping your racket’s handle, move them up so that they support
the rubber. This gives you more control when serving.
2. Feet: If you’re a righty, your left foot should be roughly adjacent
to the left corner of the table, with you looking at the ball parallel
to the table’s end line. Your right foot should be behind your left
and at least a shoulder’s width apart, pointing away from the
table for balance.
3. Stance: Lean forward onto your left leg with the ball in the palm
of your outstretched left hand. Position your right shoulder
behind the left so that you are facing away from the table in
anticipation of your serve.
4. Motion: Throw the ball up and bring your right shoulder
forward. As you do, your left shoulder falls back and then you
should brush across the left side of the ball to produce sidespin.
 Author: Peter Porai-Koshits | CC BY-SA
4.0

The Benefits of a Great Table Tennis

Serve
The serve is the only time in a game of table tennis where you have complete and total
control over your shot, at least when it comes to speed, spin, and placement. So you
should take complete advantage of it.

Tricky ping pong serves will give your opponent hell and force a lot of errors.
You’ll likely win points outright from failed returns, but you’ll also win points
from poor returns, which are there to be punished. Even if you only win one out of
every four points as a direct result of your serve, that places you at a major advantage
if your opponent isn’t winning any points from their serve.
You should also consider that while you might not win points from your serves in the
first few hits, they help you establish the kind of rally in which you are stronger. Say,
for example, you’re playing an aggressive looper with a terrible short game. A short
chop serve is an excellent option that will shut down their means of attack. This
means you can use your stronger short game and implement the first attack when an
opportunity presents itself.

What Makes a Great Serve?

Pretty much all of us have been on the receiving end of great table tennis serves, and
it’s no fun at all. But we can take away points from this experience to help us discern
what makes a serve great, as they all have similar qualities:

 Deceptive spin: Undoubtedly, the strongest aspect of a quality serve

is the spin. It’s usually loaded, and very difficult to read. Getting
the ball back on the table is almost a victory in itself, even if it’s
high and will likely be put away.
 Varied speed: To upset rhythm, quality servers will alter the pace of
their serves to catch you out. This is usually in the form of a few
fast serves every game.
 Varied placement: Great servers are masters of placement, and have
super control of where the ball lands. If they need to remain safe,
they will keep the ball short so that you cannot attack with a loop
or drive. However, depending on your attacking ability, they will
likely also serve long at times. This helps put you under pressure
and forces mistakes.
Knowing When to Change Your Serve
To serve effectively, you should mix up the type of serve you perform and its spin,
speed, and placement. This prevents your opponent from becoming comfortable as
they never know what kind of serve they will have to receive next.

To make this process easier on yourself, you should have a variety of serves that you
can call on as needed. By working through your table tennis serving arsenal, you can
figure out what kinds of serves work well and which do not. Of course, you should
focus on the serves which give your opponents the most trouble, but don’t overdo it.
By performing the same serve over and over again, your opponent becomes familiar
with it. Instead, take points here and there, but switch to other serves so that they
don’t become too confident.
A good serve tactic is to save the serve you know your opponent struggles with for
points that are crucial. Situations such as when the score is 10-9 or when your
opponent has gained a slight lead over you are great examples.

Read More: How to Play Ping Pong: A Beginner’s Guide

Conclusion
Ultimately, the points you win as a result of your ping pong serve can often be the
difference between winning or losing a match. And knowing just how easy it is to win
points from these, you really should dedicate a portion of your training time to
improving your serves.

Just 10-15 minutes per session will go a long way to improving your service game. It
also makes for the perfect training drill when you don’t have a training partner available.
So the next time you find yourself stuck on your own, take a box of balls down to the
sports center and drill those serves!

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Serves First in Table Tennis?
Table tennis serving priority is determined by a random event. Calling a coin flip is
the most official. However, it is particularly common to hide the ball under the table
and guess which hand it is in.

Is There a Second Serve in Table Tennis?

Unlike tennis, there is no second serve in table tennis if you fault on the first. As soon
as you throw the ball, it is live, so even if your throw is poor, do your best to make the
serve, or you will lose the point.

How Do You Serve in Ping Pong?

To perform a serve in ping pong, you must strike the ball so that it bounces once on
your side of the table, and once on your opponent's side.
You should also try to brush the ball to impart spin — this is what makes serves
difficult to return.

Do You Have to Throw the Ball Up in Table Tennis

The official table tennis rules state that serves are only legal if you throw the ball with
your free hand at least 16 cm up from an open palm. Many beginners break this rule,
meaning they are performing illegal serves. Seasoned players, however, serve
correctly.

Do I Have to Serve Diagonally in Table Tennis?

You only need to serve diagonally if you are playing doubles. All doubles serves must
bounce on the right-hand side of each court. On the other hand, you can serve
anywhere for singles.

Alex Horscroft

Freelance writer. Table tennis enthusiast. Lover of all things online. When I’m not
working on my loop game I’m probably binge-watching some fantasy show.

Popular Products

SALE
Nittaku 3-Star Premium 40+ Table Tennis Balls
(311)
CURRENT PRICE
JOOLA Table Tennis Racket Bag – Black/Blue
(3544)
CURRENT PRICE

SALE
STIGA Pro Carbon Performance-Level Table Tennis…
(3477)
CURRENT PRICE

SALE
JP WinLook Ping Pong Paddles Sets of 4 – Portable…
(5620)
CURRENT PRICE

iPong V300 Table Tennis Training Robot – Serves…

(768)
CURRENT PRICE
JOOLA Tour 2500 Review
Read More >

STIGA Advantage Review — The Best Budget Table?

Read More >
STIGA XTR Review
Read More >

Join our email list for exclusive reviews & the latest Ping Pong News

Sign up to our newsletter and stay up-to-date with the latest news in the ping pong
world, and be the first to read our new product reviews. We promise, no spam

Sign up

Latest Posts
10 Common Mistakes in Table Tennis and How to Fix Them

How To Do The Ghost Serve in Ping Pong

8 Best Ping Pong Movies You Need to Check Out

56 Ping Pong Terms That You Need to Know

61 Ping Pong Jokes & Memes to Impress Your Friends

Join our email list for the latest Ping

Pong News!

Sign up to our newsletter and stay up-to-date with the latest news in the ping pong
world, and be the first to read our new product reviews. We promise, no spam