Equipment Needed for Playing Table Tennis

Series Summary

The sport of table tennis, also called ping pong, tests the players' hand-eye coordination and reaction time to the extreme. It is one of the most popular sports in the world in terms of numbers of players worldwide, and is played competitively in international tournaments. Table tennis was first played in England in the 1880s, likely as an indoor, miniaturized version of lawn tennis. Soon equipment was manufactured, and the name Ping-Pong was trademarked in 1901 by J. Jaques & Son Ltd., who later sold the name to Parker Brothers.

In this series of free table tennis lesson videos you'll learn the basics of this fun racket sport. Our expert Jared Neusch tells you everything you need to know to become a great player, from serving and blocking tips to the elusive dead ball technique. Learn all kinds of spins, from topspin to side spin to under spin. Your opponents will be bewildered by the new skills you will master by watching these videos. You will learn ways to improve your ball placement strategy as well as your mental and physical preparation for the big match.

Video Transcript

"Hi, My name is Jared on behalf of Expert Village. What were going to be talking about in this clip is the equipment you need for table tennis. To start, you are going to need three basic things. The first is of course a racket, and on the racquet there are just a couple of rules. One is you need both sides rubber, and you need to have red and black. That's a rule so that the player can memorize what kind of rubber you have on both sides. You are also going to need a ball. For the ball, it's going to be 40mm is the size and on there you can see that. On the ball there are all different kinds. There are 3 stars, 2 star, 1 star, and no star. 3 star being the best, no star being the worst. With a 3 star ball you are going to see more consistency and just a better play. After these two things you also have the table. Obviously you are going to need this. Tables are going to be pretty standard. The one major thing you can check on the table for your play is the height of the net. That can change the dynamic of the game significantly. A way to test if the net is about average height with just the equipment you have is by putting your paddle up to it and if the net reaches just about to the top of the rubber, the net's good. So with these three things when you are coming to play, sometimes it helps if you can consolidate all your equipment into a gym bag. This way you won't lose any of the balls or the racquet. You can keep everything together. And for the balls, sometimes it helps to have extra balls in case you lose one. Balls may crack during a game, people might step on it, so it's nice to have extra balls. Lastly, it is good to have something like a headband or an armband. It's more of a preference thing; some people choose it because it helps keep the sweat out of your eyes. This can be used for your arm because you don't want the sweat to come down into your hands. All these things are just the basic equipment you need to start playing table tennis."