How To Score in Table Tennis

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Jared again on behalf of Expert Village and what I want to talk about in this section is how to keep score. This is very important so you can play a game. To start, you actually play to eleven. Now, it used to be to twenty-one, but they actually changed the rules to where you play to eleven and you switch every two serves instead of five. So you will serve two and your opponent will serve two until someone reaches eleven points unless, of course, both players reach ten. And that goes to something called "deuce" where you switch every serve back and forth until someone gains a two point lead. So, like I said, during these games you have to win by two Now, each separate game is played to eleven, but a match isn't complete until one person wins either three out of five or four out of seven depending on the preference of which one you want to do or how long you want to play. Scoring is done on a rally style, where opponents earn every time the ball is served no matter who's messing up. Even if my opponent serves and I will the rally, I am credited with the point because its rally style serving. Now, a point is earned on, like I said, on you or your opponent making an error. And so making an error can be done many different ways. One is if the ball bounces on your or your opponent's side, twice. Another one is if you miss the ball all together and you don't return it. And another is if you hit it too long and it goes off the edge of the table. Another way you can lose a point is just by hitting the ball into the net, not clearing the net, and hitting into the net. These are all different ways that you can lose a point, including serves, if the ball doesn't make it over the net."