Glossary
Confused about a table tennis term? Check out the expansive glossary! I’ve covered everything I can think of and will add to it when anything new pops into my head.
Air bubble
A pocket of air trapped between your sponge and blade. These can easily be removed by re-gluing.
ALL-, ALL, ALL+:
An abbreviation used by manufacturers to describe the speed ratings of blades. These blades offer a good balance of speed and control.
All-wood
Blades made solely from wood with no layers of carbon.
Antispin
A rubber that reverses the spin on the ball.
Arylate carbon
A popular blade composition featuring a combination of arylate and carbon (ALC).
Backspin
Imparted by striking downwards on the ball. Backspin encourages the ball to travel back towards you.
Banana
A highly popular backhand flick that uses topspin and sidespin.
Bat
An alternative term for your racket.
BH
An abbreviation for the backhand.
Blade
The wooden component of bats. This encompasses the wooden head and handle.
Block
A defensive stroke with little to no power input.
Blocker
A player whose playstyle favors blocking.
Booster
A compound used to enhance the speed of rubbers. It is applied directly to the sponge and the effect lasts a few months.
Carbon
A material that is commonly used in blades. Carbon increase a blade’s pace and sweet spot.
Catapult effect
The trampoline-like effect where an increasing stroke speed results in a disproportionately faster ball.
Chop block
An advanced stroke that is a hybrid between a chop and a block. Great for disrupting rhythm.
Closed angle
An advanced stroke that is a hybrid between a chop and a block. Great for disrupting rhythm.
Composite
A blade that features both wooden and carbon layers.
Corkscrew
A backhand serve with left to right sidespin which promotes forehand third ball.
Counter
The returning of an offensive shot with an offensive shot of your own. Comes in many versions, e.g. counter-loop, counter-drive, etc.
Chop
A defensive stroke that slows down attackers. Chops impart heavy backspin by swiping down on the ball.
Cross court
Counter-hitting across the table either forehand to forehand or backhand to backhand.
Crossover
The area between your forehand and backhand side.
Dead rubbers/ball
Ball or rubbers that have/produce little to no spin.
Deep
A ball that lands very near the end line.
DEF-, DEF, DEF+:
An abbreviation used by manufacturers to describe the speed ratings of blades. These blades are slow and great for defending.
Doubles
The version of table tennis where you play with a partner taking successive turns to hit the ball.
Drive
A relatively safe attacking stroke with moderate topspin.
Drop shot
A shot that is placed short over the net.
Edge tape
Adhesive tape that covers the edge of the blade and rubbers for protection.
Fade
A topspin sidespin stroke variation of the loop. The ball is struck with right to left sidespin (for a forehand fade).
Feed
To produce balls for a training partner to strike. Commonly used when referring to multi-ball.
FH
An abbreviation for forehand.
Flat hit
An abbreviation for forehand.
Flick
The optimal attacking stroke for short balls. Involves a lot of wrist and forearm.
Float
A dead ball with little to no backspin.
Game
Another term for a set. Played first to 11, or the first to win by 2 clear points if deuce occurs.
Ghost
A heavy backspin service where the ball bounces back onto your side after landing on your opponent’s side.
Glue
Adhesive used to glue table tennis rubbers to the blade.
Half-long
A ball that only narrowly misses bouncing twice on one side of the table.
Half-short
A ball that only just bounces twice on one side of the table.
Handicap
Matches where lower-ranked players start with a points advantage to even the playing field.
Hardness
A metric to measure blades, rubbers, and sponges.
Hidden serve
Either used to refer to well-deceived serves, or serves that are illegally obscured.
High toss serve
A heavy chop serve characterized by a very high toss.
Hook
A topspin sidespin stroke variation of the loop. The ball is struck with left to right sidespin (for the forehand hook).
Inverted
The most popular table tennis rubber type. The rubber pimples face inwards into the sponge.
ITTF
The global governing body for table tennis: the International Table Tennis Federation.
Kill
A point-ending shot.
Let
A service where the ball strikes the net. Let serves must be replayed.
Loaded
A term used to describe heavy spin.
Lob
A defensive stroke where the ball is struck up high into the air. Great for recovering position.
Lobber
A player whose playstyle favors lobbing.
Long
A ball that bounces deep on either side of the table.
Long pimples
A rubber type where long pimples face outward. Long pimples tend to produce the opposite type of spin to inverted rubbers making them very tricky.
Loop
A heavy topspin stroke that is very prevalent at the advanced level.
Looper
Looper: A player whose playstyle favors looping.
Match
A full game of table tennis played best of 3, 5, or 7.
Medium short
Another term for half-short.
Medium long
Another term for half-long.
Multi-ball
A training drill where balls are fed in quick succession. They are only struck once as there is no receiver.
Obstruction
The ball’s flight path is intercepted by non-legal means such as clothing or the non-playing arm. The obstructer loses the point.
OFF-, OFF, OFF+:
An abbreviation used by manufacturers to describe the speed ratings of blades. These blades are fast and great for attackers.
Open angle
The bat angle is open to account for backspin on the ball.
Open play
A term often used when discussing drills. Open play means you can hit the ball anywhere.
Paddle
An alternative name for a bat.
Pendulum
A popular forehand service. Similar to the chop with right to left sidespin.
Penhold
A popular grip in Japan and China. The bat is held similar to how a pen is held.
Pimples
The small raised sections of rubbers that can either face outward or inwards into the sponge.
Ping pong
The original name used for early table tennis. It has since become its own individual sport despite not being well known. As a result, casual audiences commonly call ping pong table tennis.
Playing surface
The top of the table tennis table which the ball makes contact with.
Ply
They layers of a blade. Used to describe blade composition.
Point
The individual units of play. A player must reach 11 points to win a game.
Power-loop
A powerful loop stroke used to kill points.
Punch
A fast attacking stroke on the backhand side where the ball is struck with mainly power as opposed to topspin.
Push
A defensive stroke that uses backspin.
Pusher
A player whose game is dominated by pushes.
Racket
A name used to describe a table tennis bat.
Rally
An informal term for a point.
Reverse pendulum
An advanced service that produces the opposite spin to the pendulum serve (left to right).
Reverse tomahawk
The opposite serve to the tomahawk.
Robot
A device that feeds balls
Rollover loop
A slow spinny loop.
Rubber
The grippy face of your bat which you strike the ball with.
Seemiller
An extreme forehand grip where one side of the racket is used by both the forehand and backhand. Popularized by Dan Seemiller.
Serve
The first time the ball is struck in the rally. It must bounce on both sides of the table.
Server
The player whose turn it is to serve.
Sidespin
Spin created by striking the ball from left to right or right to left.
Shadowing
A training method of performing strokes without the ball. Helps to hone technique.
Shakehand
The most popular grip. Very similar to shaking someone’s hand hence the name.
Short
A ball that bounces twice on the table after clearing the net.
Shovel
A type of serve which produces left to right sidespin.
Smash
A powerful shot that involves a little topspin and a lot of rotation in the hips.
Snake
A tricky shot whereby one type of sidespin is faked in favor of the opposing sidespin. This can make the opponent miss the ball altogether.
Speed glue
An old type of glue that is now banned. It enhanced the speed of rubbers.
Spin
The rotation of the ball. Spin can be imparted in any direction.
Sponge
The porous material attached to the underside of rubbers. It is directly glued to the blade.
Strawberry
An unorthodox type of flick shot. Much rarer and harder to execute effectively than the banana flick.
Stroke
Another term describing a shot.
Swerve
The curved flight path of the ball as it flies through the air when spin is applied.
Sweet spot
The central section of the bat which produces optimal shots.
Tackiness
A measure of a rubber’s stickiness. Chinese rubbers are tacky whereas most Japanese rubbers are not.
Tensor
A subset of table tennis rubbers with a pre-tensioned top sheet.
Throw angle
The angle at which the ball ejects off of your bat.
Tomahawk
A sidespin service where you slice down and to the side of the ball a little bit like throwing a tomahawk.
Topspin
The type of spin whereby the ball rotates forward and downward causing the ball to move faster.
Touch play
Short play over the net with very little spin.
Twiddle
Turning of the racket in order to strike with the opposing rubber. Used by players who use rubbers with different properties.
Umpire
Umpire: The referee of the match.
Underspin
Underspin: Another term for backspin.
Volley
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
3rd ball
The first ball you receive after playing your serve.
5th ball
The second ball you receive after playing your serve.