Doubles Ping Pong: How to Win

Last Updated on July 10, 2024 by Alex Horscroft

Many of us feel pretty happy with our games when it comes to singles. We’ve drilled our serves and returns, and have a concrete strategy. Yet when we dip our toes into doubles, sometimes it all just seems to fall apart.

This is because you’re likely not used to playing with a partner, and you’re making key errors that are costing you precious points. When you play doubles you can’t play like a singles player anymore — you have a partner you need to work with.

Join me as I discuss how to elevate your doubles ping pong performance. I know a thing or two when it comes to doubles. Back when my partner and I were competing in our local league, we had the highest win percentage. Follow my advice, and you could be pushing for that slot too!

Why It’s So Important to Practice Doubles

The unfortunate reality is that many of us are locked into our specific style of play and we find it hard to adapt to the table tennis doubles game. This is the result of playing singles exclusively while neglecting doubles.

Of course, most of the skills translate over. But there’s no substitute for actually practicing doubles to become a better doubles player — no, match play doesn’t count as practice. All the time I see outstanding singles players play a doubles match, and it’s so obvious to me that they don’t practice it. And fairly often, it will cost them the match.

You see. Two weaker players can certainly overcome stronger players if they work well together. And you’ll only develop synergy if you select the right partner and put in the hours to develop your games together. More on choosing the right partner at the end of this post.

A Quick Word on Doubles Ping Pong Rules

As this isn’t a guide on ping pong doubles rules, I’m only going to briefly touch on the rules that relate to performance. If you want to know the comprehensive rules for doubles, read my table tennis doubles rules guide.

Serving Rule

The first rule you need to know is that, unlike singles, you can’t serve anywhere in doubles. You must bounce the ball diagonally using the right-hand sides of the court. As such, serves are less influential doubles.

Alternate Hitting

The other rule that majorly impacts performance is that each player must hit the ball alternately. If you strike the ball out of sequence you concede the point. This means you and your partner need to move well.

Doubles Table Tennis Serving Tips

1. Serves Are a Less Powerful Tool

As the area where you can serve the ball is cut in half compared to singles play, your serving options are far more limited in doubles than in singles. This gives more confidence to the receivers of serves as they don’t have to cover the entire table.

If you’re playing against a competent attacker, chances are they will attempt to attack the ball if your serve is weak. Even if it is short. But long serves are what you really want to be wary of as they are so easy to attack with pace. Serving long is a dangerous game in doubles. You should only throw out long serves every now and again.

2. Know your Partner’s Abilities

As great as your pendulum serve may be, there is no good using it if your partner cannot deal with the third ball. You should develop a good understanding of your partner’s skill so that you can execute the right serves for them.

If you’re playing with somebody who can’t push very well, a float or sidespin topspin serve could be a good option (although it is less safe). However, if you’re with a pusher or chopper, you can’t go wrong with a chop serve.

3. Avoid Fault Serves

There’s nothing worse than giving away a needless point by serving into the net or off the end of the table. And in doubles, you also have serving to the wrong side to worry about.

This means faults are far more common in doubles compared to singles. My advice is to focus on precision when serving and not to do anything too fancy.

4. Use Hand Signals

I got made fun of just yesterday for using hand signals with my playing partner, but guess what? We won. The reason hand signals are so popular is that they are functional.

Prior to serving, you give your partner a hand signal under the table to signify what spin will be on your serve. This gives them vital information as to what type of receive they can expect.

You can decide with your partner what the various hand signals mean. I keep it simple and point down for backspin, up for topspin, and produce a fist for a float.

Doubles Ping Pong Receiving Tips

Receiving in doubles is much easier than in singles because you only have half of the court to cover. This means you can execute attacks with much more confidence.

If the ball drifts long, you should try attacking it where possible. And if the ball is short, backhand flicks are always on the table. In fact, you can even stand further than normal to the right to return any serve with your backhand. This reduces your need for good footwork on the first hit.

Doubles Open Play Strategy

1. Give Your Partner Space

I’d say the number one rule for doubles is to give your partner room. If you don’t they will not be able to execute the shot they need to. Hey. They might not even be able to hit the ball!

You should be thinking about space all the time — even as the partner of the receiving player. I’ve played with plenty of people who are breathing down my neck when I’m about to receive the serve.

“Ummm, excuse me Steven, would you kindly step back, lest I snap my racket on your leg when I got to loop the ball.”

And that last bit isn’t even farfetched! A buddy of mine actually broke his paddle on his teammate this way. So do you and your partner a favor and give yourselves enough room to play the game.

2. Aim the Ball Away From the Next Hitter

A core strategy of playing doubles is literally to try and make your opponents bump into one another. Not only does it give you a good laugh, but it also helps you win points.

So don’t hit the ball toward the player who needs to strike it next. Instead, aim the ball toward the player who just struck it. This way the player has to get past their partner to hit the ball.

3. Exploit the Weaker Player

Very rarely in doubles are pairs equally matched in skill. There is almost always one who is the weaker of the two — this is the player that you should seek to exploit the most often.

Your exact strategy will depend on how big the skill gap is, but assuming the gap is small, both of you can simply try to exploit the weaker player whenever there is an opportunity. If they hate smashes, smash away, and if sidespin serves are their kryptonite, you go for it.

If, on the other hand, one of your opponents is particularly strong, the strategy evolves slightly. You still need to avoid the weaker player, but your main focus is to prevent the stronger player’s attacking options. This often means short chop serves and short pushes.

4. Cover Your Partner’s Weaknesses

If you’re playing with a weak partner, you need to make your attacks count. A strong attack may cause your opponent to play a more passive shot, or it might even win you the point outright.

And once again, like with serves, try to perform shots that complement your partner’s style.

As a weak player, your main goal is to keep the rally alive. Your opponents may be banking on you making silly mistakes, so don’t try to go for shots with a low probability of success. Keep the rally alive so that your partner can do the business.

Similarly, if you or your partner are having a bad day, irrespective of your regular skill level, adapt and have the better player on the day attack more. This will ultimately increase your chances of getting the win.

5. Keep at the Same Distance From the Table

Being in tune with your partner is super important, and distance management is an element of this. A lot of attackers tend to drift fairly far away from the table — this is not a good habit for doubles.

You don’t want to stand too far back otherwise you won’t be able to reach wide balls. Instead, try to stand at a close to mid-distance, at least, to begin with.

Ultimately, the key is to stay roughly at the same distance from the table as your partner (although close to mid is usually best). If you don’t you will find that you’ll each be performing very different shots and constantly feel out of position.

For example, if my partner has hit a powerful loop from a far distance I generally don’t want to be right next to the table.

6. Stay Positive!

Getting rattled can be the difference between winning and losing a match, just ask Truls Moregardh. But not to his face — he might throw his racket at you!

In singles, many of us get angry with ourselves when we perform poorly, and this can sometimes be worse for doubles when it’s our partners that are making silly mistakes.

However, rather than insulting them, try to be more proactive. Rather than “That was trash, what are you doing? I’m never playing double with you again!,” substitute it for “Forget about it, next point let’s go.”

The last thing you want is for your partner to get rattled, you’ll probably end up losing the match and generally just have a bad time.

Table Tennis Doubles Movement

It wouldn’t be a proper doubles guide without me breaking down the movement you need to use. When you’re in a rally there is no concrete rule as to which way you move. This is because it is dependent on where you are and where your opponent hits the ball.

However, one movement area which you should agree on with your partner is at the beginning of the rally when one of you is serving or receiving.

Option 1 pictured below is my favored method as it is the safest. After serving or receiving, you move to get behind your partner. This gives them plenty of room to execute their shot. They are also stationed fairly centrally which means that they can cover the entire table well.

Option 2 is much more challenging. It’s a forehand dominant approach where both the server/receiver and partner stand on the right-hand side. The reason players sometimes opt for this method is because the forehand is usually stronger than the backhand. And by standing this way, you almost guarantee a forehand shot for both players.

However, there are two big drawbacks to this option. The first is that the server/receiver may well inadvertently move into the position where the ball is going to go, thus getting in the way of their partner who needs to hit the ball. I know if I were playing against players using the second option, I would hit the ball wide on the backhand a hell of a lot.

Secondly, as you start further away from the table, it’s harder to attack short serves, and most of the time, they will be. As a result, you often don’t get to utilize your stronger forehand attacks.

Finding the Right Partner

To dominate in doubles you need to find the right partner. And as I’ve mentioned previously, any old skilled singles player won’t cut it.

You need to find a player who complements your style and is adaptable. Many different style pairings will work nicely, but a looper and a chopper partnership is the gold standard.

The reason these style mesh so well is that they partially remove the inherent difficulty of doubles — getting in each other’s way. A chop slows the ball down giving you enough time to get into position. It also prevents your opponents from powering it past you.

Most of the time, players will push or perform a slow rollover loop against a chop. Neither is particularly dangerous if you’re an advanced player. Of course, elite choppers are like gold dust these days, so here are some other styles you should look out for.

Look for:

• Lefties
• Choppers
• Tricky rubbers
• Players with great footwork
• Composed players

Avoid:

• Weak players
• Players with an obvious hole in their game
• Players with poor footwork
• Players with poor consistency

Now Get to Training!

Once you’ve found a good doubles ping pong partner, it’s time to get practicing. You should discuss all elements of the game and form strategies.

If one of you has a particularly dangerous serve, it’s worth putting in the hours so that the other player becomes familiar with how to return the third ball, because as I mentioned earlier, it’s all about playing to your strengths!

So don’t get stuck in the bubble of singles play. There’s a lot of fun to be had with doubles, and with the right partner and practice, you can rule with an iron fist.