What Is Twiddling in Table Tennis And Should You Do It?

Last Updated on April 24, 2024 by Alex Horscroft

Have you ever seen a player rotating their paddle in their hand mid-point? If you haven’t, it’s only a matter of time before you do if you play table tennis regularly. 

This motion is referred to as twiddling in the table tennis world, and while it may look weird, it has a very specific function. In this post, I’ll explain everything you need to know. 

What Is Twiddling in Table Tennis

Twiddling is the act of rotating your paddle in your hand mid-point. This causes your forehand rubber to switch to your backhand rubber and vice-versa.

By doing this, you can take advantage of the properties of your other rubber in specific situations. It also makes it harder for your opponent to read the ball, making you a trickier player to face.

Should I Twiddle My Paddle?

For most players, twiddling provides no competitive advantage. This is because we use either the same rubber or a very similar rubber on our backhand and forehand. For twiddling to be effective, you need to have rubbers with different properties. Three main rubber combinations work beautifully for twiddling.

1. Long Pips / Antispin / Short Pips With Inverted

If you want to play with your opponent’s minds by constantly forcing them to second-guess themselves, there is no better setup than using a tricky rubber paired with an inverted rubber

The best rubber for the job is probably long pips as it behaves so differently from standard inverted rubbers. However, antispin and even short pimples can work great too. Speaking from experience, long pips twiddlers are a nightmare to play against, easily my least kind of player to face. Thank god there aren’t more of them around!

If you have long pips or another tricky rubber paired with inverted it’s not a question of if you should twiddle, but rather how much you should. It really does provide that much of an advantage.

2. Chinese Rubber With Euro / Jap Rubber

Another type of twiddler is somebody who uses a Chinese rubber on the forehand and a Euro/Jap rubber on the backhand.

The reason this type of player twiddles is that Chinese rubbers are poor for smashing. While Chinese rubbers are pretty quick when looping, they are not so quick for smashing because the contact is much flatter. Euro/Jap rubbers on the other hand tend to be much more explosive so they are great for smashing.

As such, players who use Chinese rubbers on their forehand will often twiddle their paddle to take advantage of the increased pace their other rubber offers. This is quite different from long pips twiddlers. The former always twiddles to increase pace while the latter usually twiddles to be deceptive.

3. Defending Rubber With Attacking Rubber

The final player who may twiddle is one who has both a defending and attacking rubber. Think players who chop on the backhand and loop on the forehand. 

While I really rate this style by itself, twiddling adds that extra bit of jazz to make them more difficult to play against. By twiddling to pivot the attacking rubber to the backhand, this type of player can unexpectedly attack from their backhand side to catch their opponent off guard. 

Of course, such a player can attack using their defensive rubber, however, it makes sense to twiddle to take advantage of the more attacking rubber. This way attacks will be far more formidable.

How to Get Started With Twiddling 

Equipment

Before we discuss the technique of twiddling, you need the right gear. As previously mentioned, you should use a combination setup. I recommend inverted and long pips. Victas Curl P1V is an example of a popular long pips rubber you could try.

As for the blade, I recommend choosing one which has a round and thin handle. This will make twiddling much easier. Square handles are very tough to twiddle with, so avoid these.

How to Twiddle

There’s not much to twiddling, but if you haven’t done it before, it may take some time to become consistent with it. While you may expect that your thumb and index finger do much of the work for twiddling, the opposite is true. It’s your three bottom fingers and wrist that do the work. Your thumb and index fingers instead just have to get out of the way to allow your paddle to turn.

Step 1) Ensure you have a fairly loose grip and that your hand is not too far up the handle.

Step 2) With your pinkie, ring finger, middle finger, and wrist, apply a quick but brief anti-clockwise rotation to the handle.

Step 3) Loosen your grip to allow the handle to rotate in your hands.

Step 4) Point your index finger outwards slightly from the racket to allow it to rotate and lower your thumb ever so slightly for the same reason.

Step 5) Return your index finger to its original position. This will catch the paddle and prevent it from rotating further. Your thumb returns to its original position too.

Learning the Twiddling Motion

Unlike going from a forehand drive to a forehand loop, twiddling is not a progressive evolution of an earlier technique. Rather, it is an isolated motion that you have to learn from scratch. As such, it can take a while to master which will make you want to give up. But trust me, stick with it and you’ll reap the rewards.

While you might think that you should start twiddling in your training sessions, I actually don’t think that this is the best place to start. Instead, try twiddling your racket when you’re at home watching TV or listening to an audiobook. This way you don’t have the pressure of being in a rally which can force you to rush the motion. As a result, you can take your time to learn it right. Keep this up every day for around 10 minutes until it feels second nature.

After this, it’s time to integrate it into your game. Begin by sporadically twiddling in pushing rallies. Say 1 in every 4 shots. Don’t launch into topspin just yet — these rallies are too quick. Only when you are twiddling consistently from pushes should you move to topspin. With adequate training, you should be able to twiddle for almost any ball, giving you far more versatility than your non-twiddling opponents.

When to Twiddle

There are literally countless situations where you may want to twiddle to take advantage of your other rubber. This could be because you want to perform a more attacking shot or because you want to deceive your opponent. 

Fundamentally, twiddling acts as a means to disrupt rhythm. So you don’t have to be too picky about when you twiddle. Simply by doing it often, you prevent your opponent from becoming comfortable which will cause them to err on the side of caution. For an attacker, this is a nightmare. 

Tips for Success

Tip 1: Don’t Twiddle Before Receiving a Big Hit

Once you’re a twiddling pro, you can twiddle before almost any shot. Emphasis on almost.

The one time I certainly wouldn’t be twiddling is before receiving a massive hit. Say you accidentally fed the ball a little too high and a smash or power loop is coming your way, twiddling should be the last thing on your mind. You need enough time to twiddle, and these balls will likely come at you very quickly.

Getting caught out mid-twiddle is the worst as your racket isn’t ready to perform any shot. Therefore, you’re quite literally giving these points away. To avoid dishing out freebies, don’t twiddle if you predict an early fast hit.

Tip 2: Remember Which Rubber Is Which!

The main function of twiddling is to confuse your opponent by mixing up the rubbers you use on both flanks. Rather than hitting the ball as they normally would, they first have to establish which rubber you used, and then make adjustments to their stroke as needed.

However, you too also need to make this adjustment. Clearly, you have the advantage of knowing which rubber you are going to use, so you are not as pressed for time. But what happens when you forget which rubber you are using? Disaster. That’s what. 

As a twiddler, you should always know which side is which. There is no time to look at your rubbers mid-rally, so you need to constantly make a mental note as the point plays out. You can usually tell by the way the rubber feels on your index finger, yet you shouldn’t rely on this.  

Tip 3: Hide Your Racket Under the Table

One of the main reasons to use twiddling is to be deceptive. Think of the Riddler from Batman. That’s you. Yet twiddling by itself is not the extent of the measures you can take to deceive.

You can also try to make contact with the ball beneath the table. This is ideal for chopping as you naturally strike the ball fairly low. By making contact beneath the table, your opponent does not see which rubber you used to make the shot. It’s the very essence of villainy!

Of course, the frequency at which you can do this depends on what type of shots you are playing. To play most shots optimally, you should not be waiting until the ball goes beneath the table. So only use in circumstances where you will benefit. 

Tip 4: Fake a Rubber Change

We’re cranking up the deception even further with this one. Who said you have to switch rubbers with a twiddle? I sure didn’t. While most of the time you will want to, a twiddle fake-out is the perfect way to cause your opponent to rage-quit. 

To do this, you twiddle your paddle the full 360 degrees rather than 180 degrees, essentially you end up with the same rubber you had before you twiddled. If you’re serious about twiddling, this is a tool you will certainly want in your repertoire. 

How Did Twiddling Begin?

Twiddling has been around for a long time. Over twice my lifetime! It began sometime around the 1950s when there was no rule regarding rubber color and when sponge rubbers first came about. This meant players could use black rubbers on both sides, and you guessed it, a horrid rubber such as long pips paired with inverted sponge rubbers.

They then twiddled their paddle making it almost impossible to read the spin on the ball. It was immediately evident this strategy was far too strong and needed balancing. The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) stepped in two years prior to table tennis debuting at the 1986 Olympics. They introduced a requirement for players to use one red rubber and one black rubber (it has now expanded to one vibrant rubber and one black). 

Fast forward to the current day, it is clear twiddling is not as powerful as it once was, yet it is still very effective for the right kind of player. When used by long pips/inverted players it breeds indecisiveness, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that I’d be twiddling like a madman if I used those rubbers. So if you’re in that category, I recommend you get learning!