Guide overview
What this guide covers
Learn the basic laws and common playing rules that help casual and beginner players start a table tennis match.
- Use the basic rules to get a casual game started without needing tournament-level detail.
- Games are commonly played to 11 points, and a player or pair must win by two.
- Serves, lets, doubles order, and common beginner questions are easy to reference.
Equipment basics
For a standard game, you need a table, net assembly, ball, and paddle. The official playing surface is 2.74 metres long, 1.525 metres wide, and 76 centimetres high—about 9 feet by 5 feet by 2.5 feet—with a 15.25-centimetre net.
The official ball is spherical, 40 millimetres in diameter, 2.7 grams, plastic, matte, and white or orange. A legal racket blade is flat and rigid, at least 85% natural wood by thickness, with a matte black side and a bright colour clearly different from black and the ball colour on the other side.
How to make a legal serve
The right to choose the first server, receiver, or end is decided by lot; a coin toss is a simple casual equivalent. Service starts with the ball resting freely on the open, stationary palm of the server's free hand.
The server projects the ball near vertically without spin so it rises at least 16 centimetres, then strikes it as it falls. The ball must remain above the playing surface, behind the end line, and visible to the receiver before it is hit. A legal serve bounces first on the server's court and then directly on the receiver's court.
- In singles, the serve does not need to be diagonal.
- In doubles, the serve goes from the server's right half to the receiver's right half.
- If a serve clips the net and still lands legally, replay the serve as a let.
Order of play
In singles, the server serves, the receiver returns, and the rally continues until someone wins the point.
In doubles, players hit in order: server, receiver, server's partner, receiver's partner, then that sequence continues. Hitting out of turn loses the point.
Scoring and number of serves
A beginner-friendly modern game is played to 11 points, and the winner needs a two-point lead. Points can be won whether or not you served.
Each player serves two points, then service switches. At 10-10, service alternates every point until one player or pair leads by two.
Lets, returns, and common point losses
If a serve touches the net and still lands correctly, it is a let and the serve is replayed. If it touches the net and does not land on the receiver's side, the server loses the point.
A legal return may pass directly over or around the net assembly, or touch it, as long as the ball then touches the opponent's court. During a rally, a net clip that still lands on the opponent's side remains in play.
- You lose the point if the ball bounces twice on your side.
- Do not volley a ball that is still above or travelling toward your playing surface before it bounces; that is obstruction.
- You lose the point if your return misses the opponent's side.
- You lose the point if you move the playing surface, touch the net assembly, or put your free hand on the playing surface during a rally.
- In doubles, hitting out of order loses the point.
Games, matches, and doubles basics
A match consists of the best of an odd number of games, commonly 3, 5, or 7. Players change ends for each new game; in the last possible game of a match, they change ends when the first player or pair reaches 5 points.
In doubles, the serve travels from the server's right half-court to the receiver's right half-court. Players then alternate returns in the fixed order. At each service change, the previous receiver becomes the server and the previous server's partner becomes the receiver.
Common beginner questions
Can you only score on your serve? No. Either player or pair can win any point.
Is a game played to 11 or 21? The current rule is 11 points, with a two-point lead required. At 10-10, service changes after every point.
May you touch the table? Touching the vertical side is not the same as touching the playing surface, but moving the table, touching the net, or placing the free hand on the playing surface during a rally loses the point.
What happens if the ball spins back over the net after landing on the opponent's side? The opponent may reach over or around the net to make a legal return; if no legal return is made, the player who produced the shot wins the point.