If you’ve been watching superstars like Truls Moregardh, Felix Lebrun, Fan Zhendong, Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha, and Hina Hayata, it’s quite likely you’ve been inspired to play table tennis.
Maybe you’ve picked up a paddle with friends / colleagues before, or you used to play as a kid. Maybe you’ve never hit a shot in your life. Everyone’s welcome to start playing TODAY.
Table tennis is one of the most accessible and welcoming sports in the world, with regular players of all skill levels. If you’re over the age of 10 (which is quite likely), you’re probably not going to make the Olympic squad, but that won’t stop you having loads of fun.
Let me explain 6 ways you can get involved with table tennis.
Find Somewhere To Play With Friends
If you’re totally new to the sport, a good place to start is reading our beginner’s guide to table tennis. That’ll get you up to speed with the rules.
Then, you need to grab a friend (or friends) and find yourself a table. Most towns and cities around the world have access to a table either in a local park, sports center, or social club.
Most national table tennis organizations provide a list of places to play, such as the UK’s table finder or Australia’s club finder. If you’re in the US, we have a guide to finding places to play table tennis across the USA.
Alternatively, just hit up Google for any places that will rent you a table by the hour.
Even better, check if there are any ping pong bars in your nearest city! Famous ones include Bounce in London, and SPIN in New York.
If you’re not sure about playing consistently, I highly recommend renting paddles and balls. Keep in mind that a vast majority of rented equipment is of terrible quality though, so this is temporary until you buy your own paddle.
Speaking of buying your own paddle, here are my favorite pre-made paddles for beginners. I mostly recommend the Killerspin JET400 as a great balance between price and performance. I’d recommend investing in your own paddle as soon as you’re sure you want to play more than once.
Get Some Basic Coaching
There’s a huge gap between a total beginner and an amateur local club player. An equally big gap exists between those club players and the local premier division players. Oh, and another huge gap between them and professionals.
So the best thing you can do to kickstart your table tennis career is to invest in some group or individual coaching.
Whilst you can pick up some instructions from sites like ours, and from YouTube, it’s never going to be the same as real life coaching sessions. Even if you just have a few sessions to get your grip, serve, and 4 basic strokes right, you’ll see a massive skill improvement very quickly.
Here are some of our best resources that will be helpful for you:
- Choosing the right grip.
- How to serve.
- Forehand drive.
- Forehand push.
- Backhand drive.
- Backhand push.
Join A Local Club
Now you’re 100% ready to join a local club.
Some clubs are very beginner-friendly, and will run introductory courses themselves. Others might be more elite training clubs with limited table capacity for beginners. Do a small amount of research and maybe reach out to the club before you head down for the first time.
As a general rule, most clubs are incredibly friendly and welcoming. Table tennis players love to see new people playing the sport. Clubs are often very social, with everyone chatting in between training / matches.
As is human nature though, not all clubs are run the same. Don’t get disheartened if you don’t find your sporting home at the first club you visit. Try a few different clubs and join the one you feel most comfortable at.
Need to find a club? Try google, or even sites like Meetup or EventBrite.
Volunteer Your Time
You don’t have to play the sport to get involved. Local groups and clubs are always on the lookout for volunteers who can help out.
Whether that’s acting as a hitting partner for juniors, organizing club nights, fundraising, finances, managing the website/social pages, umpiring, or coaching, everyone is welcome to our sport.
The next generation of players like Ma Long, Timo Boll, or Truls Moregardh probably haven’t started playing yet. They need grassroots volunteers to help get them into the sport and support their development into superstars of the future.
Nobody can become a professional without a large support network of players and non-players who volunteered their time building the structures that developed them as a player.
Get Yourself A Table Tennis Table
You could easily spend $5,000+ on an amazing home table tennis setup if you have the space at home.
Not everyone has that kind of money though, so it’s great that there are plenty of high-quality budget options as well. Our home setup guide also covers a full setup for less than $1,000.
Budget tables start at around $200 but are terrible quality. Make sure the surface thickness is above 15mm and it’s not too difficult to move around, which is normally found in tables at $450 and above. If that’s too steep, check out your local facebook marketplace or gumtree.
If you haven’t got anyone to play against at home, it’s not a bad idea to purchase a cheap(ish) robot for $250. This will give you plenty of time to practice your strokes and improve super quickly. Robots are great, but they aren’t a complete replacement for real people.
For example, you can’t buy a robot that will replicate Truls Moregardh’s outrageous Snake shot in the Olympic Final.
Watch More Table Tennis
There are a few places you can watch table tennis broadcasts, with online streaming the main format as matches aren’t often available on TV channels.
Instead, the main recommended place to watch events, streams and match highlights is at https://worldtabletennis.com/ which is managed by the global table tennis governing body.
Alternatively, there are some great table tennis YouTube channels that are worth subscribing to including Olympic commentator Adam Bobrow.
We’d also love to welcome you to the online table tennis community at forums like r/tabletennis, Table Tennis Daily and OOAK.
David's been playing Table Tennis since he was 12, earning his first coaching license in 2012. He's played in national team & individual competitions, although he prefers the more relaxed nature of a local league match! After earning his umpiring qualification in England, David moved to Australia and started Racket Insight to share information about the sport he loves.
Blade: Stiga WRB Offensive Classic | Forehand: Calibra LT | Backhand: Xiom Musa
Playstyle: The All-Rounder