HOW TO PLAY PING-PONG

By ARNOLD PARKEREnglish Ping-Pong Champion and Author of “Ping-Pong, the Game, and How To Play It”

1.

SOMEBODY said once that if a gameis worth playing at all, it is worth

playing with all your mind, body, andsoul. It is good advice. You may nottake the matter very seriously, because itis play; but the successful man plays just

nervous strain that causes much of theheating.

In the first place, then, think it over,and if you will not take my advice, fol-low your own good reasoning and neverplay immediately after eating, nor unless

as hard as he works,thereby not onlygetting all the morerest by the greaterchange, but doingboth his work andplay well. With thegame under consid-e r a t i o n , however,the trouble has beenthat in all the furormost people havefailed to realize thatit is a sport with im-mense possibilitiesand that great skillis as necessary onthe little green woodcourt as on the biggreen grass one. Wesit down and eat abig dinner, and theni n our décolletégowns and our din-ner coats go at ithammer and tongs,suddenly becomingvery warm and quiteas suddenly takingco ld . You wou ldnot think of play-ing lawn tennis ina white satin gown,

you are dressed forit as you would dressfor the outdoor ten-nis. To the averageping-ponger t h a tsounds foolish, andthe answer is, nodoubt, that the gamen e v e r w o u l d b eplayed, if it werenot played in thisafter-dinner fashion.

1. Grip of Racket, Backhand View.

1 a. Grip of Racket, Forehand View.

Very well. Go on.G e t overheated—which is always badin such costumes—just after you haveeaten—which is theworst possible timefor physical exercise—and then spend aday or two in bed,and a week with allthe trials of a cold,if nothing worse.The facts are thatthere is a right anda wrong way to playping-pong and onlyfoolish people per-sist in playing it thewrong way.

I n r e a l i t y t h eor in a dress suit and a stiff shirt. And game is one of beautiful skill and quick-yet simply because the game is indoors and ness, a game of head and eye, as well ason a little table you come to believe that of splendid nerve. To all intents and pur-there is no heating exercise in it. As a poses it is lawn tennis on a table, meas-matter of fact the nervous strain of ping- uring nine by five feet, made of well-planedpong, seriously played, is quite as great boards or of some composition paintedas that of lawn tennis; and it is the green. Across the table in the middle of

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2. Forehand Service.

its length is stretched a little net like thelawn tennis net, but rising not over sixinches above the table. There are nocourts, however. The service is made any-where into the opponent’s territory. Thescoring is precisely as in tennis, yet onecannot have the privilege of a fault in theservice. In other words, the first strokegoes. If it is a fault, it is fifteen for theopponent. Furthermore, owing to the na-ure of the game, it is contrary to rule toserve a ball with an overhand stroke; thatis, when the face of the racket rises abovean imaginary line drawn parallel to thefloor from the wrist. There is no volley-ing allowed, and each ball must be takenon the first bound, never on the fly. Other-wise, roughly speaking, ping-pong is lawntennis on a nine-by-five-foot court.

Another of its advantages is that manya woman, if she will only dress in flan-nels instead of in satins, ran put up agame that will tax many a man to do hisbest. For a woman has a wonderfullydelicate wrist, and as many a member ofthe fair sex can manage a pair of horsesbetter than a man, so can she use the littleping-pong bat often with infinitely greaterskill, because she does not have the mus-cular strength to hit the ball too hard andshe does have the delicacy of touch which

is one of the most important features ofthe game.

With this unasked-for advice, it be-hooves me to go somewhat into the detailsof the game.

11.In my book on the game I strongly rec-

ommended vellum rackets and still do sofor beginners. Players who commencewith vellum gain great control of the balland a very large variety of strokes. Whena player has reached a fairly high degreeof proficiency with vellum he should usea wooden racket covered with India rub-ber with little spikes on it, somethingsimilar to the pads one sees everywhereto enable money to be picked up easily,although of course the rubber spikes aremuch smaller.

The best wood is ash about one-fourthinch thick. This makes a good racket,extremely strong and one that is as goodfor defense as attack. It is also com-paratively light, which in my opinion isa great advantage.

There are several different kinds of ballson the market, although the majority ofthem are, I believe, made by one firm.The balls should be of medium weight;the very heavy ones lately put on themarket are no good for hard-hitting

3. Backhand Service from Righthand Ball.

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game, whilst the very light and cheapones are equally unsatisfactory. JaquesMatch Ping-Pong and the Helex are thetwo best makes sold.

The way in which the racket should beheld is most important. It will not befound possible to do all the strokes de-scribed later on unless some modificationof the grip shown in illustrations 1 and1a be adopted. It will be seen that thehandle of the racket is very short so thatwhen the first finger and thumb are on theface of the racket, as shown, the end of thehandle just projects beyond the hand. Theracket is really held by the thumb andfinger on the face, the other finger merelyacting as guides and levers. The greatadvantage of this grip is that slight alter-ations can be made for special strokes.

111.The service naturally calls for treat-

ment first. It is most important that aplayer should become proficient in serv-ing, as although it is impossible to winby means of the service alone it is quitepossible to lose a match from weak or in-accurate serving.

Not only must a player be able to servefast and slow balls but he must be able to

5. Screw-back Service. The Ball is Struck by the Top Fanof the Racket, Not by the Face Shown in the Photograph.

4. Backhand Flick Service. The Ball is Struck by the Faceof the Racket.

impart top spin and cause a break toeither side.

Every one is recommended to acquire allthe different strokes described below. Theillustrations, which are from photographs,will teach a player far more than theletterpress.

Standing some three or four feet be-hind the end of the table and leaningslightly forward (see illustration 2) throwthe ball up a little way so that it can behit from about a foot or a foot and a halfin front of the body. The racket mustswing from as far behind as possible sothat it is traveling very rapidly when ithits the ball. The face should be parallelwith the net, and the moment the ball istouched the racket must be drawn sharplyupwards. The grip of the india rubberspikes on the ball imparts a tremendoustop spin so that the ball shoots with greatspeed on touching the table. As the ef-fect of this stroke is first to lift the ballin the air and then to cause it to fall rap-idly, the ball must be struck so that with-out any upward pull it would hit the netabout three inches from the top. A veryslight movement of the wrist will placethis service to either side of the court.

Another very effective and tremen-dously fast service is a backhand service

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6. Prepared to Receive the Service. Watch Your Opponent’sEvery Movement, and the Ball as Closely as Possible.

from the right-hand side (see illustra-tion 3.) The racket is held at the end ofthe handle as shown there and is grippedvery loosely so that it swings easily back-ward and forward. The arm is held some-what away from the body and the ball ishit with wonderful speed by the action ofboth wrist and arm. Without constantpractise it is difficult to serve with accu-racy and without breaking the rule aboutthe waist line.

A most difficult service but one of theprettiest I know is that called in Englanda backhand “flick” service. It is purelya wrist action; the ball travels very slowlyover the net, but such top spin is impartedthat it is most difficult for an opponent totake it with any effect, the ball travelingso fast after hitting the table.

Stand as near to the table as possiblewithout transgressing the rule and, lean-ing well forward, let the racket hang downas shown in illustration 4; drop the ballan inch or two and hit it by swinging theracket upwards by a turning of the wristonly, without moving the arm forward.The grip of the surface of the racket willcause the ball to rise over the net spin-ning rapidly.

Another service for occasional use isthe screw back. The racket is held so that

its surface is parallel with the floor oreven slightly away from the table, andthe ball is hit underneath, causing it torevolve in exactly the opposite way to thetopspin service just described. Illustra-tion 5 shows the way in which this is man-aged. The great objection to this service,however, is the height to which the ballhas to be hit to make it travel over thenet with sufficient bottom spin.

All these services can be made to breakto either side by drawing the racketslightly across the ball to one side or an-other at the same time that top or bottomspin is imparted. The above are merely afew of the chief services. Players willsoon discover variations of them that willsuit their individual peculiarities. Vari-ety is the secret of success at ping-pongas at all games. Therefore learn to half-volley as well as to drive from the back,to play backhanded as wel l as fore-handed, to screw back as well as to imparttop spin, to make the balls break to rightor left. No one of the above is betterthan the others, but in the combination ofthe whole lies strength.

Each individual stroke gains addedpower from the contrasts that may bemade by a skilful player. If every ballshoots any one can take them, but if the

7. Underhand Forehand Drive

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first stroke shootsw h i l e t h e n e x tbreaks back, it re-quires skill to takeeither.

To receive a ser-vice from the aver-a g e server standsome little way be-hind the table.slightly crouching,the racket being inp o s i t i o n f o r abackhand s t r o k e(see illustration 6),and immediately infront of the body.I t w i l l b e f o u n dpossible to take al-most any service from this position. Oneof the reasons for holding the racket infront of the body is that balls comingstraight at one are the most difficult ofany to return; therefore it is as well to be

8. Round Arm Forehand Drive. The Ball is Struck on Top With the Face of the Racket.

your opponent change his service at thelast moment.

1v.There are a very large number of ways

of making killing returns. The first strokeis an underhand forehand drive (see illus-tration 7). Observe carefully the positionof the body. The left side is quite closeto the table while the right is as far awayas possible. That is to say the body isalmost at right angles to the table, leav-ing the arm plenty of room to swingeasily. The ball is not hit in the beststrokes with the full face of the racketbut with it somewhat sideways, the rub-ber spikes clinging to the ball causing itto revolve rapidly. As a very sharp up-ward swing is possible, great top spin aswell as side spin can be imparted. Shouldthe full face be used, owing to the body’snot being turned far enough round, theball must be taken as low as possible inorder to get the same top spin.

ready for them.Should, however, a player have a par-

ticularly dangerous service to any specialpart, it is as well to have the racket guard-ing that portion of your court and trustthat his other services will not be too fastfor you to move your racket across should

9. Underhand Backhand Drive.

The natural direction of this drive, whenthe racket is held sideways, is from rightto left, or a ball can, after great practise,be driven straight down the table. Shoulda drive to the right be wanted the fullface of the racket must be used. Thisstroke can be used as either a half volleyor back stroke. Great accuracy and judg-ment are necessary should the half volleybe used. So many things have to be al-lowed for when half volleying, the spinof the ball being the most important. Thedifference between a ball that is cut backand one with top spin on it is apparentto any one; and it is not always possible to

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10. Round Arm Backhand Drive.

judge whether it is spinning or not froman opponent’s stroke, as the spin on it de-pends on whether or not you yourself hadimparted any in your previous stroke.

I have had hard drives half volleyed bya player with a perfectly steady racket,screw back over the net from the top spinI had imparted in my previous stroke.

The round-arm forehand drive is madewith the ball a long way from the body,the arm being straight out and the bodysquare with the table. The stroke is nota whip up but the top spin is impartedby the ball’s being hit on the top with theracket facing the table at an angle ofabout 45º, or even less. Illustration 8shows the position of the body. It is pos-sible by the action of the wrist alone toplace the ball to any part of the court,the swing of the arm and body being thesame wherever the ball is placed. Thismakes it a most effective stroke and onethat can only be taken by a very expertplayer who watches the racket and ballrather than the body of an opponent.

The backhand strokes are very similarto the forehand except that the racket hasto swing across the body and that theamount of top spin which can be impartedby the action of the arm is very much lessthan in the case of the forehand strokes.Illustrations 9 and 10 show the under-

hand and round-arm backward drives sim-ilar to the forehand strokes describedpreviously.

The backhand stroke by which the ballis flicked over the net by a twist of thewrist, with very little arm action, is themost difficult of all. It is practically thebackhand wrist service brought into thegame. In my opinion it is easier to re-turn a fairly slow ball by this means thanit is to do the service. Therefore, shouldany one fail to serve in this way he neednot despair of learning to make the strokein what may be called “the middle game.”I shall first describe the stroke when theball falls on the left-hand side.

The grip of the racket previously de-scribed has to be altered slightly when anopportunity for using this stroke occurs.The forefinger comes round the handle,while the thumb, instead of being on theside of the face, is pressed on the facedirectly under the handle and as far downas possible (see illustration 11). The armis stretched out in front of the body, whichis slightly turned away from the table andbent forward so as to allow arm and racketto be moved to either side of the table.The racket leans over toward the table atan angle of about 45 degrees, and the ball islifted over the net by an upward circular

11. Commencement of Flick; the Ball is Struck by the Faceof the Racket Shown.

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motion. The racket does not move out, ofits plane, but swings round with the wristas a pivot. Illustration 12 shows the com-mencement of the stroke; number 13 showsthe position of the wrist and racket di-rectly the ball is touched, while number16 is the position after the ball has beenwhipped over the net. The effect on theball is most curious. It rises considerablyabove the table at the commencement ofits flight, the upward pull of the racketcausing this. But before it has traveledfar the top spin, which is imparted parexcellence by this stroke, makes itself felt,and its downward course is rapid. Onhitting the table the speed of the ball isincreased by the top spin’s causing theball to shoot forward. The ball can bestruck in this manner from any part ofthe court and by a very slight wrist move-ment it can be placed to either side orstraight down the table. Balls fallingdirectly opposite the left shoulder andnear the end of the table are the easiestto return in this manner. If the ball fallson the right-hand side I mostly prefer touse one of the forehand drives mentionedpreviously. It is possible to flick eitherhalf volleys or high bouncing balls, in factone rarely now kills a ball on the backhand without flicking it in this manner.

12. The Flick Stroke, Half Way Through.

The word flick has been used as most ap-propriately describing this stroke. Theplayers who have managed to learn itproperly could be numbered on one hand.A Mr. Good was the first to discover itand he introduced the stroke to my noticesome four months back. I was then ‘play-ing with vellum, and did not realize thefull power of it until about a month ago,when I finally discarded the vellum racketin favor of the india-rubber covered one.

13. End of Flick Stroke. The Ball Has Been WhippedOver the Net.

The “f l ick” for balls falling on theright-hand side is a very difficult one. Ifa player has a good forehand drive thereis not much use in learning it except thatthe more strokes one has at command thegreater his strength. Look at illustration16. The racket is in position for the stroke.Observe that the grip is exactly the sameas for the flick just described but that theracket instead of revolving from left toright, as before, travels from right to left.The great difficulty to contend with isthat this is practically a forehand strokein which the ball is struck with the back-hand face of the bat. One’s natural ten-dency is to turn the wrist so that the or-dinary surface for forehand play faces theball.

The next point is the position to be gen-erally taken up after the service has been

244 How to Play Ping-Pong

successfully delivered. Before learning toplay with rubber bats I used to stand mid-way between the side lines, as I found iteasier to kill balls a medium distance fromthe body than either close to or far away.Since taking to the rubber, however, Istand somewhat to the left hand side ofthe table for the following reasons: Allballs falling on the backhand are just inthe right position for flicking; ballsstraight down the table can be killed bythe underhand drive, while balls well onthe right can be driven hard by the round-arm drive.

v.Always, so far as it is possible, antici-

pate your opponent’s intentions. In factdo more than that. It is frequently goodpolicy to make a feint to a particular spotto induce an adversary to play to the oppo-site part of the court, which you are reallyguarding.

At the commencement of a game takethings quietly; stonewall if you like, untilwell set. Then start hitting, graduallyworking up to the full power of yourdrives. Whatever happens don’t slackenafter you have once commenced to hit. Ifyou do you will be beaten absolutely.Nothing is harder than to play one’sproper game when things are going badly,and nothing distinguishes the really greatplayer so much as his ability to play hisproper game in adverse circumstances.

Don’t think from this that I advise youto hit every ball. Nothing of the kind.What I say is, whether winning or losing,play the same style of game. Balls thatshould be hit hard, hit hard. Don’t simply

pat them back because you are behind andare afraid to lose a point.

When an opponent gets back for a harddrive if you have time try to send him ashort screw-back. Nothing is more effect-ive or more difficult than this. The aver-age player attempts to play it too shortand the ball does not cross the net.

Try to find out your opponent’s weakestspot. A ball straight at the body is theweak point of most players, particularlyhalf-volleyers.

Feints are also most effective. Pretendto hit the ball to one side and by a rapidturn of the wrist send it to the other.Body, arm, and eyes must all combine indeceiving your opponent as to the true di-rection of the ball. If done effectively hewill frequently make a movement to takethe ball on one side while it is passinghim on the other.

In conclusion let me impress on everyone the necessity for constant practise.The game cannot be learned in a week ortwo, as some players think. When in itsinfancy rallies of hundreds of strokeswere kept up; now the rallies are rarelylonger than five strokes by either player,that is to say, among the best players.There are not more than about ten playersat present who can be called really firstclass. They all play with rubber racketsand there is no comparison between theirplay and that of the rest of the ping-pongers.

Judge of a player’s ability not by thenumber of times he can return the ballover the net but by the few times he letshis opponent return it.