Within table tennis there are a few intricate rules that often get overlooked. Even in competitive play some rules either are very rarely needed or complicated enough that people don’t have the time to learn them properly. Table tennis serving rules is definitely one of these instances. Even though, serving starts every single point, the surrounding rules are still widely misunderstood. This article aims to clarify these rules and help you get a better understanding of what makes a legal serve.
Starting Your Serve
To prepare for your serve to begin there are a few things we have to first get right. To start your serve you must throw the ball with your non-playing hand, however it is not as simple as just throwing the ball. The ball must be in the palm of your hand, where your fingers are outstretched so that your hand is flat. This means that you can not wrap your fingers around the ball. This is to prevent players from spinning the ball with your fingers as you throw the ball up. It also allows your opponent to see the ball clearly so that they’re not unsure whether you are about to serve or not.
Not only do you need to hold the ball correctly, you also need to ensure your hand is in the correct place relative to the table. The ball must be above table level from the start of your serve. This prevents you from hiding the ball behind the table so your opponent can’t see when you’re about to start you serve. Similarly, the ball must not be over the table. This is to prevent you from serving close to the net to find unrealistic angles to use against your opponent.
As you can see, even before we have tossed the ball there are a few things we must ensure so that our serve is legal.
The Toss
Now that we have our hand and ball placement correct for a serve we are ready to move onto the toss. The name here is a bit of a clue, you must toss the ball, not drop it. The ball toss must be thrown at least 16cm high (6 inches). This is to prevent people from serving straight out of their hands.
When you throw the ball up you must also make sure that the toss is ‘near vertically upwards’, this is taken straight from the ITTF handbook. I have quoted this because the phrase ‘near vertically’ can be interpreted differently from person to person. To be safe, try to ensure that your toss is as close to being straight up as possible.
Once the ball has left your hand, we now have a duty to ensure that the ball is not hidden from your opponent at any time. This could be done by using your body to shield the line of sight between your opponent and the ball. The most common way players ‘hide the ball’ is by leaving their non-playing hand in the way. This means that at some point during the balls flight it must go behind your arm and the view of the ball would be obstructed. To prevent this the ITTF brought in a rule that specifically states that you must move your non-playing hand out of the way as soon as you have tossed the ball.
We still haven’t even made contact with the ball yet and there are already lots of chances to perform an illegal serve.
The Contact
You will be happy to know that the contact is less complicated than the two previous sections. When contacting the ball you must ensure that the ball is now falling and not rising. This again is to prevent you from hitting it out of your hand or serving when your opponent is not expecting it.
Following on from how we started the serve, the ball can not be hit if it is over the table surface or under the table height so the ball can’t be seen. Also, you are not allowed to hide the contact just like you are not allowed to hide the flight path of the ball in any way.
Once you have contacted the ball with your bat, the ball must first hit your side of the table and then the opponents side. If the ball does this but also touches the net in the process then a let is called and the point is replayed.
Illegal Serves And Exceptions
As you can see there are a lot of things to get right to make a serve legal so often we need procedures in place for when these criteria aren’t met. If the umpire deems your serve to be illegal then a let will be played, they will explain what was illegal about the serve and you will be allowed to retake the serve. This only happens once per player per match. Any subsequent illegal serves will result in the umpire awarding the opponent with the point and you will move to the next point as normal.
The umpire is allowed to make exceptions to any of the service rules at their judgment if a player has a disability that inhibits them from perfectly executing a legal serve that has been outlined here. However, this exception should be as minimal as possible so that the serve gains no advantage. For example, if a player had reduced mobility or motor function in their non-playing hand they may be unable to toss the ball with that hand. So, the umpire would allow them to toss the ball using their playing hand as long as the other criteria for a legal serve was also upheld.
Conclusion
As you can see the table tennis serving rules are complicated. There are lots of ways in which a serve may become an illegal serve. The best way to check if your serves are legal is to ask someone who is a certified umpire if all of your actions are meeting the criteria. If you don’t know anyone that is a certified umpire just ask lots of people that you play. Specifically ask if they noticed anything that may be deemed illegal, if lots of people are saying the same thing then you might want to look into changing something.
I understand that the service rules seem quite intimidating so if you have any questions about them please feel free to ask below or email me, I am always happy to help!
Bailey
bailey@pingpongpye.com
As a dedicated table tennis player, I thought I had a solid grasp of the game’s rules. However, my perspective shifted when I stumbled upon this article on that delved deep into table tennis serving rules. Reading through the article, I realized there were nuances and intricacies I hadn’t fully understood before. Learning about the specific requirements for a legal serve, the importance of ball placement, and the potential faults opened my eyes to a critical aspect of the game that I had often taken for granted. Armed with this newfound knowledge, I was able to refine my serving technique and improve my overall performance on the table. The article’s comprehensive breakdown of the rules is going to be to be a game-changer for me, and hopefully enhance my understanding and enjoyment of the sport.
It is good to hear you refining your serving technique and how it has improved your performance. I hope you continue to improve and more importantly keep having fun!
Although we have a table tennis table and our boys have been playing table tennis with their friends for years, I had no idea that there were so many rules to make a serve legal. We usually just throw the ball to serve, but I now realise that the position of your hand is crucial if you want to serve the ball correctly.
I will certainly be sharing this guide with the family, to make sure that they follow the correct rules for serving in table tennis.
Most people that have a recreational table are unaware of the intricacies of serving. The rules are there for two reasons:
1) To make your serves possible to return and develop into a rally.
2) To improve your serves.
If you make sure you are following the service rules then your serves will gradually improve!
What a great article Bailey!
The rules of any sport can be complicated, so this is a great explainer. I’m a fan of association football, and people get quite upset when changes are made, however well intentioned those changes are. Are the rules in table tennis subject to frequent amendments? Do players and spectators have to constantly learn new rules?
Simon
Hi Simon,
The main rules in table tennis are very infrequently changed. Some things get amended each year but to 99% of people playing the game it has little to no effect.
The biggest rule changes I am aware of are when the scoring system was changed from 21 to 11 and whenever the ball is changed.
Just like with any sport there are always people for and against the changes and because of that there are still people to this day playing using the old scoring system.
However, generally the rules are not changed in a way that would affect your typical player.
WOW, table tennis serving rules are indeed so complicated. I wasn’t aware of that. Very interesting to learn about all these rules, especially discovering illegal serves and exceptions. It must be quite intimidating and frustrating when you want to become a professional table tennis player. I won’t play table tennis the same way from now on… Thanks for sharing this helpful information.
Illegal serves are often a talking point all the way up to the professional level. Unfortunately even at the very top there are players who are consistently producing illegal serves and rarely get penalised for it. At the lower levels there are not enough qualified umpires available which often means that the illegal serves often get missed.
Table tennis serving is definitively a critical and interesting aspect of this sport. Serving is not only a way of starting a rally, but also a way of gaining an advantage over the opponent. Serving requires skill, strategy, creativity, and confidence, but can also be fun and challenging, as there are many ways to vary and improve one’s service. Serving is one of the things that makes table tennis a fascinating and enjoyable game.
As you mentioned, serving rules in table tennis are complicated. For beginners, it may be the source of the most common mistakes. Thanks for providing a very clear explanation of what the table tennis serving rules are.
I have a question: can there be additional serving rules in a table tennis tournament other than the standard rules set by the ITTF? I have seen some tournaments where the serve is required to go diagonally from one half side of the server’s court to the opposite half of the receiver’s side.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and passion for table tennis. I look forward to reading more of your articles.
Hi Pablo,
I have never seen a tournament that had its own serving rules however that is not to say that there aren’t any. It could be an interesting and fun way of running a tournament.
In doubles matches the serve must travel diagonally so maybe this is what you saw? In either case it is definitely something that could be and probably should be explored.