Understanding Spin in Table Tennis

Layla Sun (Translated by Kyra Tsen)

Compared with any other racket sport, table tennis is a sport dominated by spin. Many table tennis learners find it challenging to understand spin, create or read spin. Advanced table tennis techniques focus on problems caused by the ambiguity of spin, and the importance of differentiating "hitting" from "brushing" the ball. Without a thorough understanding of spin, it is difficult for beginner players to significantly improve their skills. If you ignore the issue of spin and attempt to learn more advanced skills, you will encounter considerable difficulty, and may even begin to wonder if you should continue to strive to improve your skills?

If you thoroughly understand the theory behind spin, and have mastered the basic forehand and backhand drives, you should be able to develop good quality shots with heavy spin. Please remember, if you want to play better table tennis and to enjoy playing table tennis, there is no way to skip the issue of "spin". So be patient and put more effort into this. I believe this will enable you to progress further and to have more fun playing table tennis😊

Understanding Spin: Hit and Brush

The spin of table tennis mainly depends on how much you "hit" or "brush" the ball.

• Hit

When you hit the ball with your racket at a 90-degree angle to the equator of the ball, the ball will travel forward more and have less or no spin. Since the direction of the racket's motion goes straight through the center of the ball, as shown in Figure 1, no angular momentum is applied to the ball. This stroke will apply little or no spin, but will provide a lot of speed.

• Brush

When you brush the ball at an angle less than or greater than 90 degrees using an upward, downward or sideways motion, the ball will spin more but with less speed. When the rubber surface of the bat brushes (makes contact) across the edge of the ball, as shown in Figure 2, the stroke will produce a lot of spin on the ball but not much speed.

The next figure illustrates the forehand drive and forehand loop shots that involve the application of different amounts of "hitting" and "brushing" the ball.

Understanding Spin - Forehand Drive and Loop

When you play a forehand drive, you focus on "hitting" the ball. For a forehand loop, you combine "hit" and "brush" to add spin and power. These two different ways of exerting force produce very different strokes. Thus, being able to distinguish "hitting" and "brushing", and being able to execute shots with different amounts of the two on the ball, is undoubtedly the starting point to playing table tennis like a pro, and is a critically important stage when learning table tennis❣️

Demonstration of Forehand Drive and Forehand Loop

The video below shows Ma Long and Zhang Jike warming up before their match. They hit the ball with the forehand drive first and then add more spin and power with the forehand loop. The first part is at regular speed, while the second part is in slow motion. Pay attention to the difference between the drive and the loop. You should be able to quickly see the difference.

Demonstration of Forehand Drive and Forehand Loop