As a coach one of the most common question I get by email and social media is about the difference between ping pong and table tennis. If you are going to play table tennis, it is important to understand the “Table Tennis Rules. There is some unique differences from ping pong and table tennis, and the most common difference is the grip. In ping pong you will see all types of grips from the two fingers on the face of the blade, three fingers on the face of the blade, as well as the hammer grip where there are no fingers on the face of the blade. In the sport of table tennis there are some common grips that are used and they are the shakehand grip, penhold grip, and reversed penhold grip. These grips don’t represent any type of rule that has to be followed in table tennis, but these are the grips that will preserve the integrity of being able to play the most popular shots in table tennis and be effective. In this video, I will break down the grips used in table tennis. In a later blog post and videos I will break the difference between table tennis and ping pong with regards to the scoring system.
