Loop, push, counter-hit and more: our table tennis ABC explains every term from our guides in plain, friendly language before it can trip you up.
## Introduction Are you reading your first table tennis guide and tripping over words like "loop," "push," or "inverted rubber"? Honest answer: this isn't secret code for pros — it's ordinary toolkit vocabulary you can pick up in a few minutes. This table tennis ABC explains every term the way a training partner would at the table: casual, with a picture in your head, no dictionary tone. Bookmark this page, then skim back here whenever a guide throws a new word at you instead of googling mid-read.
## Gear & Equipment: What's on Your Racket Racket (Blade): Your racket has two parts — the wood, called the blade (German: Holz), and the rubbers glued onto it. A ready-made all-round racket already comes with both, like buying a complete bike instead of loose parts.
Rubber (Inverted Rubber, German: Belag): The smooth, grippy sheet on the blade that actually contacts the ball. "Inverted" means the sponge's pimples face inward toward the wood, smooth side facing out — the standard rubber that generates the most spin. Think of it like tire tread: the grippier it is, the more grip you get on the ball.
Sponge thickness (German: Schwammdicke): Underneath the rubber sits a sponge layer between 1.5 and 2.5 mm (or "MAX"). Thin means more control and a softer feel; thick means more speed but less forgiveness. For beginners, thinner is almost always the smarter choice.
Sponge hardness (German: Schwammhärte): Like a mattress — soft (around 36–40°) gives and forgives, hard (up to 50°) fires the ball back faster but far less mercifully. Beginners are clearly better off with soft.
The ball: 40 millimeters across, 2.7 grams light, made of plastic instead of celluloid since 2014. The stars (1 to 3) on the packaging just tell you how round and high-quality the ball flies — 3-star is competition standard, 1- and 2-star are plenty for training.
Indoor shoes: Lightweight shoes with a light, non-marking sole. They give you grip during fast side steps, like tires with good tread on a wet road.
## Stance & Grip: Your Foundation at the Table Grip (Shakehand): The most common way to hold the racket — like shaking hands, hence the name. The grip sits loosely in your hand, never clenched; you're holding a bird, not crushing it.
Ready position (German: Grundstellung): Your starting posture before every point — feet a bit wider than shoulder-width, knees slightly bent, weight forward on the balls of your feet. From here you can explode in any direction, like a coiled spring.
Footwork (Chassé steps, German: Beinarbeit): How you move sideways to the ball — small, quick side steps where your feet never cross. One leg leads, the other follows, like a chassé step in dance.
## Technique: The Key Strokes Counter-hit (German: Konter): Your first real stroke — you return the ball shortly after it bounces, with a compact forward-upward motion. This is your base stroke, the one everything else grows out of.
Push (German: Schupf): The controlled return against a backspin ball — you open the racket angle and play the ball low over the net. Think of it as your emergency brake when an attack would be too risky.
Backspin (German: Unterschnitt/Schnitt): Spin you put on the ball so it behaves differently than it looks. Backspin makes the ball brake, or even roll back slightly on the bounce — like a screw shot in billiards.
Topspin: The attacking stroke with forward rotation — you brush over the ball instead of just hitting it flat, so it arcs high over the net and then dips down sharply. This is the stroke that wins you points.
Loop: Essentially an especially powerful, high-rotation topspin used at advanced and pro level — more spin, more speed, a shorter, more compact motion. Whenever you read "loop," just think "topspin, turned up a notch."
Anticipation (German: Antizipation): Reading early where the ball is going — not a gut feeling, but a trainable skill, because you're picking up on your opponent's pre-movement. Like a goalkeeper on a penalty kick: they don't guess the right corner randomly, they read the run-up.
## Tactics & Rules: So You Can Follow Along Serve (German: Aufschlag): The ball rests open on your flat palm, you toss it at least 16 cm straight up without spin, then strike it. Every point starts this way — the rule exists so no one can hide a sneaky serve.
Rally (German: Ballwechsel): The sequence of strokes between two points — on average only around 3.5 seconds long. Short, sharp, and frequent.
Forehand & Backhand: Forehand is the side of your body matching your racket hand, backhand is the other side. The forehand is usually the stronger attacking weapon, which is why forehand strokes make up nearly 58 percent of all shots in match analyses.
Singles & Doubles (German: Einzel & Doppel): Singles is one against one; doubles is two against two, with the extra rule that partners alternate serving and must play diagonally into the correct half of the table.
ITTF: The International Table Tennis Federation, the governing body that sets the official dimensions for balls, tables, and equipment. When a guide mentions "official ITTF measurements," that's why your ball is exactly 40 mm and not 41.
## Pro Tip Remember the order like a ladder: grip → ready position → counter-hit → push → topspin/loop → tactics. Each rung builds on the one before it — try to skip straight to the top and you'll fall through the gaps. Whenever a guide throws a term at you that you don't recognize, just come back here.
### What is a loop in table tennis? A loop is an especially powerful, high-rotation topspin played by advanced and pro players — with more spin, more speed, and a shorter, more compact motion than a basic topspin. As a beginner, you learn the regular topspin first; the loop comes later.
### What does push mean in table tennis? A push is the controlled return against a backspin ball: you open the racket angle and play the ball low over the net. It's your safe return when an attack would be too risky, and it quietly trains your feel for spin along the way.
### What's the difference between forehand and backhand? Forehand is the stroke played on the same side as your racket hand, backhand on the opposite side. The forehand usually delivers more speed and spin, which is why it dominates attacking play — match analyses show nearly 58 percent of all strokes are forehand shots.
### What do the stars on a table tennis ball mean? The stars (1 to 3) indicate the ball's quality and roundness. 3-star is the competition standard with a consistent flight; 1- and 2-star balls are cheaper and perfectly fine for training or a robot.
### What is the ready position in table tennis? The ready position is your starting posture between strokes: feet a bit wider than shoulder-width, knees slightly bent, weight forward on the balls of your feet. From here you can explode in any direction instantly, without wasting time repositioning first.
Tischtennis: Getting Started Overview