Ping Pong Slang

Just like every other sport or lifestyle Ping Pong has his own set of lingo. As a Ping Pong professional you have to get familiar with the language used around the table:

Blade - the main body of the table tennis racket without the rubber covering

Block - the return of an aggressive shot directly off the bounce, done simply by holding the paddle in the path of the ball

Closed - racket face downward; this will put topspin on the ball and is ideal for returning shots with backspin

Chop - an effective defensive shot with heavy backspin to prevent an attacker from hitting a kill shot

Counter - returning a shot with similar stroke and pace

Cupping - placing the ball inside the palm during the serve toss; this is illegal because a player can place spin on the ball this way

Dead ball - a shot with little or no spin, similar to a knuckleball in baseball

Drop - a table tennis shot placed shallow in the opponent's territory, usually with backspin, executed when the opponent is away from the table

Hand shake grip - a balanced grip that allows a smooth transition from backhand to forehand; this is the most popular grip in table tennis

Kill - successfully hitting a short with full force resulting in an immediate point

Let - a serve that touches the net and lands successfully in the opponent's territory; serve is repeated with no points scored.

Lob - a high defensive shot used to return a smash

Loop - an arcing or looping shot with heavy topspin; this is regarded as the most important shot in table tennis

Open - racket face upward; used to put backspin on the ball or to return shots with topspin

Pip - the raised rubber dot on a pimpled rubber paddle surface; these give control when returning shots with spin

Rally - when the ball is hit back and forth successively from serve to point scored

Rip - a looping kill shot

Rubber - the covering placed on a table tennis blade to make a complete paddle; rubber surfaces vary from pimpled to inverted (flat) to determine ball control and spin

Skunk - shutting out the opponent; some basement rules result in a skunk victory when a player goes up 11-0 in a 21 point game

Smash - another name for a kill shot

Throw angle - the elasticity and grip of the rubber surface of the a ping pong paddle

Volley - a ball hit before it bounces on your side of the table; results in the loss of the point