Recommended Ping Pong Tables for Serious Players

"Professional" or "Serious ping pong players" are strict when it comes to their training especially to the table that is going to be used on their practice. They strictly follow the official rules that are being regulated by the ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation).

What exactly is the reason why serious players cannot use just ordinary tables on their training?

Ordinary ping pong tables actually have many differences when compared to the tables used by the professionals in international competitions (such as in the Olympics). Here are the following differences between them:

1. Table Top Dimensions

The official ping pong table dimensions must be exactly 5 ft by 9 ft with a height of 2.49 ft. But for the ordinary ping pong tables, they have varied sizes.

2. Smooth Table Top/Surface

The table top or surface should be well inspected which must be perfectly smooth. You have to know that a table with smooth surface gives better control over the ball. Unfortunately, most outdoor ping pong tables are designed with rough surfaces. It's for this reason why professional players only play indoors.

As for the ordinary type of tables, most manufacturers focused on durability and less on the quality. Thus, they most likely have rough surfaces.

3. Bounce of the Ball

To test the table surface if it meets the ITTF's criteria regarding about how the ball must properly bounce back upon impact, a standard ball must be dropped at a height of 30 cm from the table top. As a result, the ball must bounce back in vertical direction and its first bounce must reach a height of at least 23 cm. Most ordinary ping pong tables fails to meet this criteria.

4. Height of the Net

ITTF had stated that the official height of the net must be fixed at exactly 6 inches high. But for casual players, they may choose to make the necessary adjustment according to their compatibility or playing comfort.

5 Top Lists of Ping Pong Table for Professionals

Here are the top 5 following lists of ping pong tables in the market that are preferred and recommended by most professional players:

1. Sportcraft Ping Pong Table

"Sportcraft ping pong tables" has already been around for several years in the market. Today, it is considered as one of the top sport brand that manufactures tables with supreme strength and durability. Their tables also comes in two different versions which can be "Portable" or "Fixed" type of table.

Portable tables can be folded in half for easy storage that doesn't take too much space. Fixed type of tables is the opposite.

Overall, most Sportcraft tables follow the official table dimensions recognized by the ITTF organization.

2. Stiga Ping Pong Table

Most "Stiga ping pong tables" are designed by the manufacturers as portable types but most importantly, they followed the ITTF table standards. Although, Stiga tables are quite heavy to move around without the rollers. The heavy weight of the table are actually due to the durable materials used.

3. Kettler Ping Pong Table

"Kettler" sport brand is owned by a German Company where they are running their company for quite some time. They actually gained their reputation in manufacturing good quality of ping pong tables because of their good structural designs which follows the ITTF standards. And just like Stiga brands, they mostly produce portable tables.

4. MD Sport Ping Pong Table

The pride of "MD Sport" brand are the perfectly smooth-finishing of their table tops. As already mentioned above, a smooth table surface gives a good bounce of the ball. And apart from the smoothness of the table surface, the leg-supports are enhanced with sturdy metallic materials which ensures stability of the table while at play.

5. Prince Ping Pong Table

When it comes to positive feedback from the satisfied customers, the "Prince" sport brand has the higher number. Although, there were still a few negative feedbacks but none of them concerns about the quality of the table. Those issues were all about the confusing instructions from the manual.

Overall, those are the top 5 ping pong table brands that most professionals or serious players do recommend for beginners who are aiming to become a pro.

Suitable Size of a Ping Pong Table Room

Before you intend to buy or build your own ping pong table, it is important that you already have an appropriate room for it. Your first priority is to make sure that the room must have enough spaces for the players to move around their playing corners. You have to know that an appropriate room makes the game a lot more enjoyable to play.

If it happens that you have an extra room such as an empty storage or garage room, you need to measure it if the table could fit inside the room with extra spaces for the players to move. Thus, you need to take the dimensional size of the table that you intend to buy or build (recognized official ping pong table dimensions is 9 feet length by 5 feet wide) then, layout an imaginary size of the table at the center of the room and check if there is sufficient space for the players movements. So if your garage or storage room doesn't have enough room then you might consider renovating it.

There is actually no official standard about the required playing space of ping pong. What's really important is that both competing players should be able to freely move around performing their movements without any restrictions.

Here are the following suggested measurements for the playing space of ping pong:

1. Playing Ping Pong just for Fun

If your purpose of owning a ping pong table is simply to have fun with your family and friends then an added extra space of 5 to 6 ft from both end-lines of the table is suggested. As for the sides, a space of at least 3 ft is already good enough. These suggested measurements is appropriate for two players only.

For a room to accommodate four players (doubles), you have to add at least 8 to 9 ft extra space from the end-lines of the table. And at the sides, the space must be at least 4 to 5 ft.

2. Robot Training

"Robot Training" is usually for single players only where they don't need any training partner.

Most ping pong tables manufactured today actually offers the feature where it can be folded into half. And to perform a robot training, the other half of the table can be folded vertically. This folded part of the table will act as the wall that causes the ball to bounce back into the player's corner.

A room intended for robot training requires a smaller size of room as compared to the setup mentioned above. For beginners, at least 2 meters space from the end-line of the table is suggested while for the intermediate and advance players (particularly defenders and loopers), the suggested space must be at least 4 to 5 meters.

3. Intermediate and Advance Players

According to the official stated rule of table tennis sport (rule 3.02.03.01), the suggested playing space or room for intermediate and advance players must be rectangular with the following dimensions:

a. 46 ft Long

b. 23 ft Wide

c. 16.4 High

If your room have more than enough space, you can setup a large net that takes the above dimensions.

Moreover, table tennis or ping pong is a fast-paced type of sport that requires movement behind the table's sides playing-corner. It's due to this reason why it's really important that the room must have enough space.

How to Build your Own Ping Pong Table?

Learn how to build your own ping pong table with the following detailed set of instructions.

But first,

Prepare the following materials

- 2 pieces of 2 x 2 lumbers. Take note that there are soft and hard type of lumber. You must choose somewhere in between which is not too soft and not too hard.

- A plywood with at least 5 x 5 feet of measurements. Recommended thickness is quarter of an inch or half. Actually, the thicker the better.

- Wood saw for cutting the wooden materials.

- Screws for wood. It is not advisable to use nails.

- A net with a length of at least 6 ft and a height of 6 inches.

- Other materials that you will be needing are masking tape, wood glue, enamel paint, paint brush and clamps.

And here are the following steps:

Form the rectangular frame

The very first step on making your ping pong table is to construct the rectangle frame by using the 2 x 2 lumbers. We will be following the official ping pong table dimensions stated by the ITTF which is 9 ft long and 5 ft wide. So cut two pieces of lumbers with 9 ft lengths then cut another two pieces of lumbers but this time with 5 ft lengths.

Form a rectangular frame by attaching each ends of the lumbers using some wooden screws.

The table surface

Now that you have completed the frame, the next step is to make the table surface. If you are able to buy a plywood with 5 ft wide and 9 ft long or longer, all you have to do is to cut the excess of the length if it is longer than 9 ft then attach it on the frame. However, if the size of the plywood you bought is 5 x 5 feet then you need to cut one of the side to make it 5 x 4 feet. You will need two pairs of 5 x 4 feet plywood.

Lay the 5 x 4 feet plywood on the frame to complete the table surface. Make sure that the seam is exactly aligned at the middle. When you are sure about the alignment, you may now secure the plywood with the clamps and wood glue.

Perhaps take a minute break to allow the glue to dry completely.

Your ping pong table legs

You will need again four to six pieces of 2 x 2 lumber for the legs of your ping pong tables. Based from the ITTF, the standard height of a ping pong table must be 30 inches. This doesn't mean that you are going to cut four or six pieces 30 inches lengths of lumbers. You have to know that the thickness of the table top is included on the height. So if the table top has a thickness of 2.5 inches, you will have to deduct it to the standard height which is 30 inches. This gives you 27 and a half inches.

After cutting the legs, attach them to the table tops using the screws.

Painting the table

Commonly used color of a ping pong table are green and blue. Anyway, it actually depends on your own choice. After painting the table, you may need to take a longer break to wait for the paint to dry up.

Assuming that the paint already dried up, it's time to paint the white lines at the edges of the table including the center. The thickness of the white lines must be 3/4 inches. Use the masking tape in painting these lines.

Attach the net

Grab the net and attach it at the center of the table by using clamps. It must be 6 feet high.

Congratulations, your ping pong table is now complete. All the rest you need are your ping pong paddle, a ball and a partner to play the game.

Ping Pong Table Dimensions | Official ITTF Standards

Ping pong table dimensions is technically important for people who are planning to build or buy their own ping pong table.

But before we continue, what exactly is "Ping Pong"?

Ping pong is more commonly known as "Table Tennis". It is actually a popular table sport consisting of either 2 or 4 players. When played by 2 individuals, the match is called "Singles" while for 4 players, it is called "Doubles".

The equipment used to play the game are the following:

1. Ping Pong Paddle

A ping pong paddle is a hand-held equipment used by each player to hit the ball. Some players also call it racket or bat.

2. Ball

The ball is made out of a very lightweight plastic material that it easily bounces off especially on hard and smooth surfaces.

3. Table

The table comes in rectangular shape. To be discussed below is the official ping pong table dimensions that is recognized by the ITTF.

4. Net

Just like Volleyball and Tennis Ball (court), table tennis also has a net setup at the center of the table.

How to Play Ping Pong?

When ping pong is to be played by 2 individuals, they will be competing against one another which will be a one-on-one match. As for 4 individuals, each opposing team will consists of two players which makes it a two-on-two player match.

In order to start the match, one of the player needs to serve the ball from his side while the opposing player from the other side of the table prepares to counter-hit the ball. 

Assuming that the ball has been served successfully and the opposing player had countered it, the player who originally served the ball needs to do the same. The process of hitting the ball back-and-forth on each side of the table continues until one of the player will commit mistake.

The player who failed or missed to hit the ball losses the point where the score-point goes to the other opposing player. Other than committing mistake or failure to hit the ball, a player can also lose a score-point when the ball he hit got caught by the net.

We will go into further details on how to play ping pong on the next succeeding posts.

The ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation)

Ping pong or table tennis was founded on 1926 by an organization called "ITTF" or the "International Table Tennis Federation"). The original members of this organization simply consisted of only 218 members. But through their effort, they managed to promote this table sport around the world gaining a large number of both participants and audiences.

In the past few years, table tennis was included in the "Olympic Games" which is an international sport competitions for the best players around the world. To tell you, many athletes actually dream of competing in the Olympics. Other than the Olympics are also other international competitions such as the World Table Tennis Championships, ITTF World Tour and etc...

In all international table tennis competitions, the presence of the ITTF organization is important. It is actually their job to observe and regulate the rules of the game. Above all, they have the power to make any official changes to the rules of table tennis.

Who can Play Ping Pong or Table Tennis?

There is actually no restriction to any players when it comes to ping pong or table tennis sport. Anyone can play it as long as he has the "interest".

Players of this table sport are divided into two major groups. First are the casual players and second are the serious type of players.

Casual players are individuals with the interest of playing ping pong just for the sake of having fun or to entertain themselves. However, serious table tennis players does have the passion to become the best player or at least one among the top players on the list.

When it comes to the playing table, serious players will only consider playing or practicing on a table that follows the official table dimensions recognized by the ITTF. You have to know that all tables used in the competitions are always inspected that they do follow the official requirements.

By playing on a table that confirms to the official table requirements, this allows the player to be fully acquainted on his playing field. This is really one good and great advantage skill that only professional players can achieve.

As for the casual players, they are free to choose and play on any kind of tables with different sizes. In short, the table that they will be playing on doesn't matter as long as they enjoy.

Official or Standard Ping Pong Table Dimensions

Based from the official rule stated by the ITTF, the official or standard ping pong table dimensions should be as follows:

Length - 2.74 m / 8.99ft / 107.87 inches

Width - 1.525 m / 5 ft / 60 inches

Height - 0.76 m / 2.49 ft / 29.92 inches

If you intend on constructing your own official ping pong table, the most important aspect is on how you properly construct the table surface. You need to choose the right material and it must be continuous without any cuts. The reason is to achieve a uniformed bouncing of the ball upon impact.

ITTF actually have a means of testing the surface of the table if it complies with their set of standards. What they do is that, they will drop a standard ball at about 30 cm high from the table surface. As a result, the ball should bounce back uniformly for about 23 cm or 9 inches high.

Building an Official Ping Pong Table

With the stated official ping pong table dimensions above, you can build your own official ping pong table provided that you have the tools, materials and skills.

Here are the following basic instructions for the construction of your table:

1. The table must be rectangular. As already stated above, the length is 2.74 m, width is 1.525 m and the height from the floor onto the table surface must be 0.76 m.

2. Common commercial tables (surfaces) are painted with dark green, blue or gray. But, what's really important is that the surface must be painted with any dark color. It's because according to the experts, dark color helps in making the ball more visible to the players.

3. At the four edges of the table, white lines consisting of 2 cm thickness must be painted. Other than the edges, a thinner line (3 mm) must also be painted at the middle of the table.

4. It is very important for the table-surface to use a material with continuous surface. This means that there are no cuts on the board that has been fitted together. The reason is that when the ball lands on any of those fitted portions, it can cause the ball to bounce off at some random directions.

Assuming that you have finally completed your ping pong table, you need to setup its net for the final touch. The length of the net must be 6 ft or 1.83 m long which must be overhang at a height of 6 inches or 15.25 cm.

Overall, the official ping pong table dimensions is strictly observed in most events or competition. Thus, if you are a beginner who is a serious player hoping to compete against other tough competitors then, its best to start your training on a table that follows the official standards set by the ITTF.