Ping Pong Techniques You Can Apply to Pickleball

Pickleball is a sport which has similarities to ping pong, tennis, and badminton. While we often think about the transfer of skills between tennis and pickleball, ping pong is often left out of the discussion. I had a chance to talk to Deb Harrison recently on the Pickleball Fire podcast. She has been teaching pickleball for over 10 years and is also an avid ping pong player. During the interview, she talked about the chop and loop from ping pong so let's see how these skills from that sport relate to pickleball.

In talking about ping pong, Deb said,

“It applies a lot of the principles of a topspin, under spin, blocks, block drops, third shot drops and some of those things apply on a smaller scale on the table. So understanding chop, topspin loops, they all have a place in pickleball as well...You can see the spin a little bit more violently on a table tennis ball because it hits the table and squirts away somewhere. Under spin, top spin, and all of that, but the principles do hold true on pickleball too, but it's not as extreme.”

According to Deb, a loop is extreme topspin as the shot goes from low to high. Just picture a ping pong player who is hitting the ball below the table. You have to bring the ball up so it bounces on the table and other side of the net. If you think about this, the loop is similar to a highly skilled pickleball player who can take the ball below the net and create an offensive opportunity. To keep the ball in the court, they have to impart a great deal of topspin. That means the ball is coming toward you and it can be hard to handle if the shot is hit with significant pace. 

On the other hand, the chop is extreme under spin as the ball is traveling back towards the person who hit the shot. More than likely you've seen players who can hit a shot similar to the chop on the pickleball court. This often happens when they hit a drop shot with a lot of slice and sometimes it looks as if the ball is going to bounce on your side and then go back to their side of the court. In other words, the ball has a lot of back spin.

Pickleball definitely has elements of ping pong in it so if you are a table tennis player, be sure and bring your loop and chop.