Table tennis and ping pong are interchangeable terms, played with the same
zest and vigor around the world. Who goes first when you start a game on
your ping pong table? In top-flight competition, service is decided by a coin toss.
At lower levels it is common for one player (or the umpire/scorer) to hide the
ball in one or the other hand (usually hidden under the ping pong table), allowing the
other player to guess which hand the ball is in. The correct or incorrect guess
gives the "winner" the option to choose to serve, receive, or to choose which
side of the ping pong table to use. Another method is for one player to hit the ball to
the other side of the ping poing table and he or she returns it or by hitting it back and forth four times
and then playing out the point. This is commonly referred to as PING. Then, they
play one point to see who serves first on the ping pong table. Players also determine the first to
serve by placing a racket on the ping poing table with the handle off the board, taking
turns throwing the ball at their opponent's racket. The first to strike the
opponent's racket without receiving a return shot gets the serve.
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