Table tennis
2 or 4 players - based on the rules of the Dutch Table Tennis Association (NTTB)
A game
The first player to reach eleven points wins the game, provided they are at least two points ahead. At 10-10 play continues until someone leads by two.
A match
A match is made up of three or five games. Whoever wins the most games wins the match.
Who starts
The right to serve is decided by lot. Usually one player hides the ball in one hand with both hands held under the table, and the opponent guesses which one it is in.
Serving
Rest the ball still on your open palm and throw it at least sixteen centimetres straight up. Then hit it with your bat. Throughout the service the ball has to stay visible to your opponent, and it has to stay behind the end of the table as you throw it up.
After two services the serve passes to your opponent. From 10-10 the players serve alternately.
A let
In a good service the ball bounces on your own half of the table and then straight onto your opponent's. If it clips the net on the way but still lands correctly, it is a let and the service is taken again.
The return
Your opponent returns the ball without it touching their own half again; the ball has to land on your half. Clipping the net is allowed here.
A point
You win a point when your opponent serves incorrectly or returns incorrectly.
Changing ends
The players change ends after every game. In a deciding game they also change as soon as one of them reaches five points.
Doubles
Four extra rules apply in doubles.
Serving diagonally
The ball has to bounce in the right-hand half of your own side of the table first and from there diagonally into the right-hand half of your opponents' side, seen from their end.
Hitting in turn.
The order is fixed from the start. The server puts the ball into play, then their partner returns it, then an opponent, then that player's partner. If anyone hits twice in a row, the point goes to the other pair.
Changing places
After every two points the serve passes to the other pair. The player who has just served steps aside and their partner becomes the receiver, so that at the next service the other player of that pair serves.
After every game server and receiver change in such a way that a server now hits to the other opponent. In a deciding game the pairs also change ends as soon as one pair reaches five points, and the receiver changes too.