Is playing ping-pong good or bad for tennis?

Question

I have been playing a lot of tennis for several years now, but some of my friends and I are really getting in to ping-pong. I don't want to ruin my tennis game by playing too much ping-pong though. Does ping-pong benefit or mess up your tennis game?

Answer 1

i play both, the difficulty is to adjust the swing.

pinp pong is mostly in the wrist, it brush up high without a full follow through forward motion like tennis. my folks (they play ping pong) always laugh at my tennis swing at the ping pong table.

the benifit is you get to practice watching the ball really closely and you move with small steps

the bad thing for tennis is if you play too much ping pong, first you may feel tennis racket weight a ton; secondly, your racket face tends to close and hit the ball into the net.

i found lots of ping pong players moonlighting tennis usually hit the ball way short because of the racket face and their follow through

Answer 2

Well actually tennis and ping pong are the same exact sports tennis is just outside and ping pong is inside.

Answer 3

It doesn't really benefit your tennis skills. But if you do play a lot of ping-pong, it won't throw off your tennis skills/game, unless you stop playing tennis to play table-tennis instead.

Answer 4

I don't really know. Playing ping pong won't make you a better tennis player, that's for sure. But, many tennis players own at ping pong.

Answer 5

ping-pong is actually the only racquet sport that does not interfere with your tennis game.  I suppose it probably helps too, with coordination and such.

Answer 6

yeah i think it will help u with ur hand eye contact and to pretty much do the same thing just smaller

Answer 7

Don't think it negatively impacts your tennis game. Always heard racketball can effect your tennis stroke and quality. But that may be a myth, probably if you played a lot more of one than the other.

Answer 8

I think its pretty much the same, your hitting a ball with a bat so It cant do much damage.

Answer 9

it messes me up because of the grip, but it helps with hand eye coordination

Answer 10

It will help you with eye contact and reflexes, but it can also damage your tennis game. The ball is different, the rackets weigh less, and it's a smaller court. Imagine yourself playing ping pong with a small racket and a smaller ball, and you go to play tennis and you have to get the feel for tennis all over again because you were so used to playing ping pong! It can improve and hurt your game!

Answer 11

Probably not - but watch the wrist action.  In ping-pong, you would use the wrist to get topspin on a shot, but in tennis - not a good idea.

Answer 12

Playing ping-pong shouldn't have an effect on your tennis play, but the reverse is not true.  If you are more serious about ping-pong, then I would say that you need to give up tennis.  

Ping-pong is very quick and consists of shorter strokes.  If you wait for the ping-pong ball and especially pull the racket back like you do in tennis, then points could be over very quickly.  Tennis is good for ping-pong conditioning.