Modern table tennis is predominantly characterized by looping – looping backspin balls, looping topspin balls, looping serves, looping over-the-table, looping blocks, and re-looping loops.  The Chinese national team did a study on various loops.  The study showed that the spiniest loop against backspin tested had about 120 rotations per second.  The spiniest loop against topspin tested had about 130 rotations per second.  
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Old, young, male, female, fat, skinny…  everyone wants to perform well in their first tournament.  For many players the first tournament will be a make or break event.  The first tournament can spark a desire to be the best or can douse the flame of improvement.  When a student of mine is preparing for his first tournament, I try to have him focus on 2 primary elements:  Control and Spin.
 

The best serves in table tennis are low with good placement as well as good variation in the type of spin and degree of spin.
So how can your read the spin on a good serve?
 
There are 4 ways:
1. Watch the direction of the racket
2. Watch the bounce of the ball
3. Listen for the sound at contact
4. Look for the logo on the ball
 
In this short video, I give some tips about how to read the racket on a forehand tomahawk serve https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqLxc6mxj6I
 

The defining element of the sport of Table Tennis is spin.  Understanding the types of spin that can be applied to a table tennis ball for any given stroke is imperative for any table tennis athlete wishing to play at a high level. 
How many spins can you name?