Why are ping pong paddles red and black?

Almost every ping pong paddle has one red side and one black side. It is not a style choice or a brand thing: it is an official rule. And it came from a very real problem that shook up the sport in the 1970s and 1980s.

In short, paddles have two colors so your opponent can see which rubber touched the ball. Here is the story and what the rule says today.

The reason: different rubbers on each side

In table tennis, the rubber changes everything. A smooth, grippy rubber puts heavy spin on the ball. A long pips rubber sends it back with strange, often reversed spin. An anti-spin rubber barely spins it at all. Each one makes the ball behave differently (see table tennis rubber).

Many players use a different rubber on each side. If both sides were the same color, a player could twirl the paddle in their hand without the opponent noticing and hit with whichever rubber they wanted. The opponent would have no way of knowing what spin to expect.

The history: the era of combination bats

In the 1970s and early 1980s, paddles often had the same color on both sides, frequently black. Some players started using combination bats: grippy rubber on one side and pips or anti-spin on the other, both the same color.

The trick was to twirl the paddle during the rally, sometimes even under the table, and switch sides unseen. On top of that, some players stamped their foot on the serve to hide the different sound each rubber made (a habit that survives for another reason, see why players stomp when serving). The result was short points full of missed returns, and a game that was hard to follow for spectators.

The ITTF responded in the 1980s. First it required two clearly different colors. Then it fixed the pair that became the standard: one side black, the other bright red. That second change is usually dated to 1986. Since then, watching the color at contact has been part of reading the game.

New paddle colors since 2021

For decades the bright side could only be red. Starting in October 2021, the ITTF began approving rubbers in more colors:

The other side must still be black, and both surfaces must be matte. The full rules are in table tennis racket rules.

What if I use the same rubber on both sides?

The rule still applies. Even if both rubbers are identical, one side must be black and the other a bright color. That includes penhold players who only hit with one side: the other side still has to follow the color rule.

At home, nobody will check. But at any sanctioned tournament, a paddle with two sides of the same color will not be accepted.

Does the color change how the paddle plays?

Generally, no. What changes your game is the rubber model and the sponge thickness, not the color. Two rubbers of the same model, one red and one black, play almost the same. Some players feel small differences between color versions of certain rubbers, but that varies by model and is not a general rule.

What really matters is knowing which side to use for each stroke. That is covered in which side of the ping pong paddle to use.

Why black and red, and not other colors?

The rule is about contrast. Black is as dark as it gets, and bright red stays clearly different from it even when the paddle is moving fast. When the ITTF only asked for "different colors", some manufacturers used dark shades that blended into black at speed. Fixing red solved that. The newer colors from 2021 were chosen because they also contrast well with black and with a white or orange ball.

Frequently asked questions