Throwing the ball towards you while serving

Hi Alois,

I see many table tennis players throwing the ball towards themselves before serving. In the rules you said that the ball should be thrown straight up. So, is it allowed?

Hi Abdul,

This is always a point of contention with the rules.

The rule does say that you have to throw the ball up almost vertically but in most cases there is a lot of tolerance for this.

I think the players that gain speed into their bat with the throw up should be pulled up in particular.