Problem: Article: To start a legal serve, keep your hand completely open and flat after you pick up the ball. Let the ball sit there for a second or two, as your hand needs to be stationary, or still, before you throw it up into the air. Any illegal serve can result in the official calling it “incorrect.” While you may be warned one time during a match or if the official is unsure if the serve is legal, any clearly incorrect serves will lead your opponent to get your points! The hand holding the ball (which will become your “free hand”) has to be above the table as you get ready to serve. The ball itself should remain behind the end of the table (your serve line). Your thumb can cross the serve line as long as the ball itself doesn’t. Unlike the ball, your racket can be hidden under the table. Doing this may help you hide the kind of serve you’re going to make. You’ll need to quickly bring your racket up once you throw the ball into the air to get ready to serve. Until you’ve practiced serving, leave your racket hand above the table. This tricky technique is legal, but it’s best reserved for more advanced players. This is the minimum height required by the officials. Any lower and it won’t be counted as a legal serve. The ball needs to be thrown up vertically rather than sideways or diagonally.  Make sure that your throw makes the ball go almost straight up into the air. You can’t, for example, just drop the ball from a height of 6.3 inches (16 cm). This won’t be considered a vertical toss. Don’t hit the ball when it’s still going up in the air or when it’s at the top of your throw. Wait until it’s coming back down toward the table to avoid getting called out by the official. Hit the ball so that it lands on your side first. If it just sails over the net without bouncing, it’s an illegal serve.  Practice until you get the proper amount of force needed to follow this rule. You want a serve that’s fast enough to trick your opponent, but not so strong that it misses your side of the table. The ball can also go around the net so long as you can curve it enough to get it back onto your opponent’s side of the table. This is a pretty difficult skill, so aim straight over the net until you’re sure you can make a curving serve. Your opponent’s whole side is fair game if it’s just the two of you. This lets you really use the table. You can do short and long serves to make the match more difficult for your opponent. You’re restricted to the square that’s diagonal from you if you’re playing with partners. Anything that hits outside this square is illegal. It’s illegal to “hide” the the ball from the official or your opponent with your hand once you’ve served. Pull your free hand all the way back so you don’t get accused of doing this.
Summary: Hold the ball flat in the palm of your hand. Keep the ball above the table and behind your serve line. Keep your racket hand below the table to hide it. Throw the ball at least 6.3 inches (16 cm) up in the air. Strike the ball when it’s falling. Bounce the ball on your side before it goes over the net. Hit anywhere on the table if you’re playing singles. Hit the opposite diagonal if you’re playing doubles. Move your free arm away from the ball once you’ve served.

In one sentence, describe what the following article is about: Self-esteem, or the way we feel about ourselves, is an important aspect of our emotional well-being. High self-esteem means that we love and accept ourselves for the way we are, and generally feel satisfied most of the time. Low self-esteem means that we are not happy with the way we are.  The Centre for Clinical Interventions describes people with low self-esteem as having “deep-seated, basic, negative beliefs about themselves and the kind of person they are. These beliefs are often taken as facts or truths about their identity.”  Untreated low-self esteem can often lead to lifelong problems, such as being the victim of abusive relationships, feeling constantly self-conscious, and being so afraid of failure that you don’t even try to set goals. Knowing that you have low self-esteem is the first step to improving and overcoming that mental habit. You may have low self-esteem if you have negative thoughts about yourself.  These thoughts can revolve around one specific trait, such as your weight or body image, or it can encompass many areas of your life, career, and relationships.  If your inner voice, or thoughts about yourself, are mostly critical, you likely have low self-esteem.  If your inner voice tends to be positive and comforting, you have higher self-esteem. When you have thoughts about yourself, determine whether they are positive or negative.  If you have trouble evaluating this or noticing a pattern, try writing down thoughts you have about yourself every day for a few days or a week.  Then look at the statements for patterns or tendencies.  The inner voice of someone with low self-esteem often manifests in one of the following personas: a nagger, a generalist, a comparer, a catastrophizer, or a mind-reader.  Each of these unique inner voices either insults you or assumes the worst about other people’s perception of you. Silencing the negative inner voice is a first step in building your confidence.  Replacing it with more positive thoughts will be the next goal. For example, your inner voice may say “I didn’t get the job I just applied for, so I will never have a job again and I am useless.”  You want to change that to “I am disappointed about not getting this job, but I have worked hard and the right job is out there waiting for me; I just have to find it.” No one has inherently low self-esteem from birth; it generally builds from childhood due to needs not being met, negative feedback from others, or due to a major negative life event.  Knowing the source of your self-esteem problems can help you overcome them.  If you noticed a particular pattern when evaluating your inner voice, try to trace those feelings back to your first memory about them. For example, if your negativity is about your weight or appearance, try to remember when you first started feeling uncomfortable with your weight; was it due to a particular comment or group of comments? The key to developing self-esteem is to turn your inner voice from a negative, critical voice to a positive, encouraging voice.  Ultimately, you will have to decide to put in the work of re-framing the way you think about yourself.  Setting an initial goal to be more positive about yourself will put you on the path to greater self-confidence and self-efficacy. For example, your goal may be “I will be more positive about myself and talk to myself like a friend rather than an enemy.”
Summary:
Learn  self-esteem. Evaluate your self-esteem. Listen to your inner voice. Investigate the source of your lowered self-esteem. Set a goal to improve your self-esteem.