China Training - Stiga Centre!

Okay this is once in a life time! Stiga Table Tennis Team have teamed up with the Chinese National Team at the Stiga Table Tennis centre training and practising! This thread will deliver all the photos and videos from this awesome training camp! Please, please, please follow Stiga Table Tennis on there facebook page for all their hard work! Be sure to comment and discuss the training guys!

Enjoy!


Photo by: Stiga Table Tennis

Ma Long and Ma Lin practice in the Stiga Arena! You can see how much these players focus in training. Both players are even 'choing' and competiting against one another! Ma Lin ask's Ma Long to give everything he has got



Wang Hao practising multiball during the Chinese National team´s visit at STIGA in Sweden.



Ma Long doing multiball with head coach Liu Guoliang. You can see how to play the correct backhand topspin. Liu demonstrates how to do it to!



How awesome is this! More videos and photos to come shortly!

I hope you can learn something here, or some new exercises to implement into your training. Leave your comments below

What I noticed between Ma Long and Ma Lin, they're having fun. Ma Lin basically told Ma Long To give everything he's got and see if he can block them, at the same time giving him a few pointers. Quality training partners, and you'll get better. That's the advantage on the Chinese have. Taking short breaks in between the drills ensure quality drills. If you're exhausted you won't be able to focus your energy on the next drill.

Nice one Dan...quality top stuff. Thanx!!

Originally Posted by azlan

What I noticed between Ma Long and Ma Lin, they're having fun. Ma Lin basically told Ma Long To give everything he's got and see if he can block them, at the same time giving him a few pointers. Quality training partners, and you'll get better. That's the advantage on the Chinese have. Taking short breaks in between the drills ensure quality drills. If you're exhausted you won't be able to focus your energy on the next drill.

Nice one Dan...quality top stuff. Thanx!!

No worries. Always trying to put the highest content on here!

Have you ever read on Anders Erickssons theory on 'deliberate practice' well its what these players do every time they hit the ball . They are at such a high level its ridiculous!

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DAN : Have you ever read on Anders Erickssons theory on 'deliberate practice' well its what these players do every time they hit the ball . They are at such a high level its ridiculous!

Deliberate practice I think is about having an experienced professionals training you? Just like Ma Lin putting Ma Long into pace. Ma Lin with his experience and vast knowledge about table tennis telling Ma Long what to do, and what not to do. In the 2nd video he's actually dictating Wang Hao where to place the ball. He's telling Wang Hao that whenever the world no2 hits the ball on his FH side of the table, he shouldn't give away any indications from his body language on where he's going to place the ball, cross court or down the line...which will make it extremely deceptive.
In the case of Ma Lin and Ma Long training together, Ma Lin benefited as well, in the sense that he may practice his blocking and placements from one of the greatest FH extraordinaire...so in this case Ma Long is also the coach.

I think that's what deliberate practice means...1% of it hahaha

Originally Posted by azlan

Deliberate practice I think is about having an experienced professionals training you? Just like Ma Lin putting Ma Long into pace. Ma Lin with his experience and vast knowledge about table tennis telling Ma Long what to do, and what not to do. In the 2nd video he's actually dictating Wang Hao where to place the ball. He's telling Wang Hao that whenever the world no2 hits the ball on his FH side of the table, he shouldn't give away any indications from his body language on where he's going to place the ball, cross court or down the line...which will make it extremely deceptive.
In the case of Ma Lin and Ma Long training together, Ma Lin benefited as well, in the sense that he may practice his blocking and placements from one of the greatest FH extraordinaire...so in this case Ma Long is also the coach.

I think that's what deliberate practice means...1% of it hahaha

It's a hard one to explain, I'll get Lgreggs to explain it better to you. But it is where an expert in any given sport train differently and better to the non experts in a sport. The theory is that, without 10.000 hours or 10 years of deliberate practice one will not become elite. Ma Long and Ma Lin have for sure gone over 10.000 hours of purposful practice. It is where when they are training, they are training to improve (I.e technique, speed, ect). And they have immediate feedback throughout their lives. Correct feedback this is. They don't just go to the table and hit the ball

They always push themselves to the limits clocking there hours of practice over there fellow competitors.

So these guys don't generally have genetic coding which makes them have table tennis talent. It's the way they have practiced correctly throughout the year. Read a book called the outliers you will love it!

HHmmmm interesting Dan. Basically what you're saying is that these quality training (plus the hours) can be achieved by anyone. You don't have to be talented, but just hours and hours enthusiastic quality training we will be able to improve in not just our sports but how we drive ourselves to achieve our life goals...The book title is "Outliers"?

Originally Posted by azlan

HHmmmm interesting Dan. Basically what you're saying is that these quality training (plus the hours) can be achieved by anyone. You don't have to be talented, but just hours and hours enthusiastic quality training we will be able to improve in not just our sports but how we drive ourselves to achieve our life goals...The book title is "Outliers"?

You got it bro. Yeah its called Outliers - The story of success

Its all about opportunity, experiences, luck and loads more. Youtube Malcolm Gladwell


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Dan this is pretty sweet. I enjoyed the videos. It looks to me like Ma Lin is getting ready to start coaching. That'll be sad if he can't get in form for 2013's Worlds Singles. I'd have liked him to get his grand slam. But with all his pointers I think he's just trying to help his friend and team mate to get even better. Especially with all his success lately. Maybe LGL wanted this as well.

Originally Posted by Dan

It's a hard one to explain, I'll get Lgreggs to explain it better to you. But it is where an expert in any given sport train differently and better to the non experts in a sport. The theory is that, without 10.000 hours or 10 years of deliberate practice one will not become elite. Ma Long and Ma Lin have for sure gone over 10.000 hours of purposful practice. It is where when they are training, they are training to improve (I.e technique, speed, ect). And they have immediate feedback throughout their lives. Correct feedback this is. They don't just go to the table and hit the ball

They always push themselves to the limits clocking there hours of practice over there fellow competitors.

So these guys don't generally have genetic coding which makes them have table tennis talent. It's the way they have practiced correctly throughout the year. Read a book called the outliers you will love it!

Hey Azlan

Deliberate practice is where a performer in any field that requires mastering skills takes part in an activity which is purposeful. This means that the activity has to be focused and specific to the outcome. For example, ma long will take part in deliberate practice for his forehand. He is going to do this practice because it will make him more successful. It will be repetitive, the coach will be there coaching him to make sure the skill is repeated the same every time it is played. It is not always fun but if the outcome is successful then he will be satisfied with his hard work.

The theory is that you need to 10,000 hours to master a skill. This could be anything, such as playing a musical instrument, chess or learning how to memorise numbers.

Me and Dan have been reading up a lot on this subject at university. If this subject interests you, then there are some books you should read.

Bounce by Mathew Syed
The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

These books are really good and Bounce is more specific to table tennis because it was written by Matt Syed who is former England number 1 and 3x commonwealth champion.

If your into reading Journals and stuff look up Anders Ericsson. He's the main man on deliberate practice and 10000 hour rule.

I hope this helps Azlan

If you have any more questions on this subject i've been researching this for a while now so i'll try and answer them but these books have all the answers.

Wow...cheers Greggs. The concept is quite intriguing. It's like drilling an information into some ones head over and over again and soon it'll become automatic. He can just recall the informations on the snap of a finger, though the process of drilling that information may not be a pleasant one, but at the end of the day, it works.

The same as in TT (especially in TT since decision has to made in milliseconds) or any other sports for instance, the shot and decision making became automatic..because it has been drilled into him. It became the most natural and logical decision in a certain situation for instance. The decision, footwork, the actual shot and placements became one entity.

I had the same concept when I coach..but I didn't know there was a study subject about it. Very interesting indeed.

I'll try and find those books you recommended, they should be an interesting reading material. Thanx again to both of you.

Purposeful practice. I like the sound of it. Working on something that is directly related to an aspect of the game you need to work on and logging the hours so the skill develops more fully and begins to become automatic.

I guess part of the issue would then be to create the circumstances where it can happen, which, in Table Tennis, would mean a good practice partner or group of practice partners and/or perhaps a good coach. An ideal situation might actually be a good coach watching and a group of three or 4 well suited practice partners training, with the coach telling each set of partners what drills to do, watching for what information they need, for what drills will be most useful to each player, and when to switch drills and/or partners, so that each player gets to train with 3 others and gets variety in training but it is all deliberate and based on a specific need and skill to improve.

I think, one of the flaws of my system, since I am training myself, is that I find things that work and then I do them, and I do them, and I do them, and I don't necessarily know what comes next since I am just trying to figure out what will help me with specific skills I notice I need to improve. It is also harder to see what you need to improve on your own. A skilled coach would be able to see those things more easily.

In the video with Ma Long and Ma Lin it looks like Ma Lin has gained some weight. Not much, but it might be enough to slow him down. I notice it in his face, his legs and his belly. Something like that could contribute to his early exits in those recent matches and could also indicate a general loss of focus, so his mind might be somewhere other than on his performance in matches. Obviously, I don't know. Just a guess. Whereas, at the end of 2010 when Wang Hao gained a ton of weight, it was obvious that it and perhaps why he gained the weight caused his level to drop drastically for a while.

I agree, Ma Lin does look a little chubby. hehehe I realize with TT, gaining weight even a little does affect your movement and explosiveness. I love it when Ma Lin did his famous cushioned chop block...he really killed the speed of the ball.

• stigatabletennis1944

Ma Long forehand technique in slowmotion at STIGA arena

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8JEwwA0Jl4

More awesome videos sent in!