says
Spin and more spin.
says
Spin and more spin.
Well-Known Member
Super Moderator
So, in Table Tennis there is Match Play and Training. Match Play is important and I have seen many players improve to a certain degree just by playing matches. But there are many training techniques that will help a person improve different aspects of their technique like footwork, stroke, attacking short balls.
What are some of your favorite training drills to improve your skills and get to the next level?
Here is one I like that is simple. This is for someone whose stroke has a mechanical problem that needs to be changed. One of the hardest things to change is a habit that has been part of your game for a long time. You keep playing and you seem to be getting better but you continue doing the same things wrong, and that is hard to change. This drill is for that and it is very simple:
You take a ball and you bounce it, not too high, on the table. Then you hit it. This is like self hitting in baseball. You can hit the ball off the first bounce. I like hitting the ball off the second bounce. It has a different timing. I used this drill, first to get the correct contact for looping underspin. You can really focus on the subtleties of how you contact the ball here. Also, since the ball has no spin on it, it is sort of like hitting a dead ball. What you do when you hit a dead ball is similar in technique to what you do to hit a ball with light underspin. So at first I just worked on getting that contact where you catch the edge of the ball, let the ball sink in to the rubber, and then you accelerate your stroke to get heavy spin. I also used to have a follow through that came across my body; my bat would end up past my left shoulder and my body would end up turned a little to the left. The second thing I used this drill for was developing the follow through where the bat ends up in front of my head at the hight of my hair line. I have heard this described as "the salute". I never understood why this was useful in table tennis until I could do it. Now I get a lot more spin and I get ready for the next shot significantly faster. After that, I worked on getting my legs more bent and using my legs and the rotation of my hips to get more power into my stroke. Then I used this simple technique to get the precise timing of when to use the wrist during the stroke to get more spin. All in all this technique may have done more to make it so I can get to a higher level as a player than anything else since I have changed a lot of habits that would have prevented me from getting to a higher level; habits that otherwise might have been almost impossible to change for someone my age (46 as I am writing this, not old, but old enough to have trouble changing my habits). Anyone who has tried to train people who started out with a lot of bad habits knows how hard it is to get a person to change those habits. Part of why the drill I mentioned is so effective is that it is sooooo simple. You are not even trying to get the coordination of timing when to hit the ball like you wold be if it was coming at you. This frees you up to focus on many different aspects of the stroke.
I will post more training drills that I like soon. But for now, I am looking forward to reading some of the drills that other people on this forum like and have used to help their game improve.
What are some of your favorite training drills to improve your skills and get to the next level?
Here is one I like that is simple. This is for someone whose stroke has a mechanical problem that needs to be changed. One of the hardest things to change is a habit that has been part of your game for a long time. You keep playing and you seem to be getting better but you continue doing the same things wrong, and that is hard to change. This drill is for that and it is very simple:
You take a ball and you bounce it, not too high, on the table. Then you hit it. This is like self hitting in baseball. You can hit the ball off the first bounce. I like hitting the ball off the second bounce. It has a different timing. I used this drill, first to get the correct contact for looping underspin. You can really focus on the subtleties of how you contact the ball here. Also, since the ball has no spin on it, it is sort of like hitting a dead ball. What you do when you hit a dead ball is similar in technique to what you do to hit a ball with light underspin. So at first I just worked on getting that contact where you catch the edge of the ball, let the ball sink in to the rubber, and then you accelerate your stroke to get heavy spin. I also used to have a follow through that came across my body; my bat would end up past my left shoulder and my body would end up turned a little to the left. The second thing I used this drill for was developing the follow through where the bat ends up in front of my head at the hight of my hair line. I have heard this described as "the salute". I never understood why this was useful in table tennis until I could do it. Now I get a lot more spin and I get ready for the next shot significantly faster. After that, I worked on getting my legs more bent and using my legs and the rotation of my hips to get more power into my stroke. Then I used this simple technique to get the precise timing of when to use the wrist during the stroke to get more spin. All in all this technique may have done more to make it so I can get to a higher level as a player than anything else since I have changed a lot of habits that would have prevented me from getting to a higher level; habits that otherwise might have been almost impossible to change for someone my age (46 as I am writing this, not old, but old enough to have trouble changing my habits). Anyone who has tried to train people who started out with a lot of bad habits knows how hard it is to get a person to change those habits. Part of why the drill I mentioned is so effective is that it is sooooo simple. You are not even trying to get the coordination of timing when to hit the ball like you wold be if it was coming at you. This frees you up to focus on many different aspects of the stroke.
I will post more training drills that I like soon. But for now, I am looking forward to reading some of the drills that other people on this forum like and have used to help their game improve.