How to 'practice smart'

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Hi all

I've been looking through some table tennis forums I especially enjoy especially Dan's brilliant Table Tennis Daily
www.tabletennisdaily.co.uk One of the posts that's repeated over and over again, is frustration at practising well and it not appearing when the person plays matches.

Last year, I was almost pulling my hair (slight impossibility????) at my frustration of having really good lessons and practice sessions but when it came to matches, not one of these shots would come off, even if I tried to play them. A lot of the time, for sone reason, I wasn't even attempting them. But gradually, the strokes started to appear in my matches. It's just something you have to work through. There aren't any short-cuts. However, the more often you productively practice, the quicker the results come. Remember:

Practice makes permanent ! Perfect practice makes perfect play !

So if you're going to practice whether with a practice partner or with a robot, do so with 100% focus on your intended outcome. If you're only going to do it in a half-hearted manner, don't do it at all as all you'll be doing making more permanent probably something you don't want as part of your technique.When I practice shots with the robot, I count out 35 balls in the hopper, play those shots and then have a break. That way I can maintain my focus on each 35 balls, doing this a number of times in each session. If I try and put 200 balls in the hopper, I know after not even a quarter of them, my mind will have wandered with resulting loss of ficus, poor technique etc. Therefore:

Practice smart !

 
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Hello. Nice article with a good message. I would say, though, that you should always make time for experimentation. I practice a lot on my own with a robot, while my team members practice in groups with a coach. You’d expect my teammates to be far ahead of me, but I find that I gain a lot from being in a more relaxed environment where I can experiment with my technique without feeling the need to follow a coach’s instructions or get the ball on the table so my practice partner doesn’t get bored! This especially applies with serve practice – where experimentation is very important – but it can also apply to shot technique somewhat. For example, you could play around with different grips, bat angles etc. So, I would say that you should focus 100% on practice, but also give time to relaxed experimentation now and again - where you're not so focused on applying 'correct technique' but trying different things to see what could improve the technique. Plus, for me, this is one of the most fun aspects of learning the game – trying different things to solve the puzzle of why you’re making various mistakes.
 

NDH

says Spin to win!
I would say serve practice is the ONLY time you should practice on your own (if you are going to practice alone that is......)

I see no major benefit to practicing on your own at any other point - Even serve practice with a partner has more merits than being alone.

Perhaps you need to find more patient partners! lol
 
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I would say serve practice is the ONLY time you should practice on your own (if you are going to practice alone that is......)

I see no major benefit to practicing on your own at any other point - Even serve practice with a partner has more merits than being alone.

Perhaps you need to find more patient partners! lol

IMO, this is very wrong. Very wrong.
 
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Hello. Nice article with a good message. I would say, though, that you should always make time for experimentation. I practice a lot on my own with a robot, while my team members practice in groups with a coach. You’d expect my teammates to be far ahead of me, but I find that I gain a lot from being in a more relaxed environment where I can experiment with my technique without feeling the need to follow a coach’s instructions or get the ball on the table so my practice partner doesn’t get bored! This especially applies with serve practice – where experimentation is very important – but it can also apply to shot technique somewhat. For example, you could play around with different grips, bat angles etc. So, I would say that you should focus 100% on practice, but also give time to relaxed experimentation now and again - where you're not so focused on applying 'correct technique' but trying different things to see what could improve the technique. Plus, for me, this is one of the most fun aspects of learning the game – trying different things to solve the puzzle of why you’re making various mistakes.
IMO, this is very right and very underestimated. I wouldn't say necessarily improve technique but it might be semantics - I would say understand your technique better. Experiment with different contact points on the ball, experiment with different stroke trajectories. Experiment with spinning the ball up from awkward places or taking the ball below net height. All kinds of things that people should try, whether off drop or with a partner/robot.
 
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I would say serve practice is the ONLY time you should practice on your own (if you are going to practice alone that is......)

I see no major benefit to practicing on your own at any other point - Even serve practice with a partner has more merits than being alone.

Perhaps you need to find more patient partners! lol

Finding a dedicated practice partner is hard enough, patient or not. So you don't see any value in robots ?
 
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I would say serve practice is the ONLY time you should practice on your own (if you are going to practice alone that is......)

I see no major benefit to practicing on your own at any other point - Even serve practice with a partner has more merits than being alone.

Perhaps you need to find more patient partners! lol


Respectfully disagree! Obviously, practicing with a partner is better - after all, we don't play matches with robots (apart from Timo Boll in that YouTube video). Sure, if you had a really understanding and patient practice partner it's possible, but I find that practicing alone is great for experimentation - you can practice at whatever pace you like - practice new shots which at first you might never hit the ball on the table etc etc. And apart from the relaxed environment there's lots of reasons why robot practice is useful. It allows you to practice with lots of ball in a short time - which unless someone feeds you multiball - is not possible in a club environment - especially if your practice partners are not at a high level.
 

NDH

says Spin to win!
OK - I understand what you are saying.

I think our points are slightly different - If I want to crack on with 2 hours of solid training, looking to improve and get some real practice in - Nothing beats hitting with other similar abled people.

In comparison (purely to the above), training on your own, trying to do the same thing is not as effective.

If you are experimenting, then robots are great. Plus they don't moan and never get tired......
 
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In what way do you feel practicing on your own (other than serve), is better, than practicing with a partner?

Practicing with a partner has more benefits once you understand your technique and your primary focus is on reading the partner and the ball. Quality of said partner also matters and the lower the level of the partner, the more work you need to put into making the practice work.

When you are trying to understand your technique, practicing alone is often at least as valuable. Just hitting balls out of your hand can teach you things about your stroke that you might not learn hitting with a partner. I think you are looking at this from the perspective of an advanced player who mostly had good conditions handed to him when younger rather than someone trying to improve with limited resources. And even with that, there are so many things about spin that one can only really understand by playing around with the ball by themselves.
 

NDH

says Spin to win!
Well I can't really argue with those points!

And yes..... I am looking at this from a more advanced point of view.

One of the downsides to the forum...... Advice is so different for so many different people - It's impossible to cater an answer/opinion to allow for all levels of reader!
 
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It isn't necessarily better, just a necessity a lot of the time, certainly for me

IMO, Andy, I think you will realize, hopefully not when it is too late, that you don't experiment with your technique enough. You are always playing shots when you are early to the ball and on time and the ball is above net height. I tell people that this is what builds anxiety when you have to play a falling ball, whether over the table or off the table. IF you sometimes learn to loop or play the ball when it is slightly below net height or even below the table, sometimes by hitting it out of your hand, sometimes vs a robot, and I mean loop it, not scoop it, it expands your understanding of your stroke and what it means to brush the ball.

Don't do this all the time, just 10-20% of your practice, so you understand spin better. Sometimes, you cannot do this by hitting the back of the ball (you have to come round the side) and this expands your understanding of TT.
 
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I feel that. It's a necessity for me too - with little time to go to the hall - being able to practice at home on my own is great. But I find that I can work my game around this necessity. For example, I have a far better range of serves than 'hall-practicers' or 'hallers' as I call them - but my serve receive is pretty bad. I've also developed a good twiddling game, which I don't think I would have developed under the tutelage of a coach in a more inverted-rubber focused training environment. It's about making the best out of a bad situation.
 
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What I do to ensure my strokes appear during matches is to focus NOT on winning but on performing the strokes. When i want to practice something, I go into the match with a handicaps in minds ie I will only loop with BH or FH, no pushing etc etc... Sure you might (most likely) lose the game but do it enough and soon your body will instinctly perform whatever it is you want to do without question and you will get better at it.
 
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I can't agree more than what Andy has said about practicing with 100% focus. Having a plan when going into a practice session is vital if you want a productive workout.

Solo practice is important in my opinion. It's like doing "homework" to get a concept ingrained. It gives me a sense of control over my practice environment. I go at my own pace and not have to worry about practice partners getting enough reps. Obviously a training buddy who has all the shots down and is patient is ideal. Hitting with a robot I find can work on your stroke technique but messes with the timing in a real game. You also lack the repetition needed to learn to read the spin off of an opponents rubber when they return a ball back to you which a robot cannot do. But a robot can give you however many numbers of repetition to hone in a stroke.

If you don't have a robot, hitting a ball off of your hand can be instructional. Like NL said, hitting balls out of your hands can teach you a great deal about your stroke. I also like standing a couple of feet back from the table and tossing the ball up and let it bounce up from the floor and trying to either forehand or backhand loop it onto different locations of the table. It really teaches you the finesse of spinning a no-spin ball. This has helped me tremendously playing against pips players.

Check out this video of solo practice that seems to cover all the shots!

https://www.facebook.com/234102623373061/videos/928656453917671/
 
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I dunno, some of the most beneficial practice I've got has been from throwing the ball in the air, letting it bounce, then doing whatever I want with it, with little footwork and opposing spin issues.

Try to get a proper heavy topspin loop from really low below the net this way and tell me it's completely useless.
 
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the best (but the most onerous) is to train with a professional coach.
if its done well, just the fact of playing with a bucket of 50 or 100 balls means no wasted time to pick up the balls, in the same amount of time, you play 3x more balls, it becomes a real workout, you build not technique only but stamina, focus etc...
and if you're like me, you'll be wasted in just 1 hour, instead of 3 hours, which means you have 2 extra hours to spend with your family, or to study or do whatever you like...
 
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