How do I Improve my footwork?

exercises

i think its very good to do some skipping
maybe 100 the right then 100 on the left and then 100 with both legs
also very good is if you have ah bar which is 30 cm high. you jump over it about 50 times but from left to right
(sorry for my english... hope you understood what i mean )

Amazing is right on the footwork drills. There are so many to work on, but for beginners to intermediate students of mine. I recommend this video of exercises.

They are perhaps the best basic drills out there and as long as you have a table the same dimensions or close to a tournament table you can do them.


Focus on the drills that they do for footwork, but warm up and work on fitness with the drills he does at the end. They are the most basic drills, but are fantastic for learning footwork. Always use your racket hand to touch the table or posts. because the view is that if you can touch your racket hand in those positions you can reach the ball in those positions even easier.

Mr. RicharD said:

Amazing is right on the footwork drills. There are so many to work on, but for beginners to intermediate students of mine. I recommend this video of exercises.

They are perhaps the best basic drills out there and as long as you have a table the same dimensions or close to a tournament table you can do them.

Focus on the drills that they do for footwork, but warm up and work on fitness with the drills he does at the end. They are the most basic drills, but are fantastic for learning footwork. Always use your racket hand to touch the table or posts. because the view is that if you can touch your racket hand in those positions you can reach the ball in those positions even easier.

Click to expand...

RicharD is right. As mundane as some of these drills will get, as long as you keep doing them, your feet will get faster and faster. Just be persistent in doing these drills.

Underneath there's a good video from some Polish training center about physical and movement training. Hope it helps you.

AHHHHH.. just what i needed )))))
My only problem now is improving the timing and reaction time ))))))))

Search for 'Falkenberg drill' on Google

This was originally made for badminton but I believe it is very beneficial to table tennis, I've tried this three times a week when I don't train and find my feet "spring" easier then before

Some great exercises for footwork, but just remember that flexibility and staying low are your key priorities. You should have your back straight when doing these exercises and keep your head up without looking at your feet. This provides poor posture and thus affects your technique and game. Many players from Europe have the tendency to lean forward when doing footwork and this also makes them believe that they are low enough to the ball, but in reality that is not true. You must stay low with your back straight because quite often the ball will cause you to lean back to hit a shot or even just backing up alone will raise your back and thus makes you hit the top of the ball sending it into the net.

I think everyone should bookmark this page

http://mytabletennis.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=44287&PN=1

This one shows one of the modern footwork (at least to me). As if you looks RSM's footwork training, the movement of his leg is kind of a big step. But if you search for Xu Xin's footwork training, you can find that these days, most of the chinese player will use a smaller steps to move around. This may because that this can prevent their feet "root" to the ground after move to a specific spot, and maintain a "spring like" flexibility all the time.

However for me, I still could not able to mimic these properly...

This is a good video as well:


The player demonstrating the footwork drills is Zoran Primorac. And the simple explanations given are helpful.

You can do all these footwork drills with multiball or in shadow form. It is worth doing them in front of a mirror where you can see your movements sometimes. What is interesting is how, doing the footwork without the ball there helps you do it when the ball is there.

I have already done that exercice that Ryu Seung Min was doing at the end and i can assure you that it's EXTREMELY tiring!

This is s good thread

Wow amazing videos! I've learnt so much! Makes you realise why the Chinese are so fast, they must implement this training on a daily basis

Table Tennis - Chinese Footwork Part 1 - Forehand From Half Table


Table Tennis - Chinese Footwork Part 2 - Connecting Forehand And Backhand


[h=1]Table Tennis - Chinese Footwork Part 3 - Pivot And Cross Step[/h]
[h=1]Table Tennis -- Chinese Footwork Part 4 - Small Steps[/h]



[h=1]Table Tennis -- Chinese Footwork Part 5 - Body Balance[/h]
[h=1]Table Tennis - Chinese Footwork Part 6 - Forehand from the middle[/h]

I am wondering about the best option for improving my movement and footwork. The above material and suggestions are helpful, but I do agree with Ash that many of the footwork practice drills are really quite advanced and require the skills in you and your partner to perform. I feel I need something which is going to get my feet moving as I have a great tendency to stay rooted to the spot and reach and bend back and forth, or to move my feet very late as I am making the shot rather than stepping first to arrive in the right place before playing the shot. Now I am in my 50s fitness is a big issue, but even before that I feel I need something to get my feet moving more at a subconscious thought level.

I am wondering about skipping which is mentioned above but doesn't seem to get highlighted much. It seems to be treated as a key piece of training for boxing, another sport requiring rapid foot movement.

Does anyone have any experience of using skipping and whether this really helps to develop foot movement? Is skipping used by advanced players and if not why not? Is it just too embarrassing and too hard to learn as a skill in itself? I don't want to waste time trying to learn to skip at my age if this is really not going to make a material difference?

I especially like the videos Dan posted. Those are classics since the time they first appeared, and I watch them a lot, whenever I feel like I am having problems. I especially like the part where the coach points out that to move your feet fluidly, your upper body has to be a bit relaxed.

SpinQuark said:

Does anyone have any experience of using skipping and whether this really helps to develop foot movement? Is skipping used by advanced players and if not why not? Is it just too embarrassing and too hard to learn as a skill in itself? I don't want to waste time trying to learn to skip at my age if this is really not going to make a material difference?

Click to expand...

Chinese national teams/provincial teams use skipping ropes too. They also do double skip in one jump etc.
If you don't know how to skip already, then jump was out a skipping rope. After a few jumps (under 1 mins), you should start feeling the strain. After a while of daily jumps, you will feel you can jump longer until you feel the strain.

There is also other drills that you can do to make your leg muscles stronger as seem in the videos above.
Most importantly is have a short run first, then stretch then do these excercises and dont get injured.

Here is some other videos from my FB page:
[video]https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=581840318533561&set=vb.443481379036123 &type=3&video_source=pages_video_set[/video]

[video]https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=201415553355008&set=vb.443481379036123 &type=3&video_source=pages_video_set[/video]