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When I started learning table tennis, I would take 1-2 weeks off from the sport here and there because I was busy studying, trying to get into university. Whenever I came back to the training center, my timing would be off: my elbow not tight and my wrist all over the place. Every time that happened, my coach's wife would work with me to hit the ball off the bounce, OVER the table, over and over again to get my timing and my feel back on track. We would just hit lightly over the table, and I would borrow her ball's momentum to carry the ball back over the net. It worked every single time. After 10 minutes of such exercise, I was able to get my muscle memory back and started the lessons finally.I think the one thing other experienced members of my club are having me do is work on guiding the ball on my strokes, especially off of the bounce. A lot of consistency drills with every permutation of forehand and backhand with focus on where to contact the ball. Watching this then going back into a coaching session really clicked with me on what to do (). The back of my arm is pretty sore today.
Same philosophy for the doing loops off of backspin.
I even do that today whenever I work with a robot. The first two minutes are just me putting my paddle stationary and blocking each ball back. Then I would hit the ball slowly over the table for a few minutes. Then I would take one step away from the table and hit the balls at the top of the bounce. Then I would take another half a step back and loop the balls right off the top of the bounce. Then I would take a few steps back and loop mid-distance.
After that cycle, I would rinse and repeat. Do a couple cycles of that, I am ready for whatever drills is next with the robot or hitting with other people.
The video of the training session between Hiroe Imai and Scott Land is interesting and you can learn a lot from it.
One, you can see Hiroe Imai does exactly what I am saying, blocking the ball in front of her lightly while Scott looped the ball. When you see Hiroe Imai do a forehand push, you can also see her moving her body close to the ball and brushing the ball in front of her eyes/body. Every good player should do that with every single stroke.
Two, Hiroe Imai had to ask Scott Land to move his elbow up. The reason is, when you loop, you have to commit to each stroke. And in order to commit to each stroke, every player needs to understand his or her equipment and "trust" his or her blade. When you are looping, the whole body is in motion and in sync. You cannot change your mind. And that's one of the biggest problem I see when a newbie is set up by the club coach with Viscaria along with T05 on both sides. Because the equipment is so fast, the newbies are afraid to hit the ball out. Then from the beginning, they get in the habit of not doing a full stroke and that shows when they try to advance their techniques.
Three, Hiroe Imai did a good job to push one ball to Scott and let him loop one backspin ball. Then she will block one top spin ball back to him and let Scott loop one top spin ball. Then end of the drill!!!
The reason for the drill is that, one, Scott should learn how to loop a back spin and follow up with learning how to loop a top spin. However, once that's done, the drill is finished. There is no point for Scott to keep on looping top spin return after top spin return because 1) Scott is still trying to learn the muscle memory of looping a back spin ball and 2) at Scott's level, after two loops, his opponent, assuming also at Scott's level, is done. Either Scott wins the point or the opponent would win the point. The point would be finished. So in a way, Hiroe Imai is trying to do a drill that will simulate Scott's reall match and at the same time, not waste his time. I was browsing YouTube videos when I came across a video where clearly two USATT 1000 level players were taking a group class lesson. The coach was asking them to open the rally and loop top spin back and forth. I was shaking my head because what is the likelihood of two USATT 1000 level players ever going to loop and counter top spins in a rally? At their level it is more important to teach them how to feel their equipment, how to push back spins, how to block to various corners of the table, and how to loop back spin. Not looping and countering a top spin rally. Maybe they are adult students and they want to advance quickly so the coach obliged. But that is one bad drill and waste of time for USATT 1000 level players.