How to improve timing?

[PenHoldSandro]

...I turn my hips, twist my shoulders and waist, put my elbow behind, relax, move my arm, tense up, then I strike!

Unfortunately that happens 1/10 times.

Hello! How to improve my timing in table tennis, especially if you have quite a big windup like stated above. I am a Jpen player, just if you wanted to know

 

[vvk1]

Slow down, make your "windup" smaller, don't tense up.

Better yet, watch Brett Clarke's TT videos on YT.

 

[Aizen]

As stated you above, you have a big windup, so start from scratch. Firstly perfect in drive, then mini loop, then loop, then bigger counter loop at distance.

Also I'm guessing your back swing is excessive and you are far too close to table that the balls' peak point passes you.
Even Ma Long backswing until he can see his bat, but because of fluid - great hip-waist rotation, it seems otherwise.

There is a good tutorial for wind up:

 

[Tyce]

Train?

One method that can work is doing the extremes. Take the ball extremely early, right off the bounce, for a few minutes, then go for letting the ball drop as late as possible for a few.
Alternate those, then work towards finding the middle. You'll be able to feel the difference very clearly because of the extremes, and then fine tune from there.

 

[turbozed]

If you're anything like me, having too much setup time is going to result in a missed shot about as often as having too little. I'd say I'm too early to the ball twice or three times as often as too late.

I'm currently trying to fix this, and one of the most promising adjustments is to make sure your entire body is in rhythm with the bounce of the ball. For a FH you should be loading your leg and hips as the ball bounces on your side of the table. Loading it earlier than that will often results in mistiming the stroke too early.

At a consistent and relatively fast pace, it feels easy to get into the groove timing it that way. It's when the random slow ball comes, and you've mindlessly loaded up too early that you run into problems.

You can drill for this by having someone block to you at one pace, then throw in the occasional slow ball. Force yourself to slow down and speed up your load-up timing with every individual ball that comes.

This is also one of the reasons why it's so hard to get a steady FH drill going with a bad blocker. Not only are they sending it to random spots, but they are sending it over with random power (and therefore random timing).

A good blocker has a consistent block that lets you be a bit lazy with ball reading and timing since you're relying on them to put the ball to your hitting zone at predictable intervals. That's a great place to start off, but you want to start slowly moving towards drills with the occasional expected off-timing or placement ("block one back for me slower and shallower every 3rd ball"), and then progress further to the unexpected ones ("randomly throw a slow one in every now and then).

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

stepping further away from table does wonders to many things....

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

how to improving timing - buy a reputable watch.

 

[Lazer]

stepping further away from table does wonders to many things....

Absolutely right, 1/2 meter can give You time to hit a success stroke.

This is my no:1 short coming, I back off after serve but if I go forward from there I often don't back off again. I know this but during match play somehow it disappears from my mind very often...

Cheers
L-zr

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Absolutely right, 1/2 meter can give You time to hit a success stroke.

This is my no:1 short coming, I back off after serve but if I go forward from there I often don't back off again. I know this but during match play somehow it disappears from my mid very often...

Cheers
L-zr

You see, if you play with opponents who can topspin, the ball will kick up. Some who can loop with side spin, the ball will curve and jump sideways. If you are too close, 95% of the time you will mistime. 5% of the time you may get lucky. Stepping away a little, the success rate increases.

 

[Tyce]

how to improving timing - buy a reputable watch.

I feel like I need to try 10 budget watches first

 

[PenHoldSandro]

Absolutely right, 1/2 meter can give You time to hit a success stroke.

This is my no:1 short coming, I back off after serve but if I go forward from there I often don't back off again. I know this but during match play somehow it disappears from my mid very often...

Cheers
L-zr

stepping further away from table does wonders to many things....

If you're anything like me, having too much setup time is going to result in a missed shot about as often as having too little. I'd say I'm too early to the ball twice or three times as often as too late.

I'm currently trying to fix this, and one of the most promising adjustments is to make sure your entire body is in rhythm with the bounce of the ball. For a FH you should be loading your leg and hips as the ball bounces on your side of the table. Loading it earlier than that will often results in mistiming the stroke too early.

At a consistent and relatively fast pace, it feels easy to get into the groove timing it that way. It's when the random slow ball comes, and you've mindlessly loaded up too early that you run into problems.

You can drill for this by having someone block to you at one pace, then throw in the occasional slow ball. Force yourself to slow down and speed up your load-up timing with every individual ball that comes.

This is also one of the reasons why it's so hard to get a steady FH drill going with a bad blocker. Not only are they sending it to random spots, but they are sending it over with random power (and therefore random timing).

A good blocker has a consistent block that lets you be a bit lazy with ball reading and timing since you're relying on them to put the ball to your hitting zone at predictable intervals. That's a great place to start off, but you want to start slowly moving towards drills with the occasional expected off-timing or placement ("block one back for me slower and shallower every 3rd ball"), and then progress further to the unexpected ones ("randomly throw a slow one in every now and then).

You see, if you play with opponents who can topspin, the ball will kick up. Some who can loop with side spin, the ball will curve and jump sideways. If you are too close, 95% of the time you will mistime. 5% of the time you may get lucky. Stepping away a little, the success rate increases.

Train?

One method that can work is doing the extremes. Take the ball extremely early, right off the bounce, for a few minutes, then go for letting the ball drop as late as possible for a few.
Alternate those, then work towards finding the middle. You'll be able to feel the difference very clearly because of the extremes, and then fine tune from there.

As stated you above, you have a big windup, so start from scratch. Firstly perfect in drive, then mini loop, then loop, then bigger counter loop at distance.

Also I'm guessing your back swing is excessive and you are far too close to table that the balls' peak point passes you.
Even Ma Long backswing until he can see his bat, but because of fluid - great hip-waist rotation, it seems otherwise.

There is a good tutorial for wind up:

Slow down, make your "windup" smaller, don't tense up.

Better yet, watch Brett Clarke's TT videos on YT.

Thx guys for the help!

But someone (my coach one time) told me to put the elbow at the back

 

[PenHoldSandro]

I feel like I need to try 10 budget watches first

you need to go straight for the golden one

 

[Lazer]

You see, if you play with opponents who can topspin, the ball will kick up. Some who can loop with side spin, the ball will curve and jump sideways. If you are too close, 95% of the time you will mistime. 5% of the time you may get lucky. Stepping away a little, the success rate increases.

Not my main issue. It is to have time to react at all

Cheers
L-zr

 

[Aizen]

Thx guys for the help!

But someone (my coach one time) told me to put the elbow at the back

Yeah, without showing on table, most of things lost in translation,
it's better to stick with your coach and be patient.

 

[PenHoldSandro]

Yeah, without showing on table, most of things lost in translation,
it's better to stick with your coach and be patient.

I'm trying to find ledges 🙏🙏🙏

 

[Brs]

 

[PenHoldSandro]

What a great vid. Thx man!

 

[z0uLess]

Absolutely right, 1/2 meter can give You time to hit a success stroke.

This is my no:1 short coming, I back off after serve but if I go forward from there I often don't back off again. I know this but during match play somehow it disappears from my mind very often...

Cheers
L-zr

I think I have the same problem and I blame my old knees for my inability to lower myself to compensate for being too far away from the table in some situations, so I end up preferring being too close on some balls instead and just block the ones I dont have the time to swing for.

 

[Lazer]

I think I have the same problem and I blame my old knees for my inability to lower myself to compensate for being too far away from the table in some situations, so I end up preferring being too close on some balls instead and just block the ones I dont have the time to swing for.

I am training myself to think about this, and I am improving, but still after a few hits I stay up front... But I am getting better...

Cheers
L-zr

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

@PenHoldSandro I have a question:

Are you talking about timing the legs, hips, core, weight transfer, torso, and arm movements to maximize impact into the ball on contact (overall power)?

Or are you talking about the timing of hitting the ball early (ball on the rise), middle (ball at the top of the bounce) and late (ball dropping)?

The second one is much easier to work with than the first. The second one, you just work on taking the ball on the rise, taking the ball at the top of the bounce, and taking the ball as it is coming down after the top of the bounce. Each of those has a value and a purpose. JO Waldner was famously quoted as saying that for a player to complete, he should be good at all three and use each when appropriate (in the right context).

For working on getting all the actions of your body to sync up so that you maximize impact into the ball on contact, it takes a decent amount of work on stroke mechanics. And many amateur players waste a lot of effort trying to hard but having the timing of the lower body and the upper body not sinked so that do these big movements but the power they are using 30-60% of it is not being timed with the contact of the ball. The effort from one part of the body is too early. The effort from another part of the body happens after ball contact (too late). And the result is, the player is using a ton of energy on each stroke that is not doing anything for the impact of the shot.

Then you watch someone with good mechanics, and, even with a very small, compact stroke, they can make the ball sizzle with spin and speed (power) with that tiny stroke because all the force they are using transfers from legs to hips to torso to arm to ball and the actions are synced up so that they get maximum power from a very brief and efficient effort.