🚨 What Is Your BIGGEST Problem In Table Tennis At The Moment?

[Bryan TT]

Your self control will take you far.

For sure, it is really important

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

no one can beat Carl

I think NextLevel will pass me in the not too distant future. It will be nice to see.

 

[ThePongCommenter]

For sure, it is really important

I appreciate you taking the advice and constructive criticism in a positive way. Many people would have just left the forum or lashed out at the criticism.

One more thing - I like the "physical warmup" video. That is a topic that I don't see discussed as much from Youtube TT channels. I see a lot of players skip warmup entirely and just hop into training or playing, or just do a few arm circles and hop in. A proper physical warmup isn't just for injury prevention but as your video mentions is crucial to feeling "woken up" and maximizing your energy and movement levels during the session.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

This is a bit exaggerated but there is a point he is trying to make. The game has mental components as well as physical components and some of the instincts are harder to get to a high level the older you start. That said, it doesn't matter that much if you can't return a pro serve unless you are playing pros for money all the time. In reality, you will get better at everything in table tennis, especially service return, the longer you play and practice and you can enjoy TT improvement for the rest of your life, while most pros will hate playing and keep remembering their young prime glory days. I can't consistently return pro serves but I still play at a level I enjoy and you can too.

Post of the month or even better

 

[blahness]

My biggest problem is that J O Waldner said in TV that you will not be able to return a pro serve unless you started playing table tennis as a kid. I started at 50. So which serves will I be able to return? Or did he not talk about a single serve brought out of its context, but to be able to compete in the service game pro players use?

At this age, just get LP or anti and you will be able to compete in the service game completely fine. If you're using 2x inverted, i would highly doubt you can ever return pro player serves well enough if they are trying to make it difficult for you. The sheer amount of spin is just on another planet, not to mention the deception and placement control. But I have seen LP/anti amateur players handling ex pro serves easily lol.

 

[andzejgolot]

We ain't got enough fit women and we've got too many mingers.
No offence ( zeio, igorponger...)

 

[Yurifi]

Guys let’s all help each other out :

Comment your BIGGEST PROBLEM, the thing you’ve been struggling with the most, and let’s all help each other!!

By the way i’m trying to reach #1 on the leaderboards, so a follow would be nice of you

adjusting to new serve rules (FH underarm no longer allowed) and my backhand topspin/loops are a true pain in the tuchus (well, not tuchus, but my elbow was broken, twice, and it can be painful) ... and as a player relying on loops on both sides this is quite a project to be solved.

 

[z0uLess]

My biggest problem is predicting the ball, where it is going to be based on my perception of the contact on my opponents racket.

 

[Brs]

My biggest problem is predicting the ball, where it is going to be based on my perception of the contact on my opponents racket.

The players I coach also have this trouble. How do you practice it, and does anything particularly work?

We try stuff like one to middle, one to either side, and one or two FH one or two BH, as well as full-random exercises like free to the backhand.

I also say about tendencies. Like if a player stretches out to their forehand it will be diagonal return for sure. If you play fast serve or BH to BH almost always you get diagonal back. And knowing the opponents since it's a small town with few players. If player A hit the last 100 FH loops diagonal, chances of FH loop 101 being parallel are quite small.

But it's slow progress. I'm becoming convinced it's nearly useless to work on footwork or balance, because those problems are really anticipation fails. Any tips to speed their learning would be gold. thanks

 

[Bryan TT]

I appreciate you taking the advice and constructive criticism in a positive way. Many people would have just left the forum or lashed out at the criticism.

One more thing - I like the "physical warmup" video. That is a topic that I don't see discussed as much from Youtube TT channels. I see a lot of players skip warmup entirely and just hop into training or playing, or just do a few arm circles and hop in. A proper physical warmup isn't just for injury prevention but as your video mentions is crucial to feeling "woken up" and maximizing your energy and movement levels during the session.

Thanks you! I think something really important is taking criticism the right way. No one is perfect, and criticism is what gets you as close as possible to perfect

 

[Bryan TT]

The players I coach also have this trouble. How do you practice it, and does anything particularly work?

We try stuff like one to middle, one to either side, and one or two FH one or two BH, as well as full-random exercises like free to the backhand.

I also say about tendencies. Like if a player stretches out to their forehand it will be diagonal return for sure. If you play fast serve or BH to BH almost always you get diagonal back. And knowing the opponents since it's a small town with few players. If player A hit the last 100 FH loops diagonal, chances of FH loop 101 being parallel are quite small.

But it's slow progress. I'm becoming convinced it's nearly useless to work on footwork or balance, because those problems are really anticipation fails. Any tips to speed their learning would be gold. thanks

Yeah that is so true, and that is something that i preach a lot! Predicting the ball is super important. And predicting it after your serve is a lot easier.
For example if you do a serve really wide to either forehand or backhand it will go back diagonally 90% of the time. And it is a game of probabilities, he might go around the net 10% of the time, but you are still winning, you have the 90% covered

 

[z0uLess]

The players I coach also have this trouble. How do you practice it, and does anything particularly work?

We try stuff like one to middle, one to either side, and one or two FH one or two BH, as well as full-random exercises like free to the backhand.

I also say about tendencies. Like if a player stretches out to their forehand it will be diagonal return for sure. If you play fast serve or BH to BH almost always you get diagonal back. And knowing the opponents since it's a small town with few players. If player A hit the last 100 FH loops diagonal, chances of FH loop 101 being parallel are quite small.

But it's slow progress. I'm becoming convinced it's nearly useless to work on footwork or balance, because those problems are really anticipation fails. Any tips to speed their learning would be gold. thanks

I was looking for a tip for myself as well. I guess this is the thing that comes closest to this mythical concept of "talent" that I can think of. I try to play as much as possible to just get better at it. It takes so much time. When I have played with beginners that come from other ball sports, I can see that they have this ability to predict the ball much better than me.

In the summer time, I play outdoors in the park once a week (when its almost not windy at all) for 4-8 hours in one session to just get tons and tons of volume (and also much more random styles, wind and basically playing 'for fun' to focus on being in flow and 'feeling it'). Luckily, I live in a city that has its own outdoor community that meet in the same park. The level is not super high, but its maybe 200 core players and a bunch of visitors that go there. Sometimes a 2000+ (european ranking) player stops by to play there as well. Sometimes there are tennis players that know their way around a racket. I would say that this has mainly made me a very efficient blocker, since most people there look for the flat smash and have specialized in it ... and I have very very good touch on the ball since I have played so much. I just cant for the life of me get my feet in the right spot when getting into topspin to topspin rallies with club level players.