Practice style dilemma - full force or playing nice

[yamagata]

I am in a minor predicament. Practice once a week, usually some warm up, stroke exchanges, after that match play.

If I hit my best strokes, I will miss some and kill some. Oppo will block a few. I guess I will be an annoying club mate. I will improve on my own max strokes though.

I also need to practice my footwork, my technique, my ability to read play, counter spin, and reaction times. I do this by focusing on only returning balls to the table, easy and slow ones. I usually play two or three of those before I miss, or my practice partner miss.

My practice partners are between 40 and 85 years old.

Am I doing them a disservice by playing nice? Am I doing myself a disservice by playing nice? If I have to choose one style or the other between giving max or playing nice, what should I choose from the perspective of improving the fastest?

 

[K.K]

i mean depends on what you want to train. if you train footwork then you concentrate on your feet not on power and vice versa. but what has that to do with the age of your practice partners? and if you can only play max 3 of the slow shots already, then they are maybe still too fast for you.
i would rather look more into training more then once a week

 

[Lazer]

When training a sequence the idea is to get a rhytm. This requires a long series of shots. If you can’t do this your practice is worth less. So start slow and easy and increase the pace until you hit the limit.

Remember that the winner of a point is the player that can put the ball back on on the table.

Cheers
L-zr

 

[olive-nguyen]

Yep this is certainly an issue, especially if your training partner is a the same level or lower than you.

Most if not all the times for practice I can't put full force. It would be way to short and just not fun by then. In addition picking up the balls over and over would be tiring.

However, not putting the full effort may make you develop bad technique like me, unnecessary large backswing and slow to passing and passive shots.

At this point I would play a certain in-between on how hard to hit, and hit the hardest when playing with the wall, a video i will show later on as per my intention. Thplaying against the wall on the floor also moves you around more, which I believes help with footwork development?

 

[Ultravisitor]

Its hard to improve if you just train once a week and mostly matchplay.
Analyse what weaknesses you need to work on then look up drills that target those.
See if you can find another day to train.

 

[Tyce]

It's not an either-or question tbh.

What is "practice"? Because I get the impression that you are talking about just playing the ball like a match, not using drills or exercises targeted to improve specific areas.

Of course it's easy to get stuck in that mode, but if you slowly work it in I'm sure you will find partners willing to do an exercise for a few minutes.
When you get the chance to do something structured:
If you need to improve consistency, focus on landing the ball where you want it to. Power is much less important at this point.
There will be times when you want to build up power. Do this near the end of the training, when your consistency is warmed up as well as your muscles. Building up in an exercise can work too, like do one slow opening loop, and kill the next ball with power.
Unless power is a giant glaring gap in your game, don't worry about it too much. Building technique, footwork, placement and consistency will bring the confidence and space to apply power.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

it all boils down to what you and your practice partner want and the ability of each other. If your partner can take full force, then go ahead. If cannot then go friendly.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Some information: often you don't want to use more than 60-70% of full force if you are trying to work on improving.

If you can't keep 100 balls + on the table without a miss, you probably would be better served by working on consistency first. If you are looping and can't loop 30-40 in a row without a miss from you or your blocking partner, same as above.

If you are working on full force attacks and you miss more than 15% of your shots (make less than 85% of your shots), you should be working on consistency first.

When you have the consistency, then you can notch up the power without losing control. If you can make amazing shots full power, but they only land on the table and are amazing shots less than 80% the time, you are insuring that you will lose at least 20% of the points because of an irrational ideal about how to play table tennis.

When you are looping and someone is blocking for you, if you can't hit their racket every time so they don't have to work much to keep blocking well for you, that is actually on you, not on your opponent's blocking skills. When you can loop 30-40 in a row without you or your partner missing, then you are ready to start notching up the power.

But you never really play at 100% power unless you absolutely know you have a kill shot and that it WILL NOT COME BACK. And that is for match play when you have used strategy to have your opponent at a severe disatvantage.

 

[Tyce]

Carl, you managed to word it so much better I think I might have to delete my post

 

[Amayzde]

Against these kind of players its the perfect opportunity to work on your weaker aspects you usually experience in game.

For example: I rely on being able to use my forehand in a match, because my backhand isnt as good. So against these lesser opponents I will play more backhand oriented.

This way you dont necessarily take it easy on them. You still give it your best, but with your 'worse game'.

And you can do many different things. Try new serves, try to attack every long serve, try some new shots, etc.

 

[Dr Evil]

When you are looping and someone is blocking for you, if you can't hit their racket every time so they don't have to work much to keep blocking well for you, that is actually on you, not on your opponent's blocking skills.

A stronger player can make a weaker player play better by hitting to their racket and imposing consistent rhythm and spin. The first thing my coach did during my first lesson was show me a proper blocking stance, and then rally with me quite fast by using my racket like a bounce board. (Note to coaches: This is a great way to get someone hooked on table tennis.) When practicing with someone much weaker, it's a useful challenge to try to make them play as well as they possibly can. "Playing nice" like this doesn't usually mean hitting low quality shots; more often weaker players play their best against high (but not overwhelming) quality with consistent placement, spin and rhythm. Players who drill a lot sometimes even do this unintentionally in match play, and then wonder why everyone plays so well against them.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

A stronger player can make a weaker player play better by hitting to their racket and imposing consistent rhythm and spin. The first thing my coach did during my first lesson was show me a proper blocking stance, and then rally with me quite fast by using my racket like a bounce board. (Note to coaches: This is a great way to get someone hooked on table tennis.) When practicing with someone much weaker, it's a useful challenge to try to make them play as well as they possibly can. "Playing nice" like this doesn't usually mean hitting low quality shots; more often weaker players play their best against high (but not overwhelming) quality with consistent placement, spin and rhythm. Players who drill a lot sometimes even do this unintentionally in match play, and then wonder why everyone plays so well against them.

Excellent post and good informatin for people to understand.

 

[yamagata]

Excellent advice! I understand that there is really no point in trying to (prematurely) work on speed, strength or force when practising. That has its place - but later, when technique, footwork and consistency is already achieved.

For now, I will only focus on using proper technique. If oppo cannot return, I can work on consistent placement instead of trying to slow down the tempo (to allow both of us to have a great training session).