Howdy all! Reporting back from training here
Duration: 10 days (9 days of training, Sundays they don't train)
Level: Unranked club player
Hsinchu City
The training camp was in Hsinchu Taiwan which is super easy to get to from Taipei. Hsinchu is quite boring but good news is you'll be training all day and not really have the time or desire for other things. I found most days after getting home eating dinner and doing laundry it would be 8 to 9 PM and I'd just crash and go to bed. On Saturday night I did enjoy some of the local bars however
Cheap Equipment
The table tennis stores over in Taiwan are ridiculous. I picked up some Dignics 09c for 1800-2000 NTD ($57-63), and Tenergy 05 for 1400-1600 NTD ($44-$51). Got a huge selection of table tennis shoes I could physically try on, picked up out of season namebrand TT shirts for 300 NTD ($10)
The Facility
No complaints here, high quality tables, catch nets, ball picker-upers plenty of balls, AC for the mornings and afternoons, a bed and couch to rest on during breaks, showers onsite
Language
I speak fluent Mandarin and lived in Taiwan in the past so this for me provided no issue. If you only speak English or another language you'll have no issue training and understanding the drills, you just may feel a bit more lonely as Taiwanese get a bit shy when speaking English, and English level is very hit or miss.
People
The people here were just so nice. The kids were full of curiosity and always asking me questions and wanting to talk, the college age students would joke around all the time and we would have a blast. Almost all of them are 國手 National Team Members which is the top 12 for their respective gender and age bracket
Schedule
Most days my schedule looked like:
0715 Wakeup
0730 Eat lunch
0800 Get picked up from hotel by Coaches or another student
Morning Session
0825 Morning stretches with everyone
0830-1130 Train (~20 minute break in middle)
Break
1130-1230 Lunch time
1230-1325 Nap Time
Afternoon Session
1325-1330 Stretch
1330-1630 Train (15-20 minute break in middle)
Evening
1730-1830 1 on 1 training (個練)
1830-2030ish You can choose to stay for the evening session. I was always quite tired, needed time to get home eat dinner and do laundry so I chose to skip the evening session. It was also a bit less intense since everyone would be exhausted at this point
What does the training look like?
There are two types of training sessions, one of them I call the multiball session, the other I call blocking drills
Multi ball Session
These were quite fixed and wouldn't change much. You would do the following 2-3 times with 1 time being until you are exhausted and need a quick minute rest. The goal of these is to drill the basic strokes millions of times. Even the rank #10 male in Taiwan was still doing this every day. There is a huge emphasis on drilling the basics in Taiwan
T
he multiball drills I remember:
Forehand topspin whole table
Forehand loop downspin halflong whole table
FH Loop downspin long whole table
BH Loop downspin
Banana flick
Blocking Drills
These become more about training more game-like scenarios. You will have 1 player block to different locations and you have to focus on 1) footwork and 2) control. It was a bit difficult at first having to hit each shot to the blocker but I slowly got used to it
Some of the drills I remember:
1 ball to middle hit with FH, then next ball random to either FH or backhand side
1 ball to middle FH, 1 ball deep FH, 1 ball middle FH, 1 ball deep BH
A couple of balls to backhand then random switch to FH
2 FH 2 BH
Once comfortable with these we added some challenge to it. For example serve underspin, blocker pushes back to either side, you loop the ball and then start the drill. Or blocker serves and you must loop/flick/flip return it then begin the drills. These once again are meant to simulate game scenarios much closer.
Progress
Feb 2026
Post camp
Most improvement came from footwork, feeling, confidence and small refinements hard to tell just by looking at a video of me hitting balls on a robot. I learned a lot about feeling on the backhand and how important the use of my fingers is, I got way more confident in looping downspin balls on BH by learning how much I was lacking 瞬間 (the sudden acceleration at moment of contact). On FH I got much stronger feeling, better timing, better spin
On all my strokes I got way more consistent and can apply them when I am not just hitting a robot. I felt before the camp I really didn't have this feeling. Now I feel like I can put whatever power I want onto the ball without limit and keep the ball on the table which I attribute to multiballing so much, relaxing, use of fingers, and timing which all helped develop feel. My strokes also become more body driven as without it your arm will get too tired from training so many hours per day.
Serve return has improved a lot more. Returning high level serves is a different beast but I would grab a random person during breaks and they'd happily serve a bucket watching my ass struggle to read their spin and return it. I am much better able to read spin on serves now.
I am headed back to my club in America this week and will know for sure then how much this translates back home. I don't think I suddenly became Ma Long himself after a week and a half of training, but I most certaintly feel much more confident, know how to properly train, and more importantly I can very easily tell what I am doing wrong now.
Equipment Change
I did decide to switch rubbers while training. 1) The price was about 60% what it would cost in America, 2) With so much on the spot feedback I figured it would be okay and 3) The amount of hours in the two weeks hitting the ball I would adapt pretty quick. The kids here are built different, pretty much the only setup any of them have known is a carbon blade like Viscaria with either Dignics 05, Dignics 09C or some boosted hurricane. Needless to say their recommendations are influenced by their personal equipment lol
All wisdom online says not to switch rubbers at my level but I gave it a chance and don't regret it yet. We will see once I am back playing in the states if it really hurts my consistency that much. I just asked my coaches what to grab and thus ended with Dignics 09C FH and Tenergy 05 BH. Previous rubbers was Rakza 7 FH and Rakza 7 Soft BH
Final Thoughts
I had a blast training here. It was my first exposure to such intense training, and getting to share the hobby I love with others who have lived and breathed table tennis their entire life was like a dream. The smiles and laughs from everyone is what got us through each day. The quality of the multi-ball and the drills was a wet dream, and the ability to get instant feedback from players who are all top players for their age bracket makes it very easy to improve.
I personally stopped by after concluding a work trip in Korea so for me it wasn't a huge financial burden to fly out to Taiwan. Training costs I believe were ~$80USD/day, 1 hour 1 on 1 with the rank 10 male in Taiwan was ~30 USD, Hotel was ~$50USD/day, breakfast and lunch included in those costs, then just another ~$10 a day for some additional food
If it is your first time going to Taiwan I would recomend you make it a longer vacation and explore some of the different places. Go party in Taipei if you are young, hike the beatiful mountains, eat the delicious food in Tainan, Scuba Dive in Kending. I've spent a year in Taiwan over my time studying abroad in the past so I didn't feel the need to spend much time in other places.
Group photo! Sadly most the people I trained with were away for tournaments my last day so this photo is a portion of them.
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