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The videos of Zhang Jike, Fan Yinchi, Fang Bo and Wang Kai are excellent. However pick one thing at a time to work on. You can try various things they say but if something works for you and makes sense to you then focus on that. Since you started playing at 10, you can reach a very advanced...

Drop out of school. Start practicing 8 hours a day. Unless you are already good, starting at age 13 is considered late and breaking the top 50 in the world will be extremely difficult. You will also need to find excellent practice partners and a world class coach to guide you. This will cost a...

There are a few reasons why not. 1) Many mid-level players in China can make $150,000 a year playing local tournaments. Even if you aren't great by Chinese standards, you can get paid to just show up to tournaments. You get an appearance fee, you get paid travel money, you get free housing...

Do you know how the world ranking system works at all? Is English your native language? If you are regional champion you get a ton of points. If you are top dog in your area, you get to go to the world cup, you get points from just losing in the 1st round. If you qualify for the world...

Remember what I said: "How many players in China could crack the top 100? With the way the weird ranking system works, for women at least 10,000. For men at least 1000 but probably way more. With local champion points bonuses, if they went to a weaker area of the world and did well in that...

I would define pro as someone whose income is derived from playing table tennis. This could be prize money, salary from a club or government, or sponsorships. You could talk about what is a "pro level" but that is subjective and difficult to define. How many players in China could crack...

This has happened before in some pretty prominent leagues. With respect to some of the smaller games where people can bet on-line, my advice is don't. A lot of these matches are fixed with the participants told beforehand who is allowed to win and lose.

Practice as much as humanly possible. Pros spend 1 hour a day serving. 1 hour a day on physical training. Then they usually have 2 separate 3 hour practice sessions. Practice. Practice. Practice. Also use your head. If you keep missing certain shots, figure out why and practice those...

If you start playing late there is zero chance of becoming a professional. I know of precisely one person who started playing full time at age 13 who became top 50 in the world. One. Most players start extremely young. One of my friends has wins over some of the top players in China but was...

What if while dismantling the racket, the ittf ruins it? This new procedure is insane. But its the ittf so it is par for the course.

I think better players should get tables with more room because they tend to move a lot more than beginners. At my club, I would politely ask the beginners to move to a different table and explain the reason why. Most of the time they comply but if they don't, I am not going to force them to...

I play both and there are lots of examples of famous guitar players who started playing later in life. I know of precisely one person who first started playing at 13 (ie he was 13 the first time he picked up a racket) and achieved a world class level. ONE. Everytime I hear a story "well so and...

Once you are done with the EJ phase, you can move on to the GJ or TJ phase. GJ's change their grip nonstop. They worry if they should keep the same grip for FH and BH or switch grips and which grips to use in different situations. This can be a nightmare to go through. Then you can also go...

You need to learn both and use both in matches. Even Aruna who can loop faster than 99% of the pros will slow loop from time to time to throw off his opponent. I know some professional players who vary the spin of their loops while the motion of the stroke and speed of the ball look similar...

Both are important but if your technique is garbage then playing matches will only take you so far. Playing matches can be useful in finding weaknesses so you can practice them during your other training sessions. Another thing you need to consider are your goals. If you want to beat someone...

In the northeast of the USA, the coaches won't do anything unless they get paid. If you asked pretty much any coach to feed you multiball for free, you would be laughed out of the club. Some people coach 8 hours a day and it is their only job. They are too exhausted to do things for free...

Any professional player will loop a long push into oblivion. You want to get better long term right? Then any long push that comes your way MUST BE LOOPED. If you miss now, eventually you will figure it out and become a much better player in the long run. If you miss, odds are you misread the...

I would avoid that like the plague. Unless you are a professional player, the potential long term side effects are not worth it.

Massimo Costantini is really smart, especially when putting together match strategies. In my opinion he is one of the top coaches in the world.

Where are you staying in NYC? Manhattan? Queens? Some of the clubs in NYC are rather spread out. If you are willing to travel to Princeton NJ, there are many MLTT professional players there who coach. When are you coming as well because there is a camp occuring run by 3-4 players of the...