Changing style to avoid bad habits

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Hi,
I've just read about Ádám Pattantyús. Before table tennis he played tennis. His coach recommended him to be a defender because he had some bad stroke habits from the tennis, especially on the bh side.
What do you think, it would be a good idea to suggest to learn a different style players who played for fun without any coaching and developed a wrong style but now they want to learn the correct techniques? ---->(wow, that's a horrible sentence-monster! sry for my english, I'm too lazy to write grammatically correct texts)
e.g: Johnny plays table tennis regularly for 3 years in the school with Artangoo 10X premade bat. Now he decided to find a club and he wants to reach ano...a 2300 rating point level. I think if he played as a shakehand attacker (with horribly bad strokes), now he should move to defense or penhold, right?
 
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IMHO learning the right strokes without a coach is near to the impossible. Learn how to do right strokes with a coach is already hard hahah
But I think it's better become a penholder or something like that to disassociate tennis stroke to table tennis stroke

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IMHO learning the right strokes without a coach is near to the impossible. Learn how to do right strokes with a coach is already hard hahah
But I think it's better become a penholder or something like that to disassociate tennis stroke to table tennis stroke

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Of course a coach is needed.
 
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As far as I know there isn't really a 'defensive' style that is actually successful in tennis.
Yes, there isn't. That's why his coach taught him defense, because it was a completely new thing for him what he could learn from zero.

Anyway, I don't have such a problem, it's just an idea.
 
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I think I will have to disagree. Due to a 5 year hiatus of playing, and the last 3 years (before hiatus) of being forced to play, I developed alot of bad habits. It took me 2 years but I'm pretty close to completely removing my bad habits and there are many. All you got to do is focus not on winning but on doing the right things. If you learn a different playstyle just to break a bad habit, then you will have to basically redo the whole process just to break out of your current play style when transitioning to your new style

For example, you become a defender to break tennis stokes, then you have to redo the whole process when you switch from being a defender to an attacker. You doing an extra step. Only this time it might be harder as your body has been train to be a defender which is not wrong, so there is less incentive to break out of this style. Comparitively, breaking out into a right style from a bad habit will be easier (personal opinion) as you conciously know you are doing something wrong.

Thats just my 2 cents
 
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I think I will have to disagree. Due to a 5 year hiatus of playing, and the last 3 years (before hiatus) of being forced to play, I developed alot of bad habits. It took me 2 years but I'm pretty close to completely removing my bad habits and there are many. All you got to do is focus not on winning but on doing the right things. If you learn a different playstyle just to break a bad habit, then you will have to basically redo the whole process just to break out of your current play style when transitioning to your new style

For example, you become a defender to break tennis stokes, then you have to redo the whole process when you switch from being a defender to an attacker. You doing an extra step. Only this time it might be harder as your body has been train to be a defender which is not wrong, so there is less incentive to break out of this style. Comparitively, breaking out into a right style from a bad habit will be easier (personal opinion) as you conciously know you are doing something wrong.

Thats just my 2 cents

I doesn't mean changing style to 'break' bad habits and then change back. So it isn't just an extra step, it's a permanent change.
 
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I doesn't mean changing style to 'break' bad habits and then change back. So it isn't just an extra step, it's a permanent change.

Then I must have misunderstood your original question. The way it was worded sounded as if you were asking if we should change the way we play to break bad strokes/habit etc etc. Regardless, the problem is that will players want to change to a new style? I don't think that there are many who would want to be a defender or anything evuivalent.
 
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Related to this topic... and about a theory of learning I heard from a good professor at college... I'll try to explain best I can...

Learning follows much of the electricity rules... Electricity will flow via the path of least resistance...

Neurons in the brain establish new connections every day... Casual processes = weak neural connections. Image when you walk over grass, walk once on one path, you will not notice somebody walk there... Walk regularly you will start noticing, some damage, thus a bit more established path. If hundreds of people would walk there then probably there would not be grass but still a narrow path, if thousands were to walk there you will find a wide path...

Neurons are like that... You need repetition to establish a wider path = less resistance

Now back to your point, and electricity. By playing Tennis for many years you established wide connections = path of least resistance.

Now that you are developing in table tennis you need to develop new paths, the challenge is to establish a path wider than the older version, to avoid electricity (reflexes, etc) taking the path of least resistance.

In sum shadow practice and numerous hours of practice are required to establish new habits/technique...

I use this a lot when I'm trying to learn some new shot, and it just does not come right, it helps me avoid frustration... Thus the importance of having a coach... Just imagine putting all those hours to establish a new path just to realize later that you installed a bad new habit [emoji144]????

Hope all this mambo Jambo helps [emoji41]


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IMHO learning the right strokes without a coach is near to the impossible. Learn how to do right strokes with a coach is already hard hahah
But I think it's better become a penholder or something like that to disassociate tennis stroke to table tennis stroke

Sent from my 2014819 using Tapatalk

Yes it's really really hard without a coach but I must say you can come a long way from watching youtube and record yourself playing. A coach can make you go long but it's always up to the player to do the hard work :)
 
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I am a Tennis player as well and I'm very good at hard bat defending due to my Tennis skills. I fiddled about with short pips with some success but there were too many weaknesses and I ultimately didn't enjoy playing that way. I have been going demented with the F/H technique and even changed to my left hand as the F/H technique is perfect (I am left handed but play Tennis and Table Tennis with my right). This is also frustrating as I have poor reactionary skills with my left.
I have now decided to WISE UP and focus on getting the technique correct and realise it is going to take time. What I have learnt from this process is that there is no quick fix and the most important thing is training with a good happy attitude and enjoy the process of change. Once you get the feeling of the technique improving you will start to really enjoy playing. This is my experience and we are different people but I wouldn't defend unless this is the style you want to play.
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