Need fitness training advice for competitive table tennis

Sprints and jump rope. 4 sprints of 30 seconds each with full recovery or 1 minute of jumprope followed by 30 seconds of rest for 10 rounds. Do it 3-5 times a week and you'll be in good shape in no time!

If you want to improve your stamina and generally get tired after 3 full matches then you need to look at doing more endurance type training. I would suggest longer workouts like cycling, swimming or running on the side of more table tennis specific exercises or short burst fitness.

How is your diet when you are playing tournaments or training matches? Playing matches in a row, energy management is also very important.

Full recovery means your breathing is close to normal - after a 30 second sprint you should be breathing hard enough that it's impossible to talk. You're recovered when you're able to talk again without gasping for air. And you're correct about the jump rope. Neither is particularly fun to do because they're tough but they definitely do help!

What is your diet? Cokes, fries, burgers (cheeseburger, fries, Pepsi!)? If laden with sugars you could be burning out.

On match days I'll eat a bowl of oatmeal, 1-2 eggs, and fruits (apples, oranges). Eat bannanas at the match with hot tea. This an example.

So, what was your consumption on that last match?

A good rule of thumb would be jump rope after your table tennis practice or on your light days, but cut it down to 5 rounds instead of 10. Then do sprints on your "heavier" days, as they're pretty demanding on both your cardiovascular system and your legs/hips.

You can do multiball with footwork in the mode that stretches you to the limit, it definitely will improve your fitness. It is also as closely related to actual table tennis as possible. If you can't find anyone to feed you multiball, use robot. Another option is to do basic footwork, but with a blocker who is N levels above you. This guy will keep the ball on the table no matter what, so if you have basic consistency, you will have long rallies with lots of movement that again will stretch you out. Convincing such a player to assist you can be difficult, or you may pay him/her. Another option is shadowplay, here you don't need anybody or anything, it can also help with strokes.

I would say jogging and shadow training. Brian Pace's video is a great resource for that.

Sprints and squats are also not bad.

Too many things you can do, circuit training, where you are running at a moderate pace and you spike the pace and then slow it down and spike the pace and slow it down, where you don't stop for 20-40 min and you increase the spikes till you hit a max pace. Like if you did that on a tread mill you might start at a pace like a 5 on the tread mill and run for 4 min and then spike the pace slowly up to an 8 over the course of two min and stay at 8 for 1 full min and slowly reduce the pace to 5 for 3 min and then spike the pace to 8.5 and stay for a min and reduce to 6 and stay for 3-4 min and spike the pace to 9 and stay for a min and slowly reduce to 6 repeat the process till you get the machine to 10 for a min and slowly cycle down towards the end of your 20-40 min.

That is one great and fast way to really improve you cardio endurance.

But what Matt is asking about what you eat while playing to keep your energy up and the idea chuckjordan gave about eating bananas while playing matches are good info.

Other kinds of working out like shadow training is great. You can shadow train at the pace of moderate to fast multiball training for 20-40 min straight and just keep mixing the exercises or even switching to practice with the left hand for some of it. You can also do non stop ladder drills back to back to back to back or mix that kind of stuff with shadow drills.

Here is one day were I got a friend to film a few min of me just jumping from one exercise to the next. I had her stopping and starting the camera aiming for about 15 seconds of video at a time. But I didn't stop. I just went from one exercise to the next and I did not tell my friend how to film it. She just pointed my phone and filmed.







If you do a workout like that that goes for 40-60 min without stopping, just bouncing from exercise to exercise with as little breaks as possible, it will get your cardio endurance to improve. If you add things like crunches, ab work and side plank exercises after, you will increase your core strength as well:

Sadly, I can't find any good videos of what I mean but there are a lot of good plank exercises in here and some not as good. Most of the side plank ones are good. The side plank exercises actually strengthen the sides of the body which really can help the power behind your loop:


And I got a ton of great ideas when I was trying to sort out more fun routines for working out and making it table tennis related cross training, from this next video.

+1 and welcome to TTD team, Carl

Giangt said:

+1 and welcome to TTD team, Carl

Click to expand...

What did you do to him? WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM???


YOU TURNED HIM ORANGE!!!!!

NextLevel said:

What did you do to him? WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM???


YOU TURNED HIM ORANGE!!!!!

Click to expand...

Haha sorry NL... Blue didn't suit him that well. The Goon squad told him that it made him look like a smurf. Now you don't want a smurf in the Goon Squad do ya?

Many good suggestions have been giving from fellowers members.

There is different ways to get fit for table tennis and you have to see where you "lack" in fitness. Each individual person are different in their physiology and they might need to focus somewhere else than other ppl.

I just want to break up what you can focus on in your training.

Off the table.
Cardio/endurance exercises: could be running, cycling or swimming etc. as suggested.
Core training: This part is very important due to the modern table tennis demands you to be flexible but also strong. We Strive to be in perfect position when playing each ball, but the fact is that many ball in a odd position and this stresses your body. So doing core training of the front and back muscles for both upper and lower are ideal.

On the table.
Endurance/technique: here you have to find some simple exercises that can improve your game. I mostly do (I am a right handedwith a right handed partner) 2FH-2BH to the BH of my partner or irregular where the first ball is played to my BH and then my partner blocks randomly on the table. Every ball is played to the BH of my partner.

The first excercise I focus on footwork/balance, keeping my arm up and the connection between FH and BH. Try to play 60-70% power and get as many balls on the table. This exercise can also be done by multiball or robot.

The second exercise I focus on footwork and striving to be in right position. I try to play many balls on the table and keeping the pressure on my partner at the same time. This means you have to judge every ball you play and make the right decision before hitting the ball. This is good core and mindset training as well!

If you want match like situations you can add service and open ups to the exercises.

Hope this can help your journey a bit.

Giangt said:

+1 and welcome to TTD team, Carl

Click to expand...

NextLevel said:

What did you do to him? WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM???


YOU TURNED HIM ORANGE!!!!!

Click to expand...

I had no part in this. I'm innocent I tell yah! But I'm not sure I see any difference. Wasn't I already, oh, my likes are orange too. Huh...I don't get it, how'd they turn me yellow? No, I'm too young to die.

I did threaten to edit people's posts inappropriately though. I think that could be really funny.

UpSideDownCarl said:

I had no part in this. I'm innocent I tell yah! But I'm not sure I see any difference. Wasn't I already, oh, my likes are orange too. Huh...I don't get it, how'd they turn me yellow? No, I'm too young to die.

I did threaten to edit people's posts inappropriately though. I think that could be really funny.

Click to expand...

I'm just waiting for all the stupid shit you're gonna make me say.

I have always favored Sandbags. Very inexpensive to make... can cover with plastic bags and tape over like a mummy to keep the sand in there... versatile for resistance and excellent for circuit training by self or with partner. Best of all... they are almost free in price.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

How old are you? How much do you weigh? When was your last physical? Have you ever been to a podiatrist or been fitted with custom orthotics before?

I myself hit 35, and am no longer 25, am grossly overweight and after a knee injury and a recent foot injury realizes a little late that there are corrective and preventative measures one should take (especially after a certain) age to be able go hard.

At 25 I was 5% body fat, rock climbing, b(asket)ballin, working out twice a day. Now, I'm married, two kids and an 8 hour a day desk job has me pushing 20+% body fat.

I could have a serious workout regiment one month and go the next 3 doing nothing (nature of my job). Currently in in the rebuild phase after a long haitus, and the most important thing I can suggest is
1) stretch, stretch and stretch
2) baby steps, start small
3) healthy diet with possible protein supplement to speed recovery time
3) research proper technique especially when running (heel first = bad!)
4) corrective measures, I have bad arches which can translate to a host of other problem including knees, back, ankles etc, so I have proper orthotics in my shoes to prevent that
5) pace yourself, you can't sprint a marathon.