Help! How to coach a complete newbie?

urbanzakapa · Sep 26, 2016

Hey guys, it's been a while since I last posted here. Just major question to be discussed. I'm no professional coach, I'm a decent player, played for my university in BUCS when I was studying in Southampton. Now I'm in my home country, and lucky enough to get a part time job coaching young kid table tennis.

Now here is the problem: they are a complete zero in table tennis, maybe one or two are good at bouncing ball off their paddle. So how do we start with the coaching for these young talents before they can go for a forehand and backhand stroke? I only know some steps my friend told me - start with bouncing ball, but what next?

If someone can give some details with milestones, it'll help a lot.

Cheers!

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ttmonster · Sep 26, 2016

Not a coach , not an expert , but have seen some coaching first hand and here is what I saw them doing ....

1. Lot of basic shadow strokes , including and excluding basic footwork
2. Some footwork drills , jumping hoops , ladders and the quick split steps on the spot.
3. basic rallying
4. depending on the height , you have the pick the serve they are comfortable with
5. single ball rallies with you where you keep focusing on giving the ball where they are most comfortable with executing their strokes, start with basic forehand and then basic backhand.
6. some easy multiballs to groove the form
.. and make sure you make it fun for them arranging for drills or games where they play as a team , for example , make them stand in two queues on either side and the winner stays for two points max. make them compete and have fun when they win as a team.
7. make them run around the table in a circle where they hit one forehand cross court and then run to the other side ....

basically you have to lookup some drills they do with kids and focus on making it fun for them where they come back for more ...

urbanzakapa said:
Hey guys, it's been a while since I last posted here. Just major question to be discussed. I'm no professional coach, I'm a decent player, played for my university in BUCS when I was studying in Southampton. Now I'm in my home country, and lucky enough to get a part time job coaching young kid table tennis.

Now here is the problem: they are a complete zero in table tennis, maybe one or two are good at bouncing ball off their paddle. So how do we start with the coaching for these young talents before they can go for a forehand and backhand stroke? I only know some steps my friend told me - start with bouncing ball, but what next?

If someone can give some details with milestones, it'll help a lot.

Cheers!

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

urbanzakapa · Sep 26, 2016

ttmonster said:
Not a coach , not an expert , but have seen some coaching first hand and here is what I saw them doing ....

1. Lot of basic shadow strokes , including and excluding basic footwork
2. Some footwork drills , jumping hoops , ladders and the quick split steps on the spot.
3. basic rallying
4. depending on the height , you have the pick the serve they are comfortable with
5. single ball rallies with you where you keep focusing on giving the ball where they are most comfortable with executing their strokes, start with basic forehand and then basic backhand.
6. some easy multiballs to groove the form
.. and make sure you make it fun for them arranging for drills or games where they play as a team , for example , make them stand in two queues on either side and the winner stays for two points max. make them compete and have fun when they win as a team.
7. make them run around the table in a circle where they hit one forehand cross court and then run to the other side ....

basically you have to lookup some drills they do with kids and focus on making it fun for them where they come back for more ...

Thanks @ttmonster. Great help. So the point is make it fun for them, right? I just remembered the drills we had in our University club's recreational session - like you said, run around the table with each person hit the ball once.

Yeah, I'll put it on the list.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

izra · Sep 26, 2016

multiball. no other way around it. teach them the starting position first, then have them slowly hit the ball to the other side. you have to keep it slow and easy and give them feedback for pretty much every ball they hit. if they are kids make a happy face and give them praise when you like their stroke.

at first you just want them to hit the other side of the table and reset back to the starting position for each stroke. as soon as they are able to hit 8 of 10 balls without missing, you want to teach them the finishing position. so now it's starting position - hit - finishing position - reset back to the starting position. this is the moment you want to introduce aiming a specific spot on the table (mostly have them hit the ball diagonally but switch it around from time to time).

it doesn't matter if the motion is choppy, it will start getting more fluid soon. you can do forehand first, then backhand when you are satisfied, but i would recommend you do couple of minutes of either as it is easier for kids to focus when you change things up a bit. it's also less boring. spend more time doing whatever they are doing worse at.

once they can hit a decent looking stroke from both sides and get a slow ball to the other side of the table 8 out of 10 times you can start with next step.

for most coaches the next step is either rallying (forehand or backhand diagonal) or footwork (regular multiball left and right drills). i like to put an irregular drill in there first. have them stand in the backhand corner and feed them either to the backhand or to the middle of the table, so they don't have to move their feet but they have to decide weather to hit a backhand or a forehand depending on where i'm feeding. this teaches them the importance of resetting into a neutral stance after each stroke and watching where the ball is going to decide what to do.

next is either rallying with you or basic footwork drills (multiball). i like to alternate the two.

once you do all of this, only now are they (maybe) ready to start rallying between each other. by now they are used to whacking the ball without much care because they are used the coach (you) will get it back, so you have to give them assignments to keep the ball in play a certain number of strokes to teach them control.

by now some of them will start employing and improvised backspin stroke when they play games against each other, so teaching them how to push is the next phase.

good luck!

ajtatosmano2 · Sep 26, 2016

Begin with a lot of shadowing! It's hard to concentrate both on movement and the ball for a newbie. You lead a team training, or personal training (1+1)? basic drives for first. When you see an improvement, you can introduce backspin. New shots other than drive should be taught at first with shadow drills, then multiball.

Archosaurus · Sep 26, 2016

I can't give you much advice, but here's one thing I've heard for kids concerning serve practice:

When they start doing serve practice and get a little better, put up targets. Goals made from broken balls, paper cups as targets to hit, or if you really want to motivate them, put up pieces of candy and give it to them if they hit it.

I don't know a thing about coaching kids, but I do know that serving at targets can keep them more interested. Larry Hodges has preached this somewhat on his blog: he's coached a lot of kids.

http://www.tabletenniscoaching.com/blog/

Boogar · Sep 26, 2016

As a table tennis coach you need to school the children not only in playing tt but even more in training their coordination which contains:
-Balance

-The skill to differentiate. An example for an exercise would be to throw balls of different sizes and weights on to different targets. So they learn how to estimate distances, velocities and the influence of different balls on their throw in this case.

-Orientation ( most kids put one hand on the table because they need to "feel" the table to know where it actually is)

-Reaction

-Rhythmic sense (for example have a little warmup dance, or let them do exercises to the beat of music)

With kids who do not have enough coordination skills there is little value by letting them do drills on the table.

This is a very big subject and this is just a little part of it.

Edit: Combining two or three of those in one exercise can also be a good idea. Experiment with it and have fun!

urbanzakapa · Sep 26, 2016

izra said:
multiball. no other way around it. teach them the starting position first, then have them slowly hit the ball to the other side. you have to keep it slow and easy and give them feedback for pretty much every ball they hit. if they are kids make a happy face and give them praise when you like their stroke.

at first you just want them to hit the other side of the table and reset back to the starting position for each stroke. as soon as they are able to hit 8 of 10 balls without missing, you want to teach them the finishing position. so now it's starting position - hit - finishing position - reset back to the starting position. this is the moment you want to introduce aiming a specific spot on the table (mostly have them hit the ball diagonally but switch it around from time to time).

it doesn't matter if the motion is choppy, it will start getting more fluid soon. you can do forehand first, then backhand when you are satisfied, but i would recommend you do couple of minutes of either as it is easier for kids to focus when you change things up a bit. it's also less boring. spend more time doing whatever they are doing worse at.

once they can hit a decent looking stroke from both sides and get a slow ball to the other side of the table 8 out of 10 times you can start with next step.

for most coaches the next step is either rallying (forehand or backhand diagonal) or footwork (regular multiball left and right drills). i like to put an irregular drill in there first. have them stand in the backhand corner and feed them either to the backhand or to the middle of the table, so they don't have to move their feet but they have to decide weather to hit a backhand or a forehand depending on where i'm feeding. this teaches them the importance of resetting into a neutral stance after each stroke and watching where the ball is going to decide what to do.

next is either rallying with you or basic footwork drills (multiball). i like to alternate the two.

once you do all of this, only now are they (maybe) ready to start rallying between each other. by now they are used to whacking the ball without much care because they are used the coach (you) will get it back, so you have to give them assignments to keep the ball in play a certain number of strokes to teach them control.

by now some of them will start employing and improvised backspin stroke when they play games against each other, so teaching them how to push is the next phase.

good luck!

Great tips @izra. One thing to point out here is there're two batch of kids. The primary school kids and the secondary school. Complimenting them is the best way for kids.
When you said just let them hit to the other side of table at first, does it mean didn't matter to the left of right, as long as i feed the ball back to one position, right?

Thanks for the wish!

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

urbanzakapa · Sep 26, 2016

ajtatosmano2 said:
Begin with a lot of shadowing! It's hard to concentrate both on movement and the ball for a newbie. You lead a team training, or personal training (1+1)? basic drives for first. When you see an improvement, you can introduce backspin. New shots other than drive should be taught at first with shadow drills, then multiball.

I coach a team training, like a batch of 20 kids? The only problem is the facilities only provide 2 tables which is not suitable for that amount of people.
I'm just afraid that they might get bored with shadow training of I do that. Bear in mind that they are kids which tend to be losing focus after a while.
But, I'll put your advice on the list. Thanks!

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

urbanzakapa · Sep 26, 2016

Archosaurus said:
I can't give you much advice, but here's one thing I've heard for kids concerning serve practice:

When they start doing serve practice and get a little better, put up targets. Goals made from broken balls, paper cups as targets to hit, or if you really want to motivate them, put up pieces of candy and give it to them if they hit it.

I don't know a thing about coaching kids, but I do know that serving at targets can keep them more interested. Larry Hodges has preached this somewhat on his blog: he's coached a lot of kids.

http://www.tabletenniscoaching.com/blog/

Brilliant @Archosaurus ! Candies and kids, the same world.
Target service might help a lot.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

urbanzakapa · Sep 26, 2016

Boogar said:
As a table tennis coach you need to school the children not only in playing tt but even more in training their coordination which contains:
-Balance

-The skill to differentiate. An example for an exercise would be to throw balls of different sizes and weights on to different targets. So they learn how to estimate distances, velocities and the influence of different balls on their throw in this case.

-Orientation ( most kids put one hand on the table because they need to "feel" the table to know where it actually is)

-Reaction

-Rhythmic sense (for example have a little warmup dance, or let them do exercises to the beat of music)

With kids who do not have enough coordination skills there is little value by letting them do drills on the table.

This is a very big subject and this is just a little part of it.

Edit: Combining two or three of those in one exercise can also be a good idea. Experiment with it and have fun!

Awesome! @Boogar , when you said throw at target, is it throw by hitting it with there paddles, or just throw with barehand?

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ajtatosmano2 · Sep 26, 2016

urbanzakapa said:
I coach a team training, like a batch of 20 kids? The only problem is the facilities only provide 2 tables which is not suitable for that amount of people.
I'm just afraid that they might get bored with shadow training of I do that. Bear in mind that they are kids which tend to be losing focus after a while.
But, I'll put your advice on the list. Thanks!

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Uhh...that's really bad. Of course shadow training should be just a part of training, kids get bored quite fast. Train ~20 people on 2 tables is terrible. Try to find the most talented kids, and what is the most important, the motivated ones. Try to explain to the other's parents that the place is not best for their child. Use any excuse, but send off most of the kids. That sounds cruel and uneconomic (more kid, more coin), but if you want to grow some strong youngster, you need to do that. Or if you're able to, create two group, hobby players, and serious players. The two groups should have two separate session (at separate time). The max number of serious players is 5 with two table. 3 kids are doing multiball with you, other two are practising together. In the hobby group you teach them the basics and find out some games (sorry, nothing comes to my mind). There fun is the most important.

izra · Sep 26, 2016

urbanzakapa said:
When you said just let them hit to the other side of table at first, does it mean didn't matter to the left of right, as long as i feed the ball back to one position, right?

if it's the first time they are holding a table tennis bat in their hand, just hitting the ball over the net and on the table is great at first.

keep in mind though, the tips i gave you is what will get the kids started quickly, what they want (or else they probably wouldn't be there) and what their parents want... but what Boogar told you is what will open up their potential in the long run, so if you have the time and means for that do it!

Boogar · Sep 26, 2016

urbanzakapa said:
Awesome! @Boogar , when you said throw at target, is it throw by hitting it with there paddles, or just throw with barehand?

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However you want. With other balls than tt balls i suggest you do it barehanded. You can move on to hitting balls with the paddle after or combine it! Whatever seems fit

NextLevel · Sep 26, 2016

How old are the kids? Very important.

NextLevel · Sep 26, 2016

The most important things are to encourage proper technique while playing lots of games (not matches but games like target practice or hitting twenty forehands in a row or even five and having fun). If the kids don't have some fun you won't keep their attention unless their parents want you to bully them into playing.

UpSideDownCarl · Sep 27, 2016

Lots of useful information. The long post that Izra made sounds a lot like what I have seen coaches do with kids when starting from complete beginner level. And I have seen amazing things come from that. So great post by Izra.

The tricky part with your scenario is that you have so many kids and so little table time.

I was thinking you may be able to have kids hit against a wall, let the ball bounce on the floor and then hit it again. That might help the kids who are not on the table when they get bored of things like shadow strokes. I have also seen where they have kids sitting on the floor facing each other and then they hit the ball to each other so it bounces once and they see how many times they can keep it going without missing.

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UpSideDownCarl · Sep 27, 2016

This video has some information on off the table exercises that might be useful.

[edit] Here is the video link i forgot to add:

Der_Echte · Sep 27, 2016

UrbanZ, everyone has given you great tips... for later down the road, but you gotta deal with RIGHT NOW...

so far only Next Level has included the all-important MAKE IT FUN in the responses.

MANY ways to go about it. IF there are only two tables, you will need to have the kids form a line and have 1-3 hits with you and cycle out.

many ways to encourage, but challenge them to hit a certain spot target on table and then coach must drink FROG PISS (Lemonade... but the kids do not need to know that).

Larry Hodges, a pro kids coach in USA has a certain frog he has as a target.

Many ways to go about it, but if you cannot make the kids excited and have fun, it is over.

It all starts with fun, then as time goes by, they enjoy and want to get better, then they can start listening to you and your great ideas.

Der_Echte · Sep 27, 2016

I see Arch haz SUM google skillz, he also mentioned coach Larry (even if he never met coach Larry or subscribes to his blog).

The things Archo mentioned are some of the ways to keep kids' interest... they are workable and only the OP knows his kids over us, we are many thousand KM away.

Help! How to coach a complete newbie?

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