Training mentality in table tennis

I noticed this to at the club I joined when returning to the game. Exactly this.

After a while I turned that around, first for myself -- setting up the robot, shadow excercises, off-table footwork training and so on. Then I involved a few of the free-stylers that I'd been playing against, and cautiously proposed a few focused drills.

After a while, I started involving more and more players, and after a while I arranged an additional club opening (on sundays) with the explicit goal to offer a training schedule for the players willing to commit to that. I always had to keep insisting to keep focus, the impulse to go for a bit of freestyle fun after a short warm-up at the table (like you describe) is always there.

It sorted of worked,. Some club members caught the spirit more than others, but many started training more seriously; a bit more focus, a bit more dedication, and many even came up with their own areas of attention and requested drills. To sharpen basic techniques, to work on consistency, on footwork, on speedy resets, on breathing and relaxation. Slowly but surely that worked.

And after a little while I became the club's chief bottlewasher and ashtray cleaner, and got in touch with an actual certified trainer. New-skool, not just a crufty greybeard like me with a rather vivid memory of what training was like 30+ years ago. Club members had to pay a bit extra to participate (as a matter of principle rather than of economic necessity; for some people that seems necessary to get things taken seriously), and many opted in.

It's been going on like that for about a year now, and I think it helped turn things around a bit. This seasons, seven teams finished first in the competition, some twice; many individuals did very well in singles- and doubles tournaments; and a prestigious cup was won in a competition between about 120 teams.

What can I say? It took a lot of effort, but I think it did some good. Getting the momentum going was the hardest part.

Hi Fabien

I recognise what you describe. In fact I wrote about it on my website here.

From my experience, I think other players are receptive to doing some purposeful practice. Instead of just playing forward to forehand, I ask the other player if I can spend a few minutes practising something, e.g. flicking backspin serves.

After 5-10 minutes, we switch and the other player practices something he/she wants to do.

I quite like this approach, as you both get to practice something specific.

It's a simple idea, but maybe easier to achieve to begin with than trying to get people to do fully structured training sessions.

Tom

i do prefer drills to just randomly hitting the ball around. however the one thing that does come up is you do really well in these drill scenarios but can not implement it in a match or higher pressure situation. an idea that i think i saw/read about from cnt training is to play matches starting at 9:9 or at a deficit like 9:7 or 9:5 to get used to the pressure and force yourself to play the drill sequences in these situations. eventually these situations will be natural and getting nervous or playing cautiously will not happen.

Same problem here.. And asked here:

http://www.experttabletennis.com/plan-an-effective-training-session/
https://www.pingskills.com/table-tennis-forum/training-unit

agreed, finding someone to train with who has roughly the same mentality towards training can be difficult. i've trained at 2 clubs and found that i prefer a structured class vs trying to convince a random person to do drills they may not know or are unwilling to do (maybe they are just a recreational/social player).

maybe try different clubs if there are more than one in your area? or try to hook up with people online to arrange training?

Changing an entire club may be impossible, but you only need one or two other players who want to practice. You could contact local TT coaches to ask if any of their students wants to practice outside of lessons. You might have to take a lesson to find out, but that wouldn't be all bad. Most players who are motivated to pay a coach will also want to do multiball and drills other times, you just need to roughly match your levels.

Fabian said:

Hey yoass,
I am pretty sure there must be someone from Bonn, Germany where I live, who wants to practice more seriously aswell, but I just don't know where to find him!

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Acutally I'm from Bonn and I want to train more too. I already train on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I wanna add a third day per week. Especially during the summer break I'm still looking for some training. In which club do you play?

Fabian said:

thanks for sharing that, that sounds great! I think the biggest problem in my club is the age structure. I am the youngest player with 26 years and most are 40, 50 and even older, only 3-4 people are in their thirties and they are not motivated at all. With younger players I am sure I could change a bit but with them? I get laughed at if I ask for multiball.

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I'm that old myself, but I do spar with a number of players around 20. (I actually am pretty insisting that (a) everybody should play everybody and get something good out of it and (b) that to lead properly is to set an example. So I play everybody, as a matter of principle, and regardless of my partner's level it's the focus that makes the difference.

But it's a shame if people are unwilling to put in any effort at all. I share Tom's experiences: start counterhitting with any partner, and after a few minutes you can suggest a particular drill. Backspin serve, push receive to middle, FH pivot and opening; a Falkenberg drill; the "eight" (one player everything diagonal, the other everything parallel), such simple things. Then "return the favor", and ask partner what they would like to practice. That usually helps to get things going.

But that's the hard part, I agree. You need to find somebody willing to engage, to pick out a drill and work it through.

Do people still quip about Bonn being the Bundeshauptstadt Ohne Nennenswürdiges Nachtleben, I wonder… but I digress. Hm, that's less than 2.5 hours drive away.

Fabian said:

Yeah I just need one person who is as dedicated as me That's what I am looking for! But your idea sounds great, I might take a lesson soon

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i'd play 7 days a week if i could, pity i'm medically unable to atm

Brs said:

Changing an entire club may be impossible, but you only need one or two other players who want to practice. You could contact local TT coaches to ask if any of their students wants to practice outside of lessons. You might have to take a lesson to find out, but that wouldn't be all bad. Most players who are motivated to pay a coach will also want to do multiball and drills other times, you just need to roughly match your levels.

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This is an excellent post.


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Just a few extra thoughts. I am a person who likes to train much more than I like to play matches.

I have several training partners who I will arrange to meet up with and train with.

That had to be cultivated. Because most of them are also in the category of liking to play matches more than liking to train.

But because I am pretty good at training, when those guys train with me they like it. We stay focused and get real game skill work done. We change drills fairly regularly. And we can do enough different drills that we can train for 3-4 hours without running out of things to work on.

It took quite a while to cultivate that. And there are many guys I trained with a few times and realized they would never be able to actually train because they are too selfish or undisciplined. There are one or two people like that who are simple good enough players that it ended up being worth it. But there are many more who are like that and just not worth training with.

You need to work on that stuff. You need to train people to do training drills.

Also, if you want to do multiball drills, you need to get yourself a bucket of balls and something to pick the balls up. And you need to practice dealing multiball so that you are good at it. Nobody is going to want to do multiball drills with you if your feed isn't VERY good to start.

And if you are playing in a club where everyone else is playing matches and you are doing multiball, you have to be in an area that is barricaded off so that your balls don't go all over and interfere with all the matches. So I don't recommend multiball unless you can check all the boxes.

And if you do multiball with someone, you kind of have to expect they will be bad at feeding. And you still have to get it so you are good at it so they want to do it. Otherwise you can't get them to want to learn to be good at it.

Multiball is better with a coach.


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