Tips and advice on starting a school team

This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
Aug 2016
2,573
1,747
4,543
Read 3 reviews
Hi I put out registration of interest for table tennis at my school. I am a high school teacher. There's no table tennis player at my school.

To my surprise, 6 kids turned up at our first meeting. One of our regional coaches are visiting us every two weeks to coach the kids.

I am sourcing more tables and bats. Most kids are at level zero. We are starting from scratch which is exciting. I am aiming to prep the kids for inter-school competition in August. :cool::cool: I know I am ambitious but I would like to make miracles.

I feel that fortnightly coaching is not quite enough.

  • How often do kids train at high school age?
  • I am the only one who's gone through proper training. Any tips on how to manage training 6 kids (more joining)?
  • Any tips and advice on instilling passion in kids?

This is one of my passion project for table tennis.

Thanks heaps
 

JST

This user has no status.

JST

This user has no status.
Member
Nov 2017
280
191
1,259
Great effort, I would love having 6 kids eager to have fun with TT (last time I advertised with the banners in nearby school we got zero response:(

I'm joining my friend as sparing in his local club with youngsters and they typically train 3-4 times a week 2 hours each session. Indeed this is for players 12+ yo who are really into the game and who are already having few year behind the table, you probably want to start with two sessions per week for total beginners. Also for younger kids (7-11) we keep shorter sessions of 60-90 minutes. On the other hand I remember that we were training basically every working day after school (2h) + tournaments in the weekend (typically one day occupied) and still couldn't match the best kids in the class so be ready for that. If the kids really fall in love with TT and want to move forward they will be hunting you to have trainings every day;)

When it comes to training methods we used to do 5~10 mins of warm up without the ball (running around the gym, stretching arms and legs...), then ~50mins of basic drills and footwork exercises, then ~30 mins of gaming situations and tactical exercises (usually with serve, starting from score like 7:9 or 9:9, with some constrains like server must hit 3rd ball attack or he loses the point etc.) and finally some games/matches in last 30 mins + short stretching with compensation exercises in the end (TT is very demanding on spine and related apparatus, especially if you train often and you are getting tall). For total beginners we used to train 2-3 kids per one trainer where each kid has one or two balls and plays basic FH/BH cross until it loses ball from the reach, runs for it and the other kid plays while the one hunting the ball goes to the end of the queue.

But all that was 25 years ago. From what I see today there are even more effective methods to work with kids and pass this initiation period:
- Robots and multi-ball sessions help a lot with learning basic strokes where trainer can be correcting the movements of the kid without need to stay on the other side or at least being able to focus on that stroke and direct the kid verbally after each of them.
- Kids seems to be less enthusiastic for "military camp" style of training nowadays (it was pretty common back then, kind of similar to what I see on videos from Asian TT schools still today;) so official courses for trainers in my country have lot of "funny games" as part of curriculum. Unfortunately nothing on-line in English what I could refer to right now but I will try to complement this post in the future. Also for high-school kids this might not be so much relevant (usually kids below 10 get bored easily, older start to understand the need of repetition and drills...)

All the best!
Jan
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Dr Evil
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
Aug 2016
2,573
1,747
4,543
Read 3 reviews
Great effort, I would love having 6 kids eager to have fun with TT (last time I advertised with the banners in nearby school we got zero response:(

I'm joining my friend as sparing in his local club with youngsters and they typically train 3-4 times a week 2 hours each session. Indeed this is for players 12+ yo who are really into the game and who are already having few year behind the table, you probably want to start with two sessions per week for total beginners. Also for younger kids (7-11) we keep shorter sessions of 60-90 minutes. On the other hand I remember that we were training basically every working day after school (2h) + tournaments in the weekend (typically one day occupied) and still couldn't match the best kids in the class so be ready for that. If the kids really fall in love with TT and want to move forward they will be hunting you to have trainings every day;)

When it comes to training methods we used to do 5--10 mins of warm up without the ball (running around the gym, stretching arms and legs...), then ~50mins of basic drills and footwork exercises, then ~30 mins of gaming situations and tactical exercises (usually with serve, starting from score like 7:9 or 9:9, with some constrains like server must hit 3rd ball attack or he loses the point etc.) and finally some games/matches in last 30 mins + short stretching with compensation exercises in the end (TT is very demanding on spine and related apparatus, especially if you train often and you are getting tall). For total beginners we used to train 2-3 kids per one trainer where each kid has one or two balls and plays basic FW/BH cross until it loses ball from the reach, runs for it and the other kid plays while the one hunting the ball goes to the end of the queue.

But all that was 25 years ago. From what I see today there are even more effective methods to work with kids and pass this initiation period:
- Robots and multi-ball sessions help a lot with learning basic strokes where trainer can be correcting the movements of the kid without need to stay on the other side or at least being able to focus on that stroke and direct the kid verbally after each of them.
- Kids seems to be less enthusiastic for "military camp" style of training nowadays (it was pretty common back then, kind of similar to what I see on videos from Asian TT schools still today;) so official courses for trainers in my country have lot of "funny games" as part of curriculum. Unfortunately nothing on-line in English what I could refer to right now but I will try to complement this post in the future. Also for high-school kids this might not be so much relevant (usually kids below 10 get bored easily, older start to understand the need of repetition and drills...)

All the best!
Jan

Thanks for your reply. I grew up with military-type training. I would love to hear from you what kinds of "funny game" training methods we can use at school.

Our kids are aged between 13 and 18.
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
Oct 2016
1,883
1,583
3,807
Start with making it fun. In the beginning they become because it is fun. Then if or when they start to like to play it do not need to be as much fun since they enjoy playing.
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Member
Nov 2021
6
0
7
<!--td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->I think it's not that easy to teach six students at a time, You are doing really great job. And to make them passionate, First, try to make a great bond with kids and try to teach them in a funny way. By the way, Do you where I can get the best essays writers? I need them urgently. If you know then please let me know. I hope I will find it soon.
 
Last edited:
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
Aug 2016
2,573
1,747
4,543
Read 3 reviews
This thread is 3 years old and I think I see op intermittently on the forum. Maybe OP could gives some info how the project went?

We did start a club in my school. We had approximately 18 kids playing in lunchtime. Wide range between 13-18 years. They loved it. But when it comes to inter-school competition we lacked the interest to enter [emoji29]so that’s a bummer.

I am in a new school. As the year draws to an end. I am finding others to help set up lunchtime TT for staff and kids. We are lucky that we have more tables and already have two teams. But it’s dwarfed by our badminton group of 50+ kids and counting.

But in general Kids don’t have the patience to enter tt. Badminton is way easier and attracts 5x more kids.
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
New Member
Sep 2022
1
0
1
How far can you go before hitting rock bottom? Slope, a new arcade game from Y8 games, challenges you to roll down the slope for as long as you can without falling off the edge or hitting any obstacles along the way. Prepare for a serious speed boost as you fall downhill on the seemingly endless surface. Even if you play it a few dozen times in a row, you will have the desire to improve. Another significant advantage of the is the new method of logging in under your own nickname and competing on the number of points with other players.
 
Top