Breathing in table tennis

Hi there!

I've just started playing again after being away from table tennis for several years. During my break I have taken an interest in different kinds of breathwork, which have improved my well being.

Now when coming back to playing table tennis I realize how poorly i used to breathe during rallies. Seems to me that this was a big reason why I tense up so much. This hinders me a lot in all strokes, especially in longer rallies. Also easier to get injured.

My question is if anyone have had coaches advise you how to breathe during rallies or what you yourself have experienced?

I've started watching Dimitrij Ovtcharov training videos because it is quite obvious how he breathes :p
 

Brs

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Coaches don't talk about this much except to say breathe during rallies, or exercises, whatever. But when I watch the coaches doing their own personal training, they consistently make a strong exhale at the moment they contact the ball. Dima-breath if you like. So I experimented with that a little and it really improved my timing, and also ability to stay in longer rallies. But I have to think about it, which means under pressure it falls away.
 
Coaches don't talk about this much except to say breathe during rallies, or exercises, whatever. But when I watch the coaches doing their own personal training, they consistently make a strong exhale at the moment they contact the ball. Dima-breath if you like. So I experimented with that a little and it really improved my timing, and also ability to stay in longer rallies. But I have to think about it, which means under pressure it falls away.

Thanks, yes that's what i am trying aswell but it's not what i would previously do so needs a lot of attention

 
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Coaches don't talk about this much except to say breathe during rallies, or exercises, whatever. But when I watch the coaches doing their own personal training, they consistently make a strong exhale at the moment they contact the ball. Dima-breath if you like. So I experimented with that a little and it really improved my timing, and also ability to stay in longer rallies. But I have to think about it, which means under pressure it falls away.
This is the info.

At a certain point it becomes natural and you stop needing to think about it.

It is the same way a boxer actually breaths. Or any tennis or table tennis player. If you hear a load sound, like, I believe there are some women tennis players who got a lot of flack for the noise they made taking hard strokes, but that forced breath, whether you phonate or not (phonate is making sound) adds power to your stroke and will improve timing and pop on impact. (pop is very technical term).

I believe there was a thread on this years ago. I think one of the women tennis players who got flack for the sound on impact was Monica Seles.

That breath with the stroke can be practiced in a shadow stroke drill. And over time you start hearing yourself doing it when you don't realize you are. In the end, it should be automatic and you should not have to think about it. If you are thinking about while playing, it is probably causing other things to go wrong. But if you don't notice it, and you have trained it into muscle memory, likely it will just happen on auto-pilot.

So, you do enough training for it to becoming automatic and then forget about it.

It does not have to be with sound. But the sound would make the exhale more forceful. If you have ever been ringside for a boxing match or training, you would have heard the same kind of breathing. It is sort of the same theory of the sound with a "karate chop". :)

 
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By about 4 min into the video of the match, Monica Seles is fully phonating. It is sort of like "ha-eee" every time she hits the ball. Through till the end of the match, it gets louder and louder.

Again, whether you are making sound or not, that would kind of be the perfect breath to add power to your stroke.
Some amazing tennis too. These two both could really play.
 
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To Boost Sports Performance (and Annoy Your Opponents), Grunt

Definitely works and makes sense. Forceful exhalation involves contraction of accessory muscles of respiration which include core muscles. Just as with tensing your grip at the right moment, tensing core muscles will transfer energy more efficiently from your legs. The loud grunting is optional, but I guess that helps in other ways.
 
This is the info.

At a certain point it becomes natural and you stop needing to think about it.

It is the same way a boxer actually breaths. Or any tennis or table tennis player. If you hear a load sound, like, I believe there are some women tennis players who got a lot of flack for the noise they made taking hard strokes, but that forced breath, whether you phonate or not (phonate is making sound) adds power to your stroke and will improve timing and pop on impact. (pop is very technical term).

I believe there was a thread on this years ago. I think one of the women tennis players who got flack for the sound on impact was Monica Seles.

That breath with the stroke can be practiced in a shadow stroke drill. And over time you start hearing yourself doing it when you don't realize you are. In the end, it should be automatic and you should not have to think about it. If you are thinking about while playing, it is probably causing other things to go wrong. But if you don't notice it, and you have trained it into muscle memory, likely it will just happen on auto-pilot.

So, you do enough training for it to becoming automatic and then forget about it.

It does not have to be with sound. But the sound would make the exhale more forceful. If you have ever been ringside for a boxing match or training, you would have heard the same kind of breathing. It is sort of the same theory of the sound with a "karate chop". :)

Follow what Carl says.
I wrote for the similarities of TT and martial arts several times, regarding breathing too.

I would add that in TT breathing can be important not only for the strength of the hit, but for the temp and the timing. But don't fix too much on it.
In tennis there is much longer time between the hits, the hits need more strength and the breathing is deeper. In martial arts breathing is more shallow and most of the times it's "one in - 2 or 3 out" except on single punches. The breathing technique in TT is something inbetween.
To train it you may start first with FH drill at mid distance with even temp. Follow the ball and fix your backward swing and breath intake to the incoming ball flight, exhale on hitting. This will help you to keep the temp and to precise the hitting timing. When you get confident, switch to faster temp.
But don't overthink on breathing in real matches, because it may hinder some other aspects of the game - the footwork, the needed faster reaction to temp change, sudden attacks and counters, faster blocks and so on.

 
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It's pretty much "innerforce" as it is. It's a kind of Qigong in Chinese. Muscle tension goes along with your breathe. The deeper you inhale, the stronger you exhale and the harder you hit. But the deep inhale is difficult as you have to pace it since you shouldn't hold your breathe (for too long) otherwise your muscle gets very stiff and flexibility.

Whenever I lost pace and timing in practise, feeling my breathe is the first thing I focus back on.

If you focus a lot on it, you'll certainly improve. I do think it's much more important than the sound it makes. (I exhale quite loudly as well tbh 😎)
 
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Most good players, or people who practise a lot of physical stuff, have it quite naturally. So as long as they focus on timing the ball and relaxing, the breathe goes along naturally. So they don't have to focus on practising it.

So again, like any part of feeling in physical exercise. Even though it's important in general. It still depends on individual to see if they need to focus their practise on it I assume.

For me personally, losing that "innerforce" in the day, and I really cant "power by the fingers" anymore. If you watch a lot of Chinese martial art movies, they seem ridiculous but they for sure base on some elements of truths.
 
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If you play regularly then it should go away eventually. You can also try doing breathing exercise like yoga.
 
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If you play regularly then it should go away eventually. You can also try doing breathing exercise like yoga.

I have to be honest, most yoga type breathing exercises would not help you much with the kind of breathing you end up using in a sport like table tennis.

Kapalabhathi might. But it is a bit faster than what happens when you hit the ball.

But most of the other breathing exercises from yoga are about something that would not really help you in a sport with impact. Unless you are saying that the help would be that you are just becoming more of your breathing in those exercises.

 
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At 3:50 in this the Bundesliga coach talks about breathing in table tennis. Also compares the constant tension and release to boxers, like someone else above did
 
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