Expert in a Year ( Discussion / Questions / Feedback )

[agold]

I dont mean to sound too harsh but it seems to me that his strokes are too "stiff". I would like to hear other players opinion about that also

To be more precise , I think that Sam is too focused and as a result he "forces" himself sometimes

Its only a personal assumption, Im not inside Sam's head after all, but judging by his posture and face expressions while he strikes, I think he tries too hard sometimes and he focuses too much on the starting and ending position of the stroke.

He should be relaxed focus only at the ball and just let the stroke happen by itself, without thinking too much or evaluating his own effort while he plays.
My opinion is that table tennis strokes are about igniting the correct motor skill for every different incoming ball.

If he lets his body completely loose his strokes will be more fluent and efficient.

Now for the whole 250 or 350 ranking "issue", I will disagree with users that claim it is impossible to achieve. Its not like I dont like their opinion but more that I like Ben's approach on the matter. Setting high goals forces you to give your 101% of effort.

If Ben or any other coach has the target of lets say "reaching top 200" in any national league, it doesnt matter which one your first results will be just an indication. Let's say Sam reaches top 500 in January 1st 2015 (I dont know if it is good or bad cause I dont know the playing level of players in GB) , Ben will reevaluate his training program/process learn from his mistakes and make a better program for the next time, same thing goes for Sam.

If Ben didnt set a high goal and compromised with a small one because "for Sam or any other beginner player it is impossible to reach high levels of play in one year only" then he wouldnt make the mistakes that he made in the first place.

Actually, he would make much fewer "experiments" in the training of Sam resulting in less mistakes resulting in less overall experience both for him and his player.

Ending I will agree with Tony and others that said focusing on the basics at first and then slowly implement the basics on match play is a better way to go. Motor skills are crucial in table tennis and learning them "wrong" means that you will have to spend some time in training correcting those small "errors", if you learn your basics perfectly then you dont have to lose valuable training time to correct them in the future.

My suggestion would be to focus exclusively on the basics. FH and BH topspin,pushes and serves. If you like match play then I think it will be efficient to play points with certain procedure only, not free points at the beginning of his training. For example, serve/receive push long, Sam starts with a topspin lifting the backspin perfectly Ben blocks and Sam finishes the point with a topsping.

Of course footwork is very important, so here is where multiball will do the job. Do the same exercise in multiball untill Sam does it effortlessly without errors and then implement it to match play.

Sorry for the long post guys, Im watching your effort since day 1, I would like an autograph of Sam if he likes lol

Best luck for your efforts, you are certainly an inspiration!

I want you to be my sports psychologist . Great post. I agree and also think that if you don't reach that goal (top 250) that should become a long term goal for you.

 

[izra]

i don't think sam is too stiff, for the simple reason that he's been playing for such a short amount of time. if his movements weren't as "forced" as they are they would probably be wrong in all sorts of other ways. you just can't rush some things.

he hasn't yet hit enough shots to let the strokes happen freely. very few things are automatized at the moment so he has to focus and consciously perform every part of the stroke.

i think he would benefit from an exercise where he is randomly fed different kinds of rotations and has to adapt to every ball. vary both rotation and pace, some high balls, some low balls, some deep ones, some half long and so on. be sure to explain to him why he missed each shot, what kind of ball it was and how he can deal with it.

 

[SamPriestley]

he hasn't yet hit enough shots to let the strokes happen freely. very few things are automatized at the moment so he has to focus and consciously perform every part of the stroke.

That is so true! I'm starting to get used to certain shots and react to them automatically, but still there are loads of occasions when I feel like a deer in the headlights. It's such a fast sport there is no time to think during points. I can't wait till I'm more automised!

 

[Dan]

That is so true! I'm starting to get used to certain shots and react to them automatically, but still there are loads of occasions when I feel like a deer in the headlights. It's such a fast sport there is no time to think during points. I can't wait till I'm more automised!

Welcome Sam! I wish you the best of luck, things will become a lot more automatic soon enough. Did you play much racquet sports before you started this challenge? How are you finding it all so far, must be hard learning so much in a short space of time but with practice like your doing I believe you'll get there!

Good luck at the Medway GP this weekend!

 

[joseph.luck]

Hi Sam, I'm based in London and would love a knock after work one time!
Sent from my RM-976_1115 using Tapatalk

 

[kewo123]

Hey Ben, I'm following Sam's progress on Instagram (would appreciate some more vids there from time to time there, just like you used to do it a couple of months ago by the way ) .. Anyway, I'm a big fan of yours, I think you're doing a great job and I hope 'n' believe that your goal is going to be achieved, keep it up and good luck!

 

[Diego]

Hi Ben!

I've been watching your videos and it's definitely worth it to see Sam's progress and the exercises you choose for him.

There's one aspect of Sam's technic I've been thinking through your videos and I would like to comment with you. I see that Sam's forhand stats from the chest. His swing is quite long. He first prepare his arm in the front of his chest and the he goes back. Is this something that has been tought this way or is it something that Sam is doing by his own?

If I had to give him an advice I would mention that it would be worth it to prepare the forehand topspin in a not so long swing, arming the arm faster and going back directly from the basic position, not going first to his chest.

But again, it's just my thought and there will probably be some reason for this.

Good work!

Greetings

 

[Diego]

Oh and hi Sam also! didn't see at both of you where here

 

[TTMystic]

i've been playing table tennis for 14 months with out a lot of training and now i can do every shot in the game almost perfectly but need to play a lot of matches and championships against stronger players i wanted to master the game in a short time and here i did but i still want more and i will never stop.
i wish you luck dude u can make it it's not impossible train on making better shots and good foot work and u will make it good luck.

 

[Trice]

hey guys

first of all, thanks a lot for your dedication, this is a lovely experiment!

top 1% of your country is really tough, with only one year of experience.. i think already a ranking in the top 10% would be a huge success.

some things i'd like to mention about sam's technique:
- has already someone told you in person, that you start your forehand-topspin motion in front of your throat/left shoulder? so you basically bring yourself in that "starting position" with your bat closed at the height of your throat/left shoulder before you actually set up for your topspin motion. you absolutely have to get rid of this! it's such a pity because you lose so much time doing this.
- don't change the angle of your bat during your strokes! you need to make sure to open your bat when you hit a counterball and to close it for a nice topspin. you can only get better when you are absolutely clear in your mind about what shot you just want to do. otherwise you'll be mixing stuff up which could get really confusing for you.
- how much time did you spend on your serves? this is actually something that really needs to develop and therefore needs time. did i see that correctly that you need your left hand to get your bat back in position after serving? also make sure to really strike out before hitting the ball for your serve. remember: as faster your motion is while brushing the ball, the more spin you can actually produce. so try to get comfortable to use also lots of wrist movement!
- you generally don't seem to be comfortable with spin. especially topspinning a push is quite crucial in our sports. my advice to ben: simple drill: you do some heavy forehand pushes to sam's forehand. his goal is to put as much topspin on the ball as possible and to play those so called "high-arc" topspins. speed doesn't matter in the first place. it's much more important to play a nice and spinny topspin with a quick and compact stroke. @sam: try to have an "explosive" movement. "drop the bomb" right in the moment when you actually hit the ball. ask yourself if your stroke hits its topspeed in the moment when you brush the ball, because that's how it should be done. the next step would then be the flat, snappy topspins.
- maybe the most important point. you don't manage to put the movement-power on the ball. try to awaken to the moments in which you can "switch gears" to go for a faster stroke and what aspects in your physical motion you need to change to success.

maybe some advice for practice:
- try do build in some multiball sequences in which sam is absolutely overcharged and hardly hits a ball the way he wants. this challenges his footwork and forces him to do shorter motions on one hand but on the other hand it suddenly will give him time when you play the same drills in a lower tempo.
- try to get a feeling for speed changements. for example already during warm up: switch between slow and faster forehand/backhand counterhits! it will give you much better feel and you will be much more aware of what you need to do if you want to play slower/faster.
- one of my favourite drills that nearly contains every basic aspect of an average tabletennis rally: short push to forehand/backhand (sam needs to play a short push or an agressive long push with lots of spin), long push to the middle of the table (which sam needs to topspin with a nice arc trying to hit the baseline as good as possible) and then the last ball: counterball to the forehand - sam should try to go for the point then with a nice, flat and hard topspin.

i subscribed to your channel, hope you guys will stay motivated and keep pushing it to the limits! ))

best regards

 

[Ben Larcombe]

Welcome Sam! I wish you the best of luck, things will become a lot more automatic soon enough. Did you play much racquet sports before you started this challenge? How are you finding it all so far, must be hard learning so much in a short space of time but with practice like your doing I believe you'll get there!

Good luck at the Medway GP this weekend!

We only went to Medway to watch. It was a good experience for Sam though and we arrived at 8am, to simulate true tournament conditions, and had a good knock up before settling down and watch the band 6 event. I think Sam has a much better idea of what he's up against now!

And in answer to your question Dan... Sam doesn't play any other racket sports. He was a rower when he was in secondary school and then studied Computer Science at uni (they're not the sportiest bunch I bet), so he came into this challenge with very little experience in ball and racket sports.

 

[Ben Larcombe]

Hi Sam, I'm based in London and would love a knock after work one time!
Sent from my RM-976_1115 using Tapatalk

Sounds good. Where do you usually play? Drop me an email at [email protected] and we can hopefully sort something out

 

[Ben Larcombe]

Hey Ben, I'm following Sam's progress on Instagram (would appreciate some more vids there from time to time there, just like you used to do it a couple of months ago by the way ) .. Anyway, I'm a big fan of yours, I think you're doing a great job and I hope 'n' believe that your goal is going to be achieved, keep it up and good luck!

Thank for following. Sorry for the lack of Instagram videos recently. It takes so much time doing all the videos and I have so much other stuff to do. I'll try and remember to put some on Instagram from time to time though over the final few months.

 

[Ben Larcombe]

I've been watching your videos and it's definitely worth it to see Sam's progress and the exercises you choose for him.

There's one aspect of Sam's technic I've been thinking through your videos and I would like to comment with you. I see that Sam's forhand stats from the chest. His swing is quite long. He first prepare his arm in the front of his chest and the he goes back. Is this something that has been tought this way or is it something that Sam is doing by his own?

If I had to give him an advice I would mention that it would be worth it to prepare the forehand topspin in a not so long swing, arming the arm faster and going back directly from the basic position, not going first to his chest.

But again, it's just my thought and there will probably be some reason for this.

Good work!

Greetings

Hi Diego, you are probably right and I'm sure Sam has lots of small technical issues. If we had a couple more years I think it would be worth working on them all but with only 4 months left our priority is very much on using what Sam already has to best effect and not trying to change too much technique wise any more. You can still win plenty of matches with small errors and weaknesses in your technique

 

[Ben Larcombe]

i've been playing table tennis for 14 months with out a lot of training and now i can do every shot in the game almost perfectly but need to play a lot of matches and championships against stronger players i wanted to master the game in a short time and here i did but i still want more and i will never stop.
i wish you luck dude u can make it it's not impossible train on making better shots and good foot work and u will make it good luck.

That sounds very similar to Sam's experience! I guess it takes time to turn yourself into a strong match players who can react to all the different variations and also make things difficult for your opponent. I think that if you've learned the basics though the match results will come with time and experience.

 

[Ben Larcombe]

I uploaded this video of Sam playing a few practice games against me today. Definitely worth a watch as it gives you a good idea of Sam's current level and strengths/weaknesses. Enjoy...

 

[Dan]

We only went to Medway to watch. It was a good experience for Sam though and we arrived at 8am, to simulate true tournament conditions, and had a good knock up before settling down and watch the band 6 event. I think Sam has a much better idea of what he's up against now!

And in answer to your question Dan... Sam doesn't play any other racket sports. He was a rower when he was in secondary school and then studied Computer Science at uni (they're not the sportiest bunch I bet), so he came into this challenge with very little experience in ball and racket sports.

Thanks for the update Ben. Awesome stuff, I wish you guys the best of luck! I am looking forward to see Sam playing on the circuit.

 

[tabletennisuk]

You two watched me at the Medway GP on Saturday in the band 6... an odd feeling knowing your being watched for an actual purpose by people you don't know! Haha


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[SamPriestley]

You two watched me at the Medway GP on Saturday in the band 6... an odd feeling knowing your being watched for an actual purpose by people you don't know! Haha

Awesome! I hope you won your game and I hope we didn't put you off too much!

 

[SamPriestley]

Hi Trice,

You make a lot of good points, thanks so much for your input.

- has already someone told you in person, that you start your forehand-topspin motion in front of your throat/left shoulder? so you basically bring yourself in that "starting position" with your bat closed at the height of your throat/left shoulder before you actually set up for your topspin motion. you absolutely have to get rid of this! it's such a pity because you lose so much time doing this.

That is something I haven't noticed and is a good spot, I'll watch some of the videos back again and try to eliminate it. Generally shorter sharper shots is something that I have been thinking about for some time now and want to improve on.

- how much time did you spend on your serves? this is actually something that really needs to develop and therefore needs time. did i see that correctly that you need your left hand to get your bat back in position after serving? also make sure to really strike out before hitting the ball for your serve. remember: as faster your motion is while brushing the ball, the more spin you can actually produce. so try to get comfortable to use also lots of wrist movement!

I used to spend 15 minutes a day, but honestly since July I haven't done very much. I'm doing a lot of serves during practice but dedicated service practice has slowed down. I agree that it is something hugely important that i need to do more! Haha, I don't need my left hand anymore, that was something i was doing a few months back, luckily it has been eradicated now!

- you generally don't seem to be comfortable with spin. especially topspinning a push is quite crucial in our sports. my advice to ben: simple drill: you do some heavy forehand pushes to sam's forehand. his goal is to put as much topspin on the ball as possible and to play those so called "high-arc" topspins. speed doesn't matter in the first place. it's much more important to play a nice and spinny topspin with a quick and compact stroke. @sam: try to have an "explosive" movement. "drop the bomb" right in the moment when you actually hit the ball. ask yourself if your stroke hits its topspeed in the moment when you brush the ball, because that's how it should be done. the next step would then be the flat, snappy topspins.
- maybe the most important point. you don't manage to put the movement-power on the ball. try to awaken to the moments in which you can "switch gears" to go for a faster stroke and what aspects in your physical motion you need to change to success.

maybe some advice for practice:
- try do build in some multiball sequences in which sam is absolutely overcharged and hardly hits a ball the way he wants. this challenges his footwork and forces him to do shorter motions on one hand but on the other hand it suddenly will give him time when you play the same drills in a lower tempo.
- try to get a feeling for speed changements. for example already during warm up: switch between slow and faster forehand/backhand counterhits! it will give you much better feel and you will be much more aware of what you need to do if you want to play slower/faster.
- one of my favourite drills that nearly contains every basic aspect of an average tabletennis rally: short push to forehand/backhand (sam needs to play a short push or an agressive long push with lots of spin), long push to the middle of the table (which sam needs to topspin with a nice arc trying to hit the baseline as good as possible) and then the last ball: counterball to the forehand - sam should try to go for the point then with a nice, flat and hard topspin.

Good tips! You should see some of those exercises in our future videos.