How do I improve?

[MrK.]

As the title states.
What is the best way to improve? playing matches over and over? Training your bh and fh loops for hours? Weird exercises for, let's say, bh flick, etc

 

[Brs]

1. Have a clear understanding of how you play now.
2. Have a clear idea of achievable changes to make you play better in the future.
3. Find a coach who you trust and who agrees with your assessment and goals.
[or have the coach do the assessment and set the goals if you trust them enough]
4. Train in a disciplined way to make the changes you and coach identified
5. Play all practice matches as close as possible to the *new* way you want to play, with *no thought* for winning or losing.
6. Reach your initial goals and repeat the process.

 

[MrK.]

1. Have a clear understanding of how you play now.
2. Have a clear idea of achievable changes to make you play better in the future.
3. Find a coach who you trust and who agrees with your assessment and goals.
[or have the coach do the assessment and set the goals if you trust them enough]
4. Train in a disciplined way to make the changes you and coach identified
5. Play all practice matches as close as possible to the *new* way you want to play, with *no thought* for winning or losing.
6. Reach your initial goals and repeat the process.

Thanks for the great answer 😁 really good man thank you 🙌

 

[Dominikk85]

Get a coach who can correct your technique. Just by playing matches you will only improve so much if your technique is bad

 

[JeffM]

Join TableTennisDaily Academy, purchase their master courses. 😆

 

[AndyK]

Ideally, you want regular sessions with a coach 1-2 times a week. However, that may be very expensive (especially in the US where the starting rates where I live are $60 per hour). However, you can still improve tremendously without a coach, but you need to be thoughtful in your approach.

The key to me is 1) deliberate practice and 2) reflection.

So, practice extensively on a robot or multiball, but each session should only have 1-2 pre-planned items (e.g. FH loop on backspin, FH push on backspin). Record your sessions on video so that you can watch your technique (I upload them as private videos on youtube). I compare my technique to the technique on youtube videos (there are are several great sources for technique). Then, augment your practice by playing players 1-2 levels above you. Record your matches and also ask your opponents for feedback (very few people do this). If you put in the time in an intelligent way and keep analyzing your games on video, you should improve very fast.

One last thing is to spend a considerable amount of time on serves and serve receives. Many people spend a lot of time on sexy FH loops, but a strong serve will get you a LOT more cheap points, and a strong receive will keep you in most games.

 

[FH_Project]

Brs, good answer

Good coach can elevate your skills easily if you can afford.

As professional players also state that the key is variation.

Each training you should have good composition with exercises.

Mainly on the table, you can work on;
- Consistency
- Footwork
- Ball placement
- Serve and return
- Serve training with roughly 100 balls

If you decide to improve your consistency, you do exercises without full speed. Ball stays on table and your legs work.

You can combine also ball placement with consistency, but then your partner should move too.

Serve and return could be mixed by other exercises.

But focusing on one thing at a time is usually better.

Multiball

https://youtu.be/05rwZS00T4A

Off the table;
- Shadow training
- Torso and lower body focused HIIT
- Torso stability(plank, sit ups, throwing medicine ball etc.)
- Leg day at gym (as explosive as possible)
- Balance training

Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard!

After all exercises, for match play, don't forget the variation.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

This video has useful information on theory behind certain ways of practicing:

Often people spend a lot of time "peprfecting" their strokes with tons of repetitions of the same stroke from the same position and then they play a match and wonder why they play so well in practice but play poorly in match situations. This video explains some of why that happens and ways to train the help you develop actual game skills and how to read the game while developing your strokes.

 

[MrK.]

This video has useful information on theory behind certain ways of practicing:

Often people spend a lot of time "peprfecting" their strokes with tons of repetitions of the same stroke from the same position and then they play a match and wonder why they play so well in practice but play poorly in match situations. This video explains some of why that happens and ways to train the help you develop actual game skills and how to read the game while developing your strokes.

Great video, thanks for suggesting it 😁

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Great video, thanks for suggesting it 😁

Yeah. It helps to know that you do want to train things that move towards game simulation and you also want to train actual game simulation as well.

In TT you do need to practice strokes to some extent. But there are people who overdo this and don't work on game skills and point construction (how to respond in the point).

So, one way of working on things like that is to just train with someone with things like this:

1) player a) serves backspin -> player b) pushes long (anywhere but long) -> player a) loops the backspin -> open play where both players try to win the "point." No counting points so you train yourself to make the right strokes without sacrificing the thought of whether you win or lose the point.

2) alternating serves, 2 serves each, player a) and b) simply alternate and play as though they are playing points in a match without counting points. (with this I would say, a missed serve should be played as a let so that the person receiving serve gets 2 serves that are in play to try and receive and experiment on how to return).

3) player a) serves short backspin -> player b) pushes short -> player a) pushes short or long -> player b) attacks the 4th ball where ever it is (short or long, FH, middle or BH). (an easier version of this, the second push would be long rather than player a) getting the choice of long or short).

But any drill where there is a random element added to it can help you improve your reading of the game.

 

[IB66]

Generally when training, at present, warm-up is usually 2-3min of FH to FH slow drives and 2-3min of BH to BH drives, then 2-3mins of FH loop to blocker and swap, then similar for BH.
This is the ONLY 'STATIC' routines we do, then we move on to some 'SET' routines (of which there are many variations) which always involve movement. left to right, close to away and back in etc, maybe for 15 mins.
After the 'SET' routines we then concentrate on 'IRREGULAR' routines and match play situations, serve and receive, 3rd ball attack, game strategy etc etc
So for an hour training session we break it down to around 25% static. 25% set routines with movement, 50% irregular/match play. ( the session was longer then the % of 'static' would reduce, its basically a warm up ready for the main session
If a stroke or issue has raised its head and been identified as needing additional work by the coaches, then the session may be tailored more towards that specific issue.
Depending on the level and ability of the participants, there may be a shift in how much static routines are used compared to irregular. for 'beginners it could be 50% static with 30% set routines and 20% games (for fun).
One of the key things to remember is to be flexible during a training session, be ready to adapt a session, have a contingency plan etc
Obviously this is just an idea of how a training session can be formulated,

Another thing to remember is that 'Improvement' can be fast, or slow, everyone is different.
How do you evaluate your improvement? ask others, match results and averages etc all point to your improvement but don't always go hand in hand. you may have improved and raised your level, but may still lose to the players you are aiming to beat, but get more points against them, win a game or two say 3-2 instead of 3-0. sometimes a general improvement in shot quality, or movement doesn't always appear straight away in match results. be resilient, steadfast and keep going!!! results will come in the end!!