Through my personal experience, also outside of TT, I've come to the realization that there are great differences in the ways people learn skills and absorb information. In contrast, I see pretty much every single trainer apply the same basics: they show and/or guide a movement, and when the player repeats that movement long enough, something is supposed to click into place, making it "work".
I, for one, find actually learning something this way very ineffective.
So here's my take on the different types of learning that I *know*.
The repeat-ingrain process.
As mentioned, this is where you see, hear and/or feel a movement, and repeat it multiple times in order to reproduce the same effect. This is how a drill sargeant works: they say "attention" and your instinctive reaction will become to salute. They say "topspin loop" and, well, you'll sort of salute, too.
The cause-and-effect process.
A little different, for instance here you'll hold out a bat to receive a ball, and feel/see/hear what it does when it makes contact. Great for learning the basics about spin, and you can combine with pre-drilled motions to learn what stroke has which consequence.
Most training I've seen and received in person end here, as far as strokes are concerned. Of course, you'll mix in footwork, and generic tactics, but that's where it ends.
Outside of TT, this is also where most courses stop. You get a follow-the-steps tutorial, a few questions, and then you "know" the thing. Ehh no.
The process of understanding the inner workings.
This is where I personally *love* to be. All the time. I dread tutorial-work, following basic steps. It just doesn't help much. And to be honest, I've done most of that already.
To me, this is the place things start to really click.
Example:
In 10+ active years of table tennis experience, I have *never*, not *once*, stepped back and thought about how a rubber grabs and propels a ball. In my head, things were simplified to: "The blade hits the ball for speed, the rubber does the spin." So for a fast shot, the blade needs to move fast, for a slow shot, the blade needs to be held pretty much still.
But that's not even half of it!
Only earlier this year did I realize, the force generated by the ball sinking into, and snapping out of, the rubber, has a significant effect on how fast the ball will travel. I've come to this epiphany on my own after fiddling around with a rubber band... Those things hurt like hell when you put tension on it, not when you throw them at someone really hard
So the elusive terms like "brushing a ball" (it's not a damn brush, it's rubber on wood) suddenly started making sense, because I would be using the rubber to *drag* the ball's surface.
I've learned about "driving" a ball what, two weeks ago. Acceleration while contacting a ball, allowing it to sink deeply into the rubber, apparently, so that the rubber and sponge contributes a whole lot more to the speed of the ball.
Also, I have thought for years that the notion of "it's all in the wrist" is some stupid saying by people that don't play TT. Little did I know wrist action allows for a lot of racket speed on contact and as such, can contribute to generating serious amounts of spin (and speed!).
...and why did I not know these things, despite having had formal training by licensed trainers for years? Because *none* of them explained the workings. Zero. Nobody thought, hey, let's explain the details and why they are important. Maybe this guy, and/or others, are very receptive to theory, mechanics and whatnot.
One can easily demonstrate the theoretical bits with a few basic exercises, make it accessible, and just make things click for people with minds that work like mine. And when I get the concepts, the why behind netting a ball, not landing a push, whatever, it is infinitely easier for me to make adjustments.
How does this work for you? Some people are absolute geniuses in that they can watch someone demo a stroke, and subsequently do it well themselves in 1-2 repeats. Some fare really well on feeling and seeing what the ball does in seperate situations, and maybe there are more different mechanics?
What's your best learning method?
I, for one, find actually learning something this way very ineffective.
So here's my take on the different types of learning that I *know*.
The repeat-ingrain process.
As mentioned, this is where you see, hear and/or feel a movement, and repeat it multiple times in order to reproduce the same effect. This is how a drill sargeant works: they say "attention" and your instinctive reaction will become to salute. They say "topspin loop" and, well, you'll sort of salute, too.
The cause-and-effect process.
A little different, for instance here you'll hold out a bat to receive a ball, and feel/see/hear what it does when it makes contact. Great for learning the basics about spin, and you can combine with pre-drilled motions to learn what stroke has which consequence.
Most training I've seen and received in person end here, as far as strokes are concerned. Of course, you'll mix in footwork, and generic tactics, but that's where it ends.
Outside of TT, this is also where most courses stop. You get a follow-the-steps tutorial, a few questions, and then you "know" the thing. Ehh no.
The process of understanding the inner workings.
This is where I personally *love* to be. All the time. I dread tutorial-work, following basic steps. It just doesn't help much. And to be honest, I've done most of that already.
To me, this is the place things start to really click.
Example:
In 10+ active years of table tennis experience, I have *never*, not *once*, stepped back and thought about how a rubber grabs and propels a ball. In my head, things were simplified to: "The blade hits the ball for speed, the rubber does the spin." So for a fast shot, the blade needs to move fast, for a slow shot, the blade needs to be held pretty much still.
But that's not even half of it!
Only earlier this year did I realize, the force generated by the ball sinking into, and snapping out of, the rubber, has a significant effect on how fast the ball will travel. I've come to this epiphany on my own after fiddling around with a rubber band... Those things hurt like hell when you put tension on it, not when you throw them at someone really hard
So the elusive terms like "brushing a ball" (it's not a damn brush, it's rubber on wood) suddenly started making sense, because I would be using the rubber to *drag* the ball's surface.
I've learned about "driving" a ball what, two weeks ago. Acceleration while contacting a ball, allowing it to sink deeply into the rubber, apparently, so that the rubber and sponge contributes a whole lot more to the speed of the ball.
Also, I have thought for years that the notion of "it's all in the wrist" is some stupid saying by people that don't play TT. Little did I know wrist action allows for a lot of racket speed on contact and as such, can contribute to generating serious amounts of spin (and speed!).
...and why did I not know these things, despite having had formal training by licensed trainers for years? Because *none* of them explained the workings. Zero. Nobody thought, hey, let's explain the details and why they are important. Maybe this guy, and/or others, are very receptive to theory, mechanics and whatnot.
One can easily demonstrate the theoretical bits with a few basic exercises, make it accessible, and just make things click for people with minds that work like mine. And when I get the concepts, the why behind netting a ball, not landing a push, whatever, it is infinitely easier for me to make adjustments.
How does this work for you? Some people are absolute geniuses in that they can watch someone demo a stroke, and subsequently do it well themselves in 1-2 repeats. Some fare really well on feeling and seeing what the ball does in seperate situations, and maybe there are more different mechanics?
What's your best learning method?
