How to improve?

[idolLong]

I'm a 15 year old guy who wants to improve so badly in Table Tennis. But I only got 2 days of playing of TT if lucky. So, what should I improve most in those 2 days and what kind of training should I do?


Will really appreciate even the smallest answers Thanks

 

[Belisar]

Do some fitness work outside of your TT time.

Often forgotten but it will help you maximise your practise time, help movement in games and also concentration.

 

[Dan]

Do some fitness work outside of your TT time.

Often forgotten but it will help you maximise your practise time, help movement in games and also concentration.

Hey Belisar! Welcome to the site

I was going to suggest the same thing.

Outside of table time, focus on doing stuff relevant to TT in terms of physical and mental training.

Lots of skipping, ladder drills and explosive power really help one to improve in table tennis. Also a lot of core training is important to keep you strong when twisting side to side ect.

Get a book on psychology in sport. I.e I have read of a book called 'winning ugly' or there is one called 'the inner game'. They are tennis books but relate gratly to table tennis to.These books will give you an insight into how to construct yourself on the table tennis table. When the going gets tough you will be ready!

Also, try to get as much service practice time in as you can.

Hope this helps.

 

[jedimasterplk]

Lads - I have been thinking of service return strategies - for a long time now, I always tried to flick heavy underspin/sidespin serves... do any of you ever try a heavy push back with lots of underspin, and is this a good way to mix serve returns?

 

[dici]

The plyometrics workout should able to improve your leg strength. Beside the fitness, you can try various way to practice your footwork during the non TT day. You can either get a mirror, check your stroke by yourself, or draw a line by assuming it is a Table and move left to right and then to left and so...

Usually this is what I do inside the gym after the weightlifting, or while waiting for my turn to play basketball

 

[Dan]

The plyometrics workout should able to improve your leg strength. Beside the fitness, you can try various way to practice your footwork during the non TT day. You can either get a mirror, check your stroke by yourself, or draw a line by assuming it is a Table and move left to right and then to left and so...

Usually this is what I do inside the gym after the weightlifting, or while waiting for my turn to play basketball

Good ideas!

Also to add to this, is shadow playing with ankle weights and even get a heavy bat of some sort. Weights on your wrist and do some table tennis exercises in front of a mirror. Strengthens you up and you will feel faster when you take them off to play

I use to do this in a dance studio, was really good!

 

[Belisar]

Service practise is another good idea.

If you have a partner choose one type of serve (e.g. half long with backspin to crossover) and serve it. Have your partner practise their return but you catch it (do not play the rally out). Serve again and repeat. If you mix the serve up (i.e. practise different ones) you do not get a chance to adjust to get it right. Playing the point out afterwards means you end up focussing on the rest of the rally not the serve.

After a good few minutes wwap over so your partner practises his/her serve and you practise returns. After that you can then try and put the serve into a rally.

If I have limited time I would not try to get too much done each time but pick a focus for the week (i.e. week 1 serve and return, week 2 forehand loops and topspin, week 3 footwork, week 4 short game etc). Set your targets to improve over time.

One other bit of advise from me. When you practise when the rally breaks down do not simply go and fetch the ball to repeat the practise but freeze in position every now and then to see if your feet are in the right position, if your weight is forwards etc etc. Do some self analysis to help iron out your technique otherwise you could simply be repeating the same flaws and mistakes time after time.

 

[Mr. RicharD]

Hey idol please don't listen to the guys here. No offense everyone, but he's 15. He's not at the age where his muscles should be developed with leg exercises. They take longer to recover and this will hinder his performance if he has two days back to back or what not. If you do practice your footwork and leg strength I would suggest doing it on your second day of the week so that you'd have the most time to recover from it.

You should practice your forehand the most in drills. If you can have a friend or coach multiball or just hit practice forehands on both sides of the table. Work on your footwork and learn to use your legs when looping the ball.

On your off days go over the mental aspects of the game. You can be practicing even when you're not hitting the ball. Just imagine where you would hit the ball if your opponent serves you certain types of spin etc etc.

Go over your strategies and stick to them. If you are serving deep then attack the ball well cross court from their return. If you are serving short get ready for the push and flick that bad boy down the line. The one physical thing I would suggest practicing that is over looked right before tournaments is service. Practice a couple hours on service and if you can pushing for service return with a buddy. This is perhaps the most over looked skill because everyone wants to get straight to the rally, but many points are won on service and service return. So practice that and you'll be set for whatever you need.

 

[Belisar]

Hey idol please don't listen to the guys here.

Think you misunderstood (at least some of us). I said to do fitness on non-TT days. No problem being fit at 15. My main point is that if you have two days to practise TT then doing some basic fitness or speed or mobility stuff on other days would make sense.

 

[moriguchi2]

i recommend getting a coach that can look at ur stokes and can tell u how to improve. without one many bad habits can be made

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

It is amazing how, on off days, if you can spend half an hour in front of a mirror doing shadow strokes and shadow footwork drills, you get better at what you are doing at the table.

I would say if you only had one thing to work on at a table serve and receive drills are probably the most important. Every point starts with a serve. If your serves are better than your opponents you have an edge. If your receive of serve is better than your opponent's, you have another big advantage. If you do serve and receive drills where after the third ball attack you play out the rally trying to win the point like a game situation your game skills and your rallying skills improve. These help you improve your strokes as well.

What moriguchi2 said is good advice. Nothing can beat having someone who really knows what they are doing watching you and helping you correct what you are doing wrong.

 

[idolLong]

Hey Belisar! Welcome to the site

I was going to suggest the same thing.

Outside of table time, focus on doing stuff relevant to TT in terms of physical and mental training.

Lots of skipping, ladder drills and explosive power really help one to improve in table tennis. Also a lot of core training is important to keep you strong when twisting side to side ect.

Get a book on psychology in sport. I.e I have read of a book called 'winning ugly' or there is one called 'the inner game'. They are tennis books but relate gratly to table tennis to.These books will give you an insight into how to construct yourself on the table tennis table. When the going gets tough you will be ready!

Also, try to get as much service practice time in as you can.

Hope this helps.

Will try.

 

[idolLong]

It is amazing how, on off days, if you can spend half an hour in front of a mirror doing shadow strokes and shadow footwork drills, you get better at what you are doing at the table.

I would say if you only had one thing to work on at a table serve and receive drills are probably the most important. Every point starts with a serve. If your serves are better than your opponents you have an edge. If your receive of serve is better than your opponent's, you have another big advantage. If you do serve and receive drills where after the third ball attack you play out the rally trying to win the point like a game situation your game skills and your rallying skills improve. These help you improve your strokes as well.

What moriguchi2 said is good advice. Nothing can beat having someone who really knows what they are doing watching you and helping you correct what you are doing wrong.

3rd ball attacks? How can I improve that?

 

[Matt Hetherington]

Lads - I have been thinking of service return strategies - for a long time now, I always tried to flick heavy underspin/sidespin serves... do any of you ever try a heavy push back with lots of underspin, and is this a good way to mix serve returns?

I'm assuming they are short serves if you are trying to flick, have you ever considered receiving short? This can be just as effective as flicking in limiting your opponents actions, and to answer your question yes I also sometimes push long. You have to see what you can do with the ball, if you always flick people will get used to playing you too easily, it always pays to keep people on their toes and wonder how you will receive their serves. If you always return the same they will develop a strategy against you long term.

 

[Matt Hetherington]

As for the main thread I recommend you plan your sessions so you can use your time most effectively. Start off doing basic exercises like 2 point and 3 point forehand drills which are great for your footwork and consistency of your stroke and timing over different points of movement around the table. Also things like the falkenberg exercise the backhand, pivot forehand, wide forehand is good to practice. Start with regular exercises where you know where the ball is going and work on consistency also the normal backhand forehand is good. After a while alter these exercises to add irregularity to develop your skills in anticipating where the ball is going, for example the a 2 point forehand and after a few shots your partner changes to your backhand. Also the backhand forehand you can do one or two either side, controller decides. After working on these you can add service to them to develop gameplay practice, so instead of just serving flat into them you can serve, receive long, spin the first ball up and then get into the exercise. These are some good basics to work up to and should be included in training often to keep that basic technical consistency and footwork maintained even after you have got them on lockdown. You can build into other exercises later but for now try these ones. Also in your warmup you should warmup your forehand and backhand down the line as well as cross court just to build a feel for the shorter angle of the table. Hope that is helpful to you

 

[dici]

For the strength argument, I would say that fitness/strength training is fine for age of 15. However, keep in mind that bodybuilder/strong lift is different than the strength training for sports. And different sport would have different kind of strength training. Also, plyometric would not required you to lifting any heavy weight, but it would help your leg reaction too if you are doing it right.

It just like, for basketball, you want for explosiveness, but for table tennis/badminton, you may need faster reaction, for tennis you may need more endurance on your leg.


oh yea back to topic, since there are ppl suggest multiball/2,3 point training already. What I can add is that when you do these training, add a few more condition. Specify a spot on the table that everytime you do multiball, you must also return the ball to that spot. This is to increase the precision, if you don't have the time to do FH to FH, BH to BH these kind of training during the 2x2hr session.

 

[jedimasterplk]

I'm assuming they are short serves if you are trying to flick, have you ever considered receiving short? This can be just as effective as flicking in limiting your opponents actions, and to answer your question yes I also sometimes push long. You have to see what you can do with the ball, if you always flick people will get used to playing you too easily, it always pays to keep people on their toes and wonder how you will receive their serves. If you always return the same they will develop a strategy against you long term.

Wise words.... amazing how you dont think of these things yourself sometimes) Thanks Pom!!! much appreciated!!

 

[harrybelafonte]

read Mathew syeds book,10,000 hours of practice to become very good,if you can afford get really good 1v1 practice or coaching,loads of multi ball and match play.Get a good player to mentor you,help you train ,do drills, develop all of the strokes....join a good club with various standards,players you can maybe beat or compete with and better player who can push you..Players who defend ,this will develop your touch and felling and ability to read the spin better.
Practice preactice and practice some more...

 

[Shree]

Enhance ment in practise of TT

I'm a 15 year old guy who wants to improve so badly in Table Tennis. But I only got 2 days of playing of TT if lucky. So, what should I improve most in those 2 days and what kind of training should I do?


Will really appreciate even the smallest answers Thanks

Pl note
It is quality practice is required in TT
First you do some stretching exercise .
If you play for one hour effective practice is only 40minutes .
You need to play all you Basics 50 to 100 counts with out any error
Try to practice More aggressive game which is fast Make counter rally .
I have developed a method
Try hitting fore hand on on opponents back hand and second on fore hand and don not stop continue and count one for where you began try to make at least 25 rally .
This drill will improve to concentrate more and develop you to great extent and make you prerfect.
Try other option of hitting on fore hand and than Back hand . One count is equal to three .

 

[Der_Echte]

Belisar (Serves) (and with only 11 posts to date, what a great tip!) and Richard (Service Return) have some priceless advice here. Serves can be practiced alone anywhere. You can even practice impacting the ball on a floor and make it come back to you. That practices your timing and is invaluable. You can also practice by self at table without partner. Returning serves is another important part of the game neglected by many. Important part of game, but you need someone willing to show you their serves. Even with these 2 things, you can grow a lot, but if everything else does not grow, you plateau, so keep it in perspective. Not everyone can get into a situation that allows them to do the things to improve, so do Ur best friend.