Just trying to teach my 6 year old.

[Doctor]

Hello all,
Trying to teach my 6 year old forehand drive.
Ply is Stiga offensive classic and rubber is coppa gold.
He keeps bringing his index finger to the middle. I keep reminding him to correct it.

Please all seniors and coach here point him in right direction.
Will be surely changing the rubber and ply as I feel it's too fast for him.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

He keeps bringing his index finger to the middle. I keep reminding him to correct it.

Try and get his purlicue to touch the blade, this will change the angle of how he holds the racket and the index finger will be fine

 

[Doctor]

Try and get his purlicue to touch the blade, this will change the angle of how he holds the racket and the index finger will be fine

Nice pointer.
Will surely get the purlicue touch the blade.

 

[JJ Ng]

Nice pointer.
Will surely get the purlicue touch the blade.

My purlicue does not touch the blade. That allows more wrist movement.

However, I guess it is ok to get his purlicue to touch the blade to lock in the wrist a bit. And then as he gets more and more advanced, he can choose to hold the paddle deeper or shallower.

His forehand looks good to me! His index finger to me, from this angle, is not impeding his progress.

Everyone plays table tennis differently. His overall movement looks very good to me. I have no complaint! Good job!

 

[Doctor]

My purlicue does not touch the blade. That allows more wrist movement.

However, I guess it is ok to get his purlicue to touch the blade to lock in the wrist a bit. And then as he gets more and more advanced, he can choose to hold the paddle deeper or shallower.

His forehand looks good to me! His index finger to me, from this angle, is not impeding his progress.

Everyone plays table tennis differently. His overall movement looks very good to me. I have no complaint! Good job!

Thanks for your kind words. Means a lot to me.

 

[allfj]

When i was younger my finger always used to go to the middle. I remember its hard to hold it normally with small hands, and when his hands are bigger he will probably just move it subconciously

 

[JJ Ng]

When i was younger my finger always used to go to the middle. I remember its hard to hold it normally with small hands, and when his hands are bigger he will probably just move it subconciously

Yes I agree. Everyone plays table tennis differently and we have to accept some normal variation.

There is another thread about people changing grips between FH and BH, such as Timo Boll. That's way too confusing to me. For most people, we are not going to play like Timo Boll ever.

I think the most important thing for the beginners are to use the forearm and keep the wrist locked so the angle of the bat does not go all over the place. Then when they are more advanced they can hold the bat more shallowly or more tightly if they want. I could care less by that stage just as long as they are advancing.

I do believe a good forehand top spin starts with the forearm movement, then you add the waist, then you add the shoulder and finally you add the legs. Wrist is probably the last thing to be added. And if you can do the forearm, waist, shoulder and power from the legs, your loop will be very good already. Adding wrist is optional. It depends on the player's physique and natural feel for the game.

 

[pingpongpaddy]

Hello all,
Trying to teach my 6 year old forehand drive.
Ply is Stiga offensive classic and rubber is coppa gold.
He keeps bringing his index finger to the middle. I keep reminding him to correct it.

Please all seniors and coach here point him in right direction.
Will be surely changing the rubber and ply as I feel it's too fast for him.

hi doctor
one tip that can be effective with under 10 learners:-
I notice he is hitting to the fh corner quite consistently.

I find putting up a target (drinks bottle?) for him to aim at can help develop control quite painlessly
scenario:
coach sets up bottle in fh corner and demonstrates hitting it a few time and asking for high fives each time
then set up the bottle for junior and make fuss for each hit
once that is established put the bottle to the middle or backhand and keep giving encouragement and in no time he will quite naturally acquire some quite subtle ball control.
later you can introduce multiple bottles or both compete to hit bottle first
different kids vary in their enthusiasm for this kind of test but it can be a good pre table tennis step

btw
world champ Hasegawa
&
world champ + multiple olympian Deng Ya PING
put their curlicues on the middle of the rubber

 

[blahness]

What is a curlicue?