On bending knees and squatting

[ML fan]

Most of the time, I feel that I am bending my knees and squatting but I am just standing with so little bend of knees.

How do I improve this? So that it will be my habit? What shoud be my cues?

 

[FH_Project]

There is a video for that

you can open your legs. Bending knees like Calderano waits for serve-receive is unnecessary.

So:

1) open legs wider than shoulder width
2) lean torso forward(not upright, not super bended, but easy to load legs while playing)
3) Squeeze(or push if you still able to transfer the power) your playing-hand-side-leg(let the knee-bend angle not change), activate your playing-hand-side-hip muscle

 

[TTWiz]

Most of the time, I feel that I am bending my knees and squatting but I am just standing with so little bend of knees.

How do I improve this? So that it will be my habit? What shoud be my cues?

You don’t really need to “squat” in table tennis – just a small bend in the knees is fine. What matters more is that you lean your upper body a bit forward from the hips, so your weight is over your toes. That keeps you ready to move without burning energy in a deep squat.

A couple of simple tricks that might help turn it into a habit:

Tell yourself “nose over toes.” If your nose is slightly in front of your knees, you’re usually in a good stance. This isn’t possible if you squat like in the gym – the key is a slight knee bend and leaning forward from the hips.

Each time you start a rally, a drill or are ready to receive a serve, quickly check: knees soft, chest leaning forward. With repetition it becomes automatic.

 

[Zwill]

Most of the time, I feel that I am bending my knees and squatting but I am just standing with so little bend of knees.

How do I improve this? So that it will be my habit? What shoud be my cues?

i tell you the best advice you ever get for free. Go to China for a month, and use their squat toilets. No more words need to be said. Every other advice is bullshit.

Ps. Also don't crap on your pants or ankles. That doesn't count.

 

[lightspin]

Most of the time, I feel that I am bending my knees and squatting but I am just standing with so little bend of knees.

How do I improve this? So that it will be my habit? What shoud be my cues?

When close to the table you want to be a bit lower, when away from the table players tend to stand up a bit more. One way to tell how low you should be is to stand at the side of the table and touch the left net post with your playing hand, then move over to the right net post and touch it with your playing hand. Then go back. Do this 5-10 times and have a friend time how fast you are. Then try the same exercise getting lower or getting higher. Whatever is fastest is probably how high you should stand. You stand too low you slow down, you stand too high you slow down. Also if standing too low hurts your knees then just stand higher. Getting hurt isn't worth it.

When I trained in China eons ago, they had never seen a table tennis player as tall as me even though for the west I am not that tall. The coach wanted me to play basically with my knees at a 90 degree angle so I was at the "correct" height. This was the stupidest advice ever and my knees were in pain during training. I spoke about this with a friend on the CNT and she said "we have this new tall 15 year old player on the national team named Wang LiQin and he stands much higher when he plays, maybe ignore your coach and try that." Wang LiQin went on to win 3 world championships, so I guess standing taller isn't so bad.

 

[ML fan]

You don’t really need to “squat” in table tennis – just a small bend in the knees is fine. What matters more is that you lean your upper body a bit forward from the hips, so your weight is over your toes. That keeps you ready to move without burning energy in a deep squat.

A couple of simple tricks that might help turn it into a habit:

Tell yourself “nose over toes.” If your nose is slightly in front of your knees, you’re usually in a good stance. This isn’t possible if you squat like in the gym – the key is a slight knee bend and leaning forward from the hips.

Each time you start a rally, a drill or are ready to receive a serve, quickly check: knees soft, chest leaning forward. With repetition it becomes automatic.

This is a nice cue, nose ober toes.. thank you

 

[ML fan]

i tell you the best advice you ever get for free. Go to China for a month, and use their squat toilets. No more words need to be said. Every other advice is bullshit.

Ps. Also don't crap on your pants or ankles. That doesn't count.

Hahah..actually I've been to China, and used that squat toilets, and on public toilets, so many people are lining up, that at first, I wonder why a lot of people are lining up there only to find out that it's toilet. haha. And sometimes a lot of crap left too.hihi

 

[PhoenixTT]

i tell you the best advice you ever get for free. Go to China for a month, and use their squat toilets. No more words need to be said. Every other advice is bullshit.

Ps. Also don't crap on your pants or ankles. That doesn't count.

Another one is to remove the garter from your shorts or wear shorts 3 sizes wider than your size. This will force you to always be bending because if you straighten both legs, the shorts fall to the ground.

 

[blahness]

You don’t really need to “squat” in table tennis – just a small bend in the knees is fine. What matters more is that you lean your upper body a bit forward from the hips, so your weight is over your toes. That keeps you ready to move without burning energy in a deep squat.

A couple of simple tricks that might help turn it into a habit:

Tell yourself “nose over toes.” If your nose is slightly in front of your knees, you’re usually in a good stance. This isn’t possible if you squat like in the gym – the key is a slight knee bend and leaning forward from the hips.

Each time you start a rally, a drill or are ready to receive a serve, quickly check: knees soft, chest leaning forward. With repetition it becomes automatic.

+1. Another good cue is to stick your butt out. Pretty much slight knee bend + decent forward lean is sufficient.