Should absolute beginners take lessons or just play?

[pingpongdelay]

Hi all, I’m debating if I should take lessons to set my basics correctly, or just start playing a lot and then take lessons to improve what I’m lacking in the future.

Money would be an issue for taking lessons but if it makes sense to have good basic skills I am willing to make the commitment.
Also curious how many lessons would make sense if taking lessons is the way to go?

Thanks in advance!

 

[TensorBackhand]

Hi all, I’m debating if I should take lessons to set my basics correctly, or just start playing a lot and then take lessons to improve what I’m lacking in the future.

Money would be an issue for taking lessons but if it makes sense to have good basic skills I am willing to make the commitment.
Also curious how many lessons would make sense if taking lessons is the way to go?

Thanks in advance!

Personally I think taking lessons is a huge waste of money, but it kinda depends on the person. Just from watching demonstration clips and stuff, can you intuitively understand what to do and what you're doing wrong?

I would say just pick 1 or 2 things to work on for a few weeks and get those nailed. I mean if you watch a video of how to push underspin, its pretty obvious, isn't it? just kinda slice/push underneath the ball. Just practice this shot for 3 weeks until you are good at it. Then move onto the basic topspin drive for FH and BH.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

i think it depends on your situation. if there are very good players in your club who spend regularly time with you giving you advice and hitting the ball with you (== "coaching" you for free) then maybe not.

else i think its worth it. the level of the coach is important. its better the coach has a (very) good technique and can teach it to you.
i think if money is a problem, its better to see a coach once a month rather than a bad coach every week.
and 1 to 1 lesson of course, not group.

do you think you can become a good guitarist if you learn all by yourself ? well its the same for anything

just my 2 cents

 

[Gozo Aruna]

From personal observation of the various cohort:

Adult player no coaching:

1. After many years they still play like Shit; no desire to improve. He he he I am here for social / fun / exercise. Spend 90% of the time exercise by bending over picking up balls, but yeah, still exercise nonetheless.

2. Give up half way. TT is no longer fun anymore. Hey! Pickle ball is more fun! Yeah!!!

3. Super gung-ho initially but Ouch ouch ouch I injured my shoulder, knees, ankles and / or various joints due to wrong technique and has to give up TT

4. Switch to use pips and rely on it as a crutch. Will return even short FH with a BH pips side. Nobody wants to play with him / her and is sidelined on the bench most of the time. Still suxs though!!!

 

[Dr Evil]

Lessons. Breaking bad habits is more difficult than forming good ones from the start. Table tennis is a very technical sport, and good technique is often not the easiest way to do something at first. A good coach will help you avoid the superficially easier "garden path" techniques that lead to dead ends as you improve.

 

[blahness]

Having a coach is much better, but beware of bad coaches. I saw a coach over here who pretty much plays with arm only and his students all spent years and still remain at a very low level because they do not know how to use the body. None of his students can beat me despite probably spending tens of thousands on bad lessons.

 

[dingyibvs]

If you want to be cost/time efficient, get coaching intermittently, and then a training partner to practice a lot. For every 1 hour of coaching you'd need probably 50 hours of practice to digest it. In other words, if all you do is get coaching then 98% of the time the coach is just being a training partner for you. You can pass on the lessons to your training partner, thus doubling up on the cost efficiency.

The difficult part of this is 1) finding a good coach who'll maximize teaching during the session instead of just being a training partner and 2) finding a training partner who's just as motivated as you to improve.

As for playing, you need to do some of that as well. Without it it'd be hard for you to identify what to focus on in training.

 

[NextLevel]

If you want to be cost/time efficient, get coaching intermittently, and then a training partner to practice a lot. For every 1 hour of coaching you'd need probably 50 hours of practice to digest it. In other words, if all you do is get coaching then 98% of the time the coach is just being a training partner for you. You can pass on the lessons to your training partner, thus doubling up on the cost efficiency.

The difficult part of this is 1) finding a good coach who'll maximize teaching during the session instead of just being a training partner and 2) finding a training partner who's just as motivated as you to improve.

As for playing, you need to do some of that as well. Without it it'd be hard for you to identify what to focus on in training.

One of the best ways to identify a good coach (and this is uncommon) is to see how much interest they naturally take in your play when you are not with them.

 

[PoorPingPong&PianoPlayer]

Personally I think taking lessons is a huge waste of money, but it kinda depends on the person. Just from watching demonstration clips and stuff, can you intuitively understand what to do and what you're doing wrong?

I would say just pick 1 or 2 things to work on for a few weeks and get those nailed. I mean if you watch a video of how to push underspin, its pretty obvious, isn't it? just kinda slice/push underneath the ball. Just practice this shot for 3 weeks until you are good at it. Then move onto the basic topspin drive for FH and BH.

Fully agree, that's my way, but I'm 50+ and sometimes it is really funny how some youtube coaches say just opposite things. For example, one say to beginners, you should try to serve short in order to prevent their topspin attack; another say, do not serve short or opponent will flick you. Still, free youtube videos are very precious source of information for me, but further understanding of the whole context is necessary. And I save the best ones, so I can return to them anytime. BUT being young kid or teenager, I would definitely prefer to start with some coach, so IMHO the answer depends how old pingpongdelay is and how competitive level they want to reach.

 

[JJ Ng]

I think if budget is a concern, then two 30-min lessons a month would be great.

Good form is important from the get-go. You can generate more power and control with good forms.

You (most likely an adult student) will need to find coaches who know how to coach adult beginners. Too many high level coaches started play when they were 5 or 7. They do NOT know how to coach adult students.

I started playing table tennis and getting proper coaching when I was 13. I think that was a perfect age for me to understand what "adults" feel like when they first start playing. I always make suggestions on little parts that should be worked on individually before you combine them into a full stroke.

Coaches who started playing when they were 5 or 7 wanted you to have a full stroke from the get-go. that is impossible!

For example, my Chinese coach started my forehand stroke with bending of the forearm at the elbow area only and ends on the side of head in a salute manner. He made sure my elbow was tugged in nicely by my waist. Then he asked to rotate my hip following that. Then he asked to push off with my legs. Finally the wrist. The reason is that when the wrist moves, the angle changes dramatically. You should not teach how to use the wrist until the students have the fundamentals down.

I have watched some Fang Bo video's on YouTube and it is always talking about how to generate the most spins with your wrist. Well, no sh*t. But you tell a beginner or intermediate players to start using their wrists early in their development, you will see balls flying everywhere.

I was taught in the beginning to hit at the highest point when I smash. When I had been away from the game for an extended period of time and coming back to the junior training center later, my timing and wrist were all over the place. My coach would restart from the beginning and ask me to gently hit the ball, off the bounce, over the table to "carry" the ball over the net to him, back and forth. Within 5-10 minutes I would always get my sense of timing back. When you are practicing forehand to forehand, it is almost like you are dancing with your dance partner. So getting your timing back is essential. I always appreciate that little trick whenever I was away from the game for 3-4 months at the time.

Nowadays I take lessons rarely. Maybe once every 3-4 months. And I only do 30 minutes since my stamina sucks now as I get older. And I spend 20 minutes of the 30 minutes talking because at this stage, it is about the fine points of the stroke, rather than the actual stroke. I can practice the actual stroke later with anyone. But during my lesson it is about breaking down the details of the stroke and the reason for the timing so I could practice later.

 

[Lazer]

Hi all, I’m debating if I should take lessons to set my basics correctly, or just start playing a lot and then take lessons to improve what I’m lacking in the future.

Money would be an issue for taking lessons but if it makes sense to have good basic skills I am willing to make the commitment.
Also curious how many lessons would make sense if taking lessons is the way to go?

Thanks in advance!

Join a club and most likely the training sessions will include basic tech niches…

Cheers
L-zr

 

[IB66]

Get a mixture of playing and some coaching. It really depends on what your goals are? What age you are, how often do you intend to play? If you are aiming to play once a week for 2hrs, then try and get a 1 to 1 coaching session in for at least 30mins a week, join a club, find a like minded player to train / play with or be coached with. Then the cost of an hour session is halved! And the other good thing is that if you both reach a standard where your consistency has improved enough, the coach can stop feeding balls, and actually coach the pair of you without the ‘distraction’ of feeding balls or rallying with you.
You can use YouTube tutorials as a guide, but there are different ‘styles’ for the techniques, so it can get confusing! There is a lot to take in, for example if you watch videos of Tiger Woods hitting balls and you analyse footage and try to mimic his swing, there’s only so much you’ll get out of it, there are certain ‘feels’ that aren’t necessarily obvious. The main thing when using YouTube is to actually film yourself playing so you can compare what you are actually doing to what you should be doing!
It can be difficult to find a good coach, I’m not sure if USATT have a list of approved, certificated coaches? If they do, then it’s a good starting point. Also clubs will usually have members that are capable of coaching, or other members will be able to put you in touch with a coach.

 

[NextLevel]

Hi all, I’m debating if I should take lessons to set my basics correctly, or just start playing a lot and then take lessons to improve what I’m lacking in the future.

Money would be an issue for taking lessons but if it makes sense to have good basic skills I am willing to make the commitment.
Also curious how many lessons would make sense if taking lessons is the way to go?

Thanks in advance!

You don't need a lot of formal instruction exclusively or immediately but the earlier you get some, the better. Recording your sessions and using them to improve your play can be helpful. More coaching tends to be better than less once you find the right coach (and invest some time in finding a coach who has experience teaching players like you ‐ age and physical condition - to play how you want to play), but some coaching, as long as you record the sessions and understand the logic of the recommendations is better than none.

I know some players who took maybe four or five lessons over the space of a year but recorded them and used that input to get to strong adult amateur level. I didn't take that approach, I got lots of lessons of varying quality over a period of about 2 years and that continued to varying degrees (and really varying) over the next 10.

Online coaching is also an alternative as long as you are willing to record your sessions and send them to a coach who had experience giving good instruction online. TTEdge played a big role in my later development and there are many other reasonable services - TTD, Craig Bryant and I think PingPod is offering stuff as well. If you have a robot, sometimes coaching is sold with the robots and some coaches specialize in coaching students who use robots as feeders and the results can be surprisingly good with the right coach.

Having a good player in ypur club mentor you is a form of coaching though it isn't described as such. I had a lot of mentors, even when not getting formally coached by them. Aspects of my playing style were influenced by those mentors. In fact, it is usually common to find people who claim you don't need coaching or that you can learn by yourself to be implicitly denying the influence of unacknowledged mentors who strongly helped and influenced them. And as you get better, you might even learn a lot from players who play at the same level as you do but of course, this is usually not considered coaching, but insights from people at your level can be precisely what you need to get to the next level.

Good luck!

 

[brokenball]

I think a beginner would benefit a lot with just a half hour. The goal is to get the basic strokes and what to think about. Then revisit a few months later. Then have the coach monitor the play and how the noob wins and mostly loses points. Then concentrate on how not to lose points.

BTW, I was taking lessons at 60. I knew I wasn't going to be great. The goal was to play longer rallies to get more exercise. One doesn't get much exercise if the point only lasts 3 to 4 strokes.

Ditto the part about good and bad coaches.

 

[SFF_lib]

Hi all, I’m debating if I should take lessons to set my basics correctly, or just start playing a lot and then take lessons to improve what I’m lacking in the future.

Money would be an issue for taking lessons but if it makes sense to have good basic skills I am willing to make the commitment.
Also curious how many lessons would make sense if taking lessons is the way to go?

Thanks in advance!

We always start with group lessons first and see if you like it.

 

[UpHill_Battle]

Best to take lesson for proper strokes. Then get that playing time.
I am a returning player, taking coaching sessions...it frustrating to learn the basic as I can play but properly doing so is whole different thing.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Taking lessons earlier on, would probably end up saving you money than going to play and learn all kinds of bad habit and then try and fix things with youtube or getting advise on TTD and all kinds of people around you and what is worse is you get influenced by people who change equipment every week.

Its important to surround yourself with the right people from the get go.

 

[dingyibvs]

I think a beginner would benefit a lot with just a half hour. The goal is to get the basic strokes and what to think about. Then revisit a few months later. Then have the coach monitor the play and how the noob wins and mostly loses points. Then concentrate on how not to lose points.

BTW, I was taking lessons at 60. I knew I wasn't going to be great. The goal was to play longer rallies to get more exercise. One doesn't get much exercise if the point only lasts 3 to 4 strokes.

Ditto the part about good and bad coaches.

Practice is a lot better for exercise, FH practice for just a couple minutes can be exhausting, for example.

 

[kindof99]

If budget is limited, I would recommend taking coaching once in a while with a lot of practice between. Find a good coach that can answer your questions clearly and without holding. Record your section especially the part you ask question and the part that the coach demonstrate the correct strokes.
Write down the questions you have every time you go for the coaching.

 

[Metaxa]

I would look out for a good club where a B-coach or even maybe an A-coach trains in group(s). He will teach you the basic techniques (and hopefully the pushing too).
Paid private training can always be done later but I am not a big fan of that.
I have known someone (was however a real sportsman and champion of his country in a combat sport) who spent hundreds of euros on a personal foreign table tennis trainer/coach. That player he could do everything, was a pleasure to train against as long as it could always be diagonal or parallel but once combined blows had to be practised it became nothing. His foreign trainer could not turn it into something positive but that had been clear to me for a long time. That player could train like a beast but had no ball sense, judgement or tactical game insight whatsoever. So after several years of a lot of training and trying to learn to play matches, he quit the sport abruptly.
Very unfortunate of the much money he spent. If he had taken his steps at a high-level club and taken a few years to reach a respectable level he might not have quit the sport.