Table is too high for my kid

[Trevize84]

Hello,
I want to initiate my kid to TT. He is interested in it even though he's 4 yo. He's 98 cm tall, actually 98cm short and he has to stay far from the table to see the ball coming.

We have a regular table at home and I was thinking to fabricate a platform for him reusing pallets and reinforcing the whole thing with a 2cm thick wood panel to make the floor on the platform regular. Perhaps also apply something on top to improve the grip.

Now my question is, how tall the platform should be?

Do you have better ideas?

Thanks.

 

[Gaurgle]

Sorry! 😂

 

[Tyce]

Hello,
I want to initiate my kid to TT. He is interested in it even though he's 4 yo. He's 98 cm tall, actually 98cm short and he has to stay far from the table to see the ball coming.

We have a regular table at home and I was thinking to fabricate a platform for him reusing pallets and reinforcing the whole thing with a 2cm thick wood panel to make the floor on the platform regular. Perhaps also apply something on top to improve the grip.

Now my question is, how tall the platform should be?

Do you have better ideas?

Thanks.

Tall enough for his eyes to be just above the net and his hands to be high enough to hit a ball behind the table.
Beware that a platform is easy to fall off when you are focused on an activity, especially for kids. You migh be easier off lowering the table onto a stack of pallets, depending on the model.

Also, a bit of unsolicited parenting advice, expect your kid to be interested for 5 minutes and then turn to the next thing. What I'm trying to say, you may be investing a lot of time, effort and money for a one-off thing. That's just what young kids do

 

[suds79]

Parenting & teaching kids table tennis is a fun journey. I'd warn you to not push it too much. Keep it fun. Is this really what the kid wants to do? Don't want them to burn out & hate the game someday for it not being fun. It's just an easy trap to fall into of having it feel more like a job than fun. I couldn't agree more with Tyce's last paragraph post just above mine here. This is 100% spot on.

All that being said, they're 4. Even before you build some sort of platform, wouldn't hurt to have them just see how many times they can bounce the ball on the paddle. Go for high records. Cheaper, faster and a good way to start off anyways.

 

[Trevize84]

Sorry! 😂

That's what I call "thinking outside the box" 🤣

 

[Trevize84]

Tall enough for his eyes to be just above the net and his hands to be high enough to hit a ball behind the table.
Beware that a platform is easy to fall off when you are focused on an activity, especially for kids. You migh be easier off lowering the table onto a stack of pallets, depending on the model.

Also, a bit of unsolicited parenting advice, expect your kid to be interested for 5 minutes and then turn to the next thing. What I'm trying to say, you may be investing a lot of time, effort and money for a one-off thing. That's just what young kids do

I have a butterfly robot, he watched me exercising for hours. He always want to stay in the basement and play. I think he wants to emulate and understood that I only stop when tired as he complains he's not tired yet when I want him to stop playing and go to ground floor. I think the expense will be around 100/150 euro, high but not crazy expensive and 2-3 hours of work to fabricate the thing. Falling off the platform is something I evaluated and I expect the platform to go as much as possible under the table and as close as I can to the walls. I was also considering placing pallets vertically on the sides like a fence, but end of the day I expect him to standstill and exercise body coordination and stroke mechanic, overall risk is low as I'm close to him and I help to adjust the movement by guiding his body.

 

[Trevize84]

Parenting & teaching kids table tennis is a fun journey. I'd warn you to not push it too much. Keep it fun. Is this really what the kid wants to do? Don't want them to burn out & hate the game someday for it not being fun. It's just an easy trap to fall into of having it feel more like a job than fun. I couldn't agree more with Tyce's last paragraph post just above mine here. This is 100% spot on.

All that being said, they're 4. Even before you build some sort of platform, wouldn't hurt to have them just see how many times they can bounce the ball on the paddle. Go for high records. Cheaper, faster and a good way to start off anyways.

That's something I'm trying to teach. But as I mentioned before, he watches me playing with the robot and the robot for him is a sort of magic. Also he wants to emulate what I do with the robot and he gets frustrated because he doesn't hit the ball. I figured out, placing my eyes at his height that he can see the ball only at the very last.

One more thing I'm teaching is recovering the balls after my exercises 🤣

 

[Andrea Jiang]

Sorry! 😂

Diadona？😂

 

[Zezima]

I have seen some chinese kids videos where they use these gym mats?

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you can staple them and adjust the height that way. They are not cheap though but maybe you can find a cheaper alternative. But be careful. starting table tennis that early is not required. You don't want your kid to burn out and then eventually quit because he has been playing since he is 4. So keep it fun