Teaching an absolute beginner how to play

[dprsspins]

Fellow coaches or experienced players, how does one teach table tennis to a complete newbie?

Should I start with no ball shadow strokes? Easy feed multiball? What would a coach do to teach the basics?

Recently a friend who's an absolute novice wants to learn from me. I've taught other newbies before but it usually ends up quite difficult for them to grasp the technique.

I'm a solid intermediate player who knows the strokes well, have decent footwork and have participated in competitions, so I'm not afraid that I don't know my stuff. I have my own coach but I didn't exactly start from zero with a coach. So what I'm unsure about is the right method to teach an absolute beginner

I did encourage him to go get a real coach to have the best learning experience but he wants to learn from me first, probably because legit coaches can be quite expensive.

 

[lightspin]

Teaching shadow strokes is 100% pointless in my opinion. It is also a good way to make a student think "why am I here? This isn't fun!"

When I teach someone who is an absolute beginner, I try to do 2 things in a 1 hour lesson. First, I stand diagonally from them like a forehand to forehand rally (for right handers). Then I hit the ball to them and see what they do. Then I slowly try to get them to do the right motion but ask them to hit the ball very lightly. After they miss I try to give them advice. Eventually when they can hit a few in a row, I will give them advice during the rally. I also tell them over and over and over what they are doing wrong because basically they have no idea what they are doing as this is something new to them. A good goal is hitting 10 in a row, although sometimes students can do 50 or 100 at a slow pace. Consistency at this point is WAY more important than speed. Make it like a game when you count the rallies and you are trying to score as many points as possible. If you hit the ball 10 times back and forth you get 10 points, 50 times back and forth 50 and see how high you can go.

Then I will go on to the other diagonal and do the same procedure with backhand to backhand. The whole goal of these rallies is to be able to hit the ball as many times as possible without missing. If they cannot be consistent then have them slow down even if the rally is painfully slow. Friends who have trained in Japan have told me that they have to hit 200 forehands without missing and then 200 backhands without missing, then they move onto other things. I don't make my students do that but I do mention this to them. They are learning to be consistent on both sides.

From there future lessons can branch out into different paths. However these two basic cross court drills can have a lot of depth to them. You can work on speed, timing, footwork, distance from the table where you hit the ball and a whole wide variety of other things.

 

[dprsspins]

Teaching shadow strokes is 100% pointless in my opinion. It is also a good way to make a student think "why am I here? This isn't fun!"

When I teach someone who is an absolute beginner, I try to do 2 things in a 1 hour lesson. First, I stand diagonally from them like a forehand to forehand rally (for right handers). Then I hit the ball to them and see what they do. Then I slowly try to get them to do the right motion but ask them to hit the ball very lightly. After they miss I try to give them advice. Eventually when they can hit a few in a row, I will give them advice during the rally. I also tell them over and over and over what they are doing wrong because basically they have no idea what they are doing as this is something new to them. A good goal is hitting 10 in a row, although sometimes students can do 50 or 100 at a slow pace. Consistency at this point is WAY more important than speed. Make it like a game when you count the rallies and you are trying to score as many points as possible. If you hit the ball 10 times back and forth you get 10 points, 50 times back and forth 50 and see how high you can go.

Then I will go on to the other diagonal and do the same procedure with backhand to backhand. The whole goal of these rallies is to be able to hit the ball as many times as possible without missing. If they cannot be consistent then have them slow down even if the rally is painfully slow. Friends who have trained in Japan have told me that they have to hit 200 forehands without missing and then 200 backhands without missing, then they move onto other things. I don't make my students do that but I do mention this to them. They are learning to be consistent on both sides.

From there future lessons can branch out into different paths. However these two basic cross court drills can have a lot of depth to them. You can work on speed, timing, footwork, distance from the table where you hit the ball and a whole wide variety of other things.

I see, so a live assessment at the start with an ongoing trial and error on their form as they try to hit the ball. Interesting.

So the first goal a beginner should have is to have a consistent 10 ball rally for forehand and backhand in a diagonal cross court. That makes sense.

Thank you! I guess having many balls also helps.

 

[lightspin]

For sure you want to use many balls when coaching an absolute beginner. However you want yourself to rally with them for the 1st lesson so they can see your proper technique and then you give them feedback as they play.

I would save real multiball (where you feed from the side) to do in a few months once they can rally a bit cross court.

 

[Tyce]

Besides basic FH to FH and BH to BH, an introduction to spin as early as possible. You can use bouncing exercises (hit the ball upwards with a bit of side spin), show backspin on the table (push on your own half, ball returns to you) and use topspin to grab a ball over the net that's rolling towards you.

That introduction doesn't need to be long, but I think it's essential. Some players will never pass the hitting phase because they don't understand.

 

[andymagata]

1 Try to hand them a slow blade with beginner friendly rubbers.
2 Teach them not to swing with their arm. Forehand stroke should be mainly body twist.
3 For backhand, tell them about the correct strike zone in front of the body.
4 Teach them to move first, hit second.
5 Teach them that a stroke is not done when they hit the ball. It is done when they have returned to neutral position.

Just show them these basics. After that it is more encouraging them to explore and to be curious.

And - there is no correct method to teach. Every individual has their own way of learning. Your job, if you are up to it, is to find and support theirs.

Shadow play is excellent.

 

[jk1980]

do them the best favour nobody did to you. Just teach them footwork first, which means you teach them how to move into a position to play the ball with the forehand and the backhand. you can feed them balls to the forehand and they should simply catch the ball in the golden zone/triangle, same with the backhand where you tell them to always get their body behind the ball for backhand stroke and have them catch the ball in front of their belly. Do that and tell them its warm up.

its the greatest thing most have missed and is such a gamechange if they get that in before any other stroke mechanics.