This section contains hints and tips about playing that we learn at our coaching sessions. These may be of interest to beginning players and others with more experience. Items will be added from time to time so are not in any particular order. The latest tip will be first.

Power versus consistency

One session recetnly Mieszek was practicing his forehand top spin drive with our coach, Alan. He was tending to hit flat and not really putting any top spin on. He was also hitting pretty hard. Every now and then a good full length ball would just about get onto the end of the table but most were over hit, usually by only a few inches. Rallies of more than 3 strokes were rare. That is until Alan asked Mieszek to slow down a bit. A miracle then ensued! 3 out of 4 shots were on the table and the stroke was executed better so that a little top spin was imparted. Result – the ball was hit less long and the bit of top spin helped it come down. It seemed a remarkable improvement for quite a small change in the stroke. Alan said we need to be aiming for 80% consistency before we try to up the power too much, perhaps keeping the power down to 60%. As consistency improves and the stroke becomes more reliable, then the power can be cranked up a bit. So start with a consistency/power ratio of 80/60.

Listening

Listen to the ball hit your opponents bat. The quieter the contact between bat and ball the more spin there will be. The louder the noise the less spin there will be. This is the reason that stamping when serving was outlawed as it covered the sound of the ball on bat and helped disguise the amount of spin imparted.

Watching

Watch the ball once it has left your opponent’s bat until you have hit it yourself. Immediately you have hit the ball, switch your attention to your opponent and watch their bat to anticipate the stroke, spin and direction of their return.

Aiming

A favourite and effective target to attack is the hip of your opponent on the side they play, for instance the right hip of a right handed player. This is a sort of no-man’s territory between playing a forehand and playing a backhand. Opponents with good footwork will often manage to avoid recieving a ball in this area.

Simple service return

I was bought a DVD called “Beginning Table Tennis” published by www.sportsvideos.com. It is pretty basic and probably very good for complete beginners as the title suggests. One thing I got from this DVD that I haven’t heard expressed in quite the same way before is the advice for a simple approach to returning service. The idea is that you return a top spin serve with a top spin return and a back spin serve with a back spin return. Can it be this simple? Probably not as this presupposes you can read the spin on the serve in the first place. And what about side spin? However, it might be a good first approach and give something to build on. I assume the idea is that this will nullify the server’s spin and return the ball as a ‘float’ shot, i.e. one without any spin. Alan has shown us how to block top spin by turning the face of the bat down towards the table surface without playing a stroke or just a short push and taking the ball just after the bounce. This returns a top spin shot quite quickly and reduces the time your opponent has to prepare for their next shot. This might be a good way to return top spin serves too. The more top spin there is the more you can close your bat’s face. I am hoping to work on my block shots with Alan soon and will report back.

More on service return

At a recent coaching session Alan got us to try to read the spin on his serves and adjust our returns accordingly. I found this very difficulty but at least got the general idea. He showed us how to deal with backspin and topspin serves but then demonstrated that it is possible to make a serve look like one sort when in fact it is another! And then he introduced sidespin too! Hopefully not many of our opponents will serve as well as this in division 3! At the moment I am having great difficulty in returning good serves, John’s for instance, and tend to rely on trying to get them back with a top spin flick of sorts which is very hit and miss. However, a better approach seems to be to push the ball back low and short being sure to lift the ‘heavy’ back spin ball over the net. The problem is that if it is a top spin serve and you don’t spot it the push return just pops the ball up and you get it back straight between the eyes!

When receiving side spin from the serve the ball will tend to fly off your bat in the same direction their bat was going as they imparted the spin. If their bat is moving from your right to left as you view it then your return will tend to go to your left. You can adjust your return to allow for this but if the serve is met with a well timed top spin drive this will usually overcome the spin received. However the timing of this is difficult. One consolation is that apparently about half the spin on a ball is disserpated by the bounces on the table. Returning serves successfully depends on close observation, reading the spin and lots of practice.

Serving

The basic serve should be low and short, i.e. it bounces on the other side of the net close enough to it and at a pace so that it would bounce again before clearing the end of the table. This makes the serve hard to attack and brings your opponent into the table. Should the return be popped up there is a good opportunity to attack on the 3rd stroke of the rally and, if not win the point right there, at least take the initiative and put your opponent on the back foot. I have recently got a copy of Seelmiller and Holowchak’s “Winning Table Tennis” and the section on serving says that serves should be short (Alan says about 70% and mix in a few fast long ones) or long and never bounce in the middle third (between the net and the end of the table) of you opponent’s half of the table. There is so much to learn about serving and returning service so I’m sure there will be more coaching tips on this as we learn more.