Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching

Table tennis players can spend silly amounts of money on table tennis equipment. I play with Butterfly Tenergy rubbers, which aren’t cheap. When I buy new rubbers, it will cost the best part of £100.

Ouch.

Hello overdraft, nice to see you again!

Since I spend more money than I should on table tennis rubbers, I really try to look after them. I want them to last as long as possible and retain their grippiness, so I can get lots of spin on my shots.

Taking care of my table tennis bat doesn’t take much effort or cost much money. Here’s what I do (and you should do too).

Clean with water

Table tennis rubbers collect dust, powder from balls, sweat, hair, anything! When you get too much dust and grime on your rubbers, they become less grippy. The ball will start to slip off the rubbers and you will find it harder to consistently generate heavy spin.

You need to get all this stuff off your rubbers.

The cheapest way to keep your bat clean is to use a little bit of water and some kitchen paper or a cloth and wipe the surface clean. This only takes a minute and the rubber will dry very quickly.

Don’t use too much water, as you will end up soaking the rubbers and even the blade, which is not a good idea.

Just a little water and a quick wipe and you will remove most of the dust and grime from your rubbers.

You should do this after every time you play.

Clean with spray and sponge

A little water will get rid of most grime on your rubbers, but not everything.

Once a week or before a league match or tournament, I will give my rubbers a deeper clean with a biological spray and a sponge. This will clear the dust, but also clear the sweat and oils which water doesn’t always get to.

I don’t use a biological spray all the time, as I’m concerned about the chemicals in the spray making the rubbers deteriorate quicker. But a spray once a week is fine.

A bottle of biological spray doesn’t cost very much (£5-£10) and will last for ages. I’ve had my current spray for about two years and it hasn’t run out yet.

Here’s what I use:

Butterfly table tennis rubber cleaner (Buy in UK | Buy in USA)
Butterfly cotton sponge (Buy in UK | Buy in USA)

Another good choice:

Joola Turbo Cleaner (Buy in UK | Buy in USA)

Buy a bat case

I’m sure you have one already, but if you don’t, make sure you buy a bat case.

The main purpose of a bat case is to keep your rubbers dust-free and provide protection when you’re not playing.

Table tennis rubbers are very easy to scratch, so if you don’t keep your bat covered and protected, your rubbers will be at greater risk of damage.

It doesn’t really matter what type of bat case you have. You can buy a case for a single bat for £5-£10 and these are fine. I use a larger bat case, which can fit three bats, as I need to carry spares when I’m coaching.

If you’re really concerned about keeping your bat safe, you can buy an aluminum case. No harm will come to your bat in one of these bat cases!

Here’s some popular bat cases you can buy on Amazon:

USA

You can also buy bat cases from any good table tennis retailer. Take a look at my list of table tennis retailers in UK, Europe, USA, Asia and Australia to find a retailer near you.

Optional extra: rubber protector

Another option is to buy rubber protectors. These are thin, transparent films, which you can cut to the shape of your rubbers.

After playing, some players will clean their rubbers and then cover with protectors. This ensures nothing will get onto the rubber surface.

I don’t use these, as I think a bat case does pretty much the same thing, but I know plenty of players do.

Recommendation:

Butterfly rubber film (Buy in UK)

Clean rubbers = better performance

All table tennis rubbers deteriorate over time and will eventually need to be replaced. But you can make your rubbers last longer (and stay grippier for longer) by looking after them.

When I first started playing table tennis I didn’t bother to clean my rubbers. I didn’t know I was supposed to! My rubbers collected lots of dust, dirt, sweat and grime and I just carried on playing (badly).

One day a more experienced player took a look at my rubbers and gave me a good telling off. My rubbers were a disgrace! He cleaned them for me and I started hitting a few balls. The difference was incredible. It seemed so much easier to spin the ball.

I learned my lesson and from then on, I have always kept my rubbers clean.

It really doesn’t cost much to look after bat, so there is no excuse. Keep your rubbers clean!

The post How to look after your table tennis bat appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

I have four players I’m coaching at the moment who all have the same problem. Their attacks are so powerful the ball goes long more often than it hits the table.

When their attack goes in, it’s often a winner. It’s very difficult to return the ball. They hit the ball so hard, that if it hits my body, it leaves a little red mark for the next few hours.

But here’s the problem. For every successful attack they make, they usually miss another three or four. They hit the ball so hard, they have trouble controlling the length of the attack, and the ball often goes long.

Even though they can play some great attacking shots, their attacking game isn’t effective as they miss too many shots. They have poor consistency. In a match situation, there’s not much point hitting 2 great attacks in a game, if you miss another 6.

So, here’s two very important pieces of advice I give to any player I coach who makes too many mistakes by hitting the ball too hard.

1. Reduce your power to 80%

If you hit your attacks at 100% of you power and you keep missing, just reduce the power of your attacks.

Think about attacking at 80% of your power rather than 100%.

When you take off some of your power, your consistency will increase, sometimes quite considerably.

As you’re hitting the ball so hard in the first place, you have plenty of scope to take some power off the attack. A shot at 80% of your power will still be pretty damn fast and beat most opponents, but it will be much more consistent.

You don’t have to blast an opponent’s head off with your attacks. Just get the ball on the table!

2. Focus on placement

When you take power off your attacks, you should find it easier to focus on placing the ball where where you want.

Aim to get your attacks deep or wide. Anywhere close to the lines is good. This puts a lot of pressure on your opponent.

A well placed attack at 80% of your power will be just as likely to win the point as a 100% power shot. And your consistency will be higher.

Two of the best players in my division last season had quite slow attacks, but their placement was excellent. They were always finding the lines, finding great angles, pushing their opponents back and stretching them wide. They didn’t blast the ball. They just focused on placement. And they hardly ever missed.

I’d much rather face an opponent with a huge, but inconsistent, attack, than a slower attacker who never misses.

100% power + placement + consistency?

It would be great if the four players I’m coaching were able to attack consistently at 100% of the power, with great placement.

This is an admirable goal to have. But it takes time to build this high level of power, consistency and accuracy.

If you miss too many attacks by hitting the ball too hard, it is far better to reduce your power and find a level where you can attack consistently.

From this base level, you can gradually start increasing your power. Just add a little more power and see if you can maintain consistency. If you start missing too much, just ease off again.

You need to find the right balance between power and consistency.

Above all, think about placement. Whether you’re attacking slow or fast, if you place the ball deep or wide, you’re going to win many more points.

The post Advice for players who hit the ball very hard, but keep missing appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

One of the benefits of having a table tennis table in my garage, is that I get to practise my serves a lot. I spend time practising my favourite serves – the ones I always use in matches. I also spend some time experimenting with different service actions and spin.

As a result of all this practice, my service game is quite strong. I usually win lots of points on my serve and my service tactics get me out of trouble when other parts of my game aren’t working quite so well.

In this blog post I share some of the service tactics which help me win cheap points.

First, a warning! Some of these serves will work brilliantly against one opponent, but may be totally ineffective against another opponent. Your job is to find out which serves work against which opponent, and which serve do not.

You also need to remember that it’s not all about trying to win point directly from the serve (although this is a bonus). It’s just as much about getting your opponent to return the ball in a predictable way so you can take control of the rally.

Related blog post: Always expect your serve to be returned

So let’s look at some of my favourite service tactics to win cheap points…

Fast sidespin to the hip

What to do:

Serve from the backhand corner
Serve fast and long with sidespin
Aim to get the ball to swing into your opponent’s hip

The purpose of this serve is to target your opponent’s crossover point, i.e. their right hip if they are a right handed player. This is the small area where where your opponent has to make a decision whether to play backhand or forehand.

If you serve at speed, your opponent has less time to make this decision and move their feet. The result? If the player doesn’t move, they have no space to play a stroke and will often make an error or make a weak return for you to attack.

The crossover point is quite a small target area. If your serve drifts too much to the centre of the body, your opponent will be able to return with their backhand. If the ball doesn’t turn enough, your opponent will be able to return with their forehand. You have to try and find the small space in between their forehand and backhand, e.g. their hip.

Keep hitting this target and you will win lots of points.

Very wide sidespin

What to do:

Serve from the backhand corner
Serve very wide to your opponent’s backhand with sidespin
Stay in the backhand corner. When the ball is returned, play a quick attack in the opposite corner

This is a good serve to use if an opponent’s footwork is poor. The aim is serve very wide, so the ball keeps moving off the side of the table. This will move your opponent out wide to their backhand side, leaving the table wide open for an easy third ball attack.

If your opponent doesn’t move well, they may never reach the serve. You’ll ace them.

If they do get to it, 90% of the time they will be so surprised they will just return the ball where it came from. So just stay in the backhand corner and play a quick forehand or backhand to the open side of the table.

Long, heavy backspin serve

What to do:

Serve from the backhand corner
Serve long, heavy backspin – the ball should bounce close to the end of the table
If your opponent cannot loop, they will push the serve back
Topspin the third ball

A lot of coaches will tell you not to serve long backspin, as it’s too risky. You give your opponent an opportunity to attack. This is very true if you are playing at a very high level. But at local league level, especially in lower divisions, players struggle to attack these serves. They don’t have good enough topspin attacks.

Rather than attack, a lot of players will just push the ball back. If they push rather than topspin, you can use this serve to set up a very predictable return. Because the serve is long, the push return will come deep, which will give you a very good opportunity to topspin the 3rd ball.

If you want to set up your backhand attack, serve crosscourt. If you want to set up a forehand attack, serve more to the middle or forehand side.

Topspin to weak side

What to do:

Serve from any position
Serve topspin long to your opponent’s weaker side
Get ready for a passive return and topspin / drive the 3rd ball

Topspin serves are often underrated and underused. I think this is because they are not particularly difficult to return and if a player has a strong attack, they may wallop the ball past you.

However, the real advantage of the a topspin serve is that the return is very predictable. You serve topspin, 95% of the time your opponent will return with topspin.

The key is to target your opponent’s weaker side, if they have one. If a player has a weak backhand, a long topspin serve should cause them all kinds of problems. They may passively prod at the ball, causing it to pop up a little high and you then have a great opportunity to attack the third ball.

Even if they return the serve a bit more confidently – no problem – it will just be topspin and you will be ready and waiting to attack anyway.

Backhand sidespin from forehand corner

Serve with your backhand from the forehand corner
Serve wide with sidespin so it cuts across your opponent’s forehand
Prepare for a backhand 3rd ball attack

Players rarely serve with their backhand from the forehand corner. It doesn’t make that much sense, as you take your forehand out of the game and you leave your own backhand corner very exposed.

However, if you have a strong backhand attack, this serve can really work for you.

The serve itself can cause loads of problems, as the sidespin cuts right across an opponent’s forehand, much like a lefty serving to a righty. Players just aren’t used to serves coming from this angle. If they’re not used to it, they will make plenty of mistakes.

If the ball is returned, it is usually returned crosscourt, straight into the server’s backhand attacking zone. Then boom! Point over.

Bouncy backspin

I’ll finish with something fun to try.

I often noticed that when my serve went horribly wrong and bounced up high, my opponent would be so surprised they would completely mess up the return of serve.

I would apologise for doing such a rubbish serve and winning the point, and they would just look embarrassed.

Then I started doing it a bit more on purpose (usually when I had a comfortable lead). I’d throw in an occasional bouncy backspin serve and watch in amazement as the change in trajectory and speed would completely panic an opponent.

I have found that bouncy backspin works best, because player’s underestimate how much backspin is on the ball and they don’t topspin it enough to lift it over the net.

This won’t work against everyone. A stronger player may blast the ball past you, making you look a bit silly. But it’s something worth experimenting with.

Share your service secret

Now that I have shared some of my service secrets to win cheap points, why don’t you do the same? Let me know in the comments box below which serves you use to win cheap points against your opponents.

The post Service tactics to win cheap points appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

“Attack the middle.”

“Focus on attacking the middle.”

“For goodness sake, just attack the damn middle.”

Welcome to inside my head! This is the conversation I often have with myself when my topspin attacks keep being returned and I’m not winning many points.

When I attack, I always go for the corners. I love attacking the corners. I’ve spent a lot of time practising attacking corners. It’s what I’m good at.

There’s nothing wrong with this. Often I have great success attacking the corners. But it becomes an issue if my opponent starts reading my attacks too easily. I become predictable and my opponent can block or counter-attack with ease.

This is where ‘attack the middle’ comes in. It’s a great position to attack and can be a game-changer. I don’t do it enough, but when my brain forces my body to comply and attack the middle, it works! It works brilliantly.

Let me explain what I mean by attacking the middle and why it can be so effective.

What do I mean by ‘attack the middle’?

When I say ‘attack the middle’, what I really mean is attacking an opponent’s crossover point. Most of the time, this will be located more in the centre of the table, rather than in the corners.

The crossover point is where a player has to decide whether to play a forehand or a backhand. This is roughly the area in line with an opponent’s playing elbow. This is not a fixed position on the table. It will keep moving depending on where your opponent is.

I like to use the term ‘attack the middle’, rather than ‘attack the crossover point’. In a fast paced match, it’s not always easy to exactly pinpoint an opponent’s crossover point. I find ‘attack the middle’ a bit easier to visualise when playing. But, of course, my ultimate aim is to hit that crossover point if I can.

Why is attacking the middle effective?

Attacks to the middle can be very effective as you force your opponent to make a decision. When you attack an opponent’s forehand, they have no choice. They have to play a forehand. When you attack an opponent’s backhand, they have no choice. They have to play a backhand.

But when you attack the crossover point, your opponent has to decide whether to return with their forehand or backhand. Your opponent has to move left or right, to get in a good position to return the ball.

If they don’t move, you’ve got them! Your opponent will be forced to play an awkward shot or won’t be able to return the ball at all.

Length and speed

To make an attack to the middle even more effective, you want the ball to land deep and you want to play with some speed.

If your attack drops short or is too slow, your opponent will have more time to make a decision and move left or right to play with their forehand or backhand.

A quick attack, where the ball lands near the end of the table is much harder to defend against. You take time away from your opponent. He or she will have little chance to react and nine times out of ten, you’ll win the point.

Here’s a great example from the final of the 2016 German Open between Ma Long and Vladimir Samsonov. In this video, you’ll see Ma Long win two points in row by attacking Samsonov’s crossover point. Samsonov is one of the best blockers in the world. But Ma Long attacks so fast and deep, there really isn’t much Samsonov can do. Throughout this match you will see lots of instances where Ma Long attacks the middle. It’s a great tactic to use against a blocker.

Attacking the middle can be a game-changer

My habit is still to attack the corners, but I’m trying to attack the middle more. In one match recently, I was losing 6-8 in the deciding game. The match was slipping away. My attacks were being blocked too easily.

Then my brain finally woke up and had a chat with my body and I started attacking the middle. I won the next 5 points and the match.

I was happy the tactic worked, but also annoyed with myself that I had left it to the end of the match to attack the middle. Had I done this earlier in the match, I’m sure I would have won more comfortably.

So if you don’t currently attack the middle, give it a go. You may be very happy with the outcome!

The post Why you should “attack the middle” appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

I often get asked by parents which table tennis bat their child should use. There is a ridiculous amount of choice available, so I completely understand why parents seek advice, especially if they do not play table tennis themselves.

Questions often include: What’s the best bat? How much do I need to spend? Do kids need different bats to adults? Is this cheap bat I bought any good? What’s the best brand? Should my child play with the same bat as the professionals?

So many questions!

But let’s keep things simple.

In this blog post, I will share the advice I give to parents of juniors I coach. My advice is based upon two main factors: age and playing standard. I will look at two different age groups (4-8 and 9-16) and give a few recommendations for each age group.

So let’s start with the younger ones…

Age 4-8

For young children I recommend buying a smaller ‘child-sized’ table tennis bat. This has a slightly smaller playing surface, a thinner handle and weighs less than a regular-sized table tennis bat.

The main benefit of a child-sized table tennis bat is the thinner handle. A young child will often struggle with a thicker handle, especially when switching between strokes and trying to use their wrist to add spin. A thinner handle sits much better in a child’s hand. They find it more comfortable to hold and easier to play with.

In most cases, a child will have only just started playing table tennis in this age range. So he or she will be a beginner standard. For beginners I recommend buying a Butterfly Skills Junior Table Tennis Bat (buy in UK | buy in USA).

It’s quite possible that a child will start improving quite quickly when they get to age 7 and 8, especially if they have been playing for a couple of years. If this is the case, they may need a better bat.

There isn’t really many options for high quality child-sized table tennis bats which you can just buy off the shelf. The best option is to buy a custom-made table tennis bat. This is where you choose a blade, red rubber and black rubber and a table tennis retailer will put the bat together for you.

Again, there isn’t many blades available in a smaller size, but there’s a few good choices:

You can choose any rubbers to go with these blades, as the rubber will be cut to match the size of the blade. It’s best to choose rubbers which are faster and spinner than the beginner bats, but still have good control. This will prevent the child from overhitting the ball too much. Some good choices for medium speed rubbers are:

Butterfly Roundell Soft
Yasaka Mark V
Donic Vario

If you want to buy a custom-made table tennis bat, you will need to purchase via a table tennis retailer. Take a look at my list of retailers in UK, USA, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Age 9-16

As a child grows bigger, he or she will need to make the switch to a regular sized table tennis bat.

When is the best age to switch? This really depends on the size and strength of the child. From my experience most 9 and 10 year-olds have no problem with a regular sized bat. I would expect anyone aged 11+ to be using a regular sized bat.

Switching to a regular sized table tennis bat isn’t a major issue. A regular sized bat isn’t really that big or heavy. The child may find it a bit awkward at first playing with a thicker handle, but will soon adapt.

So let’s look at the best table tennis bats for different standard juniors.

Beginner juniors

For beginner juniors, any of the following table tennis bats are a good choice:

USA

These bats are much better than the very cheap bats you can buy (bats which cost under £10 are usually pretty rubbish). These are good starter bats. Not too fast, not too slow, lots of control, but you can still generate decent spin. They will help a junior develop good technique, if being guided by an experienced player or coach.

For more advice about beginner bats, take a look at my blog post Best table tennis bats for beginners

Intermediate juniors

If a junior plays regularly, he or she will usually improve quite quickly. If this is the case, a better bat will probably be needed.

Here’s a few options for a ready-made bat suitable for an improving junior who has progressed beyond the beginner stage.

USA

Alternatively, you buy a custom made bat, where you choose from the huge range of blades and rubbers available and a retailer will put the bat together for you. (Take a look at my list of retailers in UK, USA, Europe, Asia and Australia to find a store near you.)

Whichever option you go for, it’s important to get something with decent control (i.e. not too fast). The temptation for a junior at this age and standard is to think they’re better than they actually are. They may want to play with the rubbers which professional players use. But these fast rubbers are very responsive and require a very high ability level to control the ball consistently. An intermediate junior will struggle with these fast rubbers. An “all-round” bat is a far better option.

For more advice on table tennis bats for intermediate players, take a look at my blog post Best table tennis bats for intermediate players.

Advanced juniors

Some juniors will start performing at a very high level. This is one of the things I love about table tennis. It really is a sport where different ages (and generations!) can compete equally.

Tomokazu Harimoto shot to fame at age 11, when he started beating adults ranked in the top 100 in the world.

Just recently, Miu Hirano became the youngest ever winner of the Women’s World Cup. Hirano is just 16 years old.

If a junior reaches an advanced level, he or she will be competing with and beating adults. Advanced juniors can choose any equipment they want. They will be able to cope with, and will benefit from, the very fast and spinny rubbers.

It’s impossible to make specific recommendations, as it all depends on a junior’s particular playing style.

There will be plenty of trial and error involved, as the junior tries out different equipment. You should be prepared to change blades and rubbers a few times before you find the perfect combination.

Take a look at my blog post Tips on buying a new table tennis bat for more advice for advanced players.

Final thoughts

If a junior plays table tennis regularly and starts taking the sport seriously, he or she will go through a lot of table tennis bats.

This is partly because table tennis rubbers deteriorate over time and need replacing. It’s also because juniors can improve very quickly, so will need to keep upgrading to better equipment.

It’s important to get a table tennis bat which is suitable for a junior’s age and standard of play.

Be wary of buying bats which are too fast. A junior learning how to play may struggle to control the ball consistently.

If in doubt, go for an all-round bat. These are a bit more forgiving than the fast bats and are easier for juniors to play with as they learn the game.

The post Best table tennis bats for junior players appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

Some players have a very strong side (i.e. forehand) and a relatively weak side (i.e. backhand). They are often called ‘one-wing attackers’, as they will only attack with their strong side. Most commonly, the strong side is the forehand.

These sort of players should be easy to beat. In theory you just need to avoid their strong side and they won’t be able to attack you.

But in reality, these players can be very difficult to beat. Why? Because they use positioning, footwork and service tactics to set up their strong side as much as possible. It’s not always easy to avoid their strong side.

We’ve all faced this type of opponent. No matter where you put the ball, they seem to be able to attack with their strong side. Play the ball to their weaker backhand, they step around and whizz a forehand past you. Try to catch them out with a ball to their wide forehand and they quickly step across and whizz another ball past you.

What should you do against this type of player? I have very good knowledge of one-wing attackers, because this is how I play. Strong forehand, rubbish backhand. I have always been the same. So I know which tactics cause me problems and will cause other one-wing attackers problems too.

Here’s what you should do (and how to beat me!).

Target their weaker side relentlessly

Let’s assume the one-wing attacker has a strong forehand and weaker backhand. If this is the case, you should target their weaker backhand again and again and again. Serve to their backhand. Return serves to their backhand. Keep rallying to their backhand. Give them as few chances as possible to play with their stronger forehand.

A good one-wing forehand attacker will be able to cover most of the table with their forehand. So you should try and play very wide to their backhand. This will make it harder for them to step around. This wide placement is very important.

Thinking about my own game, if someone plays to the middle of the backhand side, I don’t have too much trouble stepping around and using my forehand. But if someone keeps playing very wide to my backhand, then I struggle. It’s physically much harder to get into a position to play a forehand, when the ball is very wide on the backhand side. The result? I won’t use my forehand. I have to use my weaker backhand.

Don’t feel apologetic about targeting the backhand. It may be you best chance of winning. If it works, just keep doing it. The one-wing attacker leaves you very little choice. If you play to their forehand you will likely get beat. So you have to try to exploit their weaker backhand over and over again.

Quick blocks / counter attacks to the open table

When you keep playing to their backhand, a one-wing attacker may start to get a bit frustrated (I know I do). They may start to take a few more risks to get their forehand into play, like stepping around very wide balls to their backhand to play forehand attacks.

If they start doing this, they will leave themselves very exposed to blocks or counter attacks to the opposite corner. You should try and target this open space.

There is nothing more demoralising for a one-wing forehand attacker if they make all the effort to step around a wide ball to their backhand, play a forehand attack and then their opponent blocks the ball back in the opposite corner for a clean winner.

What happens next? The one-wing attacker becomes more reluctant to step around wide balls to their backhand. You have caused doubt in their mind. Next time, they may not step around enough as they are worried about being caught out with a block to the opposite corner. If they don’t step around enough, their attack will be much weaker or they’ll mess it up. Or they may decide not to step around at all and they will have to use their weaker backhand.

Occasional switches to the forehand

Now that you have got the one-wing attacker using their weaker backhand most of the time, their stronger forehand may also start to become less reliable.

This definitely happens to me. I get tied up on my backhand and when I get the occasional opportunity to attack with my forehand, I tense up, I rush it, I try too hard, I mess it up. It’s like I have to make this shot, as I haven’t had many opportunities to attack with my forehand. And the extra pressure often results in an error. Now I’m beat! I’m using my weaker backhand too much and my forehand is now just as rubbish!

Summary

So that’s three very simple, but effective, tactics to use against a one-wing forehand attacker. Keep playing to their weaker backhand again and again and again. Exploit the open table if they step around wide balls to their backhand. And when they begin to look a bit demoralised, occasionally play to their forehand, and you may find it’s not so strong after all.

I’ll finish with a warning…

If you play me and use these these tactics, you’ll do well. AT THIS MOMENT IN TIME. But I’m on a mission to improve my backhand. At some point it’s going to be great (I can’t tell you exactly how long this will be). So you’d better watch out!

The post Tactics for beating a one-wing attacker appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

In his latest book, Black Box Thinking, English table tennis legend Matthew Syed brilliantly argues why we all need to learn from our mistakes. Syed looks at examples from the aviation industry, healthcare, the justice system and sport to show how a healthy relationship with failure can help you (or the organisation you work for) improve and grow.

Learning from your mistakes is important for anyone playing table tennis, or any sport. We have to deal with failure a lot. This is especially true of players who are playing competitively for the first time or players who move up a level. These players usually experience a lot of losses. With these losses, comes self-doubt.

“I’m not good enough.”

“I’ll never be able to beat these players.”

“I’m going to quit playing.”

Some of the players I have coached over the past few years have expressed these thoughts. Their losses and failures have affected them badly.

It is very easy to get despondent. But I try to encourage these players to have a healthy relationship with failure. It sounds very cheesy, but every failure is a learning opportunity.

You can learn so much from your losses – which parts of your game are weak, which tactics don’t work, which styles you find difficult to play against. Without the losses and failures, you’d never know what you need to do to improve.

Sometimes I’ll get a sceptical look from a player. The look says “You don’t understand. You’re already a decent table tennis player. You don’t have to worry about failing all the time”.

It’s at this stage that I will start to reveal some of my biggest table tennis failures. Here’s three good examples…

1. My disastrous first tournament

I played table tennis on and off when growing up. Nothing serious. I mainly played with my Dad and brother, sometimes at school and occasionally I went to my local club. I never played competitively though.

This changed when I was doing my Master’s degree at Southampton University in 2014. Somehow I managed to make the university team. I don’t know how, as I really wasn’t very good. It must have been a poor year!

We took part in the British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) Table Tennis Championships. This was a tournament for the best university table tennis players studying in Britain.

One of my teammates, who had played in the tournament before, said I’d do ok. She was either being very kind, or was massively overestimating how good I was. But I was re-assured. Maybe I would do ok. I was excited.

This excitement didn’t last long. I walked into the tournament hall and my mouth dropped. Everyone knocking up looked amazingly good at table tennis. They were looping the ball back and forth metres back from the table, playing shots I’d never even seen before. I couldn’t even topspin a ball (seriously).

I found a quiet corner and hid away until it was my turn to play. I got out my trusty £5 bat which I had been using for years. The rubbers were dead. And I had a plaster on the handle to cover up a chip in the wood.

I played my first group match. Guess what happened? I got slaughtered. Next match, I got thrashed again. Third match, another massive beating. I felt embarrassed for the players I was losing to, as they were so much better than me.

I was humiliated. I really wasn’t very good at table tennis. I stopped playing table tennis for two years after this, as I was clearly rubbish!

2. My panic-stricken first league match

In 2006, I went on to Sri Lanka to celebrate my eldest brother’s wedding. During the holiday, I played table tennis with my brothers and I had a great time. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed playing. Obviously it helped that my brothers were the same standard as me, rather than top university players.

So I decided that I was going to join a table tennis club when I got back from the holiday. I found a club near where I lived in London, Finsbury Table Tennis Club. The club coach, Sanket Shah, was very welcoming and there seemed to be lots of players of a similar standard to me.

So I started playing every week. And with help from Sanket and other players, I started to improve. I was keen to have another go at competitive table tennis, so put myself forward to play in the league.

After a year of regular practice and gradual improvement, I was ready. I had even learned how to topspin the ball a little bit! I felt confident I was going to win plenty of matches. I wasn’t going to be humiliated like I was at the university tournament.

It was time for my first competitive league match. I knew I was playing better than ever, certainly a lot better than when I was at university. I had high hopes.

But as the league match approached, something odd happened. I felt terrible. My nervous system went into meltdown. I was a nervous-wreck! My mouth was dry. My legs were heavy. My heart rate was on overdrive. I could feel the eyes of everyone in the hall looking at me. I wanted to be somewhere else, anywhere else, other than in this table tennis hall.

Guess what? I played terrible. I lost all three matches easily. All that preparation and practise and I still sucked at table tennis. I was at a loss to explain why I had played so badly. I could sense the disappointment in my team-mates. It was not an enjoyable experience.

3. My rubbish first FIVE league seasons

In fact, my first five league seasons were pretty rubbish.

Here are my win percentages:

Season 1 – 32%
Season 2 – 63%
Season 3 – 21%
Season 4 – 47%
Season 5 – 36%

It’s not great is it? Only one season did I get over 50%.

In these first league seasons, I lost a lot of matches. I lost to 11-year-olds. I lost to 80-year-olds. I lost to players who could barely get the ball back on the table during the warm-up. I lost to defenders. I lost to attackers. I lost to players who seemed to have no playing style at all. Some evenings I wouldn’t win a single game in any match. 3-0, 3-0, 3-0.

I found it really difficult in season 3, when I moved up a division. It was a bit too early to move up a division and I was completely outplayed in most of my matches. I felt a long way away from being remotely competitive, let alone having any chance of winning.

I was a major failure.

Learning from my failures

The reason I tell these stories to the player I coach is to highlight how failure is completely normal. My early failures really aren’t very unusual. Most table tennis players experience a lot of failure early on.

It is ok to fail. Even the best players in the world fail. Ma Long is World Champion and Olympic Champion. He’s had a phenomenally successful 18 months. But in the first major tournament after the Olympic Games – the China Open – he got spanked 4-0 by his teammate Fan Zhendong. Even the best mess-up!

It’s how we respond to these failures which really matters. Ma Long won’t have liked losing 4-0. He will have learnt important lessons from that defeat and will be working very hard to make sure it’s not the same result next time.

As for me? I’m happy to fail. Even though I didn’t have much success in my first five league seasons, I learnt a lot. I learnt how to control my nerves. I learnt how to play against different styles. I learnt how to beat long pimples players. I learnt match tactics. I learnt how to attack backspin balls. I learnt how to return serves. I learnt how to play table tennis!

The improvement wasn’t instant. It was gradual. Two steps forward. One step back. But bit by bit, I got better. After season five, I started winning many more matches than I lost. But it took my five years of failure to get there.

Every time I lose a match now, I’m fairly relaxed. I don’t want to lose and I try my best not to lose, but when I do lose, I always try to learn something from it. I try to identify things I need to do to improve. How was I losing points?Which tactics didn’t work? What did the other player do better than me? What can I learn from him/her?

This is the relationship you need to have with failure. Don’t get despondent when things don’t go well. Learn from your losses. Think of failure as your helpful friend – shining a light on the the things you need to do to get even better at table tennis.

I’ll leave the final word to Matthew Syed from his book, Black Box Thinking…

“It sounds simple, doesn’t it? Learning from failure has the status of a cliché. But it turns out that, for reasons both prosaic and profound, a failure to learn from mistakes has been one of the single greatest obstacles to human progress.”

The post My biggest table tennis failures (so far) appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

Table tennis University

If you haven’t already heard, Table Tennis University is back, thanks to the efforts of Ben Larcombe from Expert Table Tennis.

The relaunched Table Tennis University website has several online table tennis courses, covering topics such as service, forehand loop, backhand loop, footwork and a flagship ‘university’ course which covers pretty much every aspect of table tennis you can think of. And more table tennis course are going to be added in the future.

The big question is, are these courses any good? Can online table tennis lessons help you improve? Is it worth spending money on an online table tennis course, or should you just find a coach to teach you?

Here’s my views…

Getting ready to learn

Ben very kindly gave me access to the flagship Table Tennis University course. This is the the most comprehensive course on the website (and anywhere on the internet).

I was ready to learn.

I put the kids to bed, made myself comfortable on my sofa, switched on my laptop and logged in the my Table Tennis University account.

And wow…

The first thing I noticed was the huge volume of content. The first part of the course includes 52 lessons, covering every aspect of table tennis.

Service? Check.

Service return? Check.

Pushing? Check.

Forehand loop, backhand loop, blocking, flicking, counter loops, smashing? Check, check, check, check, check.

Each lesson focuses on a particular stroke or skill. The lesson includes a video demonstration and a downloadable training plan. Each video is around 10 minutes long. Some are a bit shorter and many are longer.

There’s so much to look at and learn, I wasn’t quite sure where to start (in a good way). I wanted to look at it all at once! Instead I picked out a few lessons and started watching and making notes.

These 52 lessons on their own would be enough to keep me learning for a long time, but there is more…

In the second part of the course there’s 148 drill demonstrations. That’s right, one hundred and forty eight. Again, these training drills cover every type of stroke and combination of strokes. These videos are great, as they show you what drills you need to do during your practice sessions.

By this point I was starting to contemplate how I could take 6 months off work to watch all of the the lessons and training drills. But wait, there’s even more…

In the third part of the course, there’s 60 ‘how to’ videos, e.g. how to beat long pips players, how to keep your smashes on the table, how to loop heavy backspin. These videos are probably the most useful of the lot, as they really address the issues which players often struggle with.

With the 52 lessons, 148 training drills and 60 ‘how to’ videos, there is enough content to last a very long time. I’m sure I will keep watching and re-watching these videos for years.

Quality of teaching

The coach for Table Tennis University is Tao Li.

Tao Li played table tennis professionally in China from 1985-1991 and won a gold medal at the 1989 Chinese National Junior Championships.

In 1995, he began his career as a table tennis coach at the Beijing Jiaotong University in China.

In 2000, he moved to Canada and coached the British Columbia Men’s and Women’s teams to international success.

In short, Tao Li has played at a very high level and has had great success as a coach.

In the videos, Tao Li comes across as very passionate and he clearly gets great joy from playing and teaching table tennis.

One thing you need to be aware of is that English is not Tao Li’s first language. It can be a little difficult to follow what he says. He sometimes struggles to find the right words to communicate his message.

I did find myself rewinding a few times to listen again to what he said. Most of the time the meaning is clear, but occasionally something does get lost in translation.

If you have any doubts before signing up, I would recommend watching a couple of the free videos available on the Table Tennis University youtube channel.

In terms of the content he is teaching, Tao Li clearly knows his stuff. I found myself nodding in agreement lots of times and making notes on new stuff I was learning.

I didn’t agree with everything he was saying. For example, when explaining how to attack backspin with your backhand, he says you should play with a straight wrist and just use your forearm. I have always been taught (and teach players I coach), to use your forearm and wrist to attack backspin balls with your backhand. But it’s good to be challenged and try different things. In my next practice session I tried a backhand topspin the Tao Li way. It worked ok. I couldn’t get much pace on the ball without using my wrist, but it was fairly consistent.

And what the heck do I know? I’m just a local league player whilst Tao Li has played professionally.

Video quality and technology

The production standards are very high – the best I’ve seen for videos teaching table tennis. The sound is pretty clear on the whole, although on some videos you do get some background noise from balls being hit on a nearby table.

The Table Tennis University website is very easy to use. You can dip in and out of videos as you choose. You don’t have to watch the videos in any particular order. And you can re-watch as many times as you want. You can watch the videos on a desktop computer, tablet or mobile phone. And there is even an option to download videos to your computer’s hard-drive.

Cost

Here’s the sticking point. The flagship Table Tennis University course is expensive. At time of writing, the course costs $297. It’s going to put a dent in your wallet!

But for this cost, you do get a lot of content. You will be learning from the videos and using the training plans for a long time. If you were to split this cost over a two or three year period, then it really doesn’t work out that expensive.

But if this initial investment just isn’t affordable for you, then there are other cheaper courses on the Table Tennis University website.

You could sign-up for the free course – Basics Mastery. This includes 12 lessons looking at grip, drives, blocks, footwork and the forehand topspin serve.

Or you could choose one of the smaller $47 courses. There are four available:

These courses are also taught by Tao Li and are obviously much more affordable.

Online course vs real-life coach

So is it worth it?

As a table tennis coach myself, I will always say the best way to improve is to find a good coach who can teach you. If you do something wrong, the coach can correct you straight away. And the coaching can be tailored to your specific needs.

However, I do think that online table tennis courses can be a really useful addition to your table tennis development, even if you already have a coach. You get to hear a different perspective. You may learn something new, which your coach has never explained. A coach like Tao Li has played at a very high level, so he can give you insights other coaches may not be able to give you.

And if you have no access to a coach at all, then an online table tennis course is your next best option. You can learn so much from a coach like Tao Li. If you follow his advice, you’ll certainly improve and gain an advantage over other players. What other players won’t know, is that you have a Chinese super-coach in your pocket!

—

To find out more, visit the Table Tennis University website.

The post Review: Table Tennis University appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

Some players find it a real struggle to play against weaker opponents. I have seen it many times. A player will finish a match, shaking his head, wondering out aloud how he could have played so bad.

“I was rubbish”.

“I should have beaten that player easily”.

“I never play that bad in practice matches”.

Does this sound familiar? Do you struggle against players you really should beat? If so, read on, as I have some good advice to help you consistently beat weaker players…

Fear of losing

From my experience (I know, I’ve been there!), one of the common reasons for a poor performance against a weaker opponent is a fear of losing.

When you play a weaker opponent, you’re expected to win.

You know you should win. Your opponent knows you should win. Anyone watching knows you should win.

This expectation to win can actually add a lot of pressure and you may start asking yourself, ‘What if I mess up? What if the score is close and I crumble under the pressure? What if I actually lose?’.

And this is when the problems can begin. When you start worrying too much about whether you will win or lose, your game can really suffer.

Against a weaker player, you may decide to ‘play safe’. You desperately do not want to lose, so you decide not to take any risks. You play passively, keeping the ball on the table with soft shots, hoping the weaker player will make the mistake first.

You push when you would normally topspin.

You block weak balls, when you would normally counter-attack.

You prod at serves rather than being assertive.

You’ve made a calculation, whether consciously or unconsciously, that you can beat this weaker player by just keeping the ball on the table and eventually he will mess up. You don’t need to go for your shots.

But here’s the problem. If you play too passively, if you play down to the level of your opponent, you’re giving him a great opportunity to get into the match. He may start exploiting your passive play, attacking more and more. His confidence increases. Your confidence starts to disappear. Everything becomes very nervy.

And now the match is in balance. You may scrape a win. You may have a crushing defeat. Whatever the result, you finish the match feeling pretty rotten about how you played.

“I can’t believe I played that bad.”

How to overcome your fear of losing

So, how can you stop this from happening? How can play your best table tennis against weaker players, all the time?

The first thing to recognise is a fear of losing is entirely psychological. A poor performance against a weaker player is rarely a reflection on your table tennis ability. It’s all about what’s going on in your head.

So you need to change your mind-set. This is what you need to do:

1. Focus on the process of playing rather than winning or losing

In the lead up to a match, there is no point worrying about whether you’re going to win or lose. It’s entirely pointless. It won’t help you win a match. It will do the opposite. You’ll put more pressure on yourself and you’ll become more tense. This is not good.

Instead, focus on the process of playing. Put all your mental energy into how you’re going to play. Visualise your best strokes. Think about your service and 3rd / 5th ball attack routines. Think about how you’re going to return serves. Think about the times when you’ve played at your best. Get yourself into a positive mind-set.

During the match, don’t get pre-occupied with score. Just take each point as it comes. Focus on identifying and exploiting your opponent’s weakness. Concentrate on getting your strengths into play as often as possible. Show people how you can play.

2. Have confidence in your ‘A’ game

Playing safe is a flawed calculation. Most of the time playing safe will actually be the more risky option, as you invite your opponent to start attacking. And when you play safe for too long in a match, it’s not always easy to switch to a more assertive style of play.

Your ‘A’ game in most situations will be your best option. If your ‘A’ game can give stronger players trouble, just imagine what it will do to a weaker player. You should beat him easy.

Imagine the weaker player is actually a really strong player. Go for your shots. Take risks. Play your ‘A’ game, right from the first point.

Very occasionally, you may play your ‘A’ game and mess up big style. You know what? This is fine. This happens in sport. But over the course of a league season, your win ratio will be much higher if you keep using your ‘A’ game, rather than playing passively.

And the more you use your ‘A’ game, the more your confidence will increase. Eventually, going for your shots against weaker opponents won’t seem risky at all.

3. Make your goal to sleep well at night

I often find the best way to approach matches is by thinking about what will make me sleep well at night.

It’s not necessarily winning or losing.

I have won matches, but been unhappy with my performance and slept terrible. I have lost matches, but been happy with how I’ve played and slept without stirring.

What makes me sleep well is if I’m happy with how I performed. Did I play attacking table tennis? Was my footwork good? Did I return serves well? Did I maintain focus throughout the match? Did I play the way I know I can play?

If I can answer yes to these questions, I’m happy. And in all probability, if I have played at, or near, my best against a weaker opponent, then I will have beaten him quite comfortably.

Now I can definitely sleep well at night!

Final thought

Playing poorly against a weaker opponent is frustrating. I know a lot about this topic, because it used to happen to me all the time. It would drive me crazy. Against a strong player, I’d play great, free from the burden of expectation. Against a weaker player, I’d play a stinker.

It took me a long time to change my mind-set and I still have relapses from time to time. But changing my approach from worrying about winning or losing to focusing on the process of playing has helped massively.

Give it a go. I hope it helps you too.

The post How to approach (and win) matches against weaker opponents appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

In an effort to promote the lighter side of table tennis, I thought I would use this week’s blog post to showcase a few fun table tennis t-shirts you can buy on Amazon.

It’s always useful to have a spare t-shirt to train in, when you can’t find your usual shirt. These have the added benefit of making people smile, so you’ll be spreading table tennis happiness wherever you go!

men-women-table-tennis

One of the many things I love about table tennis is that men and women can compete together. Over the past 10 years, I have played many female players in local league matches. Some matches I’ve won, some I’ve lost. But never have I, or anyone I’ve played with, considered it unusual that men and women compete against each other. It’s just another opponent to try and figure out and beat.

Although we play the same sport, there does seem to be some differences between how men and women play. You could say there is a typical ‘female’ playing style and a typical ‘male’ playing style. Both have strengths and weaknesses.

I think we can learn from each other. In this blog post I pick out one big thing men do well, but women don’t. And one big thing women do well, but men don’t. If we can learn from each other then we will all improve.

First a warning! This blog post does contain generalisations. Not all women and men play like I explain below, but it happens enough for it to be a ‘thing’. If you don’t fall into my broad categories, I apologise in advance for any offence caused!

What women can learn from men

Men love to topspin. Women don’t.

For whatever reason, a lot of female players have been coached to flat hit rather than topspin. This has never made much sense to me. A flat hit is fine in the right circumstances (when the ball pops up a little too high and you have a good margin to hit the ball in a straight line over the net), but it is also very limited. When the ball is lower, the margin is reduced and it becomes harder to execute a flat hit consistently. And if the ball is low, with backspin, a flat hit is pretty useless.

Topspin gives you so many more options. You can topspin anything. If the ball has wicked sidespin you can topspin it. If the ball has kicking topspin you can topspin it. If the ball has heavy backspin you can topspin it.

And topspinning is so much more consistent than flat hitting, as the spin lifts the ball over the net and brings it back down the other side. You have a much bigger margin of error. Plus you give your opponent something else to worry about – topspin!

True, at the elite level, women will topspin. This is why they’re so damn good. But at a local league level, it seems the vast majority of female players flat hit rather than topspin.

Why? Why? Why?

The logic as to why you would coach female and male players differently seems like a throwback to half a century ago, when women weren’t deemed to be as physically able.

Times have changed.

Women run marathons. Women weightlift. Women box. Women compete in Ironman. Anything gruelling men can do, women can also do. If women can do all of this, then they are perfectly capable of coping with the extra exertion needed to topspin a little table tennis ball!

So here’s my challenge for any flat hitting women – learn to topspin. Your game will improve significantly.

What men can learn from women

So that’s enough shouting at women. Now it’s my turn to shout at the men…

Women are really good at staying close to the table and playing quick table tennis. Men are not very good at this.

Men like to inch back further and further from the table, most of the time completely needlessly. Playing back from the table can have some advantages – more time and space to play your shots, but it also has many disadvantages. You have to cover more distance. Your opponent has more time to prepare for your shots. And you are more vulnerable to short and wide balls. You need to have exceptional footwork to be able to play back from the table really well.

I can’t remember the last time I told a female player during a coaching session not to go too far back from the table. With male players, I seem to be telling them all the time!

There are lots of benefits of playing close to the table. You can rush your opponent. It’s easier to cover wide angles. You don’t need to run around so much. It’s easier to deal with short balls. But the most important benefit is that you can play with much more speed.

Why do men do it?

Maybe it’s an alpha-male thing. Men want to go back, so they have more space to wallop the ball as hard as they can. Or maybe men try to imitate the spectacular shots of professional male players. If the latter, this is quite misleading. Yes, you do get those points where both players are forced back from the table and they go topspin to topspin, producing the most incredible table tennis rallies. But this only happens occasionally. Most points are played out close the table. Professional table tennis players only go back if they really need to.

So here’s my challenge for men who like to back up from the table – learn to play closer to the table. Stay close, shorten your strokes and try to play faster table tennis like women. You’ll be amazed by how effective rushing your opponent can be.

The post Men vs women – what we can learn from each other appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

Last night, we finally lost a league match. It’s our first loss since January 2014.

During this time, we have won 51 matches and drawn 3, across 4 different divisions.

It’s been a fantastic run, but the frustrating thing is that we had our chances last night. We could have kept the unbeaten run going for longer.

What happened?

Our opponents were St Neots 1. They’re the top team in the Cambridge league. They have won Division 1 for as long as I can remember and haven’t lost a match in the last three seasons either.

The match started well. Our number one player, James Ward, beat their number three, Keith McConnell.

1-0 to Cambridge-Parkside.

Then it was my turn. I was up against Shaun Murray, a strong defender with a big forehand hit. The first game was bad, as I struggled to adjust to the pace of the ball coming off his pimples and lost easily. In the next two games I was much more competitive, but missed attacks at key points. I lost 3-0.

Match score: 1-1.

Next up was Yordan, against their number 1 player, Daniel Fielding. Yordan was causing Daniel all kinds of trouble with his tricky serves, sharp pushes and fast blocks. Daniel won the first. But Yordan won the second 11-3. The next two games were 13-11 and 19-17 to Daniel, but Yordan had game points in both. Another day Yordan would have won. A missed opportunity.

2-1 to St Neots.

My turn again. And what a disaster! This match is going to haunt me for a while. My opponent was Keith McConnell. I won the first 2 games and was 5-0 up in the third. And then I switched off. In my mind I had already won and was starting to think about my next match. Stupid me. Keith won the next 5 points and went on to win the 3rd game 9-11.

In the next game, I had match-point, the ball popped up high and, and, and…..

I fluffed it.

I took the ball a bit too early. It clipped the top of the net and went long. 99 times out of 100, I’d make that shot. But not tonight. Keith went on to win the 4th game 12-10.

In truth, I never really recovered after missing the match point. I started the decided game badly. I was still thinking about my missed match-point! Keith opened up a 7-2 lead. I managed to get back into the game, but I was too far behind and lost.

3-1 to St Neots.

The evening didn’t get any better for Yordan and I. We lost all of our matches. It’s the first time either of us has lost all three in years. Only James was able to get wins for the team. James is ranked in the top 100 in the England, and it shows. The quality and consistency of his topspins are a level up from Yordan and I (and anyone else in the Cambridge league). It’s great to have James in the team, as we are all learning from him, and he wins all his matches!

Final score was 7-3 to St Neots.

A frustrating result. I should have beaten Keith. Yordan had a great chance to beat Daniel. And we also had our chances in the doubles match. Another day it could have been 6-4 to us. But well done to St Neots. They were worthy winners. And no shame losing our unbeaten run to the best team in the league.

Our challenge for the return fixture next year we be to end their 3 year unbeaten run.

The post We lost! Our three year unbeaten run has come to a crushing end appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

how-to-attack

To be really good at table tennis, you need to be able to attack. The best players in the world are attackers. The best players in local leagues and amateur tournaments are attackers. Even the top defenders have strong attacks too. When you attack, you give your opponent something to worry about. You have more control over the rally. In most cases, you have more chance of winning the point.

But how to do it? Players learning the game (and also some players who have been playing for 30 years) can find it difficult to attack during matches. Is this you? You may have the aspiration to attack. You may tell yourself that you want to attack. But the opportunity never seems to present itself, especially against a better player who doesn’t give you any easy balls to smash away.

So let’s look at how you can attack more….

Get your attack in early

Most table tennis points are over within the first five shots (read this blog post for more about this). If you haven’t played an attacking shot in balls 2, 3, 4 or 5, you may not get an opportunity. Most of the time, the point will already be over.

If you like to push, push, push, push, push and and wait for an easy ball to attack, you’ll always struggle to be an attacking player. You need to stop pushing and start attacking much earlier.

There are two simple ways of doing this.

1. Focus on 3rd ball attacks

There is a certain amount of predictability with how an opponent will return your serves, especially at lower levels. Don’t wait to see how your opponent returns your serve. You should anticipate how your opponent will return your serve. When you focus on how your serve will be returned and the likely position(s) it will be returned to, it is so much easier to prepare for a 3rd ball attack.

For example, I often serve sidespin cross-court to my opponent’s backhand. I know 90% of the time, the ball will be return to backhand half of table. How do I know this?

The sidespin on the serve makes the ball kick back to my backhand side.
If an opponent is not expecting a serve, they will usually return the ball in the direction it came from.
Players usually try to avoid my forehand, so will go to my backhand where possible.

So I know when I do this serve, there is a very good chance it will be returned to the backhand half of the table. I anticipate this will happen. Then what do I do? After I serve, I position myself in the backhand corner and attack the 3rd ball with my forehand (my stronger side). If I make the attack, most of the time I win the point. Job done.

Think about your own serves. You probably have a good idea about which serves are returned in a predictable way. These are the serves you should focus on. Now think about where you need to position yourself to get ready to attack the 3rd ball. Put the two together and you’ll find it much easier to attack the 3rd ball.

2. Attack your opponent’s serves

Most serves can be attacked, either with topspins or flicks. This is definitely true at lower levels, where players don’t disguise their serves at all. Even at higher levels, most serves can be attacked, as long as you can read the spin (which admittedly is easier said than done).

Your opponent serves sidespin, you can topspin it. Your opponent serves long backspin, you can topspin it. Your opponent serves topspin, you can topspin or drive it. Your opponent serves short, you can flick it.

You don’t have to blast the ball or do spectacular topspin attacks. It’s better to keep your strokes short and do controlled attacks, as you’ll have much higher consistency. By attacking serves, you put your opponent on the back foot straight away. You rush your opponent. You force your opponent to be more passive. And then you’ll find it easier to keep attacking.

How do you get good at attacking serves? One answer, and one answer only: PRACTISE.

A good exercise to do is to get your partner to keep serving at you. You’re not allowed to push or block any serves. You have to play an attacking shot. You partner can serve any spin, to any position, but you have to attack. You can start with just the service and return of serve. But as you feel confident, you should play out the point and see if you can attack the serve and the next ball too.

You may need to do this for a few months, with different players, but eventually you’ll feel much more confident. And you should find it quite liberating, as there is far less decision-making. Whatever serve your opponent gives you, you’re going to attack. No need for any indecision.

Attacking mindset

To attack more, you need to approach your matches with an attacking mindset. It’s no good adopting a ‘wait-and-see’ attitude, e.g. I’ll just see what my opponent plays like before deciding if I should attack or not. If you do this, the match may slip away before you even get a chance to start attacking.

Right from the first point, you should try to attack. Be prepared to lose a few points early on through missed attacks. This is ok. It can take a few points to shake off the early match tension. You need to find your range and attacking rhythm. When you find a rhythm, those missed attacks will start hitting the table.

By attacking right from the start – whether you miss or hit – there is a good chance you will force your opponent into a passive style of play. And when your opponent starts playing passively, it becomes so much easier to keep attacking. Your opponent pushes and blocks, you topspin and hit. In this situation, that attacker will win far more often than the passive player.

Confidence

Finally, a word on confidence. To have any chance of being a good attacking player, you must have confidence in your strokes. You need to be able to consistently attack both topspin and backspin balls. It’s not essential that you can do this with both your forehand and backhand (although this helps), but you must be able to attack both types of spin with at least one side.

If you have no confidence in your attacking strokes, you’ll always find it difficult to attack during matches. You’ll miss one or two attacks and then stop attacking. The risk-averse part of your brain will take over and you’ll opt for safer options like pushing and blocking.

How do you know if you have confidence in your attacks? I explain it to the players I coach in this way…

If you attack and you’re surprised the ball goes on the table (ooh, the ball went on!), you have low confidence. You weren’t expecting to make the shot, because you normally miss. It was a pleasant surprise that it worked.

If you attack and you’re surprised you missed (I can’t believe I missed that), you have higher confidence. Your normally make that shot and even though you missed this one, it’s not going to put you off attacking again, as you’re pretty sure you’ll make it next time.

You need to reach the stage where you have high confidence in your strokes, where you expect to make the attack every time. If you’re not at this stage yet, you need to go back to the practice table and do lots of training drills. This is how the best players got so good. They just practised their attacking strokes over and over again, until they just didn’t miss. To get good at attacking, you need to do the same.

The post How to attack more during matches appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

Over the past two years, I’ve given over 1,000 hours of 1-to-1 table tennis coaching lessons. That’s a lot of coaching. Even though every session is focused entirely on the needs of the player I’m coaching, I’m also constantly learning. Learning how to be a better coach. Learning how to improve my instruction and drills. Learning more about table tennis.

Since I’ve reached a 1,000 hour coaching milestone, I thought it would be useful to share some of the lessons I have learnt over the past couple of years.

In no particular order…

Ability to learn is not age related

It seems to be common wisdom that children are super-fast learners and adults are slower to pick up new skills. From my experience so far, this doesn’t seem to be entirely true.

Admittedly most children I coach learn quickly (although I have a handful who do not). But adults seem to learn just as quick as well. As long as there is a desire to learn, and a willingness to practise, adults learn just as fast as children. Even 80-year-olds! I have an 80-year-old who I coach and he has made tremendous improvement over the past year. He still has an great zest for life and is desperate to beat the other players at his table tennis club.

And this is one of the best things about table tennis. You can play at any age. And you can improve at any age. Even if you only start playing at 60-years-old, you can still learn the game and play to a decent standard.

Related blog: The sport where young and old battle for glory

Players need to practise their pushes more

Pushing is boring, right? No one seems to bother practising pushes. Players would much rather practice topspin and smashes. As a result, a lot of players have a poor pushing game, which causes them to lose too many points – either the ball goes into the net or pops up too high, giving their opponent an easy attack.

Players can very easily add a couple of points to every game, with just a little bit of pushing practice. A push can be so much more than just an containing, defensive shot. A good push can put your opponent under a lot of pressure and completely mess them up.

No one likes long pimples

Learning table tennis is hard. There’s lots of different strokes to learn. Lots of different spin variation to get used to. Lots of playing styles to work out. And then you play your first long pimples player. The usual reaction is, “What the heck is going on? Why did I play so bad? Why did I keep missing all my shots?”.

Long pimples can take quite a bit of getting used to, as the spin from the pimples is very different to an inverted table tennis rubber. Some players get upset and complain that pimples should be banned. But actually long pimples are fairly predictable when you understand what effect they have on the ball. Don’t get upset. Get even. Work out how to play against long pimples and then go and destroy them!

Returning sidespin serves is the most common problem

Beginners, intermediate and even some advanced players struggle to return long sidespin serves. In particular, they struggle with a long sidespin serve to their wide backhand. The players who struggle with this serve have one thing in common. They all tend to passively prod at the serve. The result? The sidespin kicks off their rubber and flies off the side of the table.

The easiest way to return this type of sidespin serve is to do short topspin stroke. You don’t need to blast the ball, just spin it. Your topspin will control the server’s sidespin and the ball will start landing on the table. When I show players how to do this, they’re usually amazed by how simple it is.

Here’s a PingSkills video which recommends the same approach. In this video Jeff really rips the ball. You don’t have to play such an aggressive shot at first. Keep your stroke shorter to begin with and you’ll make less mistakes.

Players improve the most when they practise with a purpose

I encourage players I coach to really make the most of their practice sessions. Too often players practise with no real purpose in mind. They’ll hit a few forehands, hit a few backhands and play a few games. They don’t spend time practising anything specific, so they are slow to improve.

The players who really improve quickly are much more focused. They do drills to improve their weaknesses or make the strengths stronger. They fine tune their technique. They practise serve and receive. They do footwork exercises. They practise with a purpose.

Winning matches is very difficult when you first start, but it does get easier

One of the toughest things for improving table tennis players, is making the jump from social play to competitive play (in leagues or tournaments). Typically these players have a torrid time to begin with. They lose a lot of matches and it can be quite dispiriting.

But if they stick at it, if they practise with a purpose, these losses do start to turn to victories. The first year of competitive play is always the hardest. During the second year, there’s usually a few more wins, but still plenty of losses. In year three, things really begin to change and they start winning more than they lose.

Moral of this story? Don’t give up too early. Table tennis is a difficult sport to master. It takes time to get good. Keep persevering and you’ll get there.

Related blog: The dreaded first league season

There’s a lot of table tennis addicts

When I first started coaching, I wasn’t sure how much demand there would be. I thought I would get a little bit of interest from some local players and that would be it. Boy, was I wrong. Table tennis is becoming more and more popular. Everyone wants to play!

I coach juniors. I coach university students. I coach young adults. I coach older adults who have returned to the sport after 30 years. I coach adults who want to keep fit. I coach adults who just want to learn a new skill. And the biggest surprise? All of the 60+ adults who want to play and improve. There’s loads of them. It’s brilliant to see.

It’s an addictive game. There is always something new to learn and someone better to try and beat. And when it all goes to plan, when you play a great game or beat the player you’ve never beaten before, you just want to play some more.

So there’s a few lessons I have learnt. I could have picked out another 50 from the past couple of years, but this blog post is already too long! I’ll share more lessons learnt when I’ve clocked up another 1,000 hours of coaching.

My next coaching session is in 12 hours time.

Can’t wait!

The post Lessons learnt from 1000 hours of coaching appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

It’s quiz time!

How good is your table tennis knowledge? I have 20 questions about table tennis during 2016. Each question has four possible answers for you to choose from. If you don’t know the answer, just have a guess. You have 1 in 4 chance of getting it right!

At the end of the quiz you can compare your score to others and you can even add your score to the quiz leader-board.

Are your ready? Click ‘Start quiz’ to get started. Good luck!

The post Tom’s Table Tennis Quiz 2016 appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

Towards the end of the season my rubbers were losing grip and fraying at the edges. And then I cracked my blade on the table whilst attempting a backhand backspin serve.

Time to buy a new bat!

But what to buy? Should I just replace what I already have? Should I try something faster? Something with more control? Change brands completely? Aahhhh, too much to think about!

I have faced this dilemma many times over the past 10 years, so I thought I’d share some useful tips.

Below are tips for beginners, improvers and advanced players. Feel free to read the entire blog post or just skip to the section relevant to your standard of play.

Table tennis bats for beginners

If you’re a beginner, you do not need to worry too much about all the different rubber and blade options available. You just want to get a ready made bat which has good allround control. Something not too fast, but not too slow either.

These bats will have a larger sweet spot, which will give more success in getting the ball over the net and on to your opponent’s side of the table. They will also help you control the ball when learning the core table tennis strokes.

Avoid the really cheap bats (less than £10). They’re cheap for a reason – they’re not very good! They have poor control, you’ll find it difficult to spin the ball and they won’t help you develop good technique.

But you don’t need to spend loads either. You can get some very good starter bats for £20-£40 on Amazon. And because it’s Amazon, you can read lots of user reviews too. Below are some recommendations, but do your own research too. There are lots of table tennis retailers and all will have starter bats for sale. On their websites look for ‘pre-assembled’, ‘ready-made’ or ‘complete’ bats.

Recommended bats (UK)

Recommended bats (USA)

For more advice and recommendations, take a look at my blog post Best table tennis bats for beginners.

BEST-SELLERS: Also, take a look at my list of the most popular table tennis bats purchased by readers of my website.

Table tennis bats for improvers

As you progress from beginner to intermediate, you probably need to start thinking about buying your first custom made bat. You need to buy a rubber for your forehand, a rubber for your backhand and a blade.

This can be very daunting as there is just so much choice available. Some rubbers are spinny, some have lots of control, some fast, some slow, most have pimples facing in, but some have pimples facing out.

Then there’s the blade. There’s different types of wood to choose from, some heavier, some lighter, some are defensive, some offensive and others are somewhere in between.

Choosing the right combination can be quite a dilemma! But don’t panic…

For intermediate players, I would recommend getting rubbers and a blade with good control, but a little faster than beginner bats. Don’t worry too much about the brand. Anything from reputable brands, such as Butterfly, Andro, Stiga, Joola, Donic, Tibhar, Double Happiness and Yasaka will be high quality and suitable for intermediate players.

As your technique is still developing, don’t get tempted to buy anything too fast. The really fast rubbers and blades require very good technique to control the ball. The risk is that you’ll make too many unforced errors with a very fast bat.

To get a custom made bat, you’ll need buy via a table tennis retailer. Look out for ‘All round’ blades, and rubbers with a high control rating. If in doubt give the company a call. Explain your playing style, what bat you’re currently playing with and how you want your game to develop. They will be able to make recommendations.

If you find the whole process too baffling, you can find some good ready assembled all round bats suitable for intermediate players on Amazon.

Recommended bats (UK)

Recommended bats (USA)

For more advice and recommendations, take a look at my blog post Best table tennis bats for intermediate players.

BEST-SELLERS: Also, take a look at my list of the most popular table tennis bats purchased by readers of my website.

Table tennis bats for advanced players

Choosing the right bat can often be a difficult decision for advanced players too. As an advanced player, you probably have a much better idea of what you’re looking for and will have used numerous other rubbers and blades in the past.

But if you’re looking to change your rubbers or blade, you’re faced with a new problem. All the manufacturers claim that their best rubbers are super-fast and super-spinny, with super-control and super-durable. They claim their best blades will elevate your game to ever higher levels. If you buy this, then you’re going to play like Ma Long.

Hmm, maybe not.

So, how do you differentiate between all the available options? Assuming you don’t have access to bat testing facilities (which the vast majority of players don’t), here are three suggestions:

1. Practice with other player’s bats. This is a great way testing a range of different rubber’s without spending any money. Practice a range of strokes (drives, topspins, pushes, flicks, service, receiving etc) and pay attention to how much spin you can generate and how much you can control the ball. Does it make your strengths stronger? Or does it make your weaknesses weaker? Make some notes and then go a practice with someone else’s bat.

2. Read online reviews. Two of the best review sites are Table Tennis Database and Table Tennis Daily. These sites include reviews by other players of most rubbers and blades. They have been an invaluable source of information for me when I have been deciding what to buy. Be aware that all reviews are subjective. A bad review doesn’t necessary mean it’s a bad rubber / blade. It just means it may be a bad rubber / blade for that particular reviewer’s playing style or ability level. Pay more attention to the reviews from players who describe a similar playing style and ability level to your own.

3. If in doubt, stick with what you have! If you’re happy with how you are playing, just get new versions of the same rubbers and glue them onto your existing blade. There’s not much point changing for the sake of changing. Only change your rubbers and blade if you actually need to.

Not sure where to buy rubbers and blades? Take a look at my list of table tennis retailers in the UK, USA, Europe, Asia and Australia.

—

A good bat is certainly no substitute for good technique. I’m sure Ma Long would beat me 11-0,11-0,11-0 using any old rubbish! But the right rubbers / blade combination matched to the right technique is worth extra points in every set against players of a similar standard.

There is a bit of trial and error involved, so it’s likely at some point in your table tennis career you’ll end up with a bat you’re not entirely happy with. But with some proper research and advice from other players and coaches you will hopefully limit expensive mistakes.

Happy shopping!

The post Tips on buying a new table tennis bat appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

What is the best table tennis serve you can do? A serve which is guaranteed to win you a point against any opponent. A serve which is unreadable. A serve which is unreturnable.

I’m going to disappoint you.

There is no single unreadable and unreturnable table tennis serve, which will beat all opponents. Every serve is returnable if you know how.

But, it is possible to execute the perfect table tennis serve, against the right opponent at the right time in a match.

Let me explain what I mean.

Think of a serve you do. Your favourite serve. Now look at the diagram below.

The table has 6 positions where you can place your serve. 3 long and 3 short. How many of the positions marked with an ‘X’ can you serve to? 1 position? 2 positions? 3 positions?

Actually, you should learn to serve your favourite serve to all six positions.

Why?

It’s rare that an opponent will be able to return the ball equally as strongly from each position. Your opponent may be able to return your favourite serve brilliantly if it is aimed long at his backhand. But the same opponent may struggle with the same serve if it is served short to his forehand. Even if you face a much stronger opponent, there will usually be a position on the table where he is weaker.

Your job is to find out where that weak position is.

How do you do this?

There are two main ways.

1 – Observation. When you’re at a tournament or a league match and waiting to play, don’t sit idly staring into space or mess around with your phone. Use the opportunity to observe your opponents. Try to identify which types of serve they struggle with and where the serves are placed. This will give you a head start before your match has even begun.

2. Trial and error. When you play an opponent for the first time, you need to try out your serve to different positions. You need to quickly establish his strong areas and weak areas. The first game of the match is an ideal time to do this. If you can work out early your opponent’s weak area(s), you have the rest of the match to exploit it. If you don’t start testing different areas until you’re behind and close to defeat, it will most likely be too late. The more you play the same opponent, the more you will build up a knowledge of the best positions you should serve to and less trial and error will be needed.

What is a weak return?

Your main object with targeting your opponent’s weak area, is to get a weak return of serve. This does not necessarily mean a miss (although this is a bonus). A weak return also means a loose ball – something with is returned a little high and is easy to attack.

A weak return can even mean a decent return but also a predictable return. If the return of serve is predictable, it is much easier to prepare for and execute a third ball attack, as you know what is coming.

Using your serve strategically

When you have identified your opponent’s weak position, you need to think about using your serve strategically.

You probably should avoid using the same serve to the same position all the time, as your opponent may start getting used to it.

But you don’t want to use the serve too infrequently either. You need to take advantage of the weakness.

So think about using the serve at significant points in the match. These are:

At the beginning of a game. It’s great to build an early lead. You put our opponent under pressure straight away and, if like me, you play better when you have a lead.

In the middle of the game. If I’m behind (6-4), two good serves can get me level with my opponent. If tied, (6-6), two good serves can nudge me in the lead and put me within touching distance of a game point. If I’m in the lead (6-4), it can help me build a significant points lead.

At the end of a close game. This is when your favourite serve aimed at your opponent’s weak point can be most effective. When a player has game point or is facing a game point in a close game (i.e. the score is 10-9), he will often play a little more cautiously. He may well return your serve even weaker than before. This is a great opportunity for you either save a game point (if 9-10) or win the game (if 10-9).

The perfect serve

So this is what I mean by the perfect serve. You use the right serve, in the right position, at the tight time in a match, against the right opponent. And you win the point. Perfect.

And the good news?

You already have the perfect table tennis serve in your game. You don’t need to learn a new wonder serve. Just take your favourite serve and learn to serve it to different positions.

When you can serve it to different positions, you can then test out which area is most effective against each opponent.

When you have found an opponent’s weak area, you can exploit for lots of easy points.

The post The perfect table tennis serve appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

One of the most popular table tennis bats for beginners is the Palio Expert 2. This is the bat I often recommend to beginner players who I coach. It has a very high rating on Amazon and is the most popular bat choice for readers on my website.

(You can buy the Palio Expert 2 table tennis bat on Amazon in the UK, USA, Canada, Germany and France.)

As there is a lot of interest in this bat, I thought I would write a review. I also have a Palio Expert 2 table tennis bat, which I sometimes use in coaching sessions with beginners. As I’ve had many hours of playing time with the bat, I feel well placed to give my expert view.

So here’s my thoughts. First, let’s look at the positives.

1. Great control

The Palio Expert 2 is very easy to play with. Yes, the bat is faster and spinnier than the really cheap table tennis bats (which cost less than £10), but it is not so fast and spinny that it is uncontrollable.

This is essential for beginners. When you’re learning to play table tennis, you’re technique and touch obviously won’t be fully developed. You need a bat which gives you some margin of error if you’re stroke isn’t quite right. The super fast and spinny bats are very unforgiving – get the stroke or timing slightly wrong and the ball just flies long, high or wide. The Palio Expert 2 is much more controllable.

I sometimes coach with my Palio Expert 2 bat and I do notice a difference with the control compared to my usual Butterfly Tenergy 05 and Yasaka Rakza 7 rubbers. When my technique isn’t quite right with Tenergy 05 and Rakza 7, the ball tends to miss the table. But with the Palio Expert 2, the ball lands on the table much more often.

Of course, the solution is to have better technique. But this takes time, especially for beginners. So as you’re learning to play it’s nice to have a bat which helps you out when you don’t quite get your stroke right.

2. Spinny rubbers

Even though the Palio Expert 2 is slower and more controllable than a top range bat, you can still generate plenty of spin.

The rubber is very tacky, so it really grips the ball. With this bat you’re able to do spinny serves, heavy backspin pushes, and some pretty decent topspin shots. I like to do lots of loops against backspin balls when I play and this is surprisingly easy with this bat, considering the cheap cost compared to my usual bat.

So this is a table tennis bat which can grow with you. If you’re a beginner, you may not be able to play all the strokes yet, but hopefully you’ll be learning how to do them. You’ll be able to do any stroke with this bat, when the time comes, and this bat will help you develop from a beginner player to an intermediate player.

3. Not too slow, but not too fast

The Palio Expert 2 has the right amount of speed. Compared to really cheap and dead bat it will feel fast. Compared to a top of the range bat it will feel slow. The speed of this bat is somewhere in the middle. You can hit fast shots, but it doesn’t feel uncontrollable.

I found it quite easy to get some good speed on my shots. I had to use a little more physical power to achieve the same speed as my usual rubbers, but it has enough oomph to satisfy any beginner player.

So if you like to play fast shots you will be able to, without feeling out of control.

4. Good bat for developing correct technique

Most very cheap bats (under £10) have very dead rubber. It’s difficult to generate much spin with these bats – or you have to really exaggerate your strokes to get anything out of them. As a result, players who use the really cheap bats for too long often develop poor technique to compensate for the poor quality rubber. They then struggle to progress onto a better quality bat as it plays very different to the cheap bat.

The great thing about the Palio Expert 2 is that it is easy to develop good technique when using it. The bat is not an obstacle to your progress. It will help you become a better player.

When you improve to an intermediate level you will need to upgrade to a faster and spinnier bat, but it’s not going to feel massively different. It will be an easy transition.

When I coach with this bat, I completely forget it’s not my usual bat after a few minutes. When I switch to my other bat, it really isn’t a massive difference.

5. Price

The price of the Palio Expert 2 is very good (at time of writing you can buy the bat for £30 on Amazon). Ok you can find cheaper bats, but on the whole, they’re not very good. And there are many more expensive bats, some of which cost over £300!

When you’re a beginner, you don’t need to spend loads of money on a table tennis bat. The really expensive bats are likely to be too fast to control, so won’t actually be very helpful.

But you don’t want to spend too little either. The really cheap bats are cheap for a reason – they’re not very good. If you spend a bit more by buying a Palio Expert 2, you get much better quality rubbers and a free bat case! £30 is very reasonable. It’s not going to break the bank and you will have something decent to play with.

Negatives

Let’s look at the negatives. I’m really struggling to come up with anything!

I suppose if you’ve played with a very cheap bat for a long time, you’ll probably find the Palio Expert 2 much faster and it may take you a while to adapt. But it’s only £30 so it’s not an expensive mistake if you don’t like it.

And if you already play at an intermediate standard, you’ll probably find the bat too slow, so it won’t be the best choice for you.

But for the beginner player, it really is a very good choice.

Summary

So in summary, the Palio Expert 2 is a great table tennis bat for beginner players. It’s easy to control the ball, but you can still generate plenty of spin and speed. This bat will make it easy to develop correct technique and when you upgrade it will be an easy transition. The price is great. I fully recommend.

Buying guide

You can buy the Palio Expert 2 table tennis bat on Amazon in the UK, USA, Canada, Germany and France.

The post Review: Palio Expert 2 Table Tennis Bat appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

Here’s something fun for you to try.

Ryan Jenkins, a Welsh international table tennis player, has set a challenge. You have to do a backspin serve which bounces once on the server’s side, once on the receiver’s side and then bounces back over the net to the server’s side again.

You get five attempts.

Every time you do a successful serve, Ryan will donate £1 to Pink Pong, a table tennis group increasing awareness of cancer and raising money for different cancer charities and foundations.

Here’s a video of Ryan Jenkins explaining the challenge.

So Ryan got 3 out of 5. Now it’s my turn. I cleared out my garage, set up my table and started practising. My first attempts were terrible. I wasn’t even close.

After 30 mins, things were getting better and I was starting to do a few successful serves.

Around the 45 minute mark, I was starting to get around 50%, but still not enough to match Ryan’s total.

As I approached the hour mark, I was starting to lose hope. It was getting close to my bed time and I was getting seriously cold in my garage!

I gave it one last attempt…

So I did it! I got 4 out of 5.

The key is to brush under and up the back of the ball, and get the first bounce as close to the net as possible. You don’t want too much forward momentum, otherwise the ball will travel to far onto the receiver’s side.

It’s easier if you get a bit of height on the serve. I’ve seen videos of professionals doing this serve, where they can keep the ball lower, but that’s really hard to do.

Will you take on the backspin serve challenge?

Now it’s your turn. Have a practise and then film yourself. Upload your video to YouTube, Instagram or Facebook and tag Ryan Jenkins and he will donate £1 for every successful serve you do.

If you don’t want to do the challenge, but want to donate to Pink Pong anyway, please visit their website for more information about how to donate.

The post The backspin serve challenge appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

If you play league table tennis, you’ve probably encountered this scenario. You’ve had a hard day at work. You rush home. You grab something to eat. You rush out again. You travel to your match (car, bike, tube or bus). Sometimes the traffic is heavy, sometimes not. By the time you get to the venue, you only have five minutes to warm-up with your team-mates, and then it’s straight on with the matches.

Your first match isn’t great. You’re a bit tight and tense and you don’t play anywhere near your best level. You moan to yourself about the fact that you haven’t had a proper warm-up.

What can you do about this situation?

Acceptance

In an ideal world, you would have at least 30 minutes to be able to warm-up properly with your team-mates. But in 10 years of league table tennis, I have very rarely had to the opportunity to warm-up for 30 minutes.

Far more common is only having five minutes. This is clearly not ideal, but it’s the reality most of us face. One solution is clearly to try to get to a venue earlier for a longer warm-up. But this isn’t always going to be possible.

So you have to accept that sometimes – many times – you’re only going to have five minutes to warm-up with your team-mates.

Rather than feeling overly negative about this, you should switch your focus to how you can make the most of these five minutes to get ready for the league match.

The five minute warm-up

Here’s three suggestions on what you should do if you only have five minutes to warm-up with your team-mates.

1. Limit static cross-court knock-ups

I’m guilty of this and I’m sure many of you are too. It’s very easy to waste five minutes just playing forehand to forehand (or backhand to backhand) to the same position for five minutes. This doesn’t really help you prepare for a match.

When you first start warming up, it’s ok to play the first few balls to the same position, just to get your timing right. But don’t do this for too long.

Once you’ve hit a few balls, start varying where you place the ball, so you and your team-mate have to move to play shots. This will get your feet working and help you get energised.

2. Warm-up your biggest strength

You want to make sure your biggest strength is warmed-up and ready to go for the start of the match. Even if you’re a little off pace with some of your shots, at least you’ll have confidence in your biggest strength working.

So for me, I make sure I hit a few forehand topspins. If I can get this shot working in the warm-up, then it should be in good shape for the first game of the first match. I may only have a minute to do this, but I can hit plenty of topspins in a minute. Not only do I get the shot working, but it also helps me get body loose.

3. Do some service and receive

Every single point in table tennis starts with a serve and return of serve. This is where a lot of points are won or lost. So it’s worth spending a minute or two doing serve, receive and then playing out the point. This will get you match ready.

Again I like to focus on my favourite serves and 3rd ball attack routines. This helps me shake off some of the pre-match tension. Usually the first couple I mess up. But I’m happy with this. I’d rather get the mistakes out of the way in the warm-up than at the beginning of a match. If I get my serve and 3rd ball working in the warm-up, I start the match much more confidently.

Same thing with receiving. During the warm-up I often make mistakes with the first few receives, but then it starts working and I feel in good shape for the start of the match.

Timings

So this is what the timings of this warm-up looks like:

Rallying warm-up (cross-court or down the line) – 1 minute
Strength warm-up (player A) – 1 minute
Strength warm-up (player B) – 1 minute
Service and receive – 2 minutes

When you look at it like this, you can clearly see how you really don’t have much time. But at least you’ll be using what little time you do have wisely. You’ll get your feet moving. You’ll get your best shot working. You’ll get match-ready and focused with some serve and receive. This is much better than just aimlessly knocking up to the same position for five minutes.

You’ll need to have buy-in from your team-mates. It won’t work if you don’t discuss it beforehand, as you’ll be doing one thing and your team-mate will be doing something else.

And you need to be fair. It’s not all about you. You have to consider your team-mate too. So spend a little bit of time warming up your strength and little bit of time warming up your team mate’s strength.

Off the table warm-up

Finally, even if you’re not at the table, you still have the opportunity to warm-up your body and get rid of some pre-match tension. Dynamic stretches are good. So is shadow play (going through the motion of your shots without the ball). Or just some simple footwork exercises, e.g. sidesteps or fast feet running on the spot.

I remember one league match in London, where the traffic was horrific. I was very late. I decided to jump off the bus and run the last mile. As soon as I got to the venue it was my turn to play. I had no time for a warm-up, but I played one of my best matches of the season because my body was completely warmed up, free of tension and ready to go.

Give my warm-up a go

The next time you play a league match and only have a few minutes to warm-up, give my warm-up routine a go.

I’m realistic. There’s only so much you can get warmed up in five minutes. And even if you do all of what I suggest, you’re probably still not going to feel fully warmed up.

But you’ll be in a better position than if you warm-up with no plan in mind. You’ll start your first match playing better, which will hopefully give you a better chance of winning.

The post How to warm-up before a match (if you only have five minutes) appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

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Clean with water

Clean with spray and sponge

Buy a bat case

Optional extra: rubber protector

Clean rubbers = better performance

1. Reduce your power to 80%

2. Focus on placement

100% power + placement + consistency?

Fast sidespin to the hip

Very wide sidespin

Long, heavy backspin serve

Topspin to weak side

Backhand sidespin from forehand corner

Bouncy backspin

Share your service secret

What do I mean by ‘attack the middle’?

Why is attacking the middle effective?

Length and speed

Attacking the middle can be a game-changer

Age 4-8

Age 9-16

Final thoughts

Target their weaker side relentlessly

Quick blocks / counter attacks to the open table

Occasional switches to the forehand

Summary

1. My disastrous first tournament

2. My panic-stricken first league match

3. My rubbish first FIVE league seasons

Learning from my failures

Getting ready to learn

Quality of teaching

Video quality and technology

Cost

Online course vs real-life coach

Fear of losing

How to overcome your fear of losing

Final thought

Born to play table tennis, forced to work

To table tennis or not to table tennis, what a stupid question

Education is important, but table tennis is importanter

This is what an amazing ping pong player looks like

Eat, sleep, table tennis

Life’s a game, table tennis is serious

Ping Pong Ninja

Table tennis, only for the brave

What women can learn from men

What men can learn from women

Get your attack in early

1. Focus on 3rd ball attacks

2. Attack your opponent’s serves

Attacking mindset

Confidence

Ability to learn is not age related

Players need to practise their pushes more

No one likes long pimples

Returning sidespin serves is the most common problem

Players improve the most when they practise with a purpose

Winning matches is very difficult when you first start, but it does get easier

There’s a lot of table tennis addicts

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