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Table Tennis TipsRead these 45 Table Tennis Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Table Tennis tips and hundreds of other topics. Become a Guru or Become an Advertiser.
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How to maximize your chances of winning?Most players put pressure on themselves because they want to win very badly. However; putting pressure on yourself will usually make you play worse. If your goal is to win at table tennis, then to maximize your chances of winning, make your goal to play well and dominate the match with good shots and tactics. Making winning the primary goal is counter-productive. Tall and Short Player StrategyA tall player's forehand and backhand shots are farther apart than a short player's. So he is weaker in the middle area, where he has to decide whether to hit a forehand or backhand. So against a tall player, play aggressively toward his elbow, which is roughly the midpoint between his forehand and backhand. When he's off the table, usually aim slightly toward the backhand; when he's close to the table, usually aim slightly toward the forehand. How to develop a sense of patient decisiveness during a ping pong game?Some players are too patient they mostly just keep the ball in play, missing opportunities to score. Others are too decisive they jump on every ball with little patience or judgment. Develop a sense of "patient decisiveness" in other words, pick your shots carefully, but once you've made a decision, be decisive about it. Don't be afraid to take a shot, but don't be afraid not to take a shot when it's not there. Be decisive about whatever shot you choose. jobs by
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How to apply tactics in a ping pong match?There are basically two ways to play tactically early in a match. You can either feel your opponent out to see what he can do and then adjust your tactics based on this ("The Explorer"); or you can force your game on the opponent right from the start, making tactical adjustments as you go on ("The Dominator"). How to read ping pong spin?To learn to read spin, try focusing just on the contact period - ignore the rest of the motion. Imagine taking a mini-video of the split second of contact. If you do this regularly, pretty soon you'll be able to isolate in your mind the actual direction of the racket at contact. From that, you can read the type of spin. You can also read spin by the way the ball comes off the paddle, travels through the air, and from both bounces on the table. Imagine how the spin will affect the ball, and figure out what to watch for. How to preparing for a table tennis tournament?The week before a big ping pong tournament it is best to try to work on the "control" aspects of your game more than the physical parts. For example, instead of working on footwork, spend more time on serve, receive, and blocking. The practice in the week leading up to the tournament isn't going to affect your speed much one way or another, while serve, serve return and other control-type techniques can still be more significantly improved. You should still do some footwork drills, but make the drills shorter than normal, with more variety and more game-like footwork drills (such as more random-type footwork drills). One final suggestion: try playing more matches against someone who raises your confidence level, but still pushes you to play your best. Learn something new each time you playOne of the interesting things one learns when talking to top ping pong players is that they say they are still learning. Some even make it a goal to learn something new each time they play. Do you learn something new each time you play? How to play the forehand of a forehand player?How often have you played a forehand-happy player, who keeps putting the ball away with his forehand from his backhand corner? The worst part of it is that even if you get the ball back, he follows with another forehand. How do you get out of this situation? How to find out your opponents weakness?It's wise to approach a match with the idea of using your strengths, but don't forget to test your opponent as well. You don't want to lose a match because you didn't find a glaring weakness in your opponent's game! Often you can win a match by matching your weakness against an opponent's even bigger weakness. So test your opponents – serve long & short, test their forehand, loop at different speeds, try pushing, etc. Don't risk not knowing your opponent's weaknesses! How to use depth tactically during a table tennis game?Learn to control the depth of your loops and other shots. Big, powerful players often jump all over deep balls that come out to them, but struggle against shorter ones. Smaller players often jump all over short balls, but struggle with ones that go deep. Every opponent is different, but if you learn to control the depth of your shots, you'll have a big tactical weapon. How to locking up your opponents?The easiest and simplest way of beating a player is to "lock him up." This basically means forcing him to do what he doesn't want to do. The classic case is to force a player with a weak backhand to go backhand to backhand. Another example would be take away an opponent's strong loop and force him to instead block by getting the first loop each rally. How do you "lock someone up"? Often, the best bet is to base much of your tactics toward this goal. It often takes a lot of thinking and a lot of work. You've got to figure out what your opponent want to do. Then you have to figure out how, using your own weapons, you can force him to do what he doesn't want to do. Too often players think only about what they want to do, and forget about forcing their opponents to do what they don't want to do. What is table tennis robot?A machine set up on one side of the table to help a player practice on a particular shot. Newgy Robots can be remotely adjusted to deliver balls of differing speed, rate, spin, and placement. Sidespin serves that break away tend to be more effectiveA backhand sidespin serve tends to be more effective to an opponent's forehand, while a forehand pendulum serve tends to be more effective to an opponent's backhand. This is because the racket angle needed to return these sidespins is less natural when done this way. This doesn't mean only serving these serves to the side that's less comfortable, only generally serving it more to that side. Each opponent is different, so try out each combination and see what happens. Learn how to adjust to the shot.Many players do the same shot over and over against varying incoming balls, whether they are ready for the shot or not. For example, loppers might loop hard against any block to the forehand, even if rushed, off balance or not in position. Or they might loop a serve at the same speed over and over, regardless of whether they are sure they have read the serve properly. Instead, learn to slow down some shots, or choose a more controlled shot, if you are not really set for the shot (i.e. rushed, off balance, out of position or not sure of the spin). How to playing the "Weird" Style?You've probably all had the experience of playing someone who plays "different." They might use a "weird" surface – long pips, antispin, hardbat, etc. Or they might have "weird" shots – sidespin, dead balls, etc. Regardless, keep in mind that there is a reason why these surfaces or shots are not as common as other surfaces or shots – so use your head and take advantage of their weaknesses, rather than complain about the "weirdness." How to move faster during a ping pong game?Most players look to see where their opponent hits the ball before deciding if they have to move or not. You'll be much faster if you assume you will have to move, and flex your knees in preparation for moving, even before you know which way you are moving. Since you should be moving to nearly every ball - how often does the opponent just happen to hit the ball right into your forehand or backhand pocket? - How fast you are able to do this makes a big difference. Assume you will have to move to every ball and you'll move much faster. What are my table tennis player styles?• PIPS-OUT ATTACKER - Pips-out Attackers generally stand within three feet of the table. The contact point on all strokes is as early as possible, top of the bounce, or on the rise. This is a forehand-dominated style with the player exhibiting a strong quick pivot move to use the forehand from the backhand side. The success of this style is based on speed, not spin, thus pips-out rubber is ideal. Example: David Zhuang What is sidespin?Usually used in combination with topspin and under spin, sidespin imparted on a ball causes it to rotate on its vertical axis. Two-Color table tennis rubber RuleOne side of the paddle must be black, the other side cherry red, and can be either a rubber sheet or a paint sheet. Before this rule, some players would use combination paddles with rubber sheets of the same color on both sides. Then they would flip their paddles underneath the table to fool their opponents. What to think during a ping pong match?Too often players worry about their stroke techniques while playing a match. The end result is they try to consciously control their shots. The more they try to do this, the worse the shot gets; and the worse the shot gets, the more they try to consciously control the shot. The end result is disaster! Instead, think of only two things in a match. First, think about tactics – how you will use your shots. The shots themselves will take care of themselves – or at least will do better on their own if you let them go then if you try to consciously control them and make too many "fixes" in mid-match. Second, if a shot feels wrong, then the way to fix it during a match isn't to try to over-analyze it. Instead, think about the feel of the shot, and try to get the right feel. Save the stroke analysis for after the match – it rarely helps during a match. How to block heavy topspin?One of the most common reason players have trouble blocking against heavy topspin is because they hold the ping pong racket too high. This would seem to make it easier to keep the ball down, but what really happens is that players end up holding their racket at different heights for different blocks, and so cannot really ingrain the proper racket angles. Instead, make sure to hold the racket pretty low, and take the ball off the bounce. This will allow a player to get a feel for the proper racket angle against a heavy topspin loop. It will also make sure you take the ball quickly, which not only makes the shot more effective, but catches the ball before the ball can jump because of the topspin, and so increases consistency. How to returning serves short?At the highest levels, the most common return of a short serve is a short push, even against a sidespin serve. At the lower levels, most players just push them deep, giving opponents the chance to loop. If you develop a short push, especially against backspin serves, you will disarm your opponents, and probably get pushed returns that you can loop. The problem with returning serves short is that if you misread the serve even a little bit, you will make many mistakes and give the opponent a lot of easy pop-ups. In general, most players can't really return serves short effectively until about the 2000 level but if you wait until you are 2000 before working on this, you'll be years behind your peers. Why not start now? You may find it effective well before you reach that magic 2000 number and it might even help you reach it. Learn to play close to the tableMany players enjoy playing from away from the table, and some (especially defensive players) base their game on this. However, for most players, you want to stay close to the table whenever possible. Otherwise, you "give up" the table. By backing off the table, your opponent has more time to react to your shots, and you have to cover more ground to cover the wide angles and in and out movements. Basically, you are at the mercy of your opponent. What is ping pong rubber sheet?One of hundreds of coverings, available in various thicknesses and with differing properties, that can be glued to the blade to help provide shots of varying speed and spin. Most rubber sheets are attached to the blade with a layer of sponge in between. Using videotape to help your ping pong game.• One of the least utilized methods for improving one's game, yet one of the easiest to do, is to study the way you play matches. What are your bread and butter shots? How do you win most of your points? What can you do to get these types of points to happen more often? What is a hard bat ping pong paddle?A ping pong blade covered with short pips rubber with no sponge. Often used in honor of the earlier days of the sport, this paddle and style of play are considered to be the purest form of the sport. A separate branch of hardbat players exists and even has its own competitions and rating system. Should you use a super-fast table tennis racket?Many beginning and intermediate table tennis players want a blazing fast racket, not realizing how much this is hurting their games. There are three problems with using a very fast racket. First, it is simply too fast for most players to control. Second, since the ball flies off so fast, you get little spin – greatly hurting your loop. And third, since the ball shoots off so fast, players tend to stroke less, and end up developing poor stroking habits. What is high toss serve?A player tosses the ball higher than the head and uses gravity's influence to add speed and/or spin to the serve. How to keep score in table tennis game?Preliminary matches are often the best of 5 games. CHAMPIONSHIP matches are often the best of 7 or 9 games. Watch top players to raise your own level of playOne of the best ways to improve your shots is get a good visual image of what your shots should look like just before playing. So one of the best ways to get these shots really going is to watch a top player executing these shots just before you play. You can do this live (if players are available) or watch a videotape. Alternatively, you might get a tape of yourself playing at your best (you might have to do a number of tapes to get this!), and watch that just before playing. You'll be surprised at how much it might help. (Many players learn to do this without a tape, by mental visualization.) How to increase table tennis forehand looping power?If you are the type of player who has trouble generating power when looping, try out these two tips, and you'll be surprised at the improvement. Before you buy a ping pong paddleProfessional Paddles ($75 - $200) How to play a player with pips out ping pong racket?When playing a player with pips racket – short or long – there is one simple tactic that you should use over and over and over: Keep the Ball Deep!!! This doesn't mean you can never put the ball short, but those should be variations. Pips-out players are almost always better against short balls then deep balls. How to finding your ping pong game?Many players try to imitate better players too much. While copying what the top players do is usually good, some players end up doing things that just don't come naturally for them. I have fallen into this trap at times. The key to getting better and continuing to enjoy the sport is to imitate some things, but to truly try to find a game that matches your personality, physical ability and table tennis talents. For example, if you are a patient person, perhaps a consistent medium-speed looping game is what you would be best at. If you are more aggressive, perhaps you should work on developing a great backhand or forehand kill. The idea is to truly imagine what you want to be and then try to figure out how to get there. If you have good touch, but are a little slow, continue to develop your footwork, but realize that your backhand and touch are going to be what wins for you, not running around to play forehand and invariably getting off balance. If you truly want to make this game something you enjoy for your whole life, develop a style that you enjoy and that works for you, and then work on improving that game, not some other game that some better player happens to have. How to do shadow Practice to help your skill?Spend a few minutes each day shadow practicing. Using a regular ping pong racket, a weighted racket, or just an imaginary one, shadow practices your drives, loops and footwork especially. Yes, you may look silly (close your office door!), but your opponent will look even sillier that night when you show up with looser muscles and in better shape, with grooved stroke. How to win table tennis game:You can't win unless you can find tactical match-ups where you are better than your opponent. For example, you might find your block is better than your opponent's loop, or that your varied loop is better than your opponent's blocking or counterattack. The idea behind this is pretty obvious, but few players actually think this way when playing. Get into the habit of learning quickly in a match what tactical match-ups you can do where you are better than your opponent and then find strategies to force these match-ups. What is Sweet Spot means?The most solid area in the center of the table tennis blade. The ball does not bounce off of the ping pong paddle as well near its outside edges. Higher quality paddles will have larger sweet spots. Is time to try out new table tennis equipment!Tired of getting useless presents for the Christmas/Hanukkah holidays? Well, here's your chance to put together a list of table tennis equipment you've always wanted to try out. Make a list of rackets, sponge, whatever. Then assign each item to a different family member, and give them your list. Presto! You can now try each of these items out! Side issue – you probably have to give each of these family members a present as well. Here's your chance to introduce them to table tennis! How to play a player with long pips out ping pong racket?Don't let them attack. Long pips can only attack against backspin, or sometimes against a short and weak topspin or no-spin ball. So keep the ball deep, and usually either put no spin on the ball (and so get a no spin ball back) or give topspin (and so usually get a slower backspin ball return). What is a ping pong rating system?A number that represents the playing strength of each active member of USATT Rating points are added and subtracted from a rating when a player wins and loses in competition. How to adjust to slippery floors during a table tennis game?Carry a spare bottle of liquid rubber cleaner. Spray the bottom of your shoes about once every six points, at the break under the new 11-point rules. It lasts a little longer than just water and is a bit grippier. How to imagine the score to help your mental game?Is there a certain score where you play best? When leading? Behind? Leading 10-6? Down 10-6? Then either 1) Imagine the score is always that score; or 2) learn to match that psychology no matter the score. If you are good when you are behind, when you are up 10-8, imagine, you are down 10-8 – and vice versa if you are better when you are ahead. How to blocking?One of the most common reason players have trouble blocking against heavy topspin is because they hold the racket too high. This would seem to make it easier to keep the ball down, but what really happens is that players end up holding their racket at different heights for different blocks, and so cannot really ingrain the proper racket angles. Instead, make sure to hold the racket pretty low, and take the ball off the bounce. This will allow a player to get a feel for the proper racket angle against a heavy topspin loop. It will also make sure you take the ball quickly, which not only makes the shot more effective, but catches the ball before the ball can jump because of the topspin, and so increases consistency. Never, Ever, EVER!!!Do that thing you did in your last tournament that cost you a match, and that you promised yourself that you would never do again. How to serving long ball?• There is a particularly good pattern for serving long to most players. Try these two combos: |
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