A Tip of the Week will go up every Monday by noon.

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Published:

02/03/2025 - 14:08

Author: Larry Hodges

If you make a habit of closely watching opponents to pick up on little cues that let you know where their next shot will go, your subconscious will get the message and start reacting to it. The subconscious learns by repetition - but only if you actually observe the opponent so that your conscious and subconscious minds can pick up on them.

An example of this would be trying to judge the direction an opponent hits his forehand. You could just wait and see what direction his racket is going at or just after contact. That’s what beginners have to do – there’s a reason they react so slowly to shots. But more advanced players subconsciously react to the shot well before contact. At the intermediate level, they likely react soon after the opponent starts his forward swing, as at that point you can usually judge where the ball is going to go, basically by seeing the line between the racket and ball and extending it to your side. This works . . . at the intermediate level.

At higher levels, players adjust even sooner to the opponent’s shot. They may react right as that forward swing starts, or even before that. You can usually tell where an opponent’s forehand is going from his shoulder rotation, and from that, see where they are going even before they start their forward swing. That’s why top players sometimes seem to have supernatural reflexes – but it’s not quick reflexes, it’s early recognition of the direction of the shot.

So, start watching opponents for little clues like that – everyone has them, but they are often different. When you see them, you won’t be able to consciously react to them, but the subconscious will – and soon you’ll be reacting like a pro.

One cautionary note – at higher levels, players often disguise or change their direction as they forward swing – such as an inside-out forehand – and so you have to adjust to each player based on this, sometimes waiting until nearly at contact before you know for sure where they are going. As a match goes on, you should react more and more quickly to the opponent’s shots as your subconscious picks up on when they can react against each opponent and each of their shots. Once you do this, you’ll become like a backboard, reacting to anything the opponent does.

And all you have to do is observe the opponent while the subconscious does the work, and you get the credit!

Published:

01/27/2025 - 14:13

Author: Larry Hodges

There are many aspects of a good serve, but one of them – which I’ve written about before – is the importance of serving low. This puts tremendous pressure on the opponent, especially if he wants to attack your serve. Even on passive returns he’s forced to lift the ball a bit, which causes a loss of control and a greater likelihood of popping the ball up.

But how do you know if you are serving low? One way is how often you serve net serves. (Technically, they are let serves, but for this article I’m going to call them net serves.) Some players likely pride themselves on “clean” serves that never nick the net, but I’d advice the opposite. If you really are serving low, then you will get a higher number of serves that nick the net. You are unlikely to actually serve into the net too often, assuming you are practicing your serves, but if you want to serve really low, the ball’s going to brush the net sometimes. Make it a badge of honor!

Here’s a serving drill. Get a box of balls and practice serving low, short, spinny serves. When you feel comfortable with the serve, try serving so the ball does nick the net. You are used to serving with enough net clearance to cleanly go over the net, but perhaps you are giving it too much clearance, leading to a higher serve, which makes things easier for your opponent. See just how low you can serve and get it over the net – and the best way to do this is to actually try to serve as low as possible while still going over the net - and that’s a serve that just nicks the net. Do twenty serves and see how many net serves you can do without actually serving into the net!

Published:

01/20/2025 - 03:38

Author: Larry Hodges

Some players try to work on the strokes by trying to learn the stroke, contact, timing, footwork, positioning, and reading of spin . . . all at the same time. That’s like trying to teach the alphabet to a kindergartner by asking him to write essays.

One thing at a time!

You’d teach the kindergartner the alphabet, then the proper spelling of simple words, then simple sentence structures, and so on, until they are ready to write an essay, such as the one I’m writing now. Somehow I got out of kindergarten.

Similarly, in table tennis, you want to break it down in parts, even at the advanced levels. Sure, you could learn to, say, backhand flip serves by just doing so in games against various serves. And you would learn it that way. But you’d learn it at a higher level if, instead, you first learned the proper technique against a short, simple backspin serve first, then once that’s mastered, learn to do it against, heavy backspin, then no-spin, then sidespins, then side-topspin, and any other spin combinations, and then you’d learn to do it against varied spins where you don’t know what’s coming. By taking it in steps, you’d learn each step much better than if you tried to learn them all at the same time.

Make a list of the various table tennis techniques you’d like to learn. Break them down into each part of the technique. Then focus on learning each of those parts before putting them all together.

To give an example, I’ve recently made a comeback as a player, with some success. One of the big issues I’ve faced is my backhand is relatively weak and passive. So, I’ve been working on making it more aggressive. How? First, I’ve simply hit backhand-to-backhand with my practice partner, playing it as aggressively as I could while still being consistent. A key issue is that I often held my racket too far in front in my ready position and so was too slow in bringing the racket back for backhands – and so I ended up with weak, rushed backhands. So, I’ve isolated that one aspect and worked on it. I also found I sometimes step with just one foot for some backhands instead of moving with both feet, as I do with the forehand. I also had a grip problem – and so I worked on that by itself. When I feel comfortable with my new techniques, then I’ll do more random drills where I have to adjust to different incoming balls, including being ready for both forehand and backhand. If I’d jumped to that from the start, I wouldn’t be able to perfect as much as possible the various parts of the technique that can lead to a much higher level in the end.

 

So, break down each technique to its basic parts and learn each, and that way the techniques won’t break down on you!

Published:

01/13/2025 - 14:29

Author: Larry Hodges

Of course lobbing is good for your game.

  • It wins points that would otherwise be lost.
  • It allows you to practice off-table footwork, which can improve your footwork for counterlooping, fishing, or chopping.
  • It helps you develop topspin touch and control, which can help your counterlooping and fishing.
  • It gives you practice reacting to a hard-hit ball.
  • It gives great difficulties for some players, especially shorter players.
  • It’s great for exhibitions and demos.
  • It’s fun!

Of course lobbing is bad for your game.

  • It can lead to the bad habit of lobbing when you could make a more effective, less defensive shot.
  • It can lead to the bad habit of backing up from the table too easily rather than controlling play closer in.

So . . . there seem to be more reasons for lobbing then against. In general, read the reasons NOT to lob first, and make absolutely sure not to fall for these bad habits. Then learn to lob for the reasons given for why it is good for you. And yes, it’s fun!

Published:

01/06/2025 - 07:54

Author: Larry Hodges

In dodgeball, the goal is to avoid getting hit. When the ball is thrown at you, you use your footwork to get out of the way. Otherwise the ball will probably hit you in the torso, which is where a good dodgeball thrower aims as it’s the largest target.

In table tennis, when blocking on the backhand side, your goal is the reverse – you want to get hit. More specifically, you want to catch the ball with the center of your torso. Except, of course, you hold a racket out and block the ball so it never hits you, and instead rebounds back to the opponent’s side.

That, in essence, is a backhand block. Many players make the mistake of reaching for the ball, contorting their arm and body into various positions while trying to have a repeatable block. Instead, as the ball comes at you, you should focus on stepping in its way, blocking its path with your body. If you think of it this way, the footwork becomes more natural. And then, with the ball in front of you, you simply stick your racket out and block, this time using a repeatable stroke that doesn’t involve reaching except as an absolute last resort.

A similar way to look at it is to imagine you are a soccer goalie who has to block the ball with his body. However you imagine it, the key is to get the body into position so you can block the ball in front of the body with minimal reaching.

And now that you’ve learned all this on the backhand side, guess what? It’s the same on the forehand block, except that now you are basically “blocking” the ball with your right side, or rather the area just to the right of your right side, where you want to hold your racket for the perfect forehand block (assuming you’re a righty). Then apply the same principles above and you’ll learn to step to the ball rather than reach on the forehand block as well.

And now you are ready to rock with your block!!!