March 31, 2016
A Simple Side-to-Side Drill
Sometimes the best comes from the simplest. Yesterday I was working with Navin on his forehand-to-backhand transition, feeding multiball side to side as he hit forehands and backhands. After a bit I said now let's do it randomly, where he had to react to where the ball goes. But he hesitated. I asked why, and he said he was now hitting the forehand so well that he wanted to do the simple side-to-side drill longer, to really ingrain it. We'd been working a lot on his forehand, and more and more it's beginning to click. So we continued doing the drill for a while longer.
This brought back a memory from 1979, when I was an up-and-coming 19-year-old. From 1979-1981 I lived and trained in Wilson, NC, at the Butterfly TTC. I was training regularly with Bowie Martin Sr. (co-founder of Martin-Kilpatrick, more commonly known as Butterfly North America). He's a lefty, and I often drilled into his backhand. I remember doing the very same side-to-side forehand-backhand drill with him, over and over, with him backhand blocking side to side, often doing the drill more than once per session. Why? Because I was making the transition from forehand hitting to forehand looping. The drill allowed me to not only ingrain the stroke, but do it faster and quicker, often almost right off the bounce. By doing the drill constantly, I became very fast at moving to my wide forehand, good at taking the ball close to the table, and the stroke itself became very ingrained and consistent. I still fall back on this drill when I need to quickly get back into practice.
A key part of this is that you still need to do it in game situations, i.e. random drills. And so I also did random drills with Bowie – and guess what? Navin's going to be facing more and more in the coming weeks. (We're also going to do drills where he serves, I roll the ball back softly, and he smashes.) But he's also going to get a steady diet of side-to-side forehand-backhands. (This drill also ingrains the backhand and moving to the backhand, but that's a different story for a different day.)
Junior Olympics
After a several-years absence, table tennis is back in the Junior Olympics! Here's the entry form. It's in Houston, Aug. 1-3, with a North American Teams South on July 30-31 at the same venue. I'll likely be coaching at these events.
Seven Free Videos from International Table Tennis Skills
Here are free videos from Samson Dubina.
- How to Loop Long Serves
- Returning Short Serves
- Table Tennis Footwork
- Slow-Motion Serve Demonstration
- Backhand Loop Demo
- Mini-Steps for Huge Improvement
- In-and-Out
Important Aspects of Table Tennis Training Program
Here's the article.
Ask the Coach Show
Episode #249 (31:00) - Frustratingly Close to Winning (and other segments).
Taught by Richard McAfee, Frederick Lee Puts Knowledge Learned to Good Use
Here's the ITTF article.
History of U.S. Table Tennis, Vol. 17, Chapter 2
Here it is! You can buy this or other volumes at TimBogganTableTennis.com.
Second World Table Tennis Day Happening on Wednesday April 6
Here's the ITTF press release.
Jumpy University of Wisconsin-Madison
Here's the picture from the recent College Championships. L-R: Yash Shah, Pamela "Weirdo" Song, Maria Castillo, and Yixin Zhang. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)
Sausage Pong
Here's the video (50 sec)!
Panda Pong
Here's the picture!
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