By Larry Hodges

So you've decided you want to beat the neighborhood or club champ, and move up to the next level. Then you're going to have to practice. You know – go out to the table with another person who's also tired of losing, and do practice drills (not just games) to improve your game. There are a number of factors you should consider to maximize your time. First off, everybody should not be doing the same drills. What drills you should do depend on:

By Larry Hodges

The biggest difference between a serious table tennis player and a basement player is spin. Serious players use spin on both their serves and rallying shots, both to control the ball and to force errors from their opponents. What we are going to do is go over the types, effects and purposes of the various spins, how to create spin, how to read spin, how to handle spin, and how spin actually makes a ball curve in flight.

By Larry Hodges

At the 2004 USA Nationals, Cheng Yinghua, 46, became the oldest Men’s Singles Champion in history, and the four semifinalists averaged over 40 years old. This was unique in a sport that is usually dominated by younger, faster players.

When asked what the younger players needed to do to compete with these veterans, four-time U.S. Men’s champ and full-time coach Cheng said, “The younger players had not put enough training time and effort into the fundamentals.