Ask The Coach Show | Table Tennis

Welcome to another episode of the Ask the Coach Show! This week, we start with a lighthearted joke before diving into an intriguing discussion about the Australian Open Tennis. Can table tennis ever reach such a grand spectacle? We explore how tennis captivates a stadium audience with a single match, while table tennis tournaments often have multiple tables in a single hall, making it harder to focus on just one game. Listener Questions: We answer some fantastic questions from the PingSkills community: Drills to Improve Shot Timing "I often struggle with my shot timing, either hitting too early or too late. What drills can I use to improve my timing and consistency?" Exploring Alternative Grips "Are there any advantages to using alternative grips in table tennis? Should players experiment with different grips, or is it better to stick with traditional ones?" Understanding Obstruction "What exactly counts as an obstruction in table tennis? Can you explain when a player is considered to have obstructed the ball?" Fun Fact of the Week: We wrap up the show with a fascinating fun fact that will surprise you! Happy playing!

Welcome to the Ask the Coach Show, where PingSkills answers your table tennis questions! This week the show consists of: Things to Do During a Forced Break A New Doubles Idea: Stay in Your Lane Doubles 3 Questions: Confused About Words for Strokes In table tennis, there are lots of terms to describe strokes and techniques. What do they all mean, and how do they apply to your game? Driving the Ball: Correct Angle of the Bat How should you adjust your bat angle when transitioning from playing topspin against backspin to topspin against a block? Serve: How Far Does the Ball Need to Fall? Do you need to hit the ball while it’s coming back down? Learn the rules about serving and when to strike the ball.

Welcome to the ask the coach show where PingSkills answers your table tennis questions! This week the show consists of:  * The Joke of the Week  * A discussion on Playing to Learn vs Learning to Play  * The Tip of the Week - How Quickly Should You Progress Your Skills  * 3 Questions  * And a fun fact Training Plan When Using a Table Tennis Robot I have just purchased the premium subscription and I am looking forward to developing my tt skills. I used to train mostly at home, apart from playing once a week in a tt club as well as playing with friends, and I am using a PowerPong Omega tt robot and the drills it offers. Is the training plan taking into consideration the possibility of using a tt robot? Will it make it more efficient, how to adjust it and what kinds of drills would be most useful? Playing Doubles Any tips on positional play when serving and playing doubles? Don´t Recognize the Spin on my Opponent's Serve I often can't recognise what spin is on my opponents serve. This happens especially with the pendulum serve then I can only guess and of course I'm often wrong. Anything I can do to reduce my error rate and keep the ball in play? Featured Links The PingSkills 52 Week Training Plan Training 101 Tutorials

Welcome to the ask the coach show where PingSkills answers your table tennis questions! This week the show consists of:  * The Joke of the Week  * A discussion on Generalisation vs Specialisation  * The Tip of the Week - Just be playing in 5 years!  * 3 Questions  * And a fun fact What's Wrong With Me? I am 73 and started table tennis 6 months ago . I am throwing everything into it but still loose to "ping Pongers" . I have studied the aggresive shots ,but am beaten by the safe and cautious players who simply :get it on the table: . Against a robot I play reasonable forearm and back hand loops , but when I play a person they sail into the net or out of bounds . Any suggestions? Adjusting to Different Environment I've been playing table tennis for 10 years and have competed in county tournaments and local leagues. However, since starting university, I’ve struggled to transfer my skills, and it frustrates me that even after being here for a few years, I still can’t adapt. The tables are much slower, and I can’t generate the same power. Shots that land back home just don’t land here, and I feel like I have less touch and control of the ball, making it harder to stay consistent. What can I do to fix this ? Timing of Timeouts When is the ideal time to take a timeout, and at which time of the game, like if you are down in the game 0-1 or 0-2 or 1-2 or 2-2 or up 1-0 or 2-1 or 2-0 as well? Which points should you take? When to use a towel break and when not to use it, as it can also break the rhythm? Featured Links PingPod #34 - Can You Escape the Ping Pong Zone?

Welcome to the ask the coach show where PingSkills answers your table tennis questions! This week the show consists of:  * The Joke of the Week  * Search the PingSkills website  * Inner Belief  * The Tip of the Week - Serving Practice Development  * 4 Questions  * And a fun fact   Robot Practice Good morning, Alois and Jeff, as I have limited opportunities to practice with someone who can return the balls as consistently or feed multi ball like you, I rely on my robot. Please let me know the type of ball you are sending to Jeff for the following: FH Counter hit: looks to me like a moderate topspin, FH topspin against block: does the block have just a bit of topspin? I should be able to work out the frequency from your videos. I can also vary the placement/flight by using the scatter function. I may also program 3-4 balls in the fh court and set at random. I'll start at 40 bpm, and then gradually to 60 bpm. I find that if the frequency setting is too high the stroke shortens too much. Thanking you for your assistance, as always. Forehand Techniques I would like to adopt Jeff's forehand style of the shorter arm and the elbow bent at a 90 degree angle (and kept that way thoughout the swing). Do you have any suggestions on how to best practice this/put this style into play? Rule about the Perfect Roller If someone were to do a roller shot from under the table and managed to make the ball roll perfectly without any bounces(not even a small bounce). Is that legal? Serve for Beginner I started playing table tennis for over a month now, I have a coach but I'm currently having problems with serving because the serve I do is very basic and I really want to improve, is there any recommendations for a serve that is good for me to do? Featured Links The PingSkills Blog Turn Your Serve Into a Deadly Weapon Serving and Receiving Tutorials Training 101 Videos

Welcome to a different version of the podcast. In today's episode Jeff reads out his blog post "4 Points to Victory - The Match That Changed Everything". We hope you enjoy the episode and we'll be back next week with our regular show where we answer your table tennis questions.

Welcome to the ask the coach show where PingSkills answers your table tennis questions! This week the show consists of:  * The Joke of the Week  * The Tip of the Week - Taking Care of Your Equipment  * The Topic of the Week - Practical Mental Strategies  * 4 Questions  * And a fun fact Questions Right Mentality When Playing Matches I often feel that my training evenings are not as effective as they could be. Like, I am afraid of developing. Do you have any tips on this? I love your podcast. It's very fruitful. Balance Problem Hi, coach! I understand why I don't want to move during the game. When I try to move more I lose balance. How to train alone to solve this problem? Background Noise How much does environmental noise, especially that from other sports matter in table tennis? I usually play in a garage which is quiet, and have little club experience. Today our church had a event where there was basketball, badminton and table tennis at a university gymnasium. It was in one big open area indoors with wooden flooring, and kids or highschoolers were playing basketball, generating lots of noise from basketballs bouncing, people running and some screaming. Compared to playing in the garage, I found this noise making it “feel” much harder to play with, such as not being able to hear my serve, the ball and the contact. Is this something I should get used to (if I want to play in a club)? Is this what playing in a club environment is like (assuming there are people playing on other tables)? Volleying Rule Hi guys, if your opponent hits the ball beyond the edge of the table but it hits your bat before the ground who's point is it? Regards, Jim Links in this Episode French Clubs Turn Away Players PingSkills Sports Pyschology Tutorials

Welcome to the ask the coach show where PingSkills answers your table tennis questions! This week the show consists of:  * The Joke of the Week  * The Topic of the Week - Mental Preparation  * The Tip of the Week - Level of your Training Partners  * 3 Questions  * And a fun fact Questions Racket and Free Hand Rules Hello sir, I want to ask what happens if the ball touches the playing hand or forearm, game continues or we lose point immediately ? Second, what if the playing hand touches the table while game play ? It will be a great help if you can mention the ITTF rulebook rule number for these issues. Handling Balls Aimed at the Crossover Point We are often encouraged to aim at our opponent's crossover point. What should we do when our opponent hits towards our crossover point? What are some good drills for handling this situation? Moving Back From The Table What are the reasons that an offensive player with inverted rubbers would move back from the table? Links in this Episode 4 Points to Victory Blog Post The Hidden Force Behind Every Victory Challenge Your Training Blog Post Bounce - The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice

Welcome to the first ask the coach show in a long, long time! We are excited to be back and have a great show ready for you. The show consists of:  * The Joke of the Week  * The Tip of the Week - Use a phone to record yourself  * The Topic of the Week - The Olympic Effect  * A single question for this episode  * And a fun fact Questions Tournament Preparation I want to prepare for a tournament that is 4 months away. What should be my strategy 4 months before, 2 months before, a month before ,a week before and a day before and on that day? Links in this Episode The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle 4 Points to Victory Blog Post The Hidden Force Behind Every Victory Challenge Your Training Blog Post  

Mid-Length Topspins When I get short balls, I like to flick them, and when balls are long I topspin them; however, mid-length balls are difficult. They are too long to flick, but just enough over the table so that I can't lower my bat. I generally automatically prepare for a long stroke, but then at the last second recognise that it will not be long, and awkwardly lunge forward with a weak return. Passive or defensive players generally have more half-length balls than aggressive players, so I tend to struggle against their returns, especially if it is backspin. The main questions are, what stroke should I use for those type of balls, and how should I prepare to avoid weak returns and getting off balance?   Knowing When To Commit To A Playstyle Change Due to a shoulder injury, I played mostly defensively with my backhand (pushing, chopping, blocking) the past couple of months, instead of being more active. I just slapped a random thin (1.3) inverted control rubber on the backhand and started defending, and to my surprise, did quite well with it. Now that my shoulder has mostly recovered, I'm wondering, should I stick with it or should I switch back to my old style? My backhand was never my strong suit, however I was decent at opening up the game with it but I was never able to keep the pressure up because I think my movements were too large and inefficient. Also, if I keep playing defensively, should I adjust my setup? I tried long pips but that was catastrophic and broke my brain a bit. Maybe short pips or a 1.5 rubber to block more aggressively?   Plastic Ball Debut Hi coaches! sam here, im just really curious... what year was the celluloid ball last used, and when did the plastic ball make its official ittf debut?   Muscle Memory The latest research into muscle memory seems to indicate it takes about 10 hours of practicing one skill to train your brain to have good muscle memory. Doing two activities during the 10 hours reduces the learning of the first training. The other thing that was suggested was to push the boundaries in learning the one skill you are training for. I was told the Chinese when training young kids focus on one stroke for 3 months. How would you do this in training without becoming boring? Do you think there is any validity of this approach in Table Tennis?   Links In This Episode Singapore Smash Who Am I Episode 10

Mid-Length Topspins When I get short balls, I like to flick them, and when balls are long I topspin them; however, mid-length balls are difficult. They are too long to flick, but just enough over the table so that I can't lower my bat. I generally automatically prepare for a long stroke, but then at the last second recognise that it will not be long, and awkwardly lunge forward with a weak return. Passive or defensive players generally have more half-length balls than aggressive players, so I tend to struggle against their returns, especially if it is backspin. The main questions are, what stroke should I use for those type of balls, and how should I prepare to avoid weak returns and getting off balance?   Knowing When To Commit To A Playstyle Change Due to a shoulder injury, I played mostly defensively with my backhand (pushing, chopping, blocking) the past couple of months, instead of being more active. I just slapped a random thin (1.3) inverted control rubber on the backhand and started defending, and to my surprise, did quite well with it. Now that my shoulder has mostly recovered, I'm wondering, should I stick with it or should I switch back to my old style? My backhand was never my strong suit, however I was decent at opening up the game with it but I was never able to keep the pressure up because I think my movements were too large and inefficient. Also, if I keep playing defensively, should I adjust my setup? I tried long pips but that was catastrophic and broke my brain a bit. Maybe short pips or a 1.5 rubber to block more aggressively?   Plastic Ball Debut Hi coaches! sam here, im just really curious... what year was the celluloid ball last used, and when did the plastic ball make its official ittf debut?   Muscle Memory The latest research into muscle memory seems to indicate it takes about 10 hours of practicing one skill to train your brain to have good muscle memory. Doing two activities during the 10 hours reduces the learning of the first training. The other thing that was suggested was to push the boundaries in learning the one skill you are training for. I was told the Chinese when training young kids focus on one stroke for 3 months. How would you do this in training without becoming boring? Do you think there is any validity of this approach in Table Tennis?   Links In This Episode Singapore Smash Who Am I Episode 10

Welcome to another ask the coach show where we answer your table tennis questions. If you have a table tennis question then head over the PingSkills website and ask away. We love talking about table tennis. I hope you enjoy this week’s show.   Serve Selection  How to select the serve to use in different situations ? When do we use long serve? When do we use backhand serve? Which serve should should be use at 9-10 ?   Rubber Thickness I noticed that when I was playing with (two different) 2 mm thick rubbers on FH side, almost all my topspins was landing to the table. And with maximum thick rubbers, I have some troubles. When I do FH topspins, several FH topspins in a set flies off the table.  Is it coincidence? With thinner rubbers is it easier to do FH topspins? Or depends on many other things: blade, opponents' strokes, position during the stroke (technique), etc ?   Sleeping Well The Night Before A Contest Hi Alois, I have this problem where I struggle to sleep well the night before a league or tournament because I am too excited and tend to overthink about the matches. I always end up not playing at my usual level during the contest. This has happened to me 2 times already and I hope that it doesn't happen again in the future. How do you calm down in the night before a tournament or league?   Video Analysis  I recorded two matches of my local RR matches (approx 20 mins each) uplinked to youTube channels. I am looking for feedback to what I am already doing well & areas for improvements, tendencies, serves & returns. What are your thoughts & fees?   Links In This Episode: Choosing A Table Tennis Bat Who Am I Episode 10

Welcome to another ask the coach show where we answer your table tennis questions. If you have a table tennis question then head over the PingSkills website and ask away. We love talking about table tennis. I hope you enjoy this week’s show.   Serve Selection  How to select the serve to use in different situations ? When do we use long serve? When do we use backhand serve? Which serve should should be use at 9-10 ?   Rubber Thickness I noticed that when I was playing with (two different) 2 mm thick rubbers on FH side, almost all my topspins was landing to the table. And with maximum thick rubbers, I have some troubles. When I do FH topspins, several FH topspins in a set flies off the table.  Is it coincidence? With thinner rubbers is it easier to do FH topspins? Or depends on many other things: blade, opponents' strokes, position during the stroke (technique), etc ?   Sleeping Well The Night Before A Contest Hi Alois, I have this problem where I struggle to sleep well the night before a league or tournament because I am too excited and tend to overthink about the matches. I always end up not playing at my usual level during the contest. This has happened to me 2 times already and I hope that it doesn't happen again in the future. How do you calm down in the night before a tournament or league?   Video Analysis  I recorded two matches of my local RR matches (approx 20 mins each) uplinked to youTube channels. I am looking for feedback to what I am already doing well & areas for improvements, tendencies, serves & returns. What are your thoughts & fees?   Links In This Episode: Choosing A Table Tennis Bat Who Am I Episode 10

We answer 4 excellent questions in today’s show that will hopefully help you in your table tennis journey. One listener also correctly identified our current who am I athlete and wins either one hour of online coaching or one month’s free premium membership. We also give our tip of the week and round out the show with some OMG facts.   Pendulum Topspin Serve I can do under spin, side spin pendulum serve, but unable to figure out how to do top spin serve. Saw a few videos but not sure what am i missing. Please share some tips and/or videos to help learn it.    Ball Dents In New Rubber Hello guys, I just replaced my Rakza 7 rubber on my/your bat.I did everything right from your ytube video. Is it normal to see ball indentations on the new rubber? Thanks, Bernie   Low Balls  I have just been watching basic strokes showing the position and movement of the bat, but the demonstration shows the ball bouncing to a convenient height to return the ball. What do you do when the ball bounces low and short, in other words, it could bounce twice in the middle of the table unless you get to it quickly?   Training Composition I would like to ask though: the training with the second club looks only like "10mins of warm up and then 90 mins of matches. No drills no combinations no practise. Only matches."  Does such a system make sense to you? I mean...matches surely have their importance but playing ONLY matches without a chance to recognize mistakes or working at them? What do you think about the training system difference?   Links in this Episode: Guess the latest 'Who Am I'

We answer 4 excellent questions in today’s show that will hopefully help you in your table tennis journey. One listener also correctly identified our current who am I athlete and wins either one hour of online coaching or one month’s free premium membership. We also give our tip of the week and round out the show with some OMG facts.   Pendulum Topspin Serve I can do under spin, side spin pendulum serve, but unable to figure out how to do top spin serve. Saw a few videos but not sure what am i missing. Please share some tips and/or videos to help learn it.    Ball Dents In New Rubber Hello guys, I just replaced my Rakza 7 rubber on my/your bat.I did everything right from your ytube video. Is it normal to see ball indentations on the new rubber? Thanks, Bernie   Low Balls  I have just been watching basic strokes showing the position and movement of the bat, but the demonstration shows the ball bouncing to a convenient height to return the ball. What do you do when the ball bounces low and short, in other words, it could bounce twice in the middle of the table unless you get to it quickly?   Training Composition I would like to ask though: the training with the second club looks only like "10mins of warm up and then 90 mins of matches. No drills no combinations no practise. Only matches."  Does such a system make sense to you? I mean...matches surely have their importance but playing ONLY matches without a chance to recognize mistakes or working at them? What do you think about the training system difference?   Links in this Episode: Guess the latest 'Who Am I'

Today we discuss how Alois used short pimples on his backhand for a year. We answer questions about receiving, the service rule, and the playing styles of Mima Ito and Vladimir Samsonov. We hope you enjoy the show.     Thoughts Before Receiving In A Match Since the server has so many different options for a serve, what should the receiver be thinking of before the point begins?   The Wall What is the plan of Vladimir Samsonov's playing style?   Mima Ito Playing Style  I like to play close to the table. So I’d like to play like Mima Ito who is currently ranked third in the world among female players. She uses short pips on her backhand. When she returns ball during rallies, she pushes back the incoming ball forward, especially on her backhand side. She doesn’t use a conventional BH stroke. Actually she covers about 70-80% of the table using this style of play. She used her FH drive only when the ball come to the far right. I use regular FH and BH strokes. But I have been thinking of stopping to swing a BH stroke and using her playing style. What do you think of her playing style?   Dimitrij Ovtcharov's Tomahawk Serve Toss In Dima's matches, I see that he uses the tomahawk serve a lot and he is tossing the ball very sidewards and it looks pretty obvious that it isn't a legal serve. But the umpires don't fault him for that toss. Why is no one stopping Dima from his sidewards toss?   Links In This Episode: Perfect Pushes

Today we discuss how Alois used short pimples on his backhand for a year. We answer questions about receiving, the service rule, and the playing styles of Mima Ito and Vladimir Samsonov. We hope you enjoy the show.     Thoughts Before Receiving In A Match Since the server has so many different options for a serve, what should the receiver be thinking of before the point begins?   The Wall What is the plan of Vladimir Samsonov's playing style?   Mima Ito Playing Style  I like to play close to the table. So I’d like to play like Mima Ito who is currently ranked third in the world among female players. She uses short pips on her backhand. When she returns ball during rallies, she pushes back the incoming ball forward, especially on her backhand side. She doesn’t use a conventional BH stroke. Actually she covers about 70-80% of the table using this style of play. She used her FH drive only when the ball come to the far right. I use regular FH and BH strokes. But I have been thinking of stopping to swing a BH stroke and using her playing style. What do you think of her playing style?   Dimitrij Ovtcharov's Tomahawk Serve Toss In Dima's matches, I see that he uses the tomahawk serve a lot and he is tossing the ball very sidewards and it looks pretty obvious that it isn't a legal serve. But the umpires don't fault him for that toss. Why is no one stopping Dima from his sidewards toss?   Links In This Episode: Perfect Pushes

In today’s episode Alois tells us about the best match he has ever seen. Jeff tells 3 funny jokes that he heard on the radio and we give you our tip of the week. Of course we also answer your table tennis questions as the name of the show suggests!   Backhand Sidespin Loop  How do you do a backhand sidespin loop?   Head Heavy Rackets  Are head-heavy, handle-heavy, or balanced bats better for any specific playing styles, or is it just purely a matter of preference?   Serving Low How do I serve low and close to the net?   What About A Dry Run Because of Corona there's no training possible in my area for the time being. So I wonder if a dry run at home could be helpful just to maintain the feeling for the ball and the stroke movement. So anything one could do with a ball and a bat. Thanks.   Best Match Hi pingskills, what is the best match at the top level you have watched? My favourite match to watch is Ma Long vs Joo Sae Hyuk in the 2014 asian games. I love watching attacker vs defender kind of matches in general because of the intense long rallies that won't break down too quickly unlike attack vs attack rallies.    Links in this Episode:

In today’s episode Alois tells us about the best match he has ever seen. Jeff tells 3 funny jokes that he heard on the radio and we give you our tip of the week. Of course we also answer your table tennis questions as the name of the show suggests!   Backhand Sidespin Loop  How do you do a backhand sidespin loop?   Head Heavy Rackets  Are head-heavy, handle-heavy, or balanced bats better for any specific playing styles, or is it just purely a matter of preference?   Serving Low How do I serve low and close to the net?   What About A Dry Run Because of Corona there's no training possible in my area for the time being. So I wonder if a dry run at home could be helpful just to maintain the feeling for the ball and the stroke movement. So anything one could do with a ball and a bat. Thanks.   Best Match Hi pingskills, what is the best match at the top level you have watched? My favourite match to watch is Ma Long vs Joo Sae Hyuk in the 2014 asian games. I love watching attacker vs defender kind of matches in general because of the intense long rallies that won't break down too quickly unlike attack vs attack rallies.    Links in this Episode:

The Chinese New Year was on the 1st of February. Jeff was born in the year of the tiger and Alois in the year of the dragon. We discuss lots of topics including what you can learn from the recent Australian Open tennis tournament. We of course answer your table tennis questions just as the name of the show suggests. Make sure to visit our website if you have a table tennis question of your own to ask.     Running Training  When training table tennis, do we need to do some running for stamina as a complementary training? For the case when we can only play table tennis twice a week, what kind of running would be suitable? How about for competitive players, do they usually do running as training also?   What To Do In An Injury Situation What should you do if you suffer an injury Mid-match? Or what should you do if your opponent is the one getting injured?   Table Friction Standard Is there any measurable standard for friction/grip of the table surface? At club level I see a fair bit of difference from table to table (venue to venue) that impacts spin effect off the table (degree of kick). I just wonder if there is any "rule" for standardisation or not.   FH Loop Is it OK or sound technique to engage a bit of shoulder moving forward (letting elbow & wrist relax & hang, going for a ride like a door off of hinge) as I switch weight from right foot to left?   Links: Who Am I Episode 8 Advanced Forehand Topspin