Ambidextrousity

DONT LISTEN TO THESE GUYS. I am living proof you can play a fully ambidextrous style of table tennis. Watch a video of me in practice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EkqOCb0Tt4

Hi Ebiye,

Different people have different goals and as long as you are happy with your level then that is good. However if you do want to take the next step and become a better Table Tennis player, you will need to focus your training on one hand. Otherwise you will need to double your training effort for very little benefit.

What would I need to do to improve my game? I can use one hand to set up the other, (example: a left hand backhand slice serve from the left side of the table and then use the right hand for the 3rd ball attack) I have more reach, and the different spins throws my opponents off balance.

 With ambidextrous athletes improvements on one side translate to improvements on the other and vis versa. Here are some videos of ambidextrous athleticism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlWt78COS18 Golf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee7mNB-mrYw throwing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsjO9vMOEq4 Basketball

Steve,

If you look at some of the rallies from my practice match you notice that there are times when I use just one hand (typically when my opponent is on the offensive) but there are times when I can switch hands and really fool my opponent. Hitting forehands off of both sides means I can cover more ground while attacking my opponent with less footwork. When you train ambidextrously your opponent cannot attack a specific side and it gives you an advantage.

Jeff,

How would you know how long it takes to train to be an ambidextrous table tennis player unless you are ambidextrous yourself?

Hi Ebiye,

To improve your game there are several areas that jump to mind immediately.

Firstly you can work on your serve. To stop a good player attacking your serve, you need to develop a good short serve where you can mix up the spin and placement. To complement that you need a really effective fast long serve to keep your opponent from predicting a short serve every time. 

Secondly you can work on improving your third ball attack. By improving your forehand and backhand topspin, you can develop a better attacking stroke that will win you lots of points. 

Thirdly you can work on improving your return of serve. Against any serve that will not bounce twice on the table, you should play a strong topspin stroke (as mentioned above you will need to improve your forehand and backhand topspin technique). For any serve that will bounce twice on the table you need to improve your short game and be able to push the ball back short or either play a strong flick or a heavy backspin push to make it hard for your opponent to attack.

The last thing I would suggest is to join a Table Tennis club. The more varying styles and levels of players you can play against the more opportunity you have to improve. In fact without joining a Table Tennis club it is almost impossible to improve your game to a high level.

I see virtually no advantage from being able to use both hands even after watching your video. As Tevia commented, Timo Boll does very occassionally switch to his right hand when he is forced way back from the table and plays a running forehand with his right hand. But he would not bother training for this as it happens so rarely and he has much more important areas to focus on.

Although you can play at your current level with both hands, there is a lot of room for improvement in your game if you are prepared to work hard. I believe you would be better off concentrating on using one hand for this.

Good luck with your Table Tennis.

i think you should practice both hands. fooling your opponent would be easy and you can have different tactics and strategies by using two hands  

Playing with both hands might help you playing at the very low levels but up against anyone else who is good and consistent with the basic technique, the ball will definitely be coming too fast for you to switch and still play a good shot. As a result you spent lots of time training for playing a forehand shot with your non preferred hand and rarely use it to good effect in a match, whereas you could've spent that time making your backhand into a formidable shot.