Anticipation

Curtis Lewis Asked 14 years ago

Hey Alois and Jeff,

Thanks for helping me earlier with tracking the ball, I do much better with blocking and keeping the rally alive in faster volleys.  But now, I have trouble with anticipating where the ball will go.  Normally, I try to get into position early when my opponent smashes into a deep corner on my bh or fh side.  I'm able to return it most of the time, but now my opponent tends to learn this and now attacks the ball in the opposite direction at the last second, leaving me completely out of position and unable to return the ball.  

A good example of what I try to do and deal with is in this video 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktmxD5J93DU  @  0:30 and 0:54

 Any tips for this would be great, thanks guys!

Jeff Plumb Answered 14 years ago

Hi Curtis,

It sounds like you are on the right track. The key is to watch the ball extremely closely.

We've actually made a video on this for our Master Class section for Premium members. We talk about how you must have total focus on the Table Tennis ball. By tracking the ball you start to see in your peripheral vision what the other person is doing. You can see what your opponents hands, head and legs are doing. With experience you will start to pick up queues on where your opponent is going to hit it. It won't necessarily be one cue so you can't just watch their hands for example. Focusing on the ball will bring everything into picture for you. Picking up these queues only happens with a lot of practice and comes naturally. The thing you can work on is watching the ball closely. Make sure you practice this skill when training.

Keep up the good work.