Coaching beginners?

Table Tennis General

Last updated 14 years ago

Piers Grey

Piers Grey Asked 14 years ago

Hey Jeff,

What's the first thing that you should teach to someone who is just starting out and of whom have a dream of wanting to be a professional?

Also, could you give me some sort of list to what order you should teach them, starting from the first thing you should teach them to the last thing you teach them.

As well as that, how can you tell if there ready to move onto the more advanced strokes, tactics or footwork drills? (i.e how long should you do one stroke repeatedly before you move onto another one?)

Could you also tell me how you should layout their first ever training session?

Finally, how much you should teach them in a training session to make sure that they remember it?

I'm asking this because I'm doing a table tennis coaching course next year and I want to look like that I have some idea of what I'm doing.

Thanks


Alois Rosario

Alois Rosario Answered 14 years ago

Hi Piers,

I think the first thing is to teach them the four basic strokes, forehand and backhand counterhit and then forehand and backhand push.

From there I think you can move onto some basic footwork movements.

Then onto the topspin and from there it will be very individual.

How long you should spend on each one depends on the attention span of the student.  If they are particularly in the stroke and want to do more then keep going with it.  If they look like they are getting bored then you can move on.  I think over a period of time you need to come back to the basics until the player can do them consistently.  Remember though that even the best players still hit forheand and backhands during their trainin session.

Take a look at Training Secrets Revealed.  This will also give you some ideas of the different things you can do during a session.

As a first lesson especially for school children I go through some basic hitting, getting the ball on the table as many times as possible.  Then I teach them a basic serve so that they can start a rally.  The I teach them the basic rules and play some sort of game like Beat the Champ or Round the World.  That should take around 45 minutes.

Don't try to get too many things into a training sessions for beginners.  If they learn one new skill per session you are doing well.

Good luck with the course.


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