How to learn change of pace

Nigel C Asked 2 years ago

Alois and Jeff,

Top table tennis players will often change the pace of their shots during a rally.

Is there a good way to practice this so it becomes 2nd nature? Obviously, you shouldn't do this every rally but it also needs to be easy to apply i.e. without having to think about it.

Alois Rosario Answered 2 years ago

Hi Nigel,

This is something that you can train.

During your practice session start by playing one ball slower, one ball faster.  Then as you progress start to make decisions around which ball you can play faster and slower or deliberately mix up the pace.

Like anything that you work on it will take time and good training to be able to get it to a stage where you can implement it in a match situation but start in training and see how you can progress the skill.