Learning curve improvement for beginners

Table Tennis Strokes and Technique

Last updated 5 years ago

Radim Radim

Radim Radim Asked 5 years ago

Hi,

I've seen most of your videos, but maybe there is something you can add. For the basic moves (counterhit, topspin), you are showing how to hit it correctly every time like a machine :-) But for players starting to practice this is never the case. Would you consider making a video where let's say one of you is making mistakes (like the beginners) and like every second hit is a bit off and the other is always correcting it, to show how exactly the players should go about it when trying to "get back on track"?

It would have more of a "beginner feel" as the beginnger is typically not playing with a pro, but with another player that hasn't played thousands and thousands hits. The "off hits" should vary between placement (left, right) and speed. I think such approach would have the best learning curve for the spectators :-) The angle would be best where the camera sees both of you, but is a bit more to the side and closer to the table than your other typical videos, that way everyone can see both the mistake and the corrective shot.

This is also basically the main point of practicing counterhits => to increase consistency, to be able to handle those off balls. And seeing perfect play doesn't give that many hints. Might not even need to limit yourself to counterhits or topspin.


Alois Rosario

Alois Rosario Answered 5 years ago

Hi Radim,

This is an interesting suggestion.

We try to do this in our The Most Important Skill tutorial.  This level of play is where the ball is going all over the table and you are just working on controlling the ball on the table as often as possible.

Then the next step is to do the same thing when you are playing more advanced strokes.

Would be interested to hear other readers' thoughts.

 


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Thoughts on this question

Jack Tan

Jack Tan Posted 5 years ago

I think this would be a great idea. Many players have bad habits which they are unaware of. This addition would allow players to have a better understanding and point out their bad habits as well.


Rohan Keogh

Rohan Keogh Posted 5 years ago

Radim, do you mean a video that simply shows Alois and Jeff pretending to be Newbies and demonstrate how a stroke should be played when you don't receive the perfect 'feeder shot', or do you mean a video demonstrating Alois correcting Jeff if he makes a typical Newbie shot?


Radim Radim

Radim Radim Posted 5 years ago

Alois Rosario: Yes, I have seen that. But what I mean is, that what you are demonstrating (also in the video you mentioned) does not match typical newbie play. All your strokes are the same and they fall into same place. As a newbie you would have to have a coach (and reduced need for online tutorials), that will send the ball to the same location over and over. The problem is the snowball effect. You hit the ball a bit off, your newbie friend will have hard time handling an off ball and sends it even more off, and so on. So if one of you was doing this mistake, the other one will send the ball back to the correct location so he then has the ball where it should be again, then you maybe have 2 correct shots (as you typcially show), and then one of you makes mistake again. I think the purpose of counterhit is to learn this, so you can deal with untypical shots = consistency. The advantage of this approach is that you will learn the technique much faster, because you reduce the amount of incorrect shots and potentially avoiding learning bad habits.

Rohan I am: I don't see the difference between the 2 ideas you mention. Hopefully my previous paragraph explains it.


Alois Rosario

Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 5 years ago

Hi Radim,

We will have a look at how we can do this next time we do some filming.


Octavian Becl

Octavian Becl Posted 5 years ago

Hi. Nothing beats reality..:) maybe try a pilot video using someone who is actually learning a shot. The guidance could be recorded and the effect of the advice could be explained. This would help a lot the begginers (like me) to understand and mirror the correct move. Thank you.


Radim Radim

Radim Radim Posted 5 years ago

To Octavian Becl:

Yeah, that would also be golden. Alois or Jeff sparing with some newbie, while the other one would be correcting his technique. It would also show how to play a nice shot from the coach point of view after getting a bad ball from the newbie.



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