School table tennis club
Discussion
Gabriel Orozco Asked 7 years ago
Hi, I was wondering if anyone can provide some information on starting a club, and potentially making table tennis considered a high school sport. I have around 12 people that are interested, excluding the club "sponsor" or representative (the teacher), and myself. The majority do not have training in the basics of table tennis, and only a couple have a pretty "decent" technique. Nothing professional, though... But, most of them want the sport to be a school sport and to compete. I like the fact they are interested in the sport, enough to even mention competing in a tournament, but I keep advising them that a tournament will require you to have a lot of things covered in their technique, which leads me to this: How can I train people enough to be able to compete? Of course, I will be providing them with useful websites, such as this one, and I'll try to train them about what I've been trained by my coaches, but I doubt this is enough to make them good in say, a year. In regards to starting the club, I really don't know where to start either. Any information will be important for me, so many thanks in advance!
Alois Rosario Answered 7 years ago
Hi Gabriel,
Firstly well done on taking the initiative to start a club.
The main thing is to provide activity that will help the players to improve. I think that one of the main things is providing training time. Set up some drills that they can do and then also provide a competition structure within the club. You can show them some of the drills you know. start with real basics of being able to control the ball onto the table.
Others may have other ideas for you as well.
Thoughts on this question
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Gabriel Orozco Posted 7 years ago
Alright, so I was thinking of doing this for the first club meet:
- I'll observe two people play at a time, and take notes on the things they need work on, or any habits they created.
- I'll then introduce proper basic forehand and backhand rally technique and do drills on that only.
- In regards to the note taking, I will probably mention any rules that they might be breaking when performing, mainly the way they serve and touching the table, the point counting system, etc.
- Since I'm a lefty, I assume it's easier to teach both righties and lefties, since for righties, I'm like a mirror, and I understand the left handed technique much better.
Do you think this would be a good first start? Any other advice is greatly appreciated, thank you!
Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 7 years ago
Sounds good. Make sure they are just getting some time to hit the ball on the table and get the feel of that before you teach them the technique of forehands and backhands. Remember The Most Important Skill...
Gabriel Orozco Posted 7 years ago
Yes! I almost forgot about that video. I must watch this video again. Many thanks!
Gabriel Orozco Posted 7 years ago
So, the teacher wants me to look up the equipment we'll need to start the club, and I thought these options were the best I saw:
https://www.amazon.com/JOOLA-Inside-Table-Tennis-Net/dp/B002HWNVZK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486420321&sr=8-1&keywords=Joola+inside
https://www.amazon.com/STIGA-Titan-Table-Tennis-Racket/dp/B003JK000I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486420369&sr=8-1&keywords=Stiga+titan
https://www.amazon.com/Butterfly-Standard-Training-Ball-Bucket/dp/B008QZLCTE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486420397&sr=8-1&keywords=Butterfly+training+balls
What at do you think? Are there any better offers? Anything I forgot?
Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 7 years ago
They all look like good enough options at this stage. It always depends on where you are and what is available in your area.
Gabriel Orozco Posted 7 years ago
Alright, thanks so much!
Mick Derevnin Posted 7 years ago
I would suggest teaching them how to feel multiball very early on. In the long run, this will help them to improve the most. You can easily turn this into a challenge to see how many balls they can feed into certain areas within a set time frame.
Good luck!