Table Tennis exercises for son with Broken Ankle

Mark Taylor Asked 15 years ago

My son has just broken his ankle.  At the moment he can't put any weight on it ie He can only stand on one leg.

I think he is feeling a bit sorry for himself at the moment and not attempting any practise.

What exercises should, I be encouraging him to do?

PS love the site - see you soon!

Alois Rosario Answered 15 years ago

Hi Mark,

Glad you like the site.

I had a similar situation when I was young and  I found I got my 'hit' of table tennis by putting my knee (of my bad leg) on a chair and standing on my good leg and hitting.  By putting his knee on a chair he will take the weight off it completely and will probably find it reasonably comfortable.

He can do a lot of hitting in this position.  He can work on technique or strokes rather than any movement.  You may be able to feeed him multiball so the ball is coming to the one spot for him consistently.  He could work on things like his forehand topapin technique and keeping his head still, relaxing his shoulder, and swinging through to finish in the correct position consistently.

It is also a good time to think about your serves and the contact you can make on the ball.  Get him to position himself in his normal serving position and let him go for it.

Get him to try it out and see if it works for him.  I guess the trick is getting the chair the right height. You could even put cushions on the chair to get it to the right height.

Good luck and le tus know how it goes.