Teaching beginners
General
Ji-Soo Woo Asked 16 years ago
Hi Alois
Just because I love impossible odds, I have started training my wife in table tennis. From the first lesson I have tried to force her to have correct form on her strokes (we're just working on forehand counterdrives at the moment, following your youtube video) - but it is not easy for her.
When you teach a real beginner (and especially someone who might not be naturally gifted in hand-eye coordination) I think there are two general approaches you can take.
1) try to force correct form from the beginning, even if progress is slower
2) let them just get used to hitting the ball consistently and keeping the ball on the table, even if they resort to 'unorthodox' strokes. Later, when their confidence is up, try to get them to use correct strokes.
Which approach would you recommend?
Thanks
Ji-Soo
Alois Rosario Answered 16 years ago
Hi Ji-Soo,
Now you are a brave ma, teaching your wife something. Let me know how it goes, I might give it a try next!
On a serious matter, the first thing is to get them confident first. Remember the most important skill of table tennis - hitting the ball on the table! It really doesn't matter how to start with. This may take a day or a few sessions but don't leave it too much longer than that.
Once she has that confidence, you can start with teaching technique. Make sure you are feeding the ball slowly to her. Start by bouncing one at a time to her and catching it after she hits. When you bounce it to her start with the ball at your shoulder leevel and bounce it on both sides of the table. Then after she is confident with this you can start to hit the ball back to her, but very slowly. As she progresses ot each stage you will see her technique fall back a little, but persevere andkeep reminding her of the technique.
The key is to keep the ball really slow and feed them at a really comfortable pace for her to be able to implement the technique.
The other key of course is patience!!!
Please keep us informed on how it is going, but we don't want to hear about the arguments.
Good luck with this monumental task.
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