You have practiced your attack for months…
Hired a physical trainer…
Perfected your favorite table tennis robot drills…
Purchased the newest equipment…
Watched every table tennis video on the market…
Held tight to your diet…
Prepared mentally for your first tournament…
BUT failed to win a single match! What went wrong? As an offensive player, your experienced opponents were probably able to attack first.
Seventy-five percent of the time, whoever attacks first wins the point. (This statistic applies to two offensive players in competition.) One of the questions players most frequently ask me is, “Samson, how can I attack first?” Here are four tips for the beginning player on how to attack first:
1. Get ready to attack. You must anticipate every ball coming long enough to loop. After serving, get back in your low ready-position waiting for the deep ball; when receiving serves, look to attack if the ball comes long.
2. Serve short, low, backspin. With a very low serve that bounces twice on your opponent’s side, it will be very difficult for him to get beneath the ball because the table is in the way.
3. Return short serves short. If you can’t attack your opponent’s serve, then keep him from attacking by dropping it back short. You might get the opportunity to attack the following ball.
4. Flip your opponent’s serve. The flip is an attack which is especially effective if placed to the backhand or middle. Your opponent will often block your flip, which can be followed up by your strong attack.
If you and your opponent are exactly the same level and both able to attack an equal amount of times, then consistency is the key. Within being the most consistent, the one who has the best spin variation, speed variation, and ball placement will control the table and ultimately win.
Using the Newgy Robo-Pong 2050 table tennis robot, drills 16, 21, 22 and 56 will be the most useful in practicing these strategies. With practice, you will improve; but with the RIGHT practice, you will improve ten times faster.
Samson Dubina
Character must come as the highest priority in table tennis, before winning. Table tennis players must give their best at all times, yet still remain honest and have excellent sportsmanship throughout the table tennis match.
In the past, table tennis has had one major controversial issue – double hit. Because it was very difficult for umpires to be 100% sure, the decision was often left to the honesty of the players. The honest players were calling it on themselves. The dishonest ones were cheating. To correct this, ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation) has changed the rule as of September 1, 2010.
Previously, the rule stated that a point is won:
2.10.1.6 if an opponent strikes the ball twice successively
Now, the rule states that a point is won:
Note that the hand that is holding the racket counts as part of the racket and that making a good return off one’s hand or fingers is allowed. As of September 1, 2010, it is not a fault if the ball accidentally hits one’s hand or fingers and then subsequently hits the racket.
My coach used the Newgy Robo-Pong table tennis robot to develop my table tennis game early on in my table tennis career. When I was 13 years old and beginning table tennis, some other young table tennis enthusiasts and I were invited to Carl Hardin’s table tennis camp in southern Ohio. One of Coach Hardin’s main teaching tools was the Newgy robot. My strokes were horrendous. I was not sure why I was inconsistent; one of my main problems was that my racket angle was always changing right before contact.
Coach Hardin began having me practice stroking the ball using this consistent robot. He started with slow topspin to my forehand using the slow frequency setting. With this consistency, I learned to keep my racket angle set. If my angle changed, I would hit the ball into the net or off the table.
Another hindrance in my game was my loop against backspin. Throughout the week, I would play against opponents of all levels. When I played against an opponent with heavy chop, I would always loop the ball into the net. Coach Hardin said that I was using the same angle for the topspin stroke as I was for the backspin stroke. I did not believe him. So, back to the Newgy robot we went. With the help of the robot, he showed me that it was nearly impossible to lift the backspin by hitting the top of the ball. By setting my angle more open, I learned to consistently lift any amount of chop. (Note: the most recent chopper I played was rated 2453. I won at 6,4,6. I guess I learned how to loop against chop.)
The first table tennis camp helped my game so much that six months later, I attended my second camp. My strokes were beginning to develop, so Coach Hardin decided to move on to advanced techniques with the Newgy robot. My strokes were much better, but I seemed to be using so much energy for such a weak loop. I needed to learn to accelerate at contact. The robot was the ideal tool. Feeding me consistent topspin, Coach Hardin taught me about speeding-up my racket when I hit the ball. By accelerating the stroke at contact, I was getting more power with half the amount of energy. The robot was perfect for giving me a never-missing, consistent ball to topspin.
Coach Hardin always says that a player’s main focus must be consistency. Ninety percent consistency is a good goal. He would set the robot at random to my forehand, and I had to move and loop the balls with a consistency of 90% on the table. As soon as I achieved this goal, he would immediately increase the frequency. As soon as I accomplished that, he would increase it again. We continued with this type of training to develop speed, without losing control.
Carl Hardin always tried to make table tennis as fun as possible. An added bonus to some of our robot practices was using Pong-Master. Pong-Master is a table tennis game that uses different size pads on the table to be used as targets to hit. Pong-Master also keeps score with the amount of times the player hits the pads. Coach Hardin stressed the fact that, at any level, ball placement is very important. All the young players at the camp enjoyed competing to see who had the best ball control. I was always very competitive, so having a goal to aim at, always inspired me to work harder.
The Newgy robot helped develop my table tennis game into what it is today. Back then, after just two years, Carl Hardin’s coaching techniques raised my game from 1100 to 2100! Using the Newgy robot to develop correct strokes is definitely a winning strategy that I guarantee to raise anyone’s table tennis game!