This week I played table tennis some with my dad (Joe Newgarden) and trained with Roger Dickson. My dad likes to hit with a lot of spin when he is playing and he also likes to slam the ball to me knowing that I am not able to hit them back yet. The ping-pong ball even hit me a few times so eventually I learned to just step aside if I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hit the ball back. I think he just likes to show off. Every time I play with him, he emphasizes over and over to make sure I keep my legs bent, stay on my toes and keep my left arm up for balance. I think it is starting to sink in.

I worked on my serves some more with Roger and I think I am getting a little better. We also just hit back and forth to work on my strokes and leg movement. I am starting to feel more comfortable with hitting my backhand and forehand when the ball is clearly coming to either my backhand or forehand side but when the ball comes straight to me, I feel like there is a right and wrong way to hit it. I mean depending on whether I am standing more to the left or the right I feel like I need to use the appropriate stroke. I get all flustered and usually end up hitting it all crazy and missing. So Roger told me to just hit it with whichever I feel more comfortable with instead of thinking there is a right and wrong. For me, that is my backhand. More to come next week…

Jena Newgarden