This week I started training with Roger Dickson, the head table tennis coach at the Newgy Table Tennis Center. I will be training with him a couple times a week now. This week we worked on my serves. He started by having me throw the ball up with my left hand and catch it in my right hand. We went over all the rules of serving such as how far to throw the ball up and not holding the ball over the table. When I see other people serve, it doesn’t look that difficult but when I actually have to do, it is a lot more challenging.

Roger had me learn to serve first with my forehand and with an underspin. At first, it didn’t even make over the net to the other side of the table. After many times, it finally made it over but just barely. It did have some spin to it so if I were really playing, my opponent would have probably had a difficult time hitting it back.

Every time I would go to serve, I had to stop and think about it- how high to throw the ball up, making sure it was straight in front of me and at what moment to hit the ball with my paddle. It just doesn’t come natural to me yet, but Roger said it would over time.

Then we worked on my backhand serves. I pretty much had the same issues with them as I did with my forehand serves. Practice, practice. More to come next week…

Jena Newgarden