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Table Tennis Rally Statistics – Samson Dubina
Statistics were taken for the length of the rallies at a professional table tennis tournament. These statistics are fairly common across the board for all levels but differ based on game-style. On average: 12% of serves are not returned 18% of points are won on the 2nd ball 26% of points are won on the 3rd ball 13% of points are won on the 4th ball 11% of points are won on the 5th ball 6% of points are won on the 6th ball 4% of points are won on the 7th ball 10% of points are won after the 7th ball So as you can see, the serve, serve return, and 3rd ball attack are critically important during a table tennis match. 56% of the points do not last more than the 3rd hit. For this reason, I would recommend practicing at least 56% of the time on the serve, serve return, and 3rd hit. Serve One of the best ways to improve your serve is to do it during a drill. Instead of starting the drill with a warm-up serve, start each drill with a tournament serve such short backspin. Ask your table tennis training partner to push long, next you loop the push, then you begin the footwork drill. Serve Return You probably have some serves that give you problems. Ask your training partner to serve those problem serves again and again while thinking of new ways to return them. Experiment by attacking slightly stronger or slightly slower, by pushing instead of looping, by adding to or stopping the sidespin, or countless types of returns. In order to properly read the spin on a serve, you should watch the racket motion, listen to the contact, watch the bounce, and look for the logo on the ping-pong ball. The 3rd Ball Even if your opponent doesn’t miss your serve, he might give you an easy return in which you can attack. If your 3rd ball attack is strong, it will put more pressure on your opponent to return more precisely. When he tries to return shorter or lower or faster, he will begin making more mistakes. Remember, it isn’t just about your serve in a table tennis rally. It’s also about what comes after your serve. Samson Dubina
Learn moreWhat Age to Start Playing Table Tennis by Roger Dickson
As the head coach at the Newgy Table Tennis Center, I get this question quite often. There really is not a simple answer as the motor skills of all children develop differently. In China they may test motor skills for sports as young as five years old! Under Age Eight My general rule of thumb is to introduce some basic racket skills and have a lot of fun for the younger ages. Remember that the attention span is very short with younger players, so short and simple instructions are very important. Using the Newgy Robo-Pong table tennis robot is actually quite good as the ball can be adjusted to bounce twice in front of the player with good depth and height. Control the racket for the student when you first start until they can maintain the position by themselves to simply block the ball back over the net. This is just basic racket/ball control and will help them gain confidence. If you have a group of kids, using the Pong-Master with your Newgy Robo-Pong will allow them to compete against the machine and each other! Eight to Ten Years Old Starting to learn table tennis in this age range, the players will start to be able to do more active programs with footwork and racket position changes very quickly. Some of the first pre-programmed drills on the Newgy Robo-Pong 2050/1050were thought of with this age group in mind. Just add time to the WAIT ADJUSTMENT to give the kids a chance to learn the drills and speed them up to challenge them as them reach an 80% success rate. Table tennis is a great cross training sport for all sports, so you can’t really start too young or too old! Roger Dickson
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