Newgy’s Blog

Here are some of the attacks against your commitments; pressure thoughts about needing to win or fearing to lose, awareness of others’ expectations, other competitors’ gamesmanship, injuries, nets and edges, poor lighting and slick floors. None of the issues would matter as much to you if you weren’t striving to be something greater. However the higher your table tennis game elevates, the greater the potential for distractions that can suck the commitment right out of you like a mental game undertow. The good news is that nothing can happen in your competition that can unseat you from your game, unless you let it.

Turn everything to your advantage. After a demanding table tennis match, most competitors can tell you what they would have done better or differently. Often they can do this immediately following the competition. Curiously few table tennis players can step back from the action, while it is occurring, in order to resolve whatever is challenging them. The first step to turning any situation to your advantage is to take at least 30 seconds to ask yourself, “What is happening here, and what do I intend to do about it”? Under stress most table tennis players’ mental processes pick up speed. You have to discipline yourself to do the opposite. Take time, make space, step back and do some self inquiry. It will save more of your games than you can believe.

You have to expect people to act differently at pressured events; total commitments means that you do not take anything that happens in competition personally. In table tennis, as in life, you have to have confidence in your own game. You know where your focus has to be. Get your attention only on the game. By the time the competition ends none of that stuff will matter, unless you are looking for excuses.

Everything that happens in table tennis competition is practice for what happens next. Committed table tennis players are learning machines. Wimpy table tennis players get hung up on problems and mistakes and never move forward. Committed players can lose a tough match, get up, assess what happened, and then put the new learning into play. All table tennis competition moves them forward. Believe it or not committed table tennis players are proud that they showed up for the competition; they do not sweat what other think of them.

Remember there are only three things that you can control: what you think, what you visualize, and what you do. You can not do anything about the points you have already played. You can not do anything about your history of performance in pressure situations. You cannot do anything about the score to this point. You have to forget all of that, other than whatever learning you have gained about how to play the shot, and go for it. Have a plan for a strong mental game and work your plan. Keep positive thoughts, they become words and follow you like your shadow. Your greatest competition is in your mind.

Carl Hardin

Whenever players first start out in table tennis they typically want to start looping right from the beginning. They go to a tournament or watch videos of world-class table tennis players and see them looping every ball that goes over the net. What beginners neglect to realize is that these players have been looping for many years and certainly didn’t learn to loop as their first stroke. I can promise you that nearly every one of them began with the flat hit prior to looping, and the Newgy Robo-Pong table tennis robot is the perfect tool to learn this technique.

Set the robot up so that a slow-paced, topspin ball is going to one corner (either forehand or backhand). As the ball approaches, remember to use proper timing and backswing at the same speed as the ball. Do not focus on using the wrist on either forehand or backhand, but rather let the wrist flow naturally. After backswinging the same speed as the ball, contact the ball out in front of your body and follow through where you want to hit the ball. The follow through is very important when trying to control ball placement. You never want to cut it short, and it should be very relaxed and smooth. At the end of the follow through, return to the ready position and repeat. Try to contact every ball slightly away from the middle of the blade toward the outside edge. Every contact should be at the same location on the blade, and you can monitor this by looking at the marks on the rubber from the contact of the ball. If you have spots all over your rubber, then you are not being consistent in your contact and your control will suffer. Do this drill until you can comfortably hit each ball with very few mistakes and have proper contact. Once the forehand is mastered, move on to the backhand and vice-versa. You can increase the difficulty by increasing oscillation and speed of your Newgy Robo-Pong table tennis robot. When you can comfortably maintain a setting of 10 on oscillation AND speed, you are ready to begin looping.

Train Hard!

Eric Owens

Welcome to Newgy’s blog! We are excited to share some interesting articles about the table tennis world as well as valuable table tennis training tips, upcoming tournament information, tournament results and much more. We feature a great selection of blog contributors including some of the top table tennis pros and coaches, as well as recreational ping-pong players and Newgy team members. Thanks for stopping by!