Today I trained and played table tennis with my dad, Joe Newgarden. This was the first time in a VERY long time that we have played table tennis together. I know he is so excited that I have finally started playing table tennis.

We hit the ball around on the table some and also practiced on the Newgy Robo-Pong 2040 table tennis robot. We started out by just playing on the ping-pong table first so he could get a feel for how I am doing so far. I think I am doing pretty well for a beginner, other than the fact that I feel like I am completely blind sometimes when I miss a ball that goes right by me and I swing my paddle and miss it. I’m still having trouble with my footwork and being able to move to the far side of the table to hit a ball instead of just leaning in to hit it. I think my dad forgot sometimes that I am a beginner and hit some balls with underspin to me. I was able to hit some of them back but most didn’t make it back over the net. We also worked on getting me comfortable with hitting my backhand and forehand appropriately depending on which side of the table the ball comes to.

Then I practiced some on the Newgy Robo-Pong 2040. My dad had me practice my strokes and make sure I had the proper form. He is very big on keeping my left arm up for balance and my knees bent. He kept reminding me of that. I did some simple drills of just forehand and then just backhand and then he made it a little more challenging and made the Robo-Pong oscillate to two different positions on my forehand side. One of them was very close to the edge of the table so that helped me work on my footwork to get over there to those balls. I am pretty exhausted now. More to come next week…

Jena Newgarden