Newgy’s Blog

By Samson Dubina

Most offensive table tennis players try to serve short and receive short. If you are an offensive player, I would recommend that you use this strategy… most of the time.

If you serve long and push long, then your opponent will have plenty of swinging room and likely loop first, forcing you into a defensive position. A short, low serve is much more difficult to attack because the table is in the pathway of the loop. However, after you have used this strategy for several points, a smart or observant opponent will probably catch on and begin pushing back short. Once he has proven that he also has the ability to push back short, your plan will be stopped because in return it will be difficult for you to use your strong loop. For this reason, I would recommend an occasional long push or long serve to the backhand. When pushing long or short, I recommend pushing quick, off-the-bounce for several reasons.

#1 – By pushing off-the-bounce, you will be able to disguise both short and long pushes with the same backswing.

#2 – By pushing off-the-bounce, you will be able to keep your push much lower.

#3 – By pushing off-the-bounce, you will be able to take the reaction time away from your opponent for an even faster surprise.

If you mistakenly let the push rise to the top-of-the-bounce or even drop, then your opponent will likely be able to predict a long push and your push will often be much slower. As a surprise, it is critical that you quickly move your body forward by stepping forward with your right foot, lean over the table, stop your body momentum, and lightly brush the ball just after it contacts your side of the table.

So why should you push long to the backhand instead of long to the forehand or middle? Table tennis players have a much larger hitting zone on the forehand and middle. Even if you surprise your opponent to the forehand, it will be quite easy for him to recover, even if the push is slightly higher, lower, deeper, shorter, faster, or slower. There are many positions that he can contact the ball and still safely make a forehand loop. With the backhand loop, the body is in the way. A quick surprise push will be so sudden to your opponent that he will not have time to move back nor will he have time to rotate his body to the side. With a small hitting zone, your opponent will likely be forced to push back, which will set up your strong looping game.

Now let’s reverse roles… So what if your opponent uses the long push to your backhand? What should you do? That’s exactly what I’m going to demonstrate for you in this 2 minute video clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN1RZx-DWDs

By Samson Dubina

I “can’t”

On a daily basis, many of my table tennis students say the words, I “can’t” as it relates to learning a new stroke, learning a new serve, enduring through physical training, and many other table tennis related activities.

As a table tennis coach, when I hear a player say these words, here is what I’m hearing:

I

Certainly

Am

Not

Trying

Often, when a player has declared that he can’t do something, then he will stop giving his best effort or give up all together. Therefore, I no longer allow my students to use these words. Instead, I ask them to say something like: I haven’t fully developed it yet and I’m working toward my goals!

Positive thinking equals positive results in table tennis.

by Samson Dubina

I have written hundreds of table tennis articles and blogs throughout my career as a professional table tennis player and coach. I realize that sometimes it can seem overwhelming to try to figure out which articles to read and which tips that you should be applying to your game. For this reason, I have written this summary article which will summarize many of the table tennis tips I discuss in my articles in just one sentence – short and to the point.

When developing a good loop, focus on spin rather than speed.

When developing a good push, contact the ping-pong ball early and keep the ball low with spin.

When developing a good block, try to bend your knees, lean forward, get your feet in position, and relax your grip on your table tennis racket.

When developing a good smash, focus on getting your feet in position first then take your backswing to the appropriate height depending on the ball placement, ball depth, ball height, and spin.

When developing a good serve, focus on serving low with spin while using the serves that best setup your game, training them in a table tennis tournament environment, varying the quality of spin, and using them in practice matches as well.

When developing a good serve return, focus on having the proper ready-position, reading the spin from your opponent’s table tennis racket, moving to the ball, reading the bounce, then adjusting and readjusting just before contact.

When developing a good table tennis strategy, focus on your opponent’s strengths, weaknesses, serve, and serve return.

When developing a good perspective on winning and losing in table tennis, read the book 7 Days in Utopia.

When developing a good level of confidence, remember that: trust is a must or your game is a bust.

When developing a good deception, focus on varying the spin, speed, placement, and type of shot while still staying within your means to maintain at least 70% consistency.

When developing a good base of physical training, focus on lower body and core strength and speed – focus on speed and flexibility, not bulky muscle.

When developing a good table tennis tournament plan, be sure to set goals – when you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.

When developing good rallies in table tennis, focus on anticipating the incoming ball based on the placement of your hit, the type of your hit, the spin of your hit, watching your opponent’s racket, while watching the incoming ball.

When developing a good tournament game, try to play at least one table tennis tournament per month to test your skills and test your ability to perform well under pressure.

When developing a good strategy against loopers, try to attack first and force them to block or lob.

When developing a good strategy against blockers, be patience and work the point until you are ready to hit a winner.

When developing a good strategy against choppers, try to attack the middle often and move them in-and-out instead of side to side.

When developing a good strategy against lobbers, try to see which balls are hitting near the net (smash down) and which balls are hitting near your endline (smash forward).

When developing a good strategy against lefties, try to expose the wide forehand with explosive loops then curve wide the backhand when they are away from the ping-pong table.

When developing a good strategy against long pips, try to push deep to the pips in order to get an easy no-spin ball to loop.

When developing a good strategy against female table tennis players, try to loop with plenty of spin deep on the table, which will be difficult for them to smash or block.

When developing a good power shot, focus on using your core muscles while relaxing your arm as much as possible – at contact, focus on the acceleration.

When developing a good mental game, try to focus on the performance and strategy rather than the benefits of winning or the consequences of losing.

When watching a professional table tennis player, what you are looking at? Are you looking at the bright color of his shoes, the weird design on his shirt, his massive leg muscles, or the funny expression that he makes when serving? If so, you aren’t paying attention to the most important things if you want to learn how to improve your table tennis game.

Here are the key components of a table tennis game to look for if you want to learn from observing.

1. Preparation

Watch how he goes through his pre-point routine before stepping up to the ping-pong table.

2. Serve and receive

Watch how he stands to receive a serve – his distance from the table, his racket position, his racket height, his foot positioning, his balance. Watch when he serves – his positioning, his backswing, his contact point, his follow through, and his return-to-the-ready position.

3. Footwork

Watch how he moves for each ball, watch how he anticipates for the next ball, watch how he continues to adjust and re-adjust for each ball with large leaps as well as micro steps.

4. Shot Selection

Watch how he chooses when to loop, when to block, when to counter-loop, when to stay close, when to back up – watch his shot selection.

5. Time Between Points

Watch how he takes his time between points. Watch as he walks back to pick up the ball, how his body language is showing his thoughtfulness as he mentally gears up for the next point.

Instead of trying to watch all of these elements at once, I would recommend watching a short YouTube video five times. Each time, watch a different aspect of the table tennis game as outlined above. By training yourself to watch each aspect separately, you will better be able to learn the details of the sport of the table tennis.

Samson Dubina

When serving, many table tennis players focus on height, deception, speed, spin, and placement. These elements are very important. However, the main reason that you need to practice serving is to develop precision. If you have control over your serve, it is easy to control the rally when you are serving. Here are a few consequences of having poor precision.

A. You accidentally served long (when trying to serve short) and Ma Long rips the ball for a winner. With more precision, you would have been able to better control the depth of your serve. This is a very common mistake. You were expecting a push from your short serve, but you were punished by a surprise loop because you weren’t able to control your serve with proper precision.

B. You accidentally served short to the middle (when trying to serve to the short forehand) and Zhang Jike steps in for an easy backhand flip. With more precision, you would have been able to better control the placement to the forehand making it more difficult for him to use his powerful backhand flip.

C. You accidentally served long to the forehand (when trying to serve long to the elbow) and Wang Hao loops with extreme power wide to your forehand for a winner. With more precision, you would have been able to better control the placement making it more difficult for him to smoothly loop with his forehand. By serving long to the elbow, Wang Hao would have had to make a quick decision to use his forehand or backhand and would likely have given a weaker return.

D. You accidentally served short and high no spin (when trying to serve low heavy backspin) and Ma Lin finishes you off with a flip-kill. With more precision, you would have been able to serve with more backspin, forcing him to push or give a weaker flip.

In order to master this skill of precision and control on your serve, you should be practicing your serves at least twice per week. A good, tricky serve is only effective if you have control over it and can serve with the intended spin, speed, variation, and placement at the appropriate time. If you have precision when serving, you can somewhat predict why type of ball is possibly coming next. When you can predict what is coming, then it is much easier to form a game plan for the next several balls.

Sometime you should practice your serve when you are fatigued near the end of a hard workout session. Also, make sure that you play plenty of practice matches and are properly able to use your serves. Before each serve in the matches, consider the possibilities of various returns. Each point in table tennis begins with a serve and return. If you improve your serve and return game this year, you are well on your way to the next level in table tennis!

Samson Dubina