How Do I Improve My Table Tennis Game?
Playing regularly and playing against other players with different styles will help improve your consistency. But to continue to improve you will need to keep on working on your technique, tactics and fitness. Better footwork, better timing, a bigger range of strokes, more spin and more power will all help improve your table tennis game and league results.
The club coach can help you with all of the above, through both short one-to-one sessions or longer group sessions.
To be a competent beginner you will need to demonstrate the following skills:
- Grip
- Stance
- Footwork
- Forehand Drive
- Backhand Drive
- Backhand Push
- Forehand Push
- Serve
- Return of serve
- Match Play
After this you can develop intermediate and advanced skills on your improvement journey.
There is more homework you can do at home with a wide range of great material on the Internet at your fingertips (much of it is free and you do not need to spend money unless you want to!) such as:
- https://www.experttabletennis.com/how-to-play-table-tennis/
- https://www.pingskills.com/
- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqHc12tVGhzBtlMUq7MR7wA
- https://tabletennisdailyacademy.com/
I recommend reading tips on buying a new table tennis bat for advice on ready-made and custom-made bats. The article includes some purchase recommendations for beginner (£30-40), intermediate (£50-75) and advanced players (starting at £100). Be realistic about your playing level since a beginner playing with a fast £100+ bat will likely give the same frustrating results as a slow £10 bat.
Once you start playing league games you can track your progress through league win averages (to compare yourself against other players in your division) and ranking points (to compare yourself against everyone in the league).
Remember to move up to the higher rankings you will need to develop some attacking strokes and be the first to attack in a game.
Good luck!
