Balance
A Key for Life… and Table Tennis

Listening to a jockey the other day, he talked about horses racing in the wet and who was going to win. His comment was, the horses that have developed better balance are better in the wet . Not knowing much about horse racing, I thought about this and thought, “of course they would be”. But I also think that the horses that are better in the dry would be the ones with better balance.

And so to my Karate experience. This year the family started Karate. I have developed to a Yellow belt, which I might tell you is a long long way from a Black belt… What has been the focus from day 1? Yes you got it… Balance and stances.

For Christmas the household received a generous gift from Santa, a ‘Nintendo Wii’. What is the first thing they hit you with when you get onto Wii Fit? Yes, how good is your balance?

I watched my daughter at her dancing concert and looked at the various girls at various stages of development. Which dancers stood out?… you got it… the ones with better balance.

I watched the Cricket yesterday. For those of you from non Cricketing nations, yes that is the sport not an insect. As Ricky Ponting (Australia captain) dived for a ball the commentator talked of his balance. As I watched the South African newcomer, Jean-Paul Duminy, reaching his century I couldn’t help but notice how well balanced he was when playing his strokes.

Look around you and watch sports people, animals in nature and people doing Wii Fit and you will start to notice the importance of Balance.

With everyone in every facet of sport or activity focusing on balance, why don’t we table tennis players get it yet? Develop balance early, in young players and when you are beginning to play and your life will be a lot easier later on. Why do good players look good… because they have developed that balance and are balanced while they are playing more of their strokes than beginners.

Next time you practice, take some time to think about whether you are balanced when hitting the ball. An exercise I like to do is to get players to check at the point of contact with the bat on the ball whether their balance is on their left foot, right foot or in between. Eventually the aim is that at the point of contact your weight should be right between your feet.

Work on it. Focus on it during your training and see how much you can improve it.