Training’s Critical Factors
I see players benefit most from their training when it is done regularly and with a focus.
Training like a maniac for a week and then not touching your bat for a month will only have minimum benefits for your game. Similarly, training only once every month will mean that you will find it difficult to improve. If you train 40 hours a week and 30 of those hours are poor quality then you are probably going backwards rather than forwards.
The Link
Some players still find it difficult to see the link between training and results. I think the biggest factor here for you as a player is to not be too discouraged or encouraged by short term results. If you train well for a week or two and then have a bad result or conversely, if you don’t train for a week and have a good result you may have a distorted view of the value of training. It is easy to be influenced by these short term results. You need to see training and improvement as a long term activity. By long term, I mean at least a year.
How Much Training?
You need to be able to get your 10,000 hours up before you can expect anything. If you can achieve that then you will certainly see improvements in your game. We are often distracted by the short term variations in our form. I remember as a player once having a bad patch of form and going to a senior player and saying, “I don’t know whether to increase or decrease my training”. Her reply was, “Why not maintain the same?” If your planning is good and your goals set then the short term fluctuations will seem less critical.
I am currently working on a way to better monitor players’ training. As I coach a lot of players who live in remote and rural areas, it is important for me to be able to monitor what they are doing on a regular basis. More importantly it is crucial as a player that you come to realise the importance of regular training for yourself, no matter what level of player you are or your aspirations. We all want to improve our game!
So how much is enough? That is an interesting question. This is totally dependent on the player and their stage of development. A young player of 12 to 16 who is a student and lives within walking distance of their club, with a lot of time would be able to train more hours than a 25 year old who has just started a new job. Also an older player who has trained hard for many years as a junior may not need as many hours on the table to ensure that they play at their best. Take a look at a previous Blog on this subject titled “How much is enough”. But remember regularity is important.
Maintaining Quality
The second important aspect of training is the quality. I find that having a focus for your session can help to increase the quality of your training. For example you may have a focus on “Consistency” for today’s session. So all the drills that you do will be done slower and with consistency. Tomorrow’s training session may be focusing on “Speed”. So tomorrow all your drills will be done at a faster pace. The drills from today and tomorrow may even be the same drills just done with a different focus.
We have all been through the session that has become monotonous and boring. This is most evident in a Serving Practice session or perhaps a Pushing practice session. You may find yourself starting to drift off and think about anything but the skills that you are training. That is the time to stop, have a think about what you are trying to achieve and then work from there. You may have a think about your goals for the month or the year and remind yourself why you are hitting table tennis balls. If this doesn’t work, it is actually better to stop training rather than go on hitting balls aimlessly.
Focused quality training sessions are the target.
Your Action Plan:
• Set some goals for yourself for the year and also for this month.
• Talk to your coach if you have one about getting a focus for your next training session. If you don’t have a coach sit down and write down a focus for yourself.
• Monitor your training session. Give yourself a rating at the end of each session from 1 to 10. 10 being a totally focussed session and 1 being a session where you did not concentrate at all. At the end of the month take a look at how you rated.
• Write down a training plan for yourself. Write down a Training Plan for your next session including a focus for the session.
• Work out some useful training drills for your game. Training Secrets Revealed will help you with that. It will show you a vast array of drills that will suit your game.
Oscar Martinez
commented on April 29th, 2010 at 1:48 am
Hi. Im a 38 player with only 5 years of experience in TT. I know I will not be such a Champion but Im really concerned with my goals of improvement despite of my busy life. I am currently working and studying at nights.So I have very little time.
What coul be a good advice to a senior player for doing the best when playing TT each weekend?
Greetings!
Yvan Dagenais
commented on April 29th, 2010 at 7:40 am
Oscar,
Please do not refer yourself as a Senior, cause I am 52 and started playing 3 years ago..
:)
I am in a similar situation with restricted time.. I get one lesson a week working on different scenarios and shot basics, which we always devote a good portion of the hour. Then I play for fun.
Slowly, without thinking, shots are getting better.. not as quickly as I want but improvement is still there.
My 2 cents..
Tony hall
commented on May 1st, 2010 at 1:35 am
I am 60 years old and had stopped playing for over 20 years after playing club tournaments for years,I started playing again about a year ago. My problem is that the younger men I play with does not value practice, they are focussed on who can beat who.
i have found some very good instructions in this blog for practicing by yourself, it is helping me to develop consistency in my strokes.
Zulkef
commented on May 20th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
I saw a device to practice by yourself while I watch Alois video on training by yourself. It’s at http://www.returnboard.com/ or the English version at http://www.returnboard.com/index_E.php
It looks good and I have a table at my garage and no regular partner to play, so this will be a good thing to do I guess.
I’ve asked Alois to create one and sell it on this website, so maybe I can get it here in Melbourne soon.
Jeff Plumb
commented on May 20th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
Hi Zulkef,
Thanks for the information. However I don’t really like return boards that much. They can be good if you don’t have anyone else to practice with but they have a lot of limitations. The biggest problem is that the board returns the ball in a way that does not happen during a normal match. So the experience you are getting of the ball coming back is not what would happen in a game.
You are much better off trying to get some to feed you multi-ball.
som
commented on June 18th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
how about using robot for practise i am also facing the same problem have you ever used robots for practice.
it would be great if you share you experience
Jeff Plumb
commented on June 18th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Hi Som,
I haven’t used a robot very often. Personally I think that multi-ball is a much better way to practice. It does take some time for a peson to learn how to feed multi-ball but I think that it is worth the effort. Once you have someone who can feed multi-ball you have an infinite amount of exercises you can use. And the balls you receive from the feeder will be much more like those you will receive in a match.