Hi Alois and Jeff

I received the Serving Secrets DVD today and just finished watching it Thanks! I thought I’d just quickly give my feedback.

This is by far the best, most useful guide to serving I have seen to date. There was plenty for me to think about and I can’t wait for my next table tennis serve practice session! It was money well spent and I look forward eagerly to your next training DVD.

Ji-Soo

After months of hard work and quite a big learning curve in getting a DVD replicated in bulk complete with artwork, Serving Secrets Revealed is finally available. Thanks very much to all of our valuable customers who pre-ordered the DVD. It is now in the mail and you should receive your copy in the next few days. We apologise that it has taken longer than we anticipated and thankyou for your patience. Once you get it and have had a chance to watch and learn from it, we’d love to hear some feedback from you. And if you have been waiting for it to be completed before ordering, then head over to our online store and purchase the DVD today.

We are really proud at PingSkills with the final content of Serving Secrets Revealed and are sure it will help you to improve your serve. As we mentioned it has taken us a long time to develop and now that it is complete we are going to be able to produce some more online lessons before starting on our next DVD.

A Must Watch Movie

If you want to be inspired then do yourself a favour and get a copy of Searching for Bobby Fischer for your DVD collection, you’ll be watching it more than once. It is one of my all time favourite films and although the itis based around chess, the themes are applicable to any sport. It delves into the issues of competition, and parental pressure.

Searching for Bobby Fischer is based on a true story about Josh Waitzkin, a child chess prodigy. Along the way Josh is faced with the pressures of being the best and the expectation that he will always win. His coach, Bruce Pandolfini, is trying to prepare him to be a winner by teaching him that he must show contempt for his opponents. He must hate his opponents because they hate him. Josh’s mother steps in when she believes that Bruce and Josh’s Dad have gone too far. She wants Josh to be a normal kid and enjoy a balanced life and keep his good nature. This causes a lot of tension in the family.

It really makes you stop and think about what is important and how we should approach life. It is always hard to know what is the right balance between hard work and enjoyment, especially for kids as they are growing up.

There are also some very funny parts to the story like when Josh’s Dad first learns his son knows how to play Chess. Josh’s Mum tells his Dad but he doesn’t believe her. He challenges his son to a game and the results are hilarious.

I won’t reveal any more of the story but after you’ve watched the film or if you’ve already seen it, then let me know if you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Here are the final images. This means that the DVD will be ready for posting out to everyone really soon! Thanks for you patience.

Serving Secrets Revealed DVD Case Cover

A common mistake is to rush out into a match situation and try and win cheap points with a great new serve you’ve just seen. Often this ends with a number of faults and a number of winners hit past you.

Serving is a skill that takes years of practice to master, and something that you can always improve upon. In Table Tennis the table is quite small and so it is a delicate skill to be able to serve the ball short (so that it bounces twice) in a pressure situation.

To serve well in a match you should practice your serve using the following 6 steps. Each step takes you closer to a match situation. By mastering your serve at each of the six steps, you gradually increase your skill level and confidence.

1. Learning to spin the ball

Practice your serve

The first stage in developing a great serve is to learn how to spin the ball. There are two key points to generating spin.

• You need a brushing action and
• You need to have a fast swing

Initially this is best done away from the table. As the table is quite small, it can restrict the speed at which you swing at the ball because it seems unnatural that you can swing fast but still keep the ball on the table. So get away from the table and practice swing fast at the ball and at the same time contacting the ball with a brushing action. While you are doing this you need to watch the ball after you hit it to see how much it is curving and how much spin you are getting. You need to remember the feeling when you see the ball curving or spinning well. It will be when you get a good brushing contact with a lot of speed as this is the type of contact you need when you get back to the table for your real serves.

The key to a great serve is variation. You need to be able to serve an extremely spinny serve along with subtle variations that have less spin or even no spin. That is why this step is so important, without being able to spin the ball effectively, you are limited to speed and placement as your only form of variation.

2. Get the basics right

The next step is to practice your serve on the table without an opponent. This allows you to work on different variations without the pressure of a return. Get yourself a big bucket of balls (I find that around 50 is a good number). Now you can serve freely for feeling. At this stage don’t worry too much about the exact placement of the ball. Try to get the action of your serve right and try to work on the two key elements for generating spin; a brushing action and a fast swing. Watch the ball and remember the feeling when you get good effect.

3. Serve by yourself but imagine you are in a game situation

The next step is to still serve by yourself but this time imagine you are in a game situation. For each serve make sure you take plenty of time to get setup correctly. Now you need to focus more on spin, speed and placement.

In a real game situation, you are under a lot more pressure to serve well so that you get an advantage from your serve. By imagining this situation, it helps take you closer to being able to serve well when it matters. Remember that learning how to serve in a tense match situation takes lots and lots of practice. Following these steps will help you get there.

4. Serve to an opponent without a rally

To raise the ante some more, you need to serve to an opponent. At this stage don’t worry about playing out the rally. By just having an opponent at the other end, forces you to think more about your serve and makes you attempt to serve better. Also seeing how your opponent returns your serve provides valuable feedback to you.

5. Serve to an opponent and play out the rally

The next step is to serve to an opponent and play out the rally. It provides an opportunity to try variations of your spin, speed and placement which will help you learn which of your serves are most effective.

6. Match play

The last stage is to use the serve in a match. This is where you really find out how good your serve is. You may begin by using it when the scores are not so crucial. Eventually you will be able to use that serve at 9 all in the deciding game and make it really work for you.

Remember that you can’t expect to go straight out to a competitive match and be able to serve unreturnable kicking curving sidespin serves. You need to go through the 6 stages mentioned here. This builds up the database in your brain of how to serve and also gives you confidence about your serves when you finally use them in a match situation.

Early on in a game, try and vary the spin, speed and placement of your serves to find one that your opponent doesn’t like. Finding a single serve that your opponent has difficulties with can turn a match in your favour.

It takes time to develop a great serve

Due to the fine brushing contact and the fast swing that is required to generate lots of spin, the serve is a difficult stroke to master. Don’t expect to be able to go straight out into a high pressure match situation and be able to serve your opponent off. You need to go through the steps mentioned here and gradually build up your skill level and ability to serve under pressure. Keep at it, take your time and practice lots. That is the best way to improve your serve.

The Women’s team is made up of all Chinese born athletes who are looking to do well particularly in the doubles. In Sydney 2000 Miao Miao made the quarter finals with partner Shirley Zhou. In Beijing, this may be the best chance for Australia once again.

Have a listen to this interview about the Australian Table Tennis Olympic Team.

Have a listen to this interview about Table Tennis’ Longest Winning Streak from ABC Radio Australia.

The Table Tennis Victoria Super League is underway and 3 rounds have been played. The League features some of Australia’s best players as well as a swag of up and coming young guns.

There is a new website for the TTV Super League. It is still under construction so not all of the links are up and running yet. However you can see all the results, player profiles and a great new weekly column by Simon Gerada about the League. Here is the latest from Simon about the League:

Passion

Let me set the scene..

You’re trailing 8 – 3 and two sets down in a best of five match. You’re realising you’re about to lose, realising you may have thought wrong when you imagined beating your opposition before the start of the match. Your heart sinks and you’re too emotional to continue to think clearly, another point is lost and you are almost done, defeated and you start to cry. You’re 14 years old and winning is all that counts. You have passion, grit and determination but not the skill or experience to win today’s match. You walk off the court embarrassed enough to be aware of the situation but not enough to care. All you care about is the loss, the fact you did not win is all that really matters. “You played well” says the spectator, who has seen it all before and known’s you’ll be back for more.

I was once asked, what is the best part of playing big matches?

“The fear of not knowing an outcome, you wait for that match to come and you start thinking will I win? The thought of not knowing a result, is what really motivates me.”

As a kid, you try your hardest, you try anything! You dare to try, you dare to win and you sometimes dare the impossible. You’ll win some and you’ll lose some but ultimately each match you play teaches you to choose your battles more carefully. It’s like the kid that jumps off the monkey bars without thinking twice, one day he hurts himself and thinks about it every time he is in a similar position. Losing a match does the same thing when you have passion.

This week’s Super League was all passion.

Fifteen year-old Jesse Bricknell defeated both Andrew Gilbert and Dennis Makaling, Andrew Gilbert unsure of how he lost to Jesse Bricknell but that’s another story for another day, Nakeisha Leo in tears after her loss to Melissa Tapper ( True passions shown from young Nakeisha), a good win from Danny Semiler defeating Chamara Fernando, Fernando is a National Team player, he doesn’t like to lose, its a win you would always take.

But then there is the flip side, the side that the athlete has had his lessons over the years to get the job done today, like Melissa Tapper defeating Simone Chua, Jeff Plumb defeating Jesse Bricknell, Shibaji Datta defeating Chamara Fernando, Robert Frank and David Powell, but these win only came because of passion. If you dare to win for long enough and one day it becomes fun, fun to know you might win but if you lose I’ll be ok with it.

Passion in sport is the greatest lesson you can have; it teaches you to train harder, teaches you to learn more and teaches you to trust yourself but most of all it will take you to a greater place in sport if you keep at it….

Well done to all our Super League players who are fighting hard, taking the wins with the losses, daring to achieve and daring to compete on the centre stage in Victoria’s premiere Table Tennis League.

I play table tennis at my neighbor’s place once a week. It’s outdoors, but that’s not a big problem because we enjoy it so much. I’m starting to realize it’s a great sport and I just stumbled upon your site and appreciate the instruction. Through playing regularly I have developed skills that I don’t know the terms for. I also lack fundamental approaches to the skills I have developed. Your site has helped enormously. Thanks for the resource.

James