I recently read a book by Malcolm Gladwell, The Outlier. I am sure some of you will be familiar with his books. I found some interesting points that are relevant to sport in general and also to Table Tennis.

The 10,000 hour Rule

In his book he talks about the 10,000 hour rule. This rule relates to the amount of time required to master something. He refers to “The Beatles” being given an apportunity to play in Hamburg for 8 hours a day 7 days a week. On their first trip they performed 106 nights for 5 or more hours each night. On their second trip they performed 92 nights and on their third trip they performed 48 times for a total of 172 hours on stage. The last two trips in 1962 involved 90 hours of performing. They pefrformed in total 270 nights in just over a year and a half. By the time they had their first success they had performed 1200 times.

Another example is Bill Gates who had the opportunity to do real-time programming as an eighth grader. In 1968 his school decided to spend some fundraising money on a computer terminal. The terminal was hooked up to mainframe computer downtown. At that time most colleges didn’t even have computer clubs. From the time the school received the computer, Gates spent most of his time in the computer room. Over the next years he had opportunity galore to learn his trade and he used it.

Lesson for Us

The lesson here for us is that mastering a skill doesn’t come easily or even quickly. The Beatles didn’t just happen to get good. They put in hours and hours of work before success happened, as did Bill Gates. For we Table Tennis nuts, the same applies. You just can’t get good within a couple of weeks, or even months. To really succeed and to become great at the game requires dedicated work over a long period of time. So if you are struggling with a new serve, in many cases the simple answer is get out there and do it more. I often get complaints from students that their serve isn’t working. When I quiz them on how much they had practiced it, the answer is often “I did some serving last week” or something similar. If the Beatles had to put in 270 nights of playing for around 5 hours a night, over a year and a half to get better, we shouldn’t start complaining that we can’t do a skill until we have done some serious training!

PingSkills offers you our Training Secrets Revealed DVD as a method of teaching you how to improve your game. The answers are most often not in the type of guitar or rubber you are using but more in how much and how well you have trained. The answers are about what drills that you do and how you structure your time when you are training. It is about how much time you devote to each part of your training.

If you are stressing about a skill that you can’t perform, don’t! Just get out there and put some more time into it. Mastery will happen when you put in the quality time.

Outliers is a great book with many other intersting observations. It is certainly recommended reading, not just for Table Tennis.

I read the blog “Why Table Tennis Is A Horrible Spectator Sport” the other day. It was a very interesting article and I’ve heard a number of people agree with most of what was written. I personally though don’t think that Table Tennis is terrible to watch. In fact it is my favourite sport to watch but you could say that I am a little biased.

When people find out that I play Table Tennis, the first thing I hear is: “Wow, I love watching it when the players are 10 feet back from the table smashing the ball back and forth.” However here in Australia at least you don’t actually get to see Table Tennis on TV very much. The problem is that the sport is simply not popular enough. People have enough sport to watch with football, cricket, soccer, basketball and car racing.

Too Complicated?

When the Olympics were on in 2008 we did get to see some Table Tennis here thanks to the tremendous efforts of the Australian team. A few of my work collegues occassionally did mention what a terrible shot it was not to get that simple serve back. However I don’t think that this is a problem with the complexity of the game. After playing with the correct equipment and a decent coach for only 15 minutes most people would understand how difficult it can be to return a good serve. This understanding then helps people enjoy the game. I believe we we should be trying to educate people about the intricacies of the game rather than trying to simplify it.

Short Rallies

Are short rallies really a problem? The length of a rally doesn’t affect my enjoyment of the game. What I like to see is competitors trying to perform under pressure. Watching the events unfold and seeing how the players deal with each stage of the match is fascinating. Trying to see if one player is getting nervous or watching someone save match point with an unbelievable shot, these are the things I like to see.

Your Thoughts?

I don’t believe that there are fundamental problems with the sport. It’s just that at the moment it is not popular enough in certain countries to be shown on public television. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Let us where you are from and how Table Tennis is perceived in your country. And importantly, do you think Table Tennis is a great spectator sport?

Well it is hard to believe but another year has passed us by. I’d like to thank all of our readers for supporting PingSkills in 2009 and we hope to keep you inspired to improve your Table Tennis in 2010. We’ve got a big year planned. Here are a just a few of the things we are hoping to achieve:

• Make a lot more free lessons
• Produce a new DVD - “Receiving Secrets Revealed”
• Start selling some PingSkills shirts

Good luck with all of your own goals for 2010. Aim high and make this year one to remember!

Alois and Jeff