Are Table Tennis Shoes worth it
Equipment
Devin Hirsch Asked 8 years ago
Hi Alois,
There is a club I go to, and I noticed that almost everyone there wears table tennis shoes. I would appreciate if you could tell me the difference between TT shoes, and your average everyday running shoes. And are they worth the investment?
P.S. I've been watching your new Ask the Coach shows on pressure, and spin among others. And I've gotta say, it is really good! I really like the format. It has the feel like I'm watching a show on one of the major sports tv channels, and I really get a lot out of it.
Thank you,
Devin
Alois Rosario Answered 8 years ago
Hi Devin,
Thanks for the kind words about the show. We feel like the new format is an improvement as well.
Regarding shoes, they are not essential. The main benefits are that they tend to be lighter which help with movement. They have better grip on the sole for better stopping. They also tend to have a lower heel which means that when you are moving sideways you have less chance of rolling your ankle.
The downside of some of them is their lack of support especially if you are doing a lot of movement on hard floors.
I find the general indoors sports shoes are quite good as long as they have good grip and support.
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Jean Balthazar Posted 8 years ago
Table tennis dedicated shoes are made for table tennis dedicated floors. These special floors are quite grippy and soft (the ball hardly bounces when you drop it). You won't find those floors in most of the tennis halls you will play, since they are only mandatory for high level competitions. For the more common floors (wood, concrete, hard syntheric...), dedicated table tennis shoes are not necessarily the best. For me they lack in the field of shock absorption. Therefore I'd also advise you to look into other indoors sport shoes (badmington or volley-ball).
D K Posted 8 years ago
Though,Jean,I experienced that on the other side, non-table tennis shoes got destroyed quickly when used on table tennis floor.
I am also solving similar problem,because I need shoes that can endure the table tennis floor,wooden floors of various types,rubber floors and even concrete.