Getting started

I am 16 and have been playing table tennis recreationally for quite sometime, I really would like to start playing competitively. I understand that i need to practice technique, but i dont know to many drills to help me. I have one friend that would like to start playing table tennis with me but we are both beginners. How could I make the best out of this situation. I have been to one coaching lesson that helped me quite a bit, but for right now coaching is a bit out of the price range. One of my dad's friends gave me one of his table tennis blades and rubbers and I do have a table at home. I really need to make some sorduve training schedule that can help me progress.

Any Advice would be great. THANKS

Hi James,

Did you have a private lesson or as part of a group.  The group sessions are more reasonably priced and can be reasonably effective.   It wilol help you to learn some drills.

The main thing to start off with is to play consistently with all your routines.

Start by doing just forehand to forehand as many times as you can.  Aim for 50 then 100 and so on.  Use the Pingskills Consistency Chart to help you keep track of these records.

Repeat this with backhands.

Next  you can move to some combinations.  Start with a simple forehand followed by a backhand and so on.  Again do this repetitively and consistently.  While you are doing this routine, hit back to one spot so it is easier fort eh other person to control the ball correctly.

The you can move on to any sorts of combinations. Like FH, BH, FH etc etc etc...

PingSkills will be publishing a series of routines for training.  It is on our list of things to do so watch out for it.