How do I teach my tiny brother how to play

Hi Coach,

My little brother seems interested in table tennis and he started playing today. He just got 3 years old. He played against my old robot. First I helped him on how to hit the ball and now he can hit the ball most of the times, somethimes even on the other side.

When I had to go to my own training he did not want to stop and when I came back after 3 hours he was waiting for me and he said he wanted to play more. So we played against my robot and played untill he had to go sleep and he still did not want to stop.

So do you have tips on how I should train him? Now Im really focussing on just let him hit the ball. How can I improve his ability to hit the ball and parhaps even hit the other side?

Also I was wondering what bat I should give him. right now he’s just using my old bat. Just a cheap blade with Mark V on both sides. But I think its a little bit too heavy for him and also the handle is a little bit too big because he cant hold it right. right now he just holds it like a tennis racket, which is fine for now but he has to learn the correct grip later. so maybe you also have some advice on that.

Thanks 

Sorry for asking so many questions lately I hope its not too much work answering them :)

Hi Rob,

It is great that you are helping your younger brother to play.

The most important thing is to let him just enjoy the hitting.  Let him hit with the robot with the ball going as slow as possible.

Then you can get him to do some rolling the ball across the table.  You could then introduce where you bounce the ball to him using your hand and let him hit the ball softly to you.  If you can develop his control of the ball that would be a fantastic start.

As far as a bat, try to get one that is light and with a thin handle so that he can get his hand around it.  You could even get an old bat and sand paper the handle down so it is smaller for him.