Improving my nerve reaction
Table Tennis Mental Preparation
Last updated 11 years ago
yasir huthaifa Asked 11 years ago
Hi sir ,I am Yasir ,my question is how can I improve my reaction in table tennis to read my opponent next ball and think quickly how to return that ball and maybe attack it
thank you
Alois Rosario Answered 11 years ago
Hi Yasir,
The biggest thing is to watch the ball. It is more than just looking at the ball but more about tracking it like it is the most important object in the world.
If you can do this you will start to find that you are reacting faster because you are getting your information on where the ball is going a little earlier than you were before.
You will hear it said many time, "watch the ball"... this is vital.
This will open up opportunities to attack and a whole lot of other things during the rally.
Thoughts on this question
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Jeff Plumb from PingSkills Posted 11 years ago
Here's a great article explaining why this works:
How to Build Better Reflexes: Forget Speed and Focus on Information
Arnon Thaicharoen Posted 11 years ago
Thanks for the link to the very informative article, Jeff.
It explains a lot of things about table tennis training. The 3-step process described in the article:
1. observe ==> watch the ball to gather as much information as possible about the speed, spin, direction.
2. decide ==> analyse the information gathered in step 1 and choose appropriate action. This is where watching matches can improve your analysis power.
3. act ==> use the stroke chosen in step 2. This is why we need to practice the same strokes over and over so when we need to act, we can act quickly and perfectly without worrying about "how" to do the stroke.
It helps clear up a lot of things in my mind.