Keeping the head steady

parth limbachia Asked 12 years ago

Hi Alois,

I have often heard that one needs to keep the head steady(physically) in table tennis so that we can track the line of the ball properly. However, in matches I often tend to miss balls due to my head not remaining steady. My question is how do I learn to do this instinctively? What type of drills should I do to improve on this?

Alois Rosario Answered 12 years ago

Hi Parth,

This is one that I like to emphasise with players.  In training I try to get them to focus on the movement of the head for a few drills especially the footwork drill.  I sometimes get someone to place their bat next to the players head as they are hitting form one position to get them to feel the movement.  This gives them some real feedback about the movement.

Also focusing on tracking the ball will tend to steady the head as you will find it easier to do when the head is steady.  So again for some of the footwork drills you can have that as a focus.  It will take a while to become instinctive but it is worth working on.