Neutral position

 Your website and teaching skills are outstanding, and thank you so much. I am just starting out. 

When practicing a stroke, why shouldn’t I practice coming back to the neutral position between each stroke?  This seems to make more sense for a real game in terms of getting the right muscle memory.

Hi Steven,

You have a good point.  That is why it is important to move towards linking strokes quite early in your development.  So as soon as you have the basic idea of the stroke then start to use the stroke in conjunction with other strokes.  Take a look at our tutorial on The 7 Building Blocks of Table Tennis to see the progression we are talking about.

However I don't think there is time to return to a neutral position in Table Tennis.  It is more about moving to the next ball efficiently.  Take a look at our tutorial on Improving Your Reflexes which is also relevant here.