Training partner co-operation?

The problem is, there is nobody at my nearest club who will willingly want to follow your training template. What should I do now?

Also, starting from next week, I will hopefully be getting a one-on-one coaching session. Do you think that two hours of one-on-one coaching; that is perfect practice, (effectively!) is more worthwhile then two hours (for three years) of constant games of where there is barely any real practice made and hardly any progression of level of play made?

piers, are you getting your coaching from norwich? that is where i get my coaching, and although expensive it has improved my game greatly in a short space of a few months. i couldnt find any coaching in our area apart from the twins in norwich, which atto gave me details of. if you have found some closer to home i would be very interested to know where. good luck with it. you need drills to improve, if you are playing just games you are only going to try to win the games, and that means you will only use your strengths and never improve your weaknesses. i personally dont like the idea of the new format of our club, but the coaching is vital.

Hey Andrew, First of all do you mean the table tennis club at the Sports-Park at Norwich?.

Second, where can I find the brothers in Norwich to teach me?.

Thirdly, the club at my local club may not be the best club in the world, but it is free to go to!!!. (I hope you don't get the wrong impression of me in this response, that isn't my intention!).

Thanks for the information, how much money is the club that your talking about in Norwich? I may be able to do that club on Wednesdays, with Norwich City College paying it for me and be able to see you in person. This is what I've always wanted, a partner who has the same desire for table tennis as I do!.

Also, is this club open on Wednesdays at 11:00am to 1:00pm? if it is, I'll mention it to my tutor at Norwich City College and get it arranged.

Finally, I would love to have a organised from start to finish training session with a coach; doing Footwork drills, match drills, serving practice and secenerio based games. Espically a one-on-one coach, do they do one-on-one coaching at the club you are talking about?

Thanks for the information, it is really appreciated!!!. If you want to arrange a session at a certain time to a certain time on a certain day do you need to ask them in advance so they can get it arranged?

Considering you know me, do you think that my level of play would be enough for them to want to teach me or would they turn me away? is that how they work; looking at peoples level of play and debating on whether that specific person is worth being taught by them or will they teach anyone?

Also, are you there on Wednesdays? if not, what day are you there?

hi piers, they would never turn anyone away, whatever their level of play. they teach people who have only just picked up a bat for the first time right up to international players! plus this is their job, how they make their money, so wouldnt make sense to turn business away. anyway they are far too nice to think in this way, i have noticed your game is improving a lot lately especially your serves and stance, it is obvious you think a lot about doing this correctly. do you not play in the league at all?  i generally go to coaching mondays as this is my day off work, i usually have 90 minutes but occasionally 2 hours, and go about once a fortnight. i believe they work from about 3pm til 9 or 10pm weekdays. wednesdays i go to watton most weeks, but may not be there next week as its the dereham league annual champs night.  i have a training partner already but we could still do the occasional session if you like, to work on drills and weaknesses in our  games, could do a template and note things to work on. my weakness at the moment is returning serves too high, and pushing too high, giving the opponent the first attack, i have a coaching session tomorrow i will be working on these things then. if you could get to one of the saturday sessions this would be a good place for you to start and meet them for yourself, plus mix with the kind of players who like you dont just play games, but work on strokes and important things, its a great session.

Yes Andrew, I am in the league at Watton; I play in the 2nd division there, I've won between 25% to 75% of my games (I think its 33%, but I'm not sure!)

That would be great! finally I'll be able to go somewhere where I'll finally be able to move up to the next level (I've worked it out and I've found out that the level that I'm playing at is intermediate) to move me to advanced level. I may even be able to move up in the league, to either first or premiership division and finally get noticed by a company and sponsored, hopefully!!! 

So are you saying that I won't be able to see you on Wednesdays at this club in Norwich you're talking about? Ah well it doesn't really matter much.

Thankyou for you're compliments, I really appreciate it!!! 

(pardon me if my grammar isn't very good in this reply, my grammars been really apaulling recently) 

Hi Andrew, in Watton, which one is Steve? Thanks again for the lift home, you have no I dea hw grateful I am for you doing that (I really appreciate it)

I've already asked this; but will it be possible for you to take me home again after table tennis club next Wednesday?  

Thank you for the compliments Andrew.

Don't worry about picking me up after table tennis club next Wednesday, my mums going to pick me up and take me home after her date.

I think the part of my game that I need to improve the most is serving. My serving isn't very consistant, I need to be able to adjust the thickness of the serve if I am ever to beat people and move on to the next division.

Another part of my game that I definately need to improve on is footwork - Its terrible!!!. Thats why I'm hoping that the coaching with the 'Twins' will help me improve my footwork so that I can do my strokes more consistantly. Also, to be able to place them anywere on the oppenents side of the table with ease.

Oh, by the way, I managed to coach someone on Friday. I think I did quite well but as you can probably imagine its not nessercarily how well I teach them it all goes down to how quickly they can grasp what I'm saying and improve there skills. I don't know whether this is the right order, but: the first thing I taught them was how to hold the bat and the reason why they should do it, the second thing I taught them was the basics of how to do the forehand drive from start to the finish position and did that for a while (they managed to do 8 consecutive shots on the table in a row without missing), thirdly, I taught them the basics of the backhand drive from the start to the finish position (like I did for the forehand) and did that for a while (they managed to do 12 consecutive shots on the table in a row without missing, finally, I taught them the basics of how to do the backhand push from the start to the finish position (like I did for the forehand/backhand drives) and did that for a while ( they managed to do 21 consecutive shots on the table in a row without missing). I did this for 30 minutes without stopping, so I must of kept them interested for the whole time, otherwise they wouldn't of done it for that long.

So what do you think of that reigime? please say if I missed anything out and tell me what it was so that I can improve my teaching skills.   

yeah that all sounds good.  probably the next stage for that person would be basic stance, ready position, serving (basic serves not advanced) and receiving serve, maybe blocking against topspin so that they would last a little bit longer against an experienced player (that would mean they dont feel out of their depth when they are being attacked). just keeping correct technique when doing the strokes, eg staying low, not getting their elbow cramped against their side etc. 

i would suggest that your weakness is not your serves. i found them very good especially for someone that is in division 2! im serious.  if you are losing a lot of matches in div.2 which im surprised about, it is something to do with how you approach your game, a coach will put you right here quite quickly. maybe like myself you struggle with the transition between serving, 3rd ball attack etc (doing the right kind of serve to get the right kind of ball back to be able to make a 3rd ball attack which may win the point or at least make another weak ball come back that you can attack again to eventually win that point??). so if your best attacking shot is a forehand loop you would serve perhaps a backhand sidespin/backspin mix which when returned by your opponent will either go into the net or drop nice and slowly to your forehand side giving you time to get ready for a great loop.  steve at watton is great help in this department! you know your own strengths and may just need to think about getting from your serve to your best attacking stroke.  hope this helps.

Thankyou for the information, Andrew. Also thankyou for the compliments on my serves, you could probably still agree though that I may need to work on my long serves; maybe, putting sidespin/topspin long shots so they return on my forehand side so I can do a forehand topspin shot to their weaker side. Another thing that I could improve on my serve is placement. In order to win the point, I'm going to need to be able to change were I place the ball. So, for instance, being able to do a short backspin serve on their forehand side and then doing another short forehand backspin serve on their backhand side (depending on what their weaknesses is and doing a serve that exploits that).

Simarily, on long serves, I may need to place the ball long to their forehand side with maybe some sidespin/topspin or just ordinary topspin so the oppenent has to stretch to the ball, opening up a perfect opputunity to attack their backhand side, thus winning the point. Or even, doing a long shot with sidespin/topspin (or just ordinary topspin) to their backhand side, again making them stretch for the ball leaving open the perfect opputunity to attack their forehand side, thus winning the point (depending on what their weaknesses are and exploiting it to my advantage to make the easy return to be able to start the attack, which is the whole point of table tennis, to obtain the offensive; unless if you are playing a predominantly defensive player where it is different).

Do you agree with the idea that I need to improve my footwork area of my game to make what shots that I do, easier to make and to be able to get ready for the next ball quicker?   

thanks for the compliments Andrew, I really appreciate it!!!.

From what you have seen from last weeks table tennis session (on Wednesday), would you agree with what I said when I said that my footwork is horrible?

do you really think so? I'm just asking because as you've probably guessed, I was having a good day on that specific day; if you look at me when I'm not having a good day, my footwork is terrible!!!

Thanks for the positive reinforcement, don't take what I've said as an insult!!! that certainly isn't my intention!!!!.