March 2, 2016

Shadow Practice
This is one of the most under-used ways of training – practicing a stroke without the ball. If you want to perfect a movement (i.e. a new stroke), don't try to do so while also trying to contort the movement so that you can also hit a little white ball that's moving and spinning – not until you've got the movement down. Otherwise, since the correct movement is not yet ingrained, you'll end up changing the movement to react to the ball. So it's important to first get the movement down.

Once you do have the movement down, that doesn't mean you are done with shadow practice. Shadow practice allows you to hone the movement as well as practice strokes and footwork together. They are also good for physical training.

Here's a whole class shadow practicing (6:42), with Lily Yip and then Judy Hugh feeding multiball to one player while seven others mimic the strokes, rotating in when it's their turn. (See "11 Questions with Judy Hugh" below.) I used to do this in my classes, and think I will start it up again.

The topic of shadow practice has come up quite a bit recently, in private coaching, classes I teach, and via email. So here are three Tips on the subject.

1) Shadow Practice Your Shots
If you spent five-ten minutes each day shadow practicing your strokes and footwork, you'll be surprised at the improvement, not to mention the health benefits. Make it part of your fitness regimen. For example, every day do 50-100 forehands, backhands, forehand loops, backhand loops, and side-to-side footwork, alternating forehands and backhands or just doing all forehand, side to side. Adjust to your own style of play, i.e. if you mostly loop the forehand, do lots of forehand looping shadow practice. If you are a chopper, do lots of chopping. Vary the routine to include other moves you use regularly, such as shadow practice stepping in and flipping a short ball to the forehand, or a forehand loop against backspin followed by a smash or loop against topspin. When no one's watching (if you're shy), play out points as if they were real!

2) Shadow Practice for Strokes and Footwork
A great way to improve the sharpness and steadiness of your shots is to shadow practice them. This means practicing your shots without the ball. One of the best things that ever happened to me when I was a beginner was when I was told to shadow practice my forehand and backhand drives and loops, and side-to-side footwork, one hundred times a day. This was a primary reason why I went from beginner at age 16 to 1900+ in about two years.

  • For Beginning Players: focus on the basics. You want to develop smooth, repeatable shots and footwork. You might want to have a coach work with you first, so you aren't practicing bad habits. Once you know what to do, do perhaps fifty to a hundred forehand and backhand drives, and fifty to a hundred forehand and backhand loops. Then go side to side fifty to a hundred times, stroking each time (either all forehand, or alternate forehand and backhand).
    One key thing: remember that strokes have three parts: backswing, forward swing, and back to ready position. Many players tend to just go back and forth (going directly from forward swing to backswing), which you never do in a game. The stroke should go through a triangular motion (dropping down to ready position), not just a back and forth motion.
  • For Intermediate Players: Focus on improving the speed, crispness and power of the shots and footwork. Think about the type of specific movements you do in a game, and mimic them. For example, if you want to develop a powerful forehand loop that you can use from all parts of the table, then shadow practice powerful forehand loops, from both the wide forehand and wide backhand, as well as from the middle, and practice moving from one spot to another. (Note--intermediate players should also use some of the techniques explained for advanced players.)
  • For Advanced Players: At this point, your shots are consistent and powerful. You should continue to do the shadow practice as explained for intermediate players. However, now you should add randomness. As you shadow practice, imagine you are playing a real match. Imagine a specific opponent, and play out the rallies--except now you are playing at whatever level you hope to attain. Want to be a world-class player? Then shadow practice rallies as if you are world-class! Instead of alternating forehand loops from side to side, add randomness - imagine your opponent spraying the ball all over the court. For example, after looping a forehand from the backhand court, your "opponent" might put one to the wide forehand, which you then cover; or he might block one right back to your backhand again, which you've vacated after the previous shot to get back into position, and so you either step around again for the forehand, or play a backhand attack shot.
    You can also practice receive techniques - imagine an opponent's serve, read it, and return it. You might step in, drop a ball short or flip it, then step back and attack the next ball. Or you might shadow practice looping the deep serves. Think of what happens in a real match, and play out those points.
  • For All Players: You can practice everything this way, except for the actual timing of hitting the ball - and you can do that later at the table, with much faster, stronger and crisper shots because of the shadow practicing. And the nice thing is you can shadow practice anywhere - at work, at home, on the subway. (Okay, that last one might get you strange looks--but I've done it before!)

3) Shadow Practice When You Miss
Table tennis is a game of technique, timing, and adjustment. When you miss a shot, that means something went wrong with your technique or timing. That means something went wrong with your muscle memory, which includes both the technique and timing. So what should you do to get back and reinforce that muscle memory?

You shadow practice the shot. Immediately after missing, before whatever went wrong has a chance to become part of your muscle memory, do it the right way. Imagine the same incoming ball you just missed against, including its speed, spin, and location. Then shadow practice the shot the way you should have done it, and visualize the ball doing what it was supposed to do, i.e. the perfect shot. This is how you reinforce the correct muscle memory. Put the feel of the miss out of your memory; thinking about it only reinforces in your muscle memory something you don't want reinforced.

This is especially important for beginning and intermediate players, whose muscle memory is not as developed, but advanced players should do this as well to re-enforce the proper muscle memory. Ultimately, this is the goal of the constant practice needed to become a top player - the primary purpose is to develop and reinforce those muscle memories so they'll remember to come out when needed in a match. 

Table Tennis Music
If you are going to shadow practice – see above – why not do it to table tennis music?

  • Magic Ball (3:09) – the theme music from the 1989 World Championships, and still considered by many the greatest table tennis music ever.
  • Piano Ping-Pong Song (3:40) – This is mesmeriazing - one you start, you can't stop watching and listening. The two women I'm told are members of the German National Team, but I don't know their names. 
  • Concerto for Table Tennis (2:56) – yes, that's Ariel Hsing and Michael Landers doing the table tennis.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #232 (31:30) - How Tournaments Help (and other segments).

William Henzell: Time to Retire
Here's the podcast (41:15) from Expert Table Tennis on the 13-time Australian champion.

Table Tennis Player Lisa Lin Wins Girls' Hopes Trials
Here's the article from the Baltimore Sun on Lisa. Also featured are Tiffany Ke and Ronald Chen. It's from my press release - all three are from my club, MDTTC. (There's another feature coming out in a few days from the Baltimore Sun, featuring Derek Nie and Klaus Wood – the reporter came out this past Saturday and Sunday to do interviews with them, their parents, and me.) Here's the USATT article on this, with a picture and a link to video.

World Team Championships
Here's the ITTF home page for the ongoing event, Feb. 28 – March 6, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where you can see results, articles, press releases, pictures, video, and quotes. Here is the USATT home page for the Worlds, where you can find USA results. USATT has also posted several videos and articles of USA players on their News Page. Here's an ITTF feature on USA's junior star Kanak Jha.

ITTF Athletes' Commission Chairman Given Full Voting Rights
Here's the article. Vladimir Samsonov is the Chair who now joins the ITTF Executive Committee as a voting member. (I couldn't find an ITTF notice on this, but I'd heard about it separately, I think on Facebook.)

11 Questions with Judy Hugh
Here's the USATT interview with the New Jersey star.

Raymond Filz Sr. Obituary
Here's the USATT article by Wendell Dillon.

Zhang Jike Practicing Serves at the Worlds
Here's the video (12 sec) – alas, like most high-level serves these days (due to lack of enforcement), they're completely illegal, as he hides the ball and contact behind his head. His racket continues downward after contact, faking contact below his head.

Table Tennis Practice with Exercise Equipment
Here's the video (9:56) – first 24 sec are conventional before they get to the rebound boards.

Robot vs. Two Stationary Rackets
Here's the video (6 sec).

Michael Maze Playing with Smart Phone
Here's the video (29 sec).

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