October 4, 2016

Service Week – Teaching a Beginner to Serve
This past week the focus in both of my beginning table tennis classes was serving. For me, it’s the most fun part to teach, and the part that the kids are most fascinated by. If you show a new kid a backspin serve that bounces back into the net, they won’t stop trying until they can do it. If put a target on the table and smack it with a serve, the kids will spend the next half hour trying to hit it, and keep track of every hit. (I use the latter for the younger kids, who struggle at first with just serving, and aren’t ready to really spin their serves.)

Here’s how I teach serves to beginning kids.

  1. At the very start of the session I challenge the kids to return my serve. They line up, and stay until they’ve missed three serves. Then I serve various spins. When serving sidespin, I always put the racket down right after serving and step to where the ball will go, catching it. For backspin, as I serve I beg them not to go into the net. They have fun with this, and quickly realize how important spin is to the game. After a few rounds I explain what they need to do to return each serve, i.e. aim to the side and down against sidespin.
  2. Next I explain the serving rules. I try to make this interactive, asking them what rules they know, and fill in the blanks. Then demo lots of legal and illegal serves and have them call out if they think it’s legal or not.
  3. I then demo basic forehand and backhand topspin serves, and explain their main purpose is to start a practice rally, such as forehand to forehand and backhand to backhand.
  4. Then we get into spin. I explain the various spins, and then demo them, asking them to call out what type it is. I show them backspin serves coming back into the net. Then I put a racket along the far right side, and serving from my right side, I serve crosscourt with sidespin so the ball curves back and hits the paddle. For topspin, I let them see how the ball jumps as it hits the table.
  5. Then I go over the two keys to spin: racket acceleration and grazing. This is where I explain the difference between racket speed and acceleration.
  6. To teach them how to graze the ball, I first show them the proper forehand pendulum serve grip. Then I break out the colored soccer balls, and have them practice spinning them in the air – spin and catch, spin and catch – for about five minutes. The colored balls give them feedback on whether they are getting spin. Even beginners can spin the ball in this way.
  7. Then go over the specifics of the forehand pendulum serve, and briefly demo other serves. Then I ask for questions – there usually are a few. But by now, they are itching to serve.
  8. I generally put them three to a table, with a box of balls in the middle on one side. Two players practice serving, one from each side, while the third picks up the balls with a net. After five minutes they rotate. After fifteen minutes, they’ve all had ten minutes service practice and five minutes picking up balls. Sometimes we go longer.

The Fitness and Sport of Table Tennis
Here’s the article, with lots of great table tennis links at the end.

Chinese Technique - How to Serve Short
Here’s the video (8:35).

Multi-Ball Exercise for Table Tennis Players and Coaching Tips
Here’s the article. (Recently there seems to be a lot of articles and videos on multiball – I had two here yesterday.)

LIEBHERR 2016 ITTF Men's World Cup
Here’s the home page for the Men’s World Cup, which finished yesterday in Saarbrücken, Germany, with results, pictures, video, and articles. Here’s the Day Three video review (4:37). Here are video highlights (3:59) of USA’s Feng Yijun against South Korea’s Lee Sangsu with the latter winning in seven.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 18 (1990-1991)
Here's chapter 2! Or order your own print copies at TimBogganTableTennis.com.

Creative Variations of Table Tennis
Here’s the video (1:18).

Timo Boll vs. Jorgen Persson Exhibition, with Umpire Jan-Ove Waldner
Here’s the video (12:37)! They did this just yesterday at the Men’s World Cup, before the Final. Here’s a shortened highlights version (4:04), but I recommend the full version so you get the full treat, including the crowd singing Happy Birthday to Waldner, who was 51 yesterday.

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