2 Backhands, 2 Forehands Drill (HTPTT 2.1)

May 21, 2013 No comments

two backhands two forehands movementHello and welcome to the first lesson of Level 2 from my How to Play Table Tennis series.

You should now be able to play 100 forehand drives, 100 backhand drives, 100 forehand pushes and 100 backhand pushes with correct technique and without a mistake. You should also have an understanding and application of the correct table tennis grip and stance (that was all covered in level one).

Level 2 is all about regular movement drills. We’ll be combining the shots we learnt during level one with the side-step footwork to be able to cover the whole table.

Today’s drill is a simple one; two backhands and two forehands.

The aim of this drill is to become comfortable moving side-to-side and switching between backhand and forehand drive. We will play two shots before moving so that we have move time to get ourselves into the correct position and are less likely to end up one step behind the ball.

The Perks of the Blog

May 20, 2013 No comments

table tennis cufflinksA very short post today… I was recently sent a free pair of table tennis cufflinks by online retailer TiesPlanet.com. I guess that’s a “perk of the blog”.

I wouldn’t normally dedicate a post to something like this and I don’t want Expert Table Tennis to become a blog full of product recommendations and the like but after opening the package I found that I really liked the cufflinks! They look smart (rather than tacky) and would definitely act as a good conversation starter.

Some of you may know that I’m getting married in July (if you didn’t, you do now) and I might even try and get away with wearing them on the big day.

If you would like to check out the cufflinks in more detail then head over to TiesPlanet.com, where they can be bought for just £9.99.

Normal blog service will be resumed tomorrow as I begin to tackle Level 2 (regular movement) in my How to Play Table Tennis series.

See you tomorrow!

The Best Table Tennis Bat in India

May 15, 2013 1 comment

Best Table Tennis Bat in IndiaMy most popular post to date has been The Best Table Tennis Bat for Beginners, one of the first posts I wrote for the site. Every week I receive several comments and messages from players asking for advice regarding which bat to buy and I have seen a particular need in India.

It seems that good table tennis bats are hard to find in India (at least online) and therefore a lot of players are having to play with the cheap dead bats, produced by the big brands, and their games are suffering. I have spent a good amount of time searching through the various online retailers and hand-picked a couple of recommendations for my friends in India.

Before you buy a bat (in India or anywhere else) I strongly recommend you read my post The Best Table Tennis Bat for Beginners. I cover what not to buy in great detail and after reading that you should be well informed as to the types of things you should be looking for when buying a table tennis bat.

The bats I have chosen are available on Flipkart which seems to be a well-known and professional outfit in India (something similar to Amazon in the UK and US).

Adidas TenZone Ultra Review

May 13, 2013 Comments: 2

Adidas Tenzone UltraTenZone Ultra is the latest rubber to be released by Adidas and they were kind enough to send me a sheet to test and review. This is the first time that I have done a full review for a piece of equipment and I know that equipment review posts are usually very popular so I will be trying to do more of these in the future.

Before I get started here is a bit of context that you might find relevant.

  • I am an attacking player that largely uses Butterfly equipment. I have been playing with Butterfly’s Timo Boll Spirit blade and Tenergy 05 for the last 3-4 years. I will be making a lot of comparisons between TenZone Ultra and Tenergy 05 as that is what I’m used to playing with.
  • Adidas sent me a free sheet of TenZone Ultra and their Avenger Carbon blade to try out and review. I am not working with them financially in any way and have no reason to promote or advertise their products besides to provide value to my readers.
  • I have tried the TenZone Ultra rubber on their Avenger Carbon and my Timo Boll Spirit blade and have been using it for about two weeks. I decided that I should use it for a while and let myself get used to it instead of just using it once or twice.
  • I am not an expert equipment tester and I’m not usually one for switching equipment regularly (I prefer to find a set-up I like and then stick with it) but I do understand differences in equipment and I’ve played for long enough to be able to compare and contrast different rubbers.

I had hoped to get a video review for the TenZone Ultra rubber and I even wanted to get the opinions of some of the top juniors at the English Schools Finals in Doncaster a few weeks back. Unfortunately that didn’t happen, so this will just be a text based review. I will try to be as detailed and clear as I can be and…

I’m excited to announce that I have just order a full HD Sony camcorder from Amazon this morning and videos will be on their way soon!

On with the review…

6 Fast Improving Table Tennis Players

May 4, 2013 Comments: 2

ittf logoAs table tennis players we all want to improve your game and see that improvement transfer to increased tournament results and rankings. In this post I’ll be looking at six table tennis players that I’ve singled out based on their fast improving ITTF world ranking and in future posts I’ll be trying to get in touch with them to find out what they’ve been doing right.

If you know me, you’ll know that I’m a bit of a stats fan. I just love them. I can spend hours skimming through ranking lists looking for anomalies that might prove valuable. If you’re a member of the Expert Table Tennis Academy, and receive my emails, you should have got an email from me recently entitled ‘How to Double Your Ranking in 12 Months’ (if you haven’t got it just yet don’t panic, it’s on its way).

In that email I looked through the England men’s ranking lists for the past year and found that seven players had managed to “double” their ranking in the past 12 months (for example, moving up from 50th to 25th). I received a few emails from academy members interested in hearing more and encouraging me to look at the world ranking list. This post is my response to those emails and I hope you’ll find it an interesting read.

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