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Coaching Tip of the Week: On Short Serves to the Forehand, Challenge the Forehand, Often Go to the Backhand

August 24, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) Assuming two right-handers play, a common rally might start with a short serve to the forehand. Many receivers don’t understand the tactics in receiving this shot. The two main things to think about are this: First, if the receiver goes crosscourt, he has the long diagonal to go after (10.3 feet, instead […]

Coaching Tip of the Week: Should You Develop Your Forehand Push?

August 17, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) At the lower levels, pushing is often over-used; at the higher levels, spectators often underestimate its value. All top players have excellent pushes. However, advanced players – and even intermediate players – rarely push against deep backspin to the forehand, unless they are very defensive choppers. It’s simply better for them to […]

Coaching Tip of the Week: Two Tips to Increase Forehand Looping Power

August 10, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) If you have trouble generating power when forehand looping, try out these two tips, and you’ll be surprised at the improvement. First, keep your legs farther apart. This gives more stability and more torque into the shot. Second, contact the ball more from your side. This forces you to use your whole […]

Coaching Tip of the Week: How to Vary Your Receive Against Short Backspin Serves

August 3, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) Most players return short backhand serves with a simple push, without much thought to it. This makes the player predictable and vulnerable to third-ball attacks. The key is to vary the return. Let’s take a look at just how many effective returns you can actually do against a short backspin serve – […]

Coaching Tip of the Week: When Playing an Unfamiliar Player, Focus on Serve & Receive

July 27, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) When you face a new and unknown opponent, you aren’t sure yet how the rallies are going to go. But you can control how the rallies start. Learn to use serve & receive force rallies to go the way you want them to go, and so make your opponent adjust to you. It doesn’t […]

Coaching Tip Of The Week: The Importance of Lobbing

July 20, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) One of the strange things top players and coaches often notice is that beginning/intermediate players who “goof off and lob” during practice often improve rapidly. There is a reason for this. When a beginning/intermediate player backs up and lobs, he develops mobility and footwork, and learns to react to hard-hit […]

Coaching Tip Of The Week: Fast, Quick Motions Disguise a No-Spin Serve

July 13, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) Many players learn to put decent spin on their serves. However, they often find it difficult to disguise that spin. Why not develop a no-spin serve, with a fast, violent serve motion? Change directions as the racket contacts the ball (contacting the ball as the racket is changing directions at the split […]

Coaching Tip Of The Week: Training Down the Line

June 29, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) One of the lessons I learned from legends like Dan Seemiller and Dave Sakai was the value of down-the-line training. When you hit crosscourt, you have about ten feet and 3.5 inches. Down the line, it’s only nine feet, so 15.5 inches shorter. If you can maintain an aggressive down-the-line attack in […]

Coaching Tip Off The Week: Do You Really Have Control of Your Shots?

June 22, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) Most players below the higher levels do not really control their shots, both in terms of direction and depth. One reason for this is they don’t really get much feedback on it, and so don’t realize just how little they are really controlling the ball. Another is that they aren’t really aiming […]

Coaching Tip Of The Week: Practice Partner Collaboration – the PPC of TT

June 15, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) All sports involve collaboration, and table tennis is no exception. In fact, due to its one-on-one nature, table tennis in particular fits into this mode. One obvious collaboration is between coach and student, but there’s an equally important one – between playing partners. If you want to improve, players need to work […]

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