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Never Think About Winning or Losing While Playing – Excise the Thought and Play Well!

August 9, 2018

Never Think About Winning or Losing While Playing – Excise the Thought and Play Well! (by Larry Hodges) To some, this might be obvious. We’ve all had that experience where you wanted to win so badly that you get nervous, and your whole game fell apart. It might happen for a number of points, or […]

Tip of the week: Are You a 10-8 or an 8-10 Player?

April 23, 2018

(By Larry Hodges) Tip of the week: Are You a 10-8 or an 8-10 Player? Some players play best when their back is to the wall – when they are down 8-10, they come alive and play like champions. Others are best when they are ahead and have more confidence in going for their shots […]

Finding Simple Tactics That Work

March 27, 2018

(By Larry Hodges) Finding Simple Tactics That Work I was going to write about this topic when I realized I didn’t have to – I already had. Chapter One of my book, “Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers,” starts with this: “Tactics isn’t about finding complex strategies to defeat an opponent. Tactics is about sifting through […]

Your Goal Should Normally Be to Win Playing the Style You Are Developing

March 19, 2018

(By Larry Hodges) Your Goal Should Be to Win Playing the Style You Are Developing What does this mean? It doesn’t mean you should blow big matches because you stubbornly refuse to play a smart tactic that’s not how you normally play. What it means is that if you are trying to improve your game, […]

Tip of the week: Sound and Feet

February 26, 2018

(By Larry Hodges) Tip of the week: Sound and Feet The Chinese know something about table tennis, and there’s a stereotype about Chinese coaches that we can learn from. The stereotype is that in a group training session, they often walk around with their heads down as they do two things – listen to the […]

Speed and Power are Easy with Good Technique, but Good Technique is Difficult

February 5, 2018

(By Larry Hodges) Speed-Power: Easy with Good Technique,Good Technique is Difficult The above should be on a banner at every playing hall in the world. Players almost always try to drill at speeds or with power they can’t control, thinking that by drilling that way, they’ll learn to play at that pace. Superficially, it makes […]

Push-Button Matches – Playing the Scary All-Out Attacker

December 12, 2017

(by: Larry Hodges) Push-Button Matches – Playing the Scary All-Out Attacker Ever have one of those matches where you felt like the opponent completely dominated with their attack and controlled everything, and yet you won? I call those “push-button” matches. In matches like that, the opponent basically attacks everything, no matter what you do. If […]

How to Mess Up Your Opponent When Forced to Make a Weak Shot

December 4, 2017

(By Larry Hodges) How to Mess Up Your Opponent When Forced to Make a Weak Shot No matter how much you train you will sometimes find yourself out of position and having to reach or lunge for a shot. It’s not something you want to do; it’s something you have to do in those hopefully not-too-often situations. Most players […]

Tip of the week: The Non-Playing Arm

November 28, 2017

(By Larry Hodges / Photo courtesy of ITTF) Tip of the week: The Non-Playing Arm Many players do not use their non-playing arm properly. Often the problem is that you can sort of get away with not using the non-playing arm in many drills – either static ones, where you aren’t moving (i.e. working on basics with […]

Tip of the week: Three Simple Side-to-Side Drills

November 20, 2017

(By Larry Hodges) Tip of the week: Three Simple Side-to-Side Drills Most table tennis movement is side-to-side, and so you need to practice this a lot. Here are three drills you should be doing – but only do the second when you are proficient with the first, and only do the third when you are […]