Fred's Been Practicing

Fred is playing very good, I think that he has great consistency!

Fred started at about 2 with a Tube Alu with some old Pro XP that I had kicking around. We just played by by me throwing the ball to him in our kitchen and he hit it after it had bounced on the floor though. We didn't go near a table until he was nearly 4 1/2. He continued with that with bat for 3 months or so and then he played for about a year with the Galaxy Childrens blade with Inspirit that PPRob and AffordableTT kindly gave to him. I think it is important not to give them something too slow at first as it is quite a big effort to swing the thing with pace anyway, but obviously the lighter the better. That is the reason he has had a T-2 until recently. Now he has grown a little stronger, he can handle something a little heavier though most of us would still say his current bat is very light.

It's just my observations for the very young/small. There is some debate over what speed of bat younger players should use, but it seemed to work for Fred.

Something else to consider is that Fred didn't actually serve himself for the first year or so of playing as his toss was very inconsistent. Your son might do better hitting balls which are thrown/hit by you as they will be of a better quality.

You have to let them have their fun and do what they want from time to time. Better still get them to think that what you want to do was their idea in the first place. It's always a winner.

The big question is, how do you keep him unique?

my advice : for children, always train consistency. with normal loops, smashes, pushing etc. Consistency is the key.

the irony? I don't think you need any advice. I seriously think that you're handling fred very very well. I look forward to the next video!

Juan King Carlo wrote: I like the idea of having him practicing his backhand on a platform, or on a smaller table for developing the correct stroke, but he will be starting to compete more soon in local leagues and small tournaments, so he needs to have a backhand which he can use on a full size table.

By the way, when he starts playing in tourneys, train him a bit more on the sidespin - I noticed that is a truly deadly weapon when playing against small kids. No kiddin'...

Anything that is that little bit different is always useful against kids. They like to get on the table and practice their forehand to forehand and they don't tend to do a lot else. Whether it is the sidespin that you suggest or an extra bit of chop on serves or when pushing, an extra bit of topspin or even just playing down a players backhand. He won't even have to try and disguise it too much either yet.

He does actually play plenty with other kids already. It's just far easier to stick with me in the vids rather than getting permission from other parents etc.