Your Coach(es) Best Tips

NextLevel wrote: My knee issues have nothing to do with the fact that the most important aspect of a stroke from an input perspective is the quality of contact made with the ball.

Actually, let me withdraw my objection to the tip. I guess we should all practice what works for us. I am a firm believer in generating the swing the legs and body. So when I first read the tip, it occurred to me, if you focus on contact first - people will tend to hit using just the arm - in my opinion this not a good thing to do. However, as Nextlevel pointed out on numerous occasions - he has mobility issues due to bad knees - so that might not be possible to do.  TT newbie also had specific issues and his/her coach was able to help with this tip. So while I may not agree with it, doesn't mean it might not work for others.

jrscatman wrote: NextLevel wrote: jrscatman wrote: TT newbie wrote: My coach once said: "The ball is very light, so why the hell you´re spending this amount of energy of arms, shoulder and legs? Focus on the contact of racket against the ball, this is important." So just tap the ball back and forth?  Yes!  Big backswings with poor timing end up leading to taps - so why tap with a big backswing when you can tap with a small backswing and make good contact and more power with less energy? Ok, I agree with poor timing you'll end up with poor shots. However, if you want to play the game properly you really need to swing using power from your legs and core muscles. So I would disagree with this tip.

Hookumsnivy explained it, but in any case, we can agree to disagree.  A hitter doesn't always generate power from the legs and core muscles.  A hitter mostly generates power by timing the ball properly - taking it at the highest point and going through it.  Even a looper - most of the pros have done significant muscle building and working out so that their strokes can be relatively short and time the ball and still generate loads of power.  Those of us who haven't done that muscle building try to do what we think is emulating the pros (hitting the ball hard) when we should be focusing on timing the ball properly and then trying to hit the ball hard.  Many semi-pros/pros who learned the game in childhood never appreciate this because they didn't have to go through the pain of getting better as adults after having no game as children.  They put in lots of hours around higher level players and learned this by osmosis.

hookumsnivy wrote: I think what the coach was saying is to focus more on contact.  Power is useless unless you can make the right contact.  So start by learning to contact the ball correctly before you start trying to add power.  If you don't contact the ball correctly, adding power is likely going to cause problem.  I don't think he was suggesting to just tap the ball. If you don't get a feel for the right contact first, then when you are swinging with your legs and hips you won't have instant feedback on whether you hit the ball correctly which makes adjustments difficult. I think this is more important for beginners and if I had to guess was suggested because the player was hitting the ball hard but missing A LOT.  There are a few players at my club that just hit the ball harder (if it comes back, even harder) and their consistency suffers.  Gain consistency first (through good contact) before adding power.

NextLevel wrote: jrscatman wrote: TT newbie wrote: My coach once said: "The ball is very light, so why the hell you´re spending this amount of energy of arms, shoulder and legs? Focus on the contact of racket against the ball, this is important." So just tap the ball back and forth?  Yes!  Big backswings with poor timing end up leading to taps - so why tap with a big backswing when you can tap with a small backswing and make good contact and more power with less energy?

jrscatman wrote: TT newbie wrote: My coach once said: "The ball is very light, so why the hell you´re spending this amount of energy of arms, shoulder and legs? Focus on the contact of racket against the ball, this is important." So just tap the ball back and forth?

-  Do you know you can actually spin to/at someone and win the point?  You don't have to always loop away from them.
- Stop pushing serves so much - it will get you into trouble as you get better.
- Play the match the way you played in practice. 
- If you miss, we can improve your shot.  If you don't take your shot, there is nothing to improve so you can't get better.
- When starting out, don't serve underspin because you want have an attacking mindset.  Serve no spin so that you can attack the return.  When your loop vs. underspin improves, you can start serving underspin.
- In pushing rallies, many beginners think they missed a backspin ball, when they really missed a no spin ball.  The same applies when someone pops up the ball.
- Spin to win!
- Don't give your opponent so much credit that he (almost) never needs to make a return or a third ball to win a point.  Put the ball in play first and analyze his attack.

TT newbie wrote: My coach once said: "The ball is very light, so why the hell you´re spending this amount of energy of arms, shoulder and legs? Focus on the contact of racket against the ball, this is important."

It took me 3 yrs of playing to appreciate how truly deep this insight is.

My coach once said: "The ball is very light, so why the hell you´re spending this amount of energy of arms, shoulder and legs? Focus on the contact of racket against the ball, this is important."

"don't bend your racket downwards, while looping... it will aggravate your shoulder pain, and will give you only 10% extra spin, but 30% less control"

it worked miraculously.

hookumsnivy wrote: Stop trying to analyze every shot - just play.

One that really helped me that my coach told me at the very start...

Edited by angelleye - 08/07/2014 at 2:10am

richrf wrote: 1) You must stay on your toes and move. 2) Hit from the hips. 3) Make spin. 4) The body is relaxed until the moment of contact.  Hold your breadth just before striking. 5) Use your fingers at the moment of contact. 6) The stroke is short, forward, and accelerate through the ball.

Male Korean coaches best all-time tip...

hookumsnivy wrote: JonathanVN wrote: My coach at a local club gave me some good advice on making sure that the racket is parallel to the table on close to the table shots. Obviously, the loop and longer drives will have a different racket head angle, but for shorter ranged drives, it is best to make contact with the ball at the side and to hit it parallel. This advice moved me from a 1500 player to a 1700 player in about two months.  I must be picturing this wrong in my head.  Parallel to the table - wouldn't that mean completely open or completely closed?