Welcome to the Coach's Corner.

One of the most common questions table tennis players have is what am Idoing wrong? We all know David can't be coaching 100 plus different members as much as he would like too. So this area will be a polite spot for David to offer a few tips on what he sees happening at the club on a wide member view.

By David Kent

Coach's Corner,  April

Continuing our discussion (my talk) about the loop and loop-drive, we need some practical guidelines. It is very important to realize that the loop is just another tool in our arsenal. Sometimes the loop will win points outright, especially against unprepared opponents, but we cannot count on that. A good rule-of-thumb, as always, is to expect your opponent to return your shot -- always. This way you will be preparing for your next shot (strategically and/or tactically), and will never be surprised to see the ball returning.  

Since the loop requires a great deal of effort, you will have to commit yourself to a high level of athleticism. Most of the energy of the shot is going into generating spin rather than speed, so to get any power/speed you need to work harder with this style, getting into position and generating very high racquet-speed. If you watch a good looper you will see that the energy comes from the feet, ankles, knees, back/upper-body, shoulders, elbow, and wrist -- quite a workout. All of the motions are additive (discounting Einstein's special relativity calculations), so if you are neglecting some of these parts the sum total ends up smaller/weaker than you need for this stroke. Also important to, usually, be transferring your weight forward during the stroke to help generate more ball speed. This also helps us to not completely miss the ball with this stroke, which is mostly across the flight of the ball, since this makes a little more of our stroke go forward along the flight of the ball. So, racquet speed is the name of the game. Older style loops relied on a pretty long backswing, starting with the racquet head down somewhere near the ankle, but the more modern loop has a much shorter backswing since the game is now even faster and defenders can usually handle this stroke, so we need to be able to quickly get back to our "ready position" for the next shot.  

Defending the loop from close to the table pretty much depends on the block shot with a closed (tilted forward) racquet and with little added power, since the looper supplies the defender with all the power s/he need. Back from the table many different defenses are possible, but from close to the table it is very difficult to get consistency with any other shot than the block. Since this return is so quick, the looper has only a little time to prepare for his next loop. 

The forehand loop requires effort from lots of parts of the body, but the elbow motion is crucial. You start with a relatively straight elbow, and finish with a relatively bent elbow. This generates maximally efficient and consistent topspin with all the forehand shots, including the loop. 

So... to learn this shot requires lots of practice and feedback to correct parts of the stroke. Without a coach, or other reliable source of feedback, you need to judge your own stroke. Did it generate a lot of topspin?... watch the flight of the ball and its bounce or continued forward motion, even if it goes into the net or onto the floor and see if it is still spinning. Did most of your motion go into generating spin instead of speed?... listen to the sound of  ball contact with the rubber, with a loud "thock" sound implying a too solid hit, and a "whoosh" sound indicating only a grazing hit (what we want). With a good loop, as long as the ball goes over the net it will tend to dive down onto the opponent's side of the table, and then kick deep. 

When learning this shot, it helps to try to hit the loop as often as possible to learn the feel of it, but during a game or match this may not be the best shot selection for every situation. A high return may be better handled with a "kill" shot or top-spin drive, or perhaps a placement shot, or even a drop shot, instead of a loop.  

So the standard joke about a "looper" not having to be too smart, just "see ball, hit loop", refers to the fact that a loop will overpower whatever spin your opponent puts on the ball so you don't have to read the opponent's spin too carefully. You do have to differentiate between a loop against top-spin and a loop against chop (back-spin), since you need to generate more lift against the chop, while the top-spin from your opponent gives you the lift for free. 

The backhand loop seems to be harder to learn and does require a lot of wrist motion from the shake-hands grip player, but the ideas are all the same. 

Try it out, get feedback, and have fun. 

David Kent 

Club Coach

Coach's Corner    March

The modern sponge-oriented game of table tennis is mostly oriented around the "loop". "What is it? How do I do it? How do I defend against it? How do I set up for it?" These questions are all at the center of the modern game. 

What is a loop? ... basically a shot that emphasizes very heavy top-spin over almost everything else, including speed or power. The original loop shot was developed as an antidote to the successes of the defensive players, and depends on relatively modern sponge-backed inverted-pips rubbers. Since spin is foremost, we need a large surface area contact between the ball and the racquet surface so that the ball can be grabbed by the rubber -- pretty much impossible with a hard-bat racquet. With sponge, the ball can sink into the racquet face, cupped by the rubber surface. Modern rubbers are also pretty grabby or even sticky. Then, the swing has to be across the path of the ball to generate the spin. Historically, the loop was what we now call a slow-loop, very spiny and relatively slow speed, arcing pretty high over the net like a rainbow's arc or "loop". With the heavy top-spin, the ball dives down into the table and kicks very low and deep/fast off the bounce, still with LOTS of spin. This presented new problems for the defenders, and now the attacking style is dominant in modern table tennis. 

The slow loop used to be the only loop weapon, and it is still important against a chop style of defense. The slow loop has little forward momentum, but LOTS of spin. Against a chop/backspin defensive shot, the "looper" has to generate some lift on the ball in order to overcome the backspin and clear the net, so the swing is pretty vertical in reference to the floor or table surface, which results in dragging the ball upward. The next very important point is that the racquet face has to be VERY "closed" (tilted top forward) compared to the path of the approaching ball. This results in barely brushing the front of the incoming ball, generating spin without much forward speed.  

But there are other, newer, loop strokes. The loop-drive is the modern choice against an incoming top-spin shot. Since your opponent is giving you the "lift" with his top-spin, your stroke can be much more forward and powerful. This is really a cross between an old loop and a topspin drive. Since there are very few chop-style defenders at the international level, the loop-drive has become the predominant type of loop. The next type of loop is the sidespin loop. This, obviously, replaces some of the topspin with varying amounts of side spin.  

All of the loops have you swinging across the flight of the ball with a very closed racquet face. This means that, if you are doing it right, you will sometimes completely miss the ball with your stroke, or even hit the ball with the leading edge of the paddle. While you are learning, if you don't make both of these mistakes frequently, you aren't doing it right. The most common error is to not have the racquet face closed (top tipped forward) enough. This error means you "hit" the ball instead of just brushing it or grazing it with your paddle. This may be better noticed by listening to the sound of the hit. If loud, you have hit it firmly (not a loop). If soft, you just grazed the ball (great).  Most otherwise pretty strong attacking players have a hard time learning this shot because their body won't let them come so close to totally missing the ball -- it feels wrong. But it does work, although it initially feels impossible. The modern rubbers are what make it even possible. And a very fast racquet speed is indispensable, since most of the swing energy is used to generate spin, not speed. 

It seems easier to learn your first loop against a topspin or flat hit shot, but if you learn the feel of the shot against chop (a slow loop), you will really better understand the feel of a real loop.  

There is a lot more to the loop, but you do have to learn by doing. More next month.... 

David Kent

Club Coach






Coach's Corner,  February 
 

The most recent questions have been about equipment, especially paddles. So we'll cover some basic information. 
 

First, lets talk about balls. Balls come in 1-star (*), 2-star (**), 3-star (***), and 3-star-Premium (Nittaku). All of these typically meet the ITTF Standards, but the higher number of stars indicates better quality control, so the company charges more for them. In other words, some 1-star balls are as good as the 3-star balls, but only some. And the 3-star Premium balls have the best quality control - the stronger players seem to prefer these. Pretty good players won't notice much difference from the 3-star balls, as they all meet the basic requirement of bounce height and weight range, while perhaps differing in perfection of roundness, or durability.  
 

Next, lets cover paddles, and then rubber. A common misconception is that a thicker paddle is better -- not necessarily true. Thickness will naturally have an effect on weight and stiffness, but the materials used (woods, etc.) and manufacturing process are much more important. The important characteristics are weight, liveliness, stiffness, size of "sweet-spot", and size and shape of the face. Weight is an individual factor in that you'll find a weight or weight range that feels good for your physique and playing style. A heavier paddle is like a heavier baseball-bat, in American baseball. A paddle's liveliness is indicated by "Offensive" (fast, or "Off+", "Off", and "Off-", meaning more to less fast), "All-Around" (medium fast, or "AR+", "AR", and "AR-", meaning faster to slower), and "Defensive" (slow, or "Def+", "Def", and "Def-", meaning slow to slower). The faster, livelier, paddles enable speedier shots, but also less control. Many international level players use medium fast paddles, because consistency is more important to them than raw power.  Stiffness has an effect on how long the ball stays in contact with the rubber, and thereby the "feel" of the shot. Stiffness also has an effect on the size of the "sweet-spot", that area of the face that is the liveliest. A "sweet-spot" extending nearly to the edge of the paddle will give you more consistency. A larger hitting surface (size and/or geometry of the face) will mean fewer miss-hits, but slower racquet speed (due to increased wind resistance), so most attacking players are happy with normal sized racquet faces, while defensive players may tend toward the larger faces of the defensive-speed racquets. 
 

Finally, let's look at the rubbers. Thickness (of the sponge layer) is given in millimeters. The over-all thickness of the rubber cannot exceed 4 mm, including the sponge and the pimpled-rubber covering (which can be smooth side out, or pimpled side out). Thickness and firmness of the sponge layer determines the surface area contact with the ball during your hit. The more the ball sinks in, the greater the area of contact, therefore more grip or friction on the ball, enabling more spin on the ball. Obviously, no sponge (or hard-bat) will give minimal grip, while thicker sponge will give more grip. Smooth surface enables the most grip, while pimples-out gives less. Also, the type of rubber surface (degree of "stickiness") will affect the friction between the ball and the racquet. So rubbers are described by their "speed" (or bounce), and "spin". The modern rubber/sponge combinations can give these qualities independently. More speed coupled with more spin generally gives you less control. So, again, most international-level players highly value control and consistency, so, many avoid the fastest/spiniest rubbers.  
 

Many developing players think fast and spiny means better. A faster and spinier rubber will tend to make your good shots better, but will definitely make your bad shots worse. Most developing players lose many more points by bad shots (bad form, or bad shot-selection) than by lack of power or spin. Faster improvement will happen with improved strokes, not with "monster" racquets. 
 

However, inferior racquets can hold you back due to inability to generate either spin or power. Many very cheap recreational paddles are quickly outgrown as your skills develop, but the other extreme can hold you back as well. I generally suggest trying out new rubber/sponge/paddle combinations before purchasing, if you can. I generally have a wide range of loaner paddles available for use at the club for you to try out. A "coach", after observing your game, can recommend specific paddle/rubber combinations for you dependent on your playing level. Without a personal coach, I would tend to recommend an all-round plus, or offensive minus, paddle coupled with medium fast (around 90 out of a hundred) and medium spiny (around 90 out of a hundred) rubber, with from 1.5mm to 2.0mm sponge, as a good starting point. More specific recommendations would depend on your style and skill level. 
 

David Kent -- Club Coach

 

Coach's Corner for January
 

"How to serve?" and "how to return serves?" are very common questions, or at least problems. 
 

Writing out the complete rules for a legal serve is not as useful as showing you how to do it. The ideas involved in useful serves include both tactics and strategy. You have to ask yourself what is the goal of this serve (during a particular match).  
 

If you are a very strong player playing against another very strong player, your goal is to not give your opponent a serve that is easily attacked... so a very short and  low serve (that will bounce twice on the opponent's end) with backspin or no-spin usually is hard to attack, since the table itself is in the way of an aggressive swing. The idea is to get the point flowing in a way that fits your style of play. You should plan ahead. The mental question is "what do I expect to get back from my chosen serve?" If you are an intermediate player that likes to hit drives and counter-drives, then it is useful to serve deep and fast, expecting a deep and fast return which is ideal for counter-hitting.  
 

If you are a little bit better than a beginner, then you have to focus on not hitting terrible serves. The common beginners' problem is making the ball bounce too high on the serve (and throughout the point as well). If you hit the serve when the ball is still high above the table, you have to hit down to make a legal serve, and then the ball will bounce high over the net, leaving your opponent with an easy set-up (although s/he may mess it up anyway). The fix for this is when you throw the ball up for the serve you have to wait for the ball to drop to only an inch or two higher than the table surface before you hit it. 
 

And "how to return serves?", involves the same ideas. You want the point to develop in a way that fits your style or strengths. If you are bad at handling short push shots, then don't "push" (short underspin or back-spin) yourself, because your opponent will frequently return a push with a push, and so on. Try to take advantage of your opponent's weaknesses, and try to utilize your strengths. If your opponent uses tricky spins, it is most effective to angle the face of your paddle to counteract that spin. This means tipping the paddle forward against top-spin, and tipping the paddle back against back-spin. Handling side-spin seems harder to do, but it is no more difficult than handling back-spin. Again tip the face of the paddle to one side or the other depending on which kind of side-spin you are responding to. A simple idea is to aim sideways in the direction that the server's paddle started from. Try it. If this still doesn't make sense to you, ask me to help with some practice. Remember, don't try to handle side-spin by swinging the paddle sideways (although this will work if you are able to judge it perfectly). Instead learn to handle your opponent's spins by angling the paddle in the appropriate direction. This will greatly improve your consistency. 
 

Watch and learn from lots of different players' serves. This is one facet of the game where you can profitably get quite creative. And it is always useful to have and use a number of different serves to keep your opponent guessing. 
 

David Kent, club coach