Recommendation #4 - What He Said
The fourth recommendation is to practice your serve and serve return. <Yawn!> Everybody says that, you say! Only because none of you are doing it!Find a partner who you are willing to show your best serves, and who is willing to show you his. Then spend at least 25% of your training time practicing serves and serve returns. It's an efficient use of your time if you want to win. It'll also probably be the weakest part of your game if you are a typical player - and one of the areas that you can improve in most easily.
It will take a long time to reach the point of no return in your serve and serve receive. How can you compete against the best if you are already at a huge disadvantage as soon as your opponent serves or returns serve?
Recommendation #5 - Shake Things Up
The fifth recommendation I would make is to include more random elements in your training routine. Once you have improved your basic technique and footwork to the point where you would have to train longer for much further progress, bring in a random basis to your training drills. Just having the occasional ball go in an unexpected direction or with different speed or spin will force you to concentrate and make sure that you can actually use that grooved technique and footwork under match conditions. Don't overdo it - as you get better you can increase the amount of randomness - start small and work up.Don't be one of those players who looks like a million dollars warming up but falls apart once the match starts.
Recommendation #6 - Seek Professional Advice
The sixth and final recommendation is to get yourself a coach. A coach will be able to watch you train and pick up your strengths and weaknesses much faster than you or your training partner will be able to, since he can focus on you alone during the training. He will be able to correct your mistakes before they become habits, and encourage you to keep doing those things that you are doing right.Conclusion
So there you are, a cool half-dozen ways to bring a plateau to an end (in the right direction!). If you are in danger of flat-lining in your table tennis level, use these techniques faithfully for a month and I'll bet dollars to donuts that you'll have improved in level by the end of that time. And don't skip the service practice!!Return to Beginner's Guide to Training - Overview
