How To Improve Your Consistency in Table Tennis

Are you a 'hot or cold' player? Or do you often hit a great forehand loop to set up the point, only to hit your next forehand loop into the net? If so, you are struggling with your consistency.

What is Consistency?

Consistency is a must for any table tennis player who wants to play well - since you need be sure that you will have a good result if you attempt a certain stroke. Of course, you can be consistently bad - but that's probably not what you are looking for! So, for our purposes, consistency is your ability to predict with confidence what the result of your intended stroke will be - preferably a good outcome. If you are often able to correctly judge what will happen if you attempt a certain shot, you will have a consistent game.

How to Improve Your Consistency

Like many areas of your table tennis game, consistency is a skill, and as a skill it can be improved, provided you train intelligently to do so. It's no good going out on the table and hoping your consistency will improve - you need a plan to make things happen. Here's some ideas that will help you put together a plan to increase your consistency.

Improving your consistency is generally something that requires two things:

1. Selecting the correct shot to play, the correct bat angle and amount of spin vs speed that you should use to achieve the desired ball height, trajectory, speed, spin and placement.

2. Mastering the technique for each stroke, so that it can be repeated over and over again with little difference. It is better to have minor flaws in your technique that are consistent, than to have technique that is perfect 50% of the time, and terrible 50% of the time.

How can you spend your time wisely to improve these two things? Well, there are a number of things you can do that will all help, such as:

1. Paying attention to what your limits are - there is no point trying to smash or power loop balls that are too low or that have too much backspin. Your technique may be great, but if you are trying to play the wrong shot, you will still lose the point. Knowing what you are actually capable of doing with your current technique is essential if you want to be consistent - how else will you know what options you have to choose from?

2. Push your limits a little bit in training. You've got to constantly try to push the envelope a bit at a time, otherwise you may be improving your technique, but in matches you will be choosing strokes that are well below what you are capable of performing. No point improving your technique if you don't then take advantage of the increased number of choices you have available.

3. To begin with, use lots of repetition to groove in the correct techniques against certain balls. Start with drills where you receive the same type of ball over and over. Master the correct technique for that type of ball and learn what you can and can't do with it at the moment. Then add a second type of ball to the drill, so you have to decide which type of stroke to use, and adjust your technique accordingly. This will build up your decision making and ability to adjust your technique quickly.

4. Keep your technique fairly consistent over the different strokes, so there are less things to master. For example, when looping against backspin, only change the angle of the bat (more open), and the direction of the swing (more down to up). Don't try to change the speed of your swing or the amount of spin you put on the ball. Then when looping against topspin, keep the speed of your swing and the amount of topspin the same, but close the racket face a little more, and use a flatter swing path.

   As you master each stroke, you can change the swing speed and direction as well for more variations, but at the beginning, the simpler the better. That way, when you make a mistake such as putting the ball in the net when looping against backspin, you only have a couple of simple things to change - open your bat more, and swing more vertically. If you change too many things it's very tough to develop a consistent swing. It's a bit like musical improvisation - you had better have mastered the fundamentals of your instrument, and know the piece you are playing inside out, before you start trying to jazz it up. But once you have mastery of the instrument and the song, the improvisations you can make are endless.

5. At first, practice a lot, and play competitions less often. When you are still learning techniques, lots of practice is what you need to groove in your fundamentals. It is all too easy to get carried away with winning in competitions, and go back to your old habits in an effort to win a close match. Changing your technique back to your old strokes in order to win is going to slow down your improvement. Once you feel you have grooved your technique, then get out and try it in matches, and stick with it regardless of the result.

Conclusion

Consistency is a crucial element in modern table tennis, and something well worth your time to work on improving. Hopefully this article has given you some pointers that will help you adjust your training plan so you can increase your own consistency in matches.