I've mentioned in the past the usefulness of keeping a record of matches against opponents, with information about their strengths, weaknesses, and tactics. I've also discussed the idea of keeping a training journal to allow you to refer back to past sessions, and monitor what training you have performed and whether it has been successful. Previously, like most people, I've written these details into a pen and paper notebook (which I usually lose after a couple of weeks), but what would be really useful is a computer based alternative.
The guys at PingSkills (Ex-Olympian Jeff Plumb, and Olympic coach Alois Rosario) have come up with a possible solution - the PingSkills vault. I decided to join up with a free membership, in order to check it out. You can also get Plus and Premium memberships for a small monthly fee, along with some extra benefits, such as asking questions from the coaches, storage of more opponents, matches, training sessions, and discounts on their range of DVDs. But a free membership is enough to check out the basics of the Vault, and get an idea of what it is all about, and whether it is worth upgrading.
Disclaimer: I have no relationship with PingSkills, and I'm not receiving any commission or benefit in mentioning their product (darn it!). I just visit their website regularly and thought it would be cool to check out their Vault software and tell my readers about it.
Overall Impressions
I must admit, I signed up with a touch of cynicism, thinking that this was likely to be a very simple recording system. But after having a look through the Vault, I'm quite impressed with what Jeff and Alois have come up with. It's simple to use, but quite detailed in what it can record, along with some nifty analysis tools that take advantage of the benefits of storing this information on a computer. Two thumbs up!
Overview
The PingSkills Vault is an online database of your opponents and your training sessions, allowing you to outline the strengths, weaknesses and anything else you want to record about your opponents, including your match scores. On the training side, you can record information about your training sessions and times. Both of these aspects can then be used to produce a variety of graphical analysis' of your data, giving you visual information about your results against opponents, and where you are spending your training time.
Opponents
Starting with your opponents, you can enter a number of opponents (only 2 in the free version) and list their relevant details, such as name, favored hand, style, rubber type, and ratings of such items as footwork, service, forehand attack, and mental toughness. There is also a text box for tactics, with a number of prompts already listed (a nice touch) to help get you started in recording what type of tactics you should use against this particular opponent. You can go back and edit this data later on as you find new tactics which work better. This all works quite well, although the ability to create new styles of opponents for those unorthodox types would be even better.
Opponent - Match Results
For each opponent, you can store the results of each individual match that you play against them. Included is the date, whether you won or lost, the score, and a commentary text box, which once again has a number of prompting thoughts already inserted to help you cover each match thoroughly. Over time, these match summaries will build up into a comprehensive database of information about each opponent, as well as about yourself.
Opponent Analysis
This section is quite a nifty graphical view of the data you have entered into the Vault. You can see at a glance how you fare against different opponents by playing style, grip type, handedness, etc. Obviously I'm not getting all that much data on a free membership with only two opponents entered, but on the paid memberships with more opponents I could see this being very useful information. I must admit I have no idea whether I do better against right or left handers, or penholders vs shakehanders, and now I'm curious to find out! It could certainly help point out areas where you might need some work to bring your game up to speed.
Training
The training section of the vault is also quite useful. It allows you to enter a date for each training session, as well as a time, the type of training performed, and a commentary for each training session. Again, the ability to add your own custom type of training sessions would be a nice touch, but overall the basics are still pretty good.
Training Analysis
The training analysis is quite useful too, with a breakdown of which types of training you have been performing compared against each other, and a listing of the number of hours trained each month - very useful, and possibly a bit embarrassing when you realize just how little you actually train!
Conclusion
I think PingSkills have come up with a very useful tool for improving your table tennis. The software works smoothly and is easy to use, the information you can store about opponents and your training sessions is quite comprehensive and handy to have online, and the extra graphical analysis are very informative too. I'd recommend signing up for the free version just to take a look around, but with only 2 opponents, 2 matches per month, and 2 sessions per month, its a bit too limited for a tournament player. Players looking to improve should opt for the Plus membership which allows 20 opponents, 15 matches per month and 15 training sessions per month all for just $15 each month, while serious tournament players might want to opt for the Premium membership, which allows for 250 opponents, 100 matches per month, and 60 training sessions per month, for the cost of $25 a month. Pretty good value really - and add in the right to ask questions from Jeff and Alois, as well as discounts on their DVDs, and it's even better.
