8 Effective Tips : How to Practice Table Tennis Alone
Most people believe that table tennis is a game for two, but there are ways to play alone. Setting up a weekly plan for your table tennis practice and fitness can help you stay true to your routine and maximize your time. But how will you practice alone if your friend is not there for you?
Here are some tips that will help you to practice table tennis alone.
1. Familiarize yourself with the rules
As with all sports, certain rules must be followed. Whether you play a friendly match at the HDB void deck or participate in a tournament. Otherwise, you could lose a lot of points because of the ignorant. Therefore, it is crucial to becoming familiar with the rules before starting a tennis practice.
2. Footwork Drill
Footwork is a necessary skill in table tennis. Without an excellent command of this ability, it is undoubtedly impossible to be a great player of table tennis. Hence, knowing and mastering when to change your footwork technique can dramatically help you improve your game. It is difficult to correctly predict shots and placement of the ball in a game.
Correct footwork puts you in the best position to hit the ball, thus increasing the quality of your shot. You do not have to be in your comfort zone before you can rehearse footwork. You can do it efficiently at home as well as in a park center or other places.
While learning the correct movement of your feet, you aim to create endurance, speed, and stamina. Also, positioning yourself in the optimal positions before the onset of a stroke. The footwork should never be neglected during the practice of table tennis. Flexibility will help you move in all directions because that is the action in real games.
3. Physical fitness
Physical training is a training mainly focused on the operation of the motor and functional abilities. The goal of physical exercise is to increase the body’s capacity for specific motor skills. To be a professional table tennis player, however, you will need to spend time and effort at the gym.
Jugging and running strengthen the muscles of your legs and your lung capacity. Your stamina must increase; it will keep you longer games. Sprint help improves the strength, power, and speed of limbs, all of which are essential for table tennis. Furthermore, it also helps to build lean muscle mass while reducing body fat.
Bodybuilding or Weight training can add speed and explosive, powerful shot. The use of heavyweights evolves quickly in the affirmative and controlled phase in the negative aspect. Increased speed and power can be an excellent benefit for table tennis players. Heavy bats can serve as a weight to help increase arm speed and increase the power of the shots.
4. Mental Training
Most table tennis players know only too well the difficulty of the mental side of competitions. It is essential to use the power of the mind to improve at all levels. Some players spend hours doing mental training exercises. For this reason, the best table tennis players use the service of sports psychologists, as well as other racket sports.
5. Table Tennis Videos
You can improve your strategies, while you watch table tennis instructional videos and championship. You can request for instructional table tennis videos from online stores and also watch for free online. You become familiar with the new techniques after watching experts’ videos and even imagine the moves. It is especially perfect if you are physically exhausted.
Start watching the moves and understand them. And when you come back to the table, you will be able to practice a few steps and learn faster. It might be hard when not exposed to the move in the video. You can learn a lot by watching the best players or by viewing different coaching videos.
While watching the video, think about why the tactics used by one player outperform the other. You will realize that their change the game plan and tactics of the winner on their opponent’s actions. Stop the video just before a player reacts and think about what best move is right for the situation.
6. Table tennis robot
A robot can undoubtedly be useful for an additional table tennis practice. Use it for what it does well, for example, footwork exercises, not to receive. Use it to complete the training with real opponents, not to replace them. Also, use it to work on specific areas of your game that you want to improve.
A robot alone does not help you turn into the next world best, but it can certainly help you make improvements to specific areas of your game. A table tennis robot can help you understand how to handle different types of spin. You can experiment and practice with different traits and different materials.
In this way, there is a continuous chance for improvement. Depending on the type of the robot, you can configure it to get different shots. You can improve your spin, stimulate your reflexes, etc. With a robot training partner with you, you can think, test and experience a lot more than with a human training partner.
7. Service practice
The practice of service is the most important thing but the least practiced in table tennis. As the average of the rallies of a match does not exceed three shots, it is essential to have a reliable service and to be profitable. When practicing alone, you have to focus on services, even if it can become tiresome.
Learning short service is maybe one of the best methods because it is tough for your opponent to gain any advantage. Keep your wrists always relaxed if you want to make a good spin and try to move your hand faster at the end of the stroke to increase the rotation of the ball.
You can also mix services to help you take on your opponent unaware. Service needs no rushing. Remember, your goal is to become reliable and not the fastest. Therefore, some effective services are more critical than unsuccessful services.
8. Keep your fluids up
Make sure to drink fluids early in training as well as in a tournament. That point, you can prevent dehydrated and slightly weakened. Taking fluid during the day when you are not playing, to regain strength and keep your body hydrated. Consumption of liquid after intense practice to recover lost strength. It’s good to have drinks with sugar or salt.
Conclusion
Although Not having a human at the other end of the table might limit the difficulty of your table tennis practice. Training alone can also serve as excellent practice and training to refine your skills. After familiarizing yourself with these steps, you should practice them during your practice.
