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Smarter Now Doesn’t Mean You Were Dumb Before

(By Larry Hodges) This is one of those tips where the title, by itself, should give you a lot to think about. If you want to improve at table tennis (or most other endeavors), you need to constantly learn. I’ve been playing almost 50 years, and just last week I think I finally figured out […]

How to Anticipate Opponent’s Placement

(By Larry Hodges) Players with great reflexes don’t have great reflexes. There, I’ve said it, and you probably think I’m crazy. But they don’t. What they have is early reaction. What does that mean? If you smash or loop kill against a top player, it’s often amazing how they seem to react to it, thereby […]

How to Serve to Passive and Aggressive Receivers

(By Larry Hodges) Part of how you serve to these types of receivers comes down to your own playing style. But if you want to be an advanced player, then you need to learn to follow up your serve with an attack. That’s relatively easy against a passive receiver – except that those players are […]

Most Competitive Matches Are Won or Lost on Two Things

(By Larry Hodges) Between players of roughly equal levels, matches are almost always won or lost on one of two things: sports psychology and tactics. Why? How well you play is mostly set by your mentality. There’s no magic secret about this; if you played great in the past, then unless you are injured or […]

Showing Frustration or Confidence

(By Larry Hodges) This is a simple tip. Do you think you have a better chance of winning if your opponent is confident or frustrated? You actually have some control over this. It’s simple, and it’s all about how you react when you miss shots or fall behind. Showing frustration is a good way to […]

If You Step Around Your Backhand to Play a Forehand, Go All the Way

(By Larry Hodges) “I’m too slow!” That’s the cry of many players who play a forehand from the backhand corner, and then can’t recover in time to cover their wide forehand. I’ve written about this before – focusing on the importance of balance and following through back into position so you can cover that wide […]

Learn from Students of the Game, Crafty Veterans, and Hedgehogs

(By Larry Hodges) You should always be learning in table tennis, or in any serious activity. I’m always amazed at how often players miss opportunities to learn from others, or limit their learning by only learning from a few. Here are three types of players you can learn from, both as a player and a […]

Warm Up Your Serves

(By Larry Hodges) At tournaments, players warm their shots up – forehands, backhands, looping, blocking, and so on. Then they go out to play – and half the points start out with their serve, one of the few things in their game that they didn’t warm up! This has always puzzled me. I think most […]

Top Eleven Things About Top Table Tennis Players

(By Larry Hodges) They know that most of the game takes place in the head. They know how to focus. They can’t wait to get to practice. They are students of the game. They love to talk about table tennis. They have spinny serves, but their go-to serve is often a no-spin serve that looks […]

Backhand Receive Against a Short Serve to the Forehand

(By Larry Hodges) In my day, there were players who received short serves much better with their backhand than with their forehands. Every coach in the world would tell them to work on their forehand receive against short serves, especially flipping. But a few players would still stubbornly receive with their backhand, even against short […]

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