(By Larry Hodges, Member of US Table Tennis Hall of Fame) The problem with playing lefties is two-fold: first, their shots come out differently than righties, and second, your natural ball placement to a righty is usually wrong against a lefty. The first part is more or less a matter of playing lefties until you […]

(By Larry Hodges, Member of US Table Tennis Hall of Fame) Many players have jerky strokes that make them look like a marionette on a vibrating bed. Jerky strokes mean the player is mostly using one muscle for the stroke, often at near full-power, which is nearly impossible to control. It’s better to use more […]

(By Larry Hodges, Member of US Table Tennis Hall of Fame) Many players develop a small but effective set of serves, and find success with this. However, often they are limiting themselves with a lack of variety. While it is important to develop a small set of highly effective serves that you can use over […]

(By Larry Hodges, Member of US Table Tennis Hall of Fame) If you are a looper – and that means most players from the intermediate level on – then when someone pushes to you and you want to loop, you should be in one of four mental states. We’re assuming you can loop both forehand […]

(By Larry Hodges, Member of US Table Tennis Hall of Fame) Where should you put your putaway shots? Whether they are smashes or loop kills, there are basically three options. Option One: The easiest spot. This usually would be the longest diagonal. This gives the most table to aim for, and so is the safest […]

(By Larry Hodges, Member of US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Crosscourt. It’s so much easier to hit that way. Most often you get to hit the ball back the way it’s coming, and it’s easier to hit that way than re-directing it down the line. You’ve probably hit so much forehand-to-forehand and backhand-to-backhand that […]

(By Larry Hodges, Member of US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Returning serve is the most difficult part of the game to master. There are more variations to prepare for than at just about any other time–reading spin off a fast motion, topspin or backspin, sidespin either way, corkscrewspin, no-spin, long or short, fast or […]

(By Larry Hodges, Member of US Table Tennis Hall of Fame There are basically seven different directional placements in table tennis, though only five or six are available at any time. They are: Outside forehand corner Forehand corner Middle forehand Middle (opponent’s elbow) Middle backhand Backhand corner Outside backhand corner Generally, you never want to […]

(By Larry Hodges, Member of US Table Tennis Hall of Fame If you spent five-ten minutes each day shadow practicing your strokes and footwork, you’ll be surprised at the improvement, not to mention the health benefits. Make it part of your fitness regimen. For example, every day do 50-100 forehands, backhands, forehand loops, backhand loops, […]

(By Larry Hodges, Member of US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Against a short serve, you can take the ball quick and rush the opponent, you can go for angles, and you can drop the ball short. So have a number of ways to mess up an opponent without actually attacking the serve. This is […]