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How to Play Doubles with a Much Stronger or Weaker Player

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(by Larry Hodges) (Excerpt from Table Tennis Doubles for Champions by Larry Hodges. April is Doubles Month!) What are the best tactics for a lopsided team, where one player is much stronger than the other? (This often happens in rating or mixed doubles.) Many believe that a more balanced team has an advantage over a more […]

Top Ten Things to Remember in Doubles

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(by Larry Hodges) (Excerpt from Table Tennis Doubles for Champions by Larry Hodges. April is Doubles Month!) Signal serves. Let your partner know what’s coming! Sometimes the server’s partner signals the serves since he’s the one who has to follow them up. Typically, signal under the table by pointing a finger down for backspin, thumb up […]

What Makes a Great Doubles Partnership?

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(by Larry Hodges) (Excerpt from Table Tennis Doubles for Champions by Larry Hodges. April is Doubles Month!) Here are ten components, not necessarily in order of importance. On a scale of 1 to 10, where do you and your partner(s) come in on these ten? Willingness to play as a team. Some players are simply unwilling […]

Let’s Talk About Shoes

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(by Larry Hodges) There are two main characteristics to consider in table tennis shoes. They are how well you can move in them, and how much support they give. (Durability is another issue, but I won’t go into that here.) Table tennis shoes are designed to maximize mobility for table tennis movements – and that […]

The Four Types of Defense

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(by Larry Hodges) If you want to be good at table tennis, then you must have an excellent defense. And there are really only four types. You should be able to do all four when needed, if for no other reason than by learning to do it, it not only is there when you occasionally […]

The Definition of Insanity and Its Table Tennis Implications

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(by Larry Hodges) Some say that the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result. But isn’t it just as insane to keep doing things differently and expect the same result? Each of these have implications for table tennis. First, if you aren’t improving at […]

Be the Lawnmower

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(by Larry Hodges) Many players enter tournaments with the primary goal of beating stronger (i.e. higher-rated) players. And that’s an admirable goal. But thinking that way is also a way of making sure you don’t improve as quickly and beat more and more of these stronger players. Why? Central to beating anyone is having a […]

The Laziness of Simple Serves

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(by Larry Hodges) When coaching or rooting for a player, why does is sometimes seem like every opponent has nasty serves that your player struggles to return, while your player just serves to keep the ball in play? It’s even worse if you are the player with simple serves, while the opponent is throwing all […]

Learn From Your Easy Wins and Bad Losses

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(by Larry Hodges) Players often learn from close matches, knowing that with just a little more, a close loss becomes a win, and a close win becomes a somewhat easier win. And this is good. However, many players don’t learn from blowout matches – but they should. You can learn from either end of a […]

Types of Topspin Contact

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(by Larry Hodges) These five tips won’t generally help you win, at least not directly. They won’t score points for you. But they will make certain non-playing aspects more efficient and more fun – and indirectly, may subconsciously intimidate an opponent when faced with these displays of “professionalism”! Picking up ball with feet. If the […]

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