(By Larry Hodges) There are so many snap decisions a player has to make while playing that it’s mind-boggling that players often increase the mind-load by adding unnecessary decisions. In table tennis, there is never a decision on whether you have to move; you always move – or more specifically, you always assume you have […]

(By Larry Hodges) When you decide to go for a shot, or play safe, it usually (not always) means you’ve thrown tactics and percentages to the wind. If you decide to go for a shot, or play safe, is it because it’s the tactical and high-percentage thing to do? Or is it more an emotional […]

(By Larry Hodges) A common tactic for forehand loopers with good footwork is to serve short (often to the middle, to cut off the extreme angles), and when the receiver predictably pushes long to the backhand, the server simply steps around and forehand loops – either winning the point immediately or dominating the rally from […]

(By Larry Hodges)   I remember something USATT Hall of Famer Ricky Seemiller once told me at one of my first training camps: “Amateurs practice to the middle forehand and middle backhand. Top players practice to the wide angles.” What does that mean? Many players get in the habit of warming up and practicing their […]

(By Larry Hodges) Most players learn early on to serve to set up their game. However, many do not do this with their receive. They will instead focus on just getting the serve back in the most consistent way they can that doesn’t too easily set up the opponent. This works to an extent, but […]

(By Larry Hodges) Invariably, when a player is caught out of position and so can’t get to a ball, they think they are slow. I know players who voice this regularly, constantly yelling, “I’m too slow!” Sometimes I correct them, but usually I just shake my head slowly. Almost always the problem wasn’t that they […]

(By Larry Hodges) In last week’s tip I wrote about toweling. In it, I mentioned the Pavlovian Response, also called Classical Conditioning. It’s not just towel breaks. You should develop the same routines before matches, and before every point, both serve and receive. If you do so, you’ll develop that Pavlovian response that prepares you for the match […]

(By Larry Hodges)  According to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, “A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.” The link above gives some of the many ways a towel helps, such as (I’m not making these up!) “use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; […]

(By Larry Hodges)  Most players who watch top players play look like this. That link should take you to a 22-second video of five cats looking side to side as they watch a ping-pong match. Those cats are enjoying the epic match they are watching, but they are not learning anything. All they are seeing is […]

(By Larry Hodges) It’s great to develop great mechanical proficiency like the top players, who often seem to play like machines. As noted in last week’s tip, “They make even difficult shots with such seeming ease and consistency that they make it look easy.” But while you are developing that mechanical proficiency, you can be […]