The Power of a Low, Short, No-Spin Serve Tip of the Week by Larry Hodges At the beginning level, players serve without spin. However, these serves are usually pop-ups that any intermediate (or advanced beginner) can easily attack. As players move up the ranks they learn to serve with spin. But eventually players come full […]
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Brief Tactical Analysis of Fegerl vs Ovtcharov
Posted onBrief Tactical Analysis of Fegerl vs Ovtcharov Butterfly Table Tennis Coaching by Han Xiao Recently, one of the more exciting matches I’ve seen is a match in the European Championship men’s team finals between Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany and Stefan Fegerl of Austria. There were a number of excellent rallies in this match leading to […]
Effective Use of Timeouts
Posted onEffective Use of Timeouts Butterfly Table Tennis Coaching by Han Xiao Most players know that each player has one timeout over the course of the match. However, too many times I have seen matches between beginner or intermediate players where time outs are not used at all or are used ineffectively. In almost every match […]
Receiving Hidden Serves
Posted onReceiving Hidden Serves by Han Xiao Today’s topic comes courtesy of Larry Hodges, who is a coach at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. Larry has been talking to me a great deal lately about the huge problem of many high level players serving almost exclusively illegally in competition without umpires willing to fault them on […]
How To Play Table Tennis – Reverse Pendulum Backspin Serve
Posted onHow To Play Table Tennis – Reverse Pendulum Backspin Serve Join table tennis superstar Elizabeta Samara as she teaches you how to hit her famous reverse pendulum backspin serve in ITTF’s “How To Play Table Tennis Series!“
Player Archetypes: Defensive Styles
Posted onPlayer Archetypes: Defensive Styles Butterfly Table Tennis Coaching by Han Xiao Last week, we focused on identifying common attacking archetypes, what their characteristics are, what traits a player needs to excel with the archetype, as well as some general tips for excelling with each play style. This week, we’re going to do the same with […]
Serving More Deceptively
Posted onServing More Deceptively Table Tennis Coaching by Han Xiao Our topic today comes from Tae Hun Moon on the ButterflyOnline forums. The question is how you can make your serve more deceptive by creating a more confusing contact point and trick the opponent. This is a very common question among players since many players know […]
Getting More Spin on Your Serves
Posted onGetting More Spin on Your Serves by Han Xiao This question comes from Fabio Pellerin on the butterflyonline.com forums. Fabio wants to know how you develop a spinnier serve. For example, how you can increase the amount of backspin you put on your pendulum serves. This is a very common problem for many players, since […]
The Spin-Nospin Serve
Posted onThe Spin-Nospin Serve by Han Xiao Today, we’re going to discuss one of the most classically successful serve combinations of the past couple of decades: the spin-nospin serve. This is actually a two-serve combination: a heavy backspin serve along with a nospin serve with the exact same motion. It is often extremely simple looking yet […]
Pushing
Posted onPushing by Han Xiao Pushing is an underrated skill among many players, especially intermediate players who feel that they have a good grasp on how to push. We spend a lot of time on more glamorous shots such as our attacking shots, or other necessities such as footwork and blocking. Meanwhile, pushing is often a […]
A Levels Approach to Tactics
August 17, 2026
(By Larry Hodges, Member of US Table Tennis Hall of Fame) I like to divide tactics into five… Read More
Carlos Hernandez – Game Play Sequencing
August 17, 2026
(by: Bowmar Sports) In this Butterfly Training Tips, Carlos Hernandez is focusing on practice games where he is… Read More
MLTT Meet the Teams: Florida Crocs
August 16, 2026
by Steve Hopkins, photo MLTT) The Florida Crocs have yet to make the playoffs, but this year they… Read More
WAB CLUB FEATURE: Alamo Table Tennis Club
August 16, 2026
(by Steve Hopkins) The Alamo Table Tennis Club is located just North of the City Center in San… Read More
French Flair: Felix Wins Europe Smash
August 16, 2026
(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) A week ago, Tomokazu Harimoto raised the trophy in Yokohama - and when… Read More
Arantxa Cossio Aceves – Forehand Loop & Backhand Loop
August 16, 2026
(by: Bowmar Sports) In this Butterfly Training Tips, Arantxa Cossio Aceves using multi-ball to work on her Forehand… Read More
Malmo Magic: Final Four in Europe Smash
August 15, 2026
(by Steve Hopkins) Malmo, Sweden is host to the Europe Smash this week, and we enter the final… Read More
Nico Callaba – Two Backhand Loops, Two Forehand Loop
August 15, 2026
(by: Bowmar Sports) In this Butterfly, Nicolas Callaba is executing Two Backhand Loops, and Two Forehand Loops https://youtu.be/cjJsfUjln2w… Read More
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