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 […]
Why You MUST Attack the Deep Serve
June 15, 2026
(By Larry Hodges, Member of US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Against a short serve, you can take… Read More
Anqi – Forehand Short & Long Push
June 15, 2026
(by: Bowmar Sports) In this Butterfly Training Tips, Anqi Lou is working with a student on the short… Read More
WAB CLUB FEATURE: Table Tennis Minnesota
June 14, 2026
(by Steve Hopkins) Table Tennis Minnesota has three locations in the greater Minneapolis-St.Paul area. The Training Center location… Read More
Latest Rankings: Chuqin and Harimoto Top 2, Jha Jumps to 24
June 14, 2026
(by Steve Hopkins) The top of the ITTF Rankings were stable this week with Chuqin, Harimoto, Moregard, Lebrun,… Read More
Lim Jonghoon and Miwa Harimoto Each Win Twice in Zagreb
June 14, 2026
(by Steve Hopkins) Zagreb was host to this week's tour stop as the WTT Contender series visited Croatia. … Read More
Coach Shashin Shodhan Claims U2200 Title at the Meiklejohn North American Seniors Open
June 11, 2026
(by Bowmar Sports) Congratulations to Shashin Shodhan from Fremont Table Tennis Academy for an outstanding performance at the… Read More
The ITTF Pan American Para Championships: Pressure, Planning, and a Breakthrough Performance By Jeff Yamada
June 9, 2026
(By Coach Jeff Yamada) Just two days after the ITTF World Para Elite concluded, we returned to the… Read More
The Messy Middle: Harnessing Mid-Year Reflection by Dr. Alan Chu
June 9, 2026
(by Alan Chu, Ph.D., CMPC, ISSP-R) 2026 Mental Training Tip It's that time of year again. The excitement… Read More
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