How to Get a Classically Correct Swing Without the Tears

Want to be a champion table tennis player? Or at least someone who can throw their weight around at their local club?

Well, the starting point is to get yourself a classically correct technique.

So how do you get it?

Having good technique is the foundation on which your progress is built. A faulty technique will get you up and running. You may even rack up your fair share of victories over your beginner friends.

But such a technique, typical of players who have learnt the game playing in their garage, can only take you so far. Your classically taught friends will soon leave you behind. And with it your dreams of sporting glory.

Is Getting a Good Coach the Answer?

If it is, it’s easy. You can simply put yourself in the hands of a good coach. Or alternatively, you can get hold of a coaching manual and follow the instructions. Or you can listen to the many cyber coaches who inhabit the internet.

However there’s a slight hitch. You go to a coach because they know plenty. Now as implausible as this might sound, it is this very attribute that at times can be a definite drawback.

But hang on, I hear you say. Let me get this right. You’re saying because a coach knows too much this can be a problem.

Let’s Start At The Beginning

Before I answer this, first let me go back a few steps. Table tennis is a game largely played out in your mind. And most of what goes on there is hidden from you. It operates at a subconscious level carrying out its own clandestine jobs. So what does go on here?

It’s the mind that gives your muscles their riding instructions to get your body and arms into action. But these instructions must first rattle around in your short-term memory before being transferred for safe keeping to your long-term memory.

How Much Clutter Can the Mind Take?

And this is where the problem arises. Your short-term memory has an extremely limited capacity. Too much information and it is quickly overloaded. But a coach knows this and is careful to not overload your mind at any one time.

However, even if your coach sparingly feeds you information these bits and pieces accumulate in your long-term memory. So when you come to make a particular shot your short-term memory gathers up all the biomechanical details that now reside in your long-term memory.

This sizeable collection of verbal instructions now overloads your short-term memory. This is a particular problem when you’re burdened with making decisions or under stress – as you inevitably are when you’re in the cut and thrust of competition.

So we’ve got a dilemma on our hands. We want a classic technique. But how do we get it if we’re not explicitly taught it?

Have Your Cake and Eat it Too

Well, there is an answer. Turns out we can have our cake and eat it too. We can get a classically correct technique without overloading our short-term memory with verbal instruction. This frees up space in our short-term memory for the other jobs it has to do like making decisions and coping with stress. And avoids the likelihood of the meltdown of a ‘choke’.

Too good to be true?

Well no. And if you read my ebook: Table Tennis: throw away your coaching manual – unclutter your mind and avoid choking, you’ll find out how it’s done.

It’s an easy read and full of information – I’ve read the research and summarised it for you.

You can have a quick look at what’s in the ebook by clicking here.

All the very best.

Roger.