10 Common Mistakes in Table Tennis and How To Fix

I’ve shown you the best 5 tips to improve fast your skills in table tennis.

In the previous article, we talked about how to improve your level of table tennis.

Some players play for a long time, but they don’t know how to improve their current level to the next level. They don’t know how to jump the level gap.

One of the main reasons is they don’t identify their mistakes, and they don’t know how to fix the mistakes.

If you repeat the same mistake, again, and again. You never improve to the next level.

It’s all about the most common mistakes that you should avoid.

Here are the 10 classic mistakes that you should fix as soon as possible. Learn from your own mistakes and others is one of the best ways to improve your level. I also explain the best tips to correct these beginner’s mistakes.

1. Stand too close to the table

Some players just stand to close to the table. So they don’t have enough time to react, to make a strong stroke.

Standing too close is very bad. It’s only good for blockers. So you can’t learn the proper footwork, you can’t make a good forehand topspin or a backhand loop. It’s all because you stand so close to the table.

Look at the pro players. They always have a sufficient distance to attack the long ball.

It’s better to stay further from the table to be ready to attack the long ball. To deal with the short ball, you just step forward. Why? Because of the human movement mechanism, moving forward is much faster than moving backward.

So it’s better to stand at a good distance than to stand too close to the table.

Please watch this video. I have all explained here.

So How to fix this mistake: 

If you stand too close to the table, Move one/two feet further from the table. 

Learn the correct ready position and standing distance.

The optimal distance is 40-55 cm. 

This distance is the length of your forearm.

2. Have a wrong grip

How can you make a good shot if you hold the racket wrongly? Have a bad grip is like trying to learn guitar with the wrong finger position. 

You will never improve with that. The grip is so important in table tennis.

It’s the place that you can “accelerate into” the ball. You can apply the pressure, and increase the speed and spin of the shots. With the wrong grip, you can’t topspin efficiently.

How to fix: Choose the right grip (shakehand, pendhold, Jpen, Cpen). Learn how to hold the bat correctly with a coach, and learn where to put your fingers, where to apply the pressure.

3. Hold the racket too tight

Holding the racket too tight is the common error of the beginners. New players are always too tense.

It’s very bad too. You can’t accelerate! Your racket’s speed is slow. Too tense muscle will hurt and can make injury. Do you remember “Relax, Explode and Relax“? Your feeling and your capacity to return the spinny serve also reduce.

The pro players hold the racket loosely. That’s the reason why they can accelerate easily. The shot’s quality is very high, with a lot of power, and spin.

How to fix: Relax more. Relax more! Change your grip!

Chinese coach has explained this carefully. Why top players hold their racket loosely?

4. Forget the “Spin”

The spin is the “heart” of table tennis. The slogan of pingsunday is “In Spin We Trust”. Without the spin, you don’t have the Magnus effect on your ball. Magnus effect is the only force that pulls the ball down during your topspin.

How to fix: In every shot, think about “spin”.

Try to add spin in every shot: your service, your push, your topspin, your sidespin chop, etc. Learn how to impact spin: with the right timing, good acceleration, and the right contact point.

5. Bad footwork

Many players just “reach” but not “move”. It’s very bad! You get stuck at the same level because of this very common mistake. Don’t lean and reach, but please move your feet. There are already 4 patterns that help you move (great footwork that you should learn).

Bad footwork or hate moving the feet is the #2 enemy that you will never improve!

How to fix: Learn the 4 patterns the that help you move efficiently. Keep training at home, at any moment. Turn these into your good habit of moving, and playing like the pro.

6. E.J too much

What is “E.J”?

E.J is “equipment junkie”.

The common “disease” of table tennis players. They change the equipment too often. Just focus on equipment, and don’t focus enough on techniques. This is very bad! #3 enemy of your table tennis. Constantly changing paddles will “remove” all of your good feeling of the blade. It is like dating.

You need to get used to your weapon! Get the feeling, the confidence!

Here is a comment of a Vietnamese player. He said that:

I just keep changing the blade. But I can’t improve.

By watching your video, I just use an ALL+ blade, and focus on technique.

And then I improved very fast.

How to fix: Learn how to choose the right paddle, the right rubber at the beginning.

Understand your playing style! Understand the science behind the equipment before deciding to buy anything new. Learn about the pro’s equipment and understand why they use these setup.

7. Wrong contact point

New players just hit the wrong contact point from days to days. They don’t know where to impact force on the ball.

One day, they hit the good contact position, and feel, “I’m so good. I play like Ma Long”.

Another day, they hit on a different point, and so disappointed. “Today, I play like $%#$“. They want to blame and throw their rackets. Is it your case? 🙂

How to fix: Learn the right hitting position for each type of stroke. Topspin hit on the position 3 to 3.5. The racket position is (2,3). etc. Remember it and master it.

8. Confused with Spin

The advanced player can read spin. While the amateur players can’t play with the spin.

This is the main source of “unforced error” in table tennis.

You can’t estimate the amount of spin, so you hit the ball into the net, or go out of the table. It’s your fault!

How to fix: Learn how to read spin. How to serve, and play with the different type of spin.

9. Not having a strategy

Strategy or tactics is the main reason that Chinese players dominate the world. You should know “where to attack the ball to“, how to change the pace of the game. Where to serve, where to return the ball. In general, it’s the planning. Please read this book.

How can you win the point? If you continue to feed the ball that the opponent love? Or you just attack the ball to his backhand side (and he is a good blocker)?

Do you know the 80-20 rules of table tennis? Do you know that on the table, there are 3 positions that you should always aim for?

How to fix: Start learning about the tactics. This will open your eye. You will now understand that “table tennis is the chess game with the speed of light”. Know where to serve, and where to attack.

10. Don’t have your own style

And the final but not last mistake is not “having your own style”. It could due to your coach! That he didn’t guide you correctly! Maybe your coach didn’t know in the long run, how to develop your skill and your style.

You can not play like “Ma Long” and “Zhang Jike” at the same time. They have a different style, and “micro-adjustments”. Some players have a good forehand topspin, but they don’t have a good “set-up” serve to attack.

Some players have a good tricky serve, but don’t have a good weapon like a forehand smash, or forehand loop kill to finish the point.

Or some players are backhand dominant players but don’t have a good reverse pendulum serve system to incorporate with. Or you have a one-wing forehand attacker, but your backhand flick is so weak.

How to fix: Learn from the pro, the best players. They are the best “combo-style” that worked! That’s the reason they are the top players! Because their style works great and helps them win! So develop your own style with a good coach, and copy the pro’s style.

Conclusion

So there are the top 10 most common mistakes in table tennis. There are also many more mistakes. In general, to correct these deadly mistakes, you need to:

• learn the basic techniques (fundamental, online course)
• get a coach, go to a table tennis club
• learn to choose the right equipment

Avoid and fix these mistakes as soon as possible. You will find a new horizon for your table tennis. Please share the article and support us. I hope that they can help you improve to the next level. If you find my tutorial helpful, you can support me by searching “patreon emratthich”.

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