When serving, many players focus on height, deception, speed, spin, and placement.  These elements are very important.  However, the main reason that you need to practice serving is to develop precision.  If you have control over your serve, it is easy to control the rally when you are serving.  Here are a few consequences of having poor precision…
 

Fighters win and winners fight!  At the US Open last month, a girl was losing 10-0 in the final game and won 12 straight points!  When you are playing well, when everything is going your way, when the shots are easy, then of course you can win!  However, if you want to reach your peak potential, then you must learn to fight even when you aren’t having a good day, even when your opponent gets tons of nets and edges, and even when you are down 10-0 and you feel like it is over!

 
 
The students that I’m currently coaching range from about 100-2200 USATT rating.  For each of these students they are at a different learning stage.  In this blog posting, I will be giving the progressive order of the strokes and the order in which they should be learned.  If you are having trouble with one of the strokes listed below, see if you have perfected these items in order of priority.  Note: You might have missed one of the important aspects! J
 
Serve
1. Ball control
2. Spin
3. Height
4. Depth
5. Placement

 
 
 
 
Table Tennis is changing.  And as it is changing with new rules, new ball, etc...  the players must change with new techniques, better fitness, and other aspects of the game.  I realize that I also need to continue to change and continue to improve my coaching skills.  In this short article, I would like to share with you on some of the positive changes that I plan to implement in my coaching during the next year.
 

 
 
 
Sometimes, beating your regular training partners, fellow club members, and best friends in table tennis can be very difficult because it seems that they know your every move.  They can predict that your forehand flip will go crosscourt, they can predict that backhand serve will go long to the middle, and they can predict that you will block to the corners.  They know your every move because they have played against you hundreds of times.  There are 2 solutions to overcome these problems:
 

At the club level, long and slow serves are easily attacked with strong loops.  World class players also serve long sometimes, HOWEVER, their long serves are very fast as a surprise and well placed.  Watch this short video demonstrating various serves.  Notice how fast the long serves are.  

I was playing an event at the US Open. I already lost my first two matches. I knew regardless if I had won or lost that match I would not have advanced. This was in the under 2250. In this event, I was playing a match where I was down 2-0 and 8-0 in the 3rd game.  I gave up and lost.
 

Hello to all Samson Dubina Table Tennis Academy Members,
 
The Academy is hosting an ITTF-PPT Level 1 Coaching Course from July 28 through August 1st.  The Course will be held at the The House of the Lord Gymnasium  -  1650 Diagonal Rd Akron, Ohio.
There will be 30 hours of instruction given over 5 days with two sessions planned each day, 10am-1pm and 2pm-5pm. 
Course Conductor: