Each year, I post one article giving advice to other coaches.  Here is the article that I wrote this week for the 2016 season...
 
 
Advice for Coaches
 
 
I am very honored to receive a the USATT Technology Coach of the Year Award from the United States Olympic Committee.  As I continue to learn more about our sport, I would love to share it with you on my blog.  During this blog posting, I would like to give coaches some advice.  This is a three part article giving advice to coaches:  during private lessons, during group lessons, and during tournaments.  I hope that all the coaches reading this will learn some new info and continue with me to grow the sport.
 
 
Part A
During Private Lessons
 
     During private lessons, the first thing that you must do is to make a GOAL for the lesson and verbalize it to your student – some possible goals could be to improve his consistency through footwork rallies or fix a bad habit or learn a new skill or get exercise or merely to have fun.  Whatever your goal or goals are for the lesson, it must be clear to you as the coach and clear to the student.  With goal setting also comes an explanation of your expectations.  For example, you might say, “Betty, I’m going to introduce you to the forehand reverse pendulum serve.  This serve is extremely difficult to learn.  I’ll introduce you to it today, but it will likely take you 2-3 years of continual practice before you can fully master it.”  With that in-mind, Betty will be less likely to get frustrated when she hasn’t mastered it by the 5th try.  By giving your expectation, Betty can then realize that this will be an easy or intermediate or difficult skill to learn.
     The second aspect of private lessons is the training itself.  The training should be STRUCTURED PROGRESSIVELY.  If you are helping your student with his backhand loop against underspin, then you might start with a basic exercise.  You serve long underpin to his backhand and he works on the opening loop while you give feedback.  As he improves, then you can combine that skill with a drill.  As he improves even further, then you can give more placement, spin, height, and depth variation and open the drill into a game situation.  Anytime the player becomes inconsistent, you could take a step back and make it slightly easier.  As he progresses, then you can make the drill more game-like. 
     The final aspect of private lessons is the REVIEW and SUMMARY!  Ask the student to recap some of the info that he learned during the lesson.  Also, send a video clip home with him for further review.  We recently installed a full-video playback system at the Samson Dubina Table Tennis Academy with two HD cameras and a 50” flatscreen TV for instant video playback point by point.  You don’t need to be that extravagant!  Before the lesson begins, ask your student to take out his smartphone and record the lesson.  At the end of the lesson, have him write down as many things as he can remember.  At home, have him watch the lesson on his phone and see how many main points that he had remembered.  Ask him to take his notes with him to the club during the week and review the notes between each game.  Remember!!!  Merely pay money and merely spending time with an elite coach doesn’t guarantee improvement!!!  Improvement comes when a player is able to apply the skills in real matches against real opponents!
 
 
Part B
During Group Lessons
 
     There are two basic types of group lessons – working with groups of players that you know and working with groups of players that you don’t know.  I’m going to briefly talk about each.
     With groups of players that you know and work together with in groups on a daily basis, you should have specific drills for each player.  For the drills that are similar, you should begin differently for each player.  For example, one drill might be that player A blocks anywhere on the table while player B loops continuously to player A’s backhand.  Instead of starting all of the drills with a long topspin serve, maybe player B needs to work on his forehand flip, so the same drill can begin working on a target area that player B needs.  Group sessions with familiar players training together on a daily basis are always easier, but remember, that the drills need to be customized for each player specifically.
     With groups of players that you don’t know, it will be much different.  For example, you are teaching a clinic in Michigan for players rated 1500-2000 and your topic for the weekend is looping.  After all the players are comfortable with forehand and backhand loops, you then decide to link the skills together.  One player blocks with his backhand while the other player loops two balls with his backhand and two balls with his forehand.  Because you don’t know them personally, you decide to give them all the same drill.  However, as you go from table to table briefly observing, you adjust the drill slightly based on what you see needed.  As you see Billy struggling with his looping, you as his blocker to go slightly slower so that Billy can play more consistently against the slower timing.  You see Betty averaging 20 balls each rally, so you ask Betty to loop one backhand slower then the next backhand harder then the first forehand slower then the second forehand harder.  You see Wang in the corner complaining that he doesn’t want to work on his backhand loop so you allow him to play two forehands from the backhand then two forehands from the forehand.  You see that William is doing great with moving and is looping with very good spin and accuracy, so you challenge him to play one backhand from close to the table then one backhand far from the table, and the same with the forehand.   You see Suzy physically can’t move far enough to reach the wide balls, so you ask her blocker to keep the balls closer to the middle of the table.  As you can see from my examples, you can take a simple drill and make it easier or harder based on the need.  The job of the coach during group lessons is to design drills that can benefit all the players, give short feedback to all the players, and adjust the drills slightly based on the needs of the players.
 
Part C
During Tournaments
 
     Leading up to a tournament, the coach must design drills for his players that are more game-like and shift the players’ mentality from self-focused to opponent focused.  Instead of focusing on the player’s own game, the player must think about how to counter the opponent’s spin, return the opponent’s serve, get the opponent out of position, and control the table.  Pre-tournament preparation also includes visualizing the tournament venue, the practice time, the opponents, and many other factors.  It is the coach’s job to paint the picture so that the student can imagine the success he plans to have.
      Before each match, your job as a coach is to give your student final reminders about himself and his opponent just prior to entering the court, such as…  “Remember to take your time between points, keep your feet active, have confidence in your spinny loops, and keep exposing the wide angles.  When returning Betty’s deep serves, take your time, read the ball, and spin deep to the backhand.  When she blocks quick to your backhand, maintain the spin while playing mainly to her middle and wide forehand during the rally.”
     Between games, your job as a coach is to keep your advice very concise.  If your student wins, continue to give him simple reminders.  If he loses close, give him simple advice about tweaking his tactics slightly.  If your students loses badly, then be willing to try an extreme tactical change to force the opponent to play differently.  Regardless of what you say, most of it should be pertaining to the opponent – the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, the opponent’s patters, the opponent’s serves.  Most of your students will be very self aware but many will not be aware of their opponent.
     After the match, you might want to talk or not talk; this greatly depends on the personality of your student.  Some students want to talk, while others want to sit quietly.  At some point prior to the next match, you should give a couple words of encouragement about the previous match and a good mental shift to gear up the student for the next match.
     After the tournament, you should be in contact with the student within the first 2-3 days. Your student should be able to give you a brief summary of each match discussing the highs and lows.  After the student has given a lengthy explanation, you should fill in the gaps with what he missed.  Based on the performance of your student during that recent competition, you should adjust your coaching sessions with him accordingly.  During private lessons and during group lessons, your job is to remember the exact details of the tournament and continue to give that particular student particular drills to continue to enhance his strengths and fix his weaknesses and better prepare him for the next tournament.  Good tournaments should be an encouragement that you are on the right road to success and poor tournaments should be a wake-up call to both the coach and player that the training routine needs to be adjusted.  Now you understand why I recommend that my student play many tournaments!
 
I definitely don’t know-it-all.  I’m trying my best to learn more and more about the sport every year, every month, every day.  I hope that as I continue to learn more, I can pass along some of my knowledge to others as well.  Thanks for reading!  Check back to www.samsondubina.com for FREE weekly articles, videos, interviews, and more!