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GLTTC skills class / Syllabus
Introduction
This course aims to develop beginning and new-to-the-club players to a
level at which they will be comfortable playing and competing in local
table tennis clubs (which are mostly populated by players with USATT
ratings of 1200 and up). Unrated players or players with a rating
under 1200 are the target of this class, but higher level players may
also join if there is space.
Preliminary Syllabus
- Week 1: Intro to TT; Grip; Stance; Forehand drive
- Week 2: Table tennis equipment; Backhand drive
- Week 3: Footwork; Beginning serves
- Week 4: Pushing; Advanced serves
- Week 5: FH loop vs. backspin; Blocking
- Week 6: BH attack (looping & hitting vs. backspin)
- Week 7: Smashing; Intro. to USATT & membership benefits
- Week 8: Return of Serve
- Week 9: Loop/smash combinations (i.e. loop backspin, smash topspin); Tactics
- Week 10: Smashing lobs; player's choice
Technique elements
- Grip options: Forehand (FH), backhand (BH) and neutral shakehand
grips, penhold, Seemiller, etc.
- Basic bat/ball control: FH up (bounce in air), BH up,
FH down (bounce off the floor), BH down, FH/BH up alternating. FH
bounce against wall, BH bounce against wall.
Bounce-the-ball-while-running team races.
- FH counter
- Three-step side to side footwork
- BH counter
- Falkenberg footwork
- Basic forehand (pendulum) serve
- FH push
- In-out footwork
- BH push
- FH loop
- BH loop
- FH flip, BH flip
- FH chop, BH chop (against wall, then against opponent)
We will spend some time demonstrating each skill, then doing a variety
of drills to establish and improve each skill.
We will spend only a little time playing matches, while concentrating
primarily on skill development through instruction, drills, and
supervised practice time.
Stroke mechanics as we understand them are discussed
here.
Sample Daily Routine
After the basics are in place a sample daily routine might be
something like this:
- 10 min.: Roll call, announcements, plan for the day.
- 10 min.: physical warmup with stretching, jogging, footwork warmups
- 15 min.: forehand-forehand and backhand-backhand stroke warmup
- 10 min.: butterfly drill
- 10 min.: push-push drill
- 10 min.: step-around drill
- 5 min.: water break.
- 10 min.: serve underspin short, push return, attack 3rd ball drill
- 10 min.: feed underspin long, loop return, catch in hand drill.
- 10 min.: endgame practice (starting at 9-10).
- 15 min.: fun (Brazilian teams, loop against a chopper, etc.)
- 5 min.: warm-down
We may have a station for multi-ball and possibly a second
station for robot practice, through which players can rotate.
By Thomas Veatch, 12/20/04; 1/5/05