OOAK Table Tennis Forum :: How to improve reaction time

I believe Table Tennis helps your overall reflexes, try trowing a table tennis ball between two table tennis players and thier hands are like lightning lol, Yes work on those things Wthurber,Fish and others have suggested, even using a robot on a bit faster would help, but overall Table tennis will help you with your general reflexes

Don't spend any time checking to see if your shot lands

Amateurs like myself find themselves in situations that frequently stress our reaction time abilities.

rodderz wrote:

Mathew Syed tells an interesting story about the English National TT team in the 80s. Desmond Douglas was world ranked, played very close to the table and was renowned for his lightning fast reflexes. Sports scientists were invited to do some testing and they did some general (i.e. non- TT) reflex testing and Douglas was the slowest on the team. The results were so astonishing that they dismissed the sports scientists.

But the reality is that his non-TT reflexes were no better than average.

Practice makes us good at what we practise. While there may be useful flow-on, the bottom line is that what we practise at TT is what we learn. This is why the great post from wturber Is so helpful: it tells us what to practise. If we don't practise relaxed recovery we won't do it in a match situation. If we don't practise footwork we won't do it in a match either.

I would like to add a few things.

Most people's reaction time is almost identical. The anticipation is what is different. There is a nice section in a book by Michel Gadal called "Train to Win". It talks about two alternatives players have on anticipation.

1. When playing slower shots you can take time to read your opponent - which means recognizing hints where you opponent is going.
2. When playing fast shots, you go by statistics - 80% of shots are returned to the same spot where the shot was originated from.

I think the best way to learn to anticipate, is to observe and recognize the responses your opponent delivers to your shots. This way, you can eliminate the guessing work and start playing certain patterns. You won't always win the point, but this is a good way to approaching a match.

A REALLY good tip that my coach gave me (and it really does work) is not to watch the ball, but rather watch your opponents blade instead.

It sounds strange, but you will still pick the ball up in your peripheral vision. The added advantage of this technique is that you'll start to learn where the ball is going to go before it's even left your opponents bat.

.....you could call this "heightened reactions" although it's just simple technique that works and makes you look like you're reacting faster. However all you're doing is ready the information in front of you more clearly

Hope this helps!

Author:	Tassie52 [ 11 Oct 2011, 15:00 ]
Post subject:	Re: How to improve reaction time
rodderz wrote: I believe Table Tennis helps your overall reflexes, try trowing a table tennis ball between two table tennis players and thier hands are like lightning lol, Yes work on those things Wthurber,Fish and others have suggested, even using a robot on a bit faster would help, but overall Table tennis will help you with your general reflexes Mathew Syed tells an interesting story about the English National TT team in the 80s. Desmond Douglas was world ranked, played very close to the table and was renowned for his lightning fast reflexes. Sports scientists were invited to do some testing and they did some general (i.e. non- TT) reflex testing and Douglas was the slowest on the team. The results were so astonishing that they dismissed the sports scientists. But the reality is that his non-TT reflexes were no better than average. Practice makes us good at what we practise. While there may be useful flow-on, the bottom line is that what we practise at TT is what we learn. This is why the great post from wturber Is so helpful: it tells us what to practise. If we don't practise relaxed recovery we won't do it in a match situation. If we don't practise footwork we won't do it in a match either.

Author:	treetop [ 24 Nov 2011, 01:12 ]
Post subject:	Re: How to improve reaction time
Wow! Great tips! Thanks wturber! Quote: Don't spend any time checking to see if your shot lands I don't pose. It's just that I'm so inconsistent I'm not sure if they are going to hit the table so I stand and watch. I really didn't think about it this way until just now! What good will it do to stand and watch? Just hit the ball!! And all this time I thought it was my equipment!

Author:	wturber [ 24 Nov 2011, 02:13 ]
Post subject:	Re: How to improve reaction time
rodderz wrote: I believe Table Tennis helps your overall reflexes, try trowing a table tennis ball between two table tennis players and thier hands are like lightning lol, Yes work on those things Wthurber,Fish and others have suggested, even using a robot on a bit faster would help, but overall Table tennis will help you with your general reflexes If it does, it is marginal. Mostly what it does is helps us to anticipate what struck table tennis balls will do. If you watch top level table tennis matches and time the intervals between ball strikes, what you'll find is that the players are expert at moving into position so that they can deal with the ball within a very average reaction time interval. Amateurs like myself find themselves in situations that frequently stress our reaction time abilities. Top players seldom do. What looks superficially like great reaction is actually great anticipation.

Author:	treetop [ 24 Nov 2011, 03:40 ]
Post subject:	Re: How to improve reaction time
Quote: Amateurs like myself find themselves in situations that frequently stress our reaction time abilities. Exactly. Thank god I do have reasonably quick reactions. It gives me a chance to recover when being out of position. Which is most of the time. To a casual observer it looks like I have quick reflexes mixed with some skill when getting to and returning difficult balls. Maybe. But mostly it's quick reflexes making up for my lack of footwork or 100 other deficiencies. Don't know how I missed this thread before...but it's timely. I was thinking about this stuff last night after getting my ass kicked a number of times. It simply amazes me how better players can force me out of position so easily. (Or how lazy or "mindless" I can be) But not anymore!

Author:	YosuaYosan [ 25 Nov 2011, 02:29 ]
Post subject:	Re: How to improve reaction time
Tassie52 wrote: rodderz wrote: I believe Table Tennis helps your overall reflexes, try trowing a table tennis ball between two table tennis players and thier hands are like lightning lol, Yes work on those things Wthurber,Fish and others have suggested, even using a robot on a bit faster would help, but overall Table tennis will help you with your general reflexes Mathew Syed tells an interesting story about the English National TT team in the 80s. Desmond Douglas was world ranked, played very close to the table and was renowned for his lightning fast reflexes. Sports scientists were invited to do some testing and they did some general (i.e. non- TT) reflex testing and Douglas was the slowest on the team. The results were so astonishing that they dismissed the sports scientists. But the reality is that his non-TT reflexes were no better than average. Practice makes us good at what we practise. While there may be useful flow-on, the bottom line is that what we practise at TT is what we learn. This is why the great post from wturber Is so helpful: it tells us what to practise. If we don't practise relaxed recovery we won't do it in a match situation. If we don't practise footwork we won't do it in a match either. That is just cool

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How to improve reaction time https://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=17443	Page 2 of 4

Author:	decoy [ 25 Nov 2011, 10:14 ]
Post subject:	Re: How to improve reaction time
multiball training. falkenberg exercise , or else jsut random placement

Author:	ben4528 [ 30 Dec 2011, 02:22 ]
Post subject:	Re: How to improve reaction time
keep your upper-arm away from your chest, dropping the upper-arm of racket holding hand will take longer time to make a stroke, longer recovery time also. Balance by keep your left upper arm up( non-racket holding hand ), will help your right upper arm staying up all the time, which will have better reaction time making shots. Check out my post about "racket holding"http://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=18173, use thumb and index finger to hold the racket, while relaxing other three fingers on the handle. This way the wrist movement will be more fluent.

Author:	tabesamis [ 30 Dec 2011, 05:32 ]
Post subject:	Re: How to improve reaction time
This I thought was a good thing to add to this subject. Here's an article by Larry Hodges Which happens to be this weeks tip of the week on www.tabletenniscoaching.com December 26, 2011 - Balance is a Habit Tuesday, December 27, 2011 by: Larry Hodges Recently I had an epiphany. It wasn't anything that wasn't obvious, but it was something that underlined a primary difference between hackers and pros - or more generally, between lower-level and higher-level players. And that is the habit of balance. While practicing with a student, I hit a net ball to the right-handed student's forehand side. The student immediately reached for the ball. This put his weight on his right foot. Since he could no longer step with that foot (try it, you'll see), he was forced to lunge for the ball. He managed to reach it and popped it back on the table, an easy winner for any decent opponent. On the very next point, the student hit a net-edge to my forehand. When it nicked the net, without thinking I stepped toward where the ball was going. When it hit the edge, I took an immediate step sideways toward the ball's new direction, and without ever losing balance, reached the ball and made an easy and effective return. The epiphany was that I didn't have to think about getting the net-edge, or reach for it, or even make a weak return, though that is often the result. The habit of balance took over, and so rather than lunging toward the ball, the years of training took precedence, with the result that I stepped to the ball, and reached the ball in perfect position to make the shot. This is not a matter of practicing balance while returning nets or edges. It's a matter of practicing balance all the time, always stepping to the ball, always balanced, rarely lunging. (There are rare occasions where you step to the ball and then have to make a last-second lunge at a ball that's otherwise out of reach, but that's as a last resort, and only after stepping first. And you'll be surprised at how balanced you can be even when lunging.) So develop the habit of always staying balanced, and stepping toward shots, not reaching. This makes it easy to move in any direction and ready to make a strong shot. It's that first move - stepping that keeps you in balance versus reaching that puts you off balance - that makes the difference.

Author:	THE GAMEr [ 30 Dec 2011, 05:46 ]
Post subject:	Re: How to improve reaction time
Ok, Ok, I think I can finally give some good advice! I played this game a couple weeks ago called around the world. Anyway, the full rules aren't important (though the main part of the game is great for footwork training). Once you've gotten to 2 people, you play regularly, except you spin around after every time you hit the ball. It's best to start out slow, and I wouldn't spin the same direction every time, or you'll get quite dizzy. It really is good for reactions and exercise.

Author:	firoz [ 04 Jan 2012, 21:02 ]
Post subject:	Re: How to improve reaction time
thanks wturber. ur suggestion helps me a lot

Author:	Leshxa [ 26 Feb 2012, 15:10 ]
Post subject:	Re: How to improve reaction time
Jay explained everything very well as always I would like to add a few things. Most people's reaction time is almost identical. The anticipation is what is different. There is a nice section in a book by Michel Gadal called "Train to Win". It talks about two alternatives players have on anticipation. 1. When playing slower shots you can take time to read your opponent - which means recognizing hints where you opponent is going. 2. When playing fast shots, you go by statistics - 80% of shots are returned to the same spot where the shot was originated from. I think the best way to learn to anticipate, is to observe and recognize the responses your opponent delivers to your shots. This way, you can eliminate the guessing work and start playing certain patterns. You won't always win the point, but this is a good way to approaching a match. That's why this game is called chess at 100 miles in hour.

Author:	haggisv [ 26 Feb 2012, 15:21 ]
Post subject:	Re: How to improve reaction time
Leshxa wrote: I would like to add a few things. Most people's reaction time is almost identical. The anticipation is what is different. There is a nice section in a book by Michel Gadal called "Train to Win". It talks about two alternatives players have on anticipation. 1. When playing slower shots you can take time to read your opponent - which means recognizing hints where you opponent is going. 2. When playing fast shots, you go by statistics - 80% of shots are returned to the same spot where the shot was originated from. I think the best way to learn to anticipate, is to observe and recognize the responses your opponent delivers to your shots. This way, you can eliminate the guessing work and start playing certain patterns. You won't always win the point, but this is a good way to approaching a match. A very good tip... I must remember that one.

Author:	ChrisBuer [ 12 Jun 2012, 21:05 ]
Post subject:	Re: How to improve reaction time
A REALLY good tip that my coach gave me (and it really does work) is not to watch the ball, but rather watch your opponents blade instead. It sounds strange, but you will still pick the ball up in your peripheral vision. The added advantage of this technique is that you'll start to learn where the ball is going to go before it's even left your opponents bat. .....you could call this "heightened reactions" although it's just simple technique that works and makes you look like you're reacting faster. However all you're doing is ready the information in front of you more clearly Hope this helps!

Author:	decoy [ 13 Jun 2012, 00:36 ]
Post subject:	Re: How to improve reaction time
ChrisBuer wrote: A REALLY good tip that my coach gave me (and it really does work) is not to watch the ball, but rather watch your opponents blade instead. It sounds strange, but you will still pick the ball up in your peripheral vision. The added advantage of this technique is that you'll start to learn where the ball is going to go before it's even left your opponents bat. .....you could call this "heightened reactions" although it's just simple technique that works and makes you look like you're reacting faster. However all you're doing is ready the information in front of you more clearly Hope this helps! i dont think u should seldom follow the blade and rely on peripheral vision.. instead follow the blade to the point of contact then follow the ball untill oyu hit it then watch the opponents bat straight after you have hit it

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Author:	ChrisBuer [ 12 Dec 2012, 01:41 ]
Post subject:	Re: How to improve reaction time
Tassie52 wrote: Mathew Syed tells an interesting story about the English National TT team in the 80s. Desmond Douglas was world ranked, played very close to the table and was renowned for his lightning fast reflexes. Sports scientists were invited to do some testing and they did some general (i.e. non- TT) reflex testing and Douglas was the slowest on the team. The results were so astonishing that they dismissed the sports scientists. But the reality is that his non-TT reflexes were no better than average. Practice makes us good at what we practise. While there may be useful flow-on, the bottom line is that what we practise at TT is what we learn. This is why the great post from wturber Is so helpful: it tells us what to practise. If we don't practise relaxed recovery we won't do it in a match situation. If we don't practise footwork we won't do it in a match either. What's also interesting about the Syed story on Desmond Douglas is they did some analysis as to why Douglas was so "fast". Apparently it came down to his TT training when he was a boy. At his school (where he played) they didn't have a lot of space for their TT table, so it was squashed into quite a small room. Therefore Douglas had to play right up close to the table during his practice matches with his back almost against the wall. Because of this, his reactions close to the table (muscle memory) were superb because they had to be!