OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I've heard a lot of conflicting opinions as to the usefullness of a table tennis robot such as the newgy 2040, so I thought I'd ask some of you fine forum members here about your experiences and its pros/cons. Right now a robot is not in the budget, but if I were to purchase one, I don't think I could afford one of the fancier ones with the ability to create no spin/slow high spin balls. So I guess I'm mostly interested in the 2040 or something similiar with the ability to recyle the balls back into play.

These are some of the criticisms I've heard of robots that maybe you could address:

The money is better spent on coaching
it creates unrealistic amounts of spin (too much or too little)
It can cause rushed strokes if the frequency is set to high
malfuntions/maintaince?

Ideally, I would hope that the robot would help develop my chopping game because it's hard to find consisent loopers to practice with in my area. I guess my biggest concern is the claim that the robot will train you to have an incorrect stroke that won't be usefull in a real match. Any thoughts?

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I think you'll need to work with a coach up to a correct stroke/low consistency level at least to work with robots. With a correct stroke, it's now then feasible to build up your consistency.

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Viscaria. H2 Neo 2.15. Tenergy 05 1.9.

id agree if you dont do a stroke right before you get the bot then just by hitting the ball hundreds of times doesnt mean you will develope technique

we have had a coach at our club for a few youngsters and i listen as well now i am starting to loop more as opposed to flat hit

now i know where i was doing it wrong when i do some bot time i can steadily improve my loop

so coach first
robot second(i liked the 2040 but club got another one)

I think a robot can be very helpful... It allows you to experiement with certainly strokes against a particular incoming spin, and since the spin is fairly constant, you can actually see the different effect the different strokes have... that's something that's hard to get against players.

I also agree with the other commetns though...

Another bonus is the net is comes with... great for practicing your serves...

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I love mine (2 wheel model). It's helped my figure out what to do against lots of specfic shots, and generally improved my game. I don't know how useful a 1 wheel robot would be.

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Thanks for the replies! That's a good point speedplay. It's hard to find good coaches in my area, and the ones that are available are quite expensive. I think the most affordable situation would be to practice with the robot and then maybe once every couple of months (or as much as I can afford) hire a coach to make sure I'm on the right track and to correct any errors in my strokes.

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How expensive is expensive? Could you put in some figures so we can work out a comparison?

I feel that you may still benefit from expensive coaching -- you could think of it as robots are a lump sum expense, whereas coaching as an installment expense.

It could work out that coaching will still be better, but let's see the figures.

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Viscaria. H2 Neo 2.15. Tenergy 05 1.9.

Part of the answer IMHO is how good you want to be.

If you are aiming for high level play, a robot may be worse than a good coach.

If like me, you play for fun rather than serious competition, and don't really care if you do a few things wrong (as long as you can still ultimately give the top 5 players in your club a real game), then a good robot is fantastic.

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My friend bought a robot about a year ago. First he invited our club member to practice with it once a week for several weeks, but afterwards he got bored and somehow we are not doing it anymore. I believe that a robot can improve our strokes, but perhaps it is better if it is available for everyone at the club rather than having one of your own.

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I think it's about 50 american dollars per hour of coaching...so I guess that's roughly 14 hours of coaching for the price of a robot.

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Just two hours of coaching would wipe out my table tennis budget for a at least 4 months. I haven't proven to be satisfied for over a month before I'm looking at my next setup. That is if it's $50 per coaching session. I would LOVE a robot cause it's hard enough to find someone to play more than once a week let alone get an hour of playing a night which I really wish I could get, and service practice too. There's just not many players here in the states, and if there are many players they are very sparse in the midwest.

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50!

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Chasse Patate

Yeeeeeeeeeesh, that's expensive. One of the top guys in the state here only charges 10 USD per hour for coaching.

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Yessh, really expensive. Like Hobbes, some of the national players (current or otherwise) here coach for around US$12. I can see where you're coming from...but I still think 14 hours of coaching could beat a robot. Maybe there's a club which has one for rent?

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Viscaria. H2 Neo 2.15. Tenergy 05 1.9.

Perhaps. Also, I must admit I haven't searched too extensively for a coach so it might be possible that the few that I found in my area happen to be more expensive. Anyone else from the states have any luck with getting some affordable coaching?

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