OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I'm sure there are many of us (including myself) that have not learned proper footwork. I never got any coaching was I started playing nor did I get any as I developed myself, so my poor footwork has been well and truly drilled into my brain for over the 30 years.

My question is, it it ever too late to learn proper footwork? In my case I don't have the time to practice footwork regularly, so it may not be the best use of my time if I wish to improve further.

If there are small changes in footwork that can be learned relatively easily, I would seriously consider looking into it, but if it's going to be a re-training of all my footwork, I would expect it's going to take too much effort to change.

What are your thoughts?

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It can be a tough task to unlearn then relearn footwork after the bad footwork has been ingrained for 30 years. Your current footwork would presumably be tied to your entire game and if you were to do a radical overhaul your playing rhythm would be completely messed up. What you could try is to work on just a few aspects at a time and over time they would hopefully meld into your game.

1 - Stance/recovery: benz ze back and knees (I believe you are very tall and this is a must), always be on the balls of your feet, always recover to a good basic stance/position (home base) after moving out of position

2- practice pivoting to play FH's from the BH side.

3 - practice moving in and out to play short balls (this is often best done as shadow play). Start from your basic position, right foot in (assuming you are right handed), play the shot, move back out to the basic position.

If these elements transition well you might then want to tackle side-to-side skipping etc.

I don't think it's too late, there are always some things you can improve. At the moment I'm 27 (stopped playing at 20, came back 7 months ago) and I've never payed proper attention to footwork. I knew the basics but I was not thinking about them, nor trying to execute them perfectly. Recently I got my "good old form" back and decided that I need to improve my footwork. So I'm training footwork for 2 weeks now and I can feel the pros and cons already.

cons: legs are tired almost all the time (that's something new, cause my legs are quite strong..), knees started to hurt a bit (I think nothing serious, maybe inner knee muscles finally got some work to do)
pros: can reach the ball faster; faster recovery after the shots; so much more power on smashes and loops; faster balls on pushes and chop blocks; more balls on the table.

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Setups (click on writings to read reviews):
1) Defence II / TSP P4 (0,5) / M3 (2,0)
2) Defence II / Joola Octopus (0,5) / M3 (2,0)
3) Ross Leidy "White Shadow" / P1R (1,3) / Hexer PS (1,7)

Haggisv, I think that fist you could start just by constantly thinking about footwork in your game. For example:
a) am I standing too far from the table or on the opposite, maybe too close to the table? In ideal scenario you should always leave space for your body to move forwards on the shots.
b) after winning or loosing shots try to think was these something you could do better: maybe faster waist turn as you stepped with your foot, maybe your body weight was on the wrong foot for too long, maybe you needed to do a smaller step instead of a bigger, etc..

One of the easiest and at the same time hardest things you could learn is:
You should always time your shots with your foot step forwards (you should mostly end your shot at the same time you place your foot on the ground) this helps generate more power and more control on the loops. Pushes with inverted or no spin pushes with lp become faster, sharper and lower. In my opinion this is probably the most important thing for a defender/blocker.

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Setups (click on writings to read reviews):
1) Defence II / TSP P4 (0,5) / M3 (2,0)
2) Defence II / Joola Octopus (0,5) / M3 (2,0)
3) Ross Leidy "White Shadow" / P1R (1,3) / Hexer PS (1,7)

i would say the most basic, fundamental footwork can be practiced no matter what or how long it has been in grained in you...

the forehand from the backhand side is actually very advance foot work, and although many people practice it...can you honestly count the amount of times you step to the backhand side to rip a forehand down the line in a match, chances are at even higher club levels this is rare....what you do need to be able to do though is simple...

be able to use your forehand from anywhere on your forehand half and be able to move to use it anywhere there

be able to use your backhand anywhere on your backhand side

be able to step in and back to your ready position with your strong foot.

simple....

this does not take much practice to unlearn bad habits because we naturally do this any way.....advanced foot work just involves the back hand and forehand areas overlapping

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Blade - Joo Se Hyuk
Backhand - TSP Super Spinpips - 1.5mm
Forehand - H3N Prov. 38

haggisv, can you describe your current ready stance and extent of your normal footwork, if any?

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BBC CarboFlex DURO, Donic Acuda S1 Turbo, KTL Stranger Attack 1.2mm

It's never too late, unless you're strapped to a hospital bed.

Like anything, first it takes knowing the correct way to do something and then doing the hard, thankless work of doing it. Add to this the fact that however good your footwork is it can always be a little better!

So, baby steps is the way to go. I agree that it's not wise to make a sudden shift and lose the enjoyment or momentum of your current game. Practicing new techniques should be done kind of secretly, if you know what I mean. What I mean is when it won't impact your competitive season or your relationship with the rest of the world. Steal a few moments now and again, and start taking those baby steps towards practicing good footwork. Try not to be overwhelmed and start with the basics. I'm sure there are features of your own footwork that are sound, so it's important to identify where the real work will be headed, i.e. side-to-side skipping movement, for example.

I think this game of ours will bring to light many issues we have with proper technique. If we want to improve and not just be happy to gaze at the view from our own little plateaus of development, then we have to buckle down (occasionally) and do the hard work we know we have to do. Eventually the results will be our reward!

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Weapon 1: Andro Kinetic Supreme Hinoki/Zylon OFF-; Andro Hexer HDs (FH 2.1/BH 1.9)
Weapon 2: Ross Leidy 'Smokey'; Friendship 729-5s
Club1: Daylesford - since 2010
Club2: Ballarat - since 2011
Blog: A Naked Bear

Thank you guys for the great advice and tips!

I think my ready stance, and the fact that I do bend my knees and back is probably the only thing I do right. Having played with poor footwork for so many years has taught me to play shots when well out of position... which is often unorthodox enough to beat players around my level, but it's probably also the reason I've reached a plateau at my current level.

It sounds like it would be worth trying to fix some of the issues one at the time. Trouble is I'll need a coach that really knows the basics, and knows how to adapt it my my 'style' (using the word style very loosely here ). I suspect this is something that needs to be addressed with a live coach standing next to me and can't be done via video. Although I know that Adelaide has a few good coaches for teaching people the basics and developing them from scratch with proper technique, I don't know if there's one that could really help me at my level. I would need a coach that knows more than just the 'by the book' theory, and can adapt their coaching to make smaller changes to my existing style. Playing with pips in the BH may change things a lot as well, and may well change the footwork too.

Thanks for all the tips guys, much appreciated!!!

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Check out my huge 'for sale' thread here | My OOAK Interview

A good coach is a good coach. I suppose I'm fortunate to have someone like Alois Rosario occasionally watching over me and giving just enough advice to make the transition from poor to good form as painless as possible. I don't agree that a player at ANY level can't find a sympathetic coach willing and able to help you find that next peak to climb (I often use mountain climbing analogies). Anyway, a good coach is primarily someone who really loves the game. It shouldn't matter if they're coaching malleable kids or rigid middle-aged men, a good coach is just someone who wants to share the sheer joy of the game with anyone willing to make it so. As we all know (not too big of a generalisation, I hope), the better our technique and the more we put in only makes for a more enjoyable experience.

Good coaches do make small changes to your existing style. I've found that my coach keeps me on a certain track until he's satisfied that I've 'mastered' the first things he has shown me, i.e. solid forehand and backhand strokes, for instance. That's not to say that a good coach doesn't listen, because coaching is a two-way street and I'm sure that a good coach's advice is only made stronger by entering in to a dialogue with him. An example of this for me happened a couple of weeks back. I had been practicing my forehand and backhand strokes and my coach would wander into my court and make small adjustments or, better still, say, "Great. Good. That's it!" However, I took the punt and asked him about something even more fundamental: the quality of my shakehand grip. I told him how I was concerned that I was letting my index finger slip a little and he agreed that it was something I needed to be aware of. I know I've mentioned this before, but his solution was for me to place a 5-cent coin under my index finger in the correct position on the rubber. Wow, I thought. Now I had something else to focus on while I continued to hit balls. The point is that there are so many little things we can work on to make the seemingly difficult and boring work more exciting.

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Weapon 1: Andro Kinetic Supreme Hinoki/Zylon OFF-; Andro Hexer HDs (FH 2.1/BH 1.9)
Weapon 2: Ross Leidy 'Smokey'; Friendship 729-5s
Club1: Daylesford - since 2010
Club2: Ballarat - since 2011
Blog: A Naked Bear

There's NOTHING wrong with MY footwork...the problem is with other players not hitting the ball to the right place!!

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I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red National Pogo Ox
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs Ox
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 BH Red Dornenglanz Ox
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Typical! Putting in your 2 cents worth now costs 5 cents Inflation!!

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red National Pogo Ox
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs Ox
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 BH Red Dornenglanz Ox
Table tennis directory / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Did I mention that I lost that 5-cent coin? I feel really bad because it was Alois'! I'm sure he'll never make me forget that I still owe him some money ...

_________________

Weapon 1: Andro Kinetic Supreme Hinoki/Zylon OFF-; Andro Hexer HDs (FH 2.1/BH 1.9)
Weapon 2: Ross Leidy 'Smokey'; Friendship 729-5s
Club1: Daylesford - since 2010
Club2: Ballarat - since 2011
Blog: A Naked Bear

We would be pleased to see a vid of you....just to try and help though. you know!

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red National Pogo Ox
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs Ox
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 BH Red Dornenglanz Ox
Table tennis directory / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Or even one of those stick figure drawings ...

_________________

Weapon 1: Andro Kinetic Supreme Hinoki/Zylon OFF-; Andro Hexer HDs (FH 2.1/BH 1.9)
Weapon 2: Ross Leidy 'Smokey'; Friendship 729-5s
Club1: Daylesford - since 2010
Club2: Ballarat - since 2011
Blog: A Naked Bear

yes they sum up my footwork quite nicely.

_________________
OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Table Tennis Reviews / Articles | Table Guide | Robot Guide
Re-Impact Blades | Avalox Blade Overview | Table Tennis Robots
My setup: Blade: Re-Impact OOAK Dark Knight | BH: Dtecs OX red | FH: JUIC 999 Turbo 2.0mm blk
Check out my huge 'for sale' thread here | My OOAK Interview