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Sounds good, but what did you actually do you achieve this? Without know exactly how one should move, it's hard to learn this. If I had a coach that could teach me such things, it would make it a lot easier.

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I loosened up as mentioned which is the important foundation and did a lot of incremental efficiency improvements. It probably helped that I didn't have bad habits related to moving other than standing around too much.

Specifically on some of the key technical strategies:

1. It's very important to keep balanced. For example, needing to correct balance so you can kick off fast without falling over usually takes more time than the kick itself. These corrections are where you're losing time.

2. Be ready to move. If you're at a stage of the point where things are going to get quick, dropping the stance or shifting some weight in anticipation minimizes the corrections of leg angle and waist.

3. Thrust through the center of gravity. Anything off-center is not only wasted effort but torques the body around the center of gravity which disturbs balance and requires even more wasted exertion to correct for.

Of course no can keep all this in mind, so it's also important to figure out how to learn them, from small steps to compound motions:

1. Be focused, move with intent & awareness. In a sense precedes any other point because you need to know what exactly is to be done (move that far to the right this quickly) before you can get a measure of how well you're doing it. The above are ideas to try for each movement, but in order to do that you need to evaluate internally if a certain way is efficient (feels most effortless) or not, and a coach can't tell anyway because they can't feel that effort/result ratio.

2. If you loosen up properly and move with intent, oftentimes you'll instinctive do the right thing (80% results for 20% effort). This is good and conscientious awareness of how it happened is even better, but sometimes your instincts are wrong and it feels strained, and that's what the technical improvements are for. Commit to memory how the right effortless act feels and how the wrong hard way feels. When doing more than simple singular motions the evaluation is based more on maximizing the good feelings and picking off the bad.

3. It's more important to practice the right movement than win the match. Winning will come when your skills improve, and each person needs a certain amount of practice to gain a certain level of skill. It's better to get the practicing over with sooner than drag it out trying to keep your old game. Thus when evaluating how you moved during a shot or whatever the priority is: (did I have the correct intention, eg. move this far to the right) --> (did the movement feel fast & effortless) --> (did I move to exactly where I wanted). If the first two are right, the 3rd is just a matter of fine tuning that will inevitably improve even if it's what lost the point.

The sooner you grasp what the right thing feels like, the sooner you can maintain that feeling, the sooner you can stop thinking about it. It's worth noting again that these aren't things anyone else can feel for you. A coach can provide drills and set standards, but can't feel your balance or muscles strain. Someone telling you to bend the leg X degrees is pointless because that depends on where your weight is and how much/fast you want to move. Practicing "forms" often ends up just going through the motions and doesn't teach you how it feels to do the right thing in a match.

The overall point is that with some general exercise we can already move pretty fast. Just as with strokes where most players just aren't swinging to their potential the same applies to the rest of the body.

With speed it's all about belief and past experience, a lot of people have never moved as fast as humans can move or anywhere near it so their minds just doesn't know where the limit is. It's pretty easy to reprogram though, humans are freaken fast, faster than a snake, even my old mum can jump 3 meters when she stands on a snake:P. Nothing to do with exercise or weights. I would say most adults in my club are barely moving at 50% of their potential speed, most kids not even near 50%. Agenthex I haven't forgotten about my blade flex video either, been busy the last few days .

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Maybe you mistake improved body speed for improved anticipation?

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Shuttles using side steping movements areond cones / plant pots in garden...fwds and back against clock. Make mvmts table tennis specific....eg learning forward in ready position.

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A good exercise to strengthen your calves is to walk on the balls of your feet. Do some agility exercises (focus on sideways movement) so that you can get around the ball more quickly.

I agree with the poster above who said that many of us can actually react a lot more quickly than we think we can.

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I try to give Each ball the respect of my whole body. Motion helps your mind think Early about the uniqueness of each shot. On the other hand an old teacher told me the more you move the more your stroke is the same each time.

Ladder footwork drills definitely are helpful. Lateral sprints, all sidestepping with knees bent as if you were in a stance for playing table tennis. When I do them, I will go about 40 feet in one direction, touch the ground so my stance has to get really low, and switch directions.

Working abs does help especially sides like side plank work.

Shadow footwork drills with the drill sped up faster than you would be able to do unless it was multiball will help too. Also worth doing that with the other hand as well.

But the ladder footwork drills and the sideways skipping sprints are really helpful for increasing speed because they help your feet and legs become more precise and agile.

For me I find Tia Chi improves my focus (mental awareness, keeping calm in the heat of battle) & my balance . It also greatly helps with you being ready for the shot, helps you read where your opponents next shot will be.

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