How you can play at your best
- and advice for administrators
I have been coach and adminstrator from club- to international level, and here are some advice I believe can be useful.

I did not know that table tennis was a sport before my last year in high school when my school was invited to a school championships for the capital Oslo - held in the neighbouring school! Well, I entered my name and lost badly in first round. But I got hooked on table tennis and started my coach education the following year! I now have Level 3 (highest) in Norway - and also Sweden!
Shadow table tennis - practice without a ball!
You can train alone at home, even if you do not have a table tennis table. Pretend you're playing - and bend down and move your legs! And be quickly back after the stroke. If you are a coach, you should do shadow table tennis with the players doing hand signals. I started doing this many years ago by shouting "forehand - backhand" etc., but found that it was smarter with hand signals, because it is the eyes you use in table tennis - not the ears! Video here.
Never stand still!
Some coaches still believe that you should stand still when doing control training such as backhand to backhand or forehand to forehand while warming up at the table. Do not stand still at any time, always move your legs/feet - with small steps! Video here
Always get back with the racket!
Look at the tennis players - after each stroke they hold the racket with both hands. Not that you should do it like that, but my question is: Where and when is your stroke completed? I believe, as an example, that a backhand stroke is not finished until the racket is back in the starting position - not in the outermost position!
Always the next ball
When you play matches: Always think next ball/point. Forget about the bad points you make, - you can do nothing about them. Remember your gameplan and think about how you shall play the next ball. You might have to adjust you gameplan during a match but always remember your own strengths and look for your opponents weaknesses!
"Spin it to win it"
Top spin is so important in modern table tennis. It makes the ball to to curve downwards and makes it easier to hit the table - and the spin makes it more difficult for the other player to return. Top spin against top spin is a difficult stroke but the top players use it.
Always be positive
Always be positive when you play matches. Keep you temper: Swearing and bad behavour will do you no good. Be positive on your good points: ""Good boy!", "Yesss!", "Ossha!". Respect you opponent and always shake hands in a friendly way - if you win or loose.
Be serious!
If you want to be good at table tennis, you have to be serious. Not that you should not have fun - it's fun to play table tennis - but you must always do your best when you train and compete. And you should train and compete at least as much as the ones you want to beat!
Lot of reaction training.
Table tennis might be the fastest sport in the world, and you should in fact not be able to return a smash - human reaction time should be too long. An explanation is that your mind is picking a action based on previous experiences at the table but it is also important to react as quick as possible. So do a lot of reaction training besides the table!
Make goals
It is important to make goals and a timeline for when your goals shall be reached. Make realistic goals and timeline - in co-operation with your coach.
Go overseas
Travel to another country for practising and competitions. Learn by looking at better players and play again others than the ones you play against regulary. This will improve your skills and motivate you.
Play outdoors?
Are the Chinese so good because they start playing in the schoolyards? Well, with more that 10 million competitive players the best ones will necessarily be very good, but by playing in the wind you have to react quickly because the ball so often changes direction and/or spinn!
Watch videos
There is a lot of top table tennis at the internet. So take a good look at the best on videos and see how they play. Watch the footwork, the strokes, the serves, the returns. Plus the positive attitudes, enormous efforts and game plans. You can learn a lot away from the table tennis table!
Mental training
Remove mental blockages - like "I always loose to Peter" to "I might beat Peter". Say it again and again - not loud but inside your head. Like a few minutes session while relaxing in bed or armchair. You can also see yourself playing doing the correct techniques to improve your game.
Play at your best
There is not much money in table tennis but your attitude at the table should always be professional. How to play at your best here.
Wear a club uniform!
Players should always wear club uniforms in competitions. Fancy t-shirts may seem fun, but this does not present table tennis as a serious sport. It may be cool to wear a national team uniform for those who have one, but you do not represent your country in a local competition! It is also important to wear a club uniform if the club has advertising on the uniforms so this is shown on pictures on the internet, in newspapers or on television. If you have agreements outside the club, you should agree on how personal advertising can be used. To use assosiation-uniform should be made compulsory during tournaments!
Have social activities!
Players should also go to table tennis training because they have their friends there. In Fokus we always went to a a pizza restaurant after the Friday trainings, we went swimming in the weekends, made cabin trips during the holidays, etc. We even had our own band and musicals at the annual meetings! We were a bunch of friends. I was not only their coach - I was also their friend!
Use the support system!
Sports psychologist, physical trainer, medical institute to check our respiratory capacity (oxygen intake), physiotherapists if you have injuries/wear from table tennis or else, nutritionist that can advise upon you needs for balanced food doing your sport. The support system is there - use it!
Information
Many players do not want anything to be announced over the speakers, but if non-players should happen to come to watch table tennis they will have no idea on what's going on. And will hardly come again. There should also be information-boards that both players and friends/family/audience can see, and they should be updated on a running basis. Running results should also be on internet (like in tennis). Our sport should keep up with the times!
Topp player to be a good coach?
Some believe that you have to be the best player to be a good coach. Well, Stein Johnson, a discus thrower in Norway, started coaching in several sports: The national ice-skaters, the kayak rowere, a cyclist and a ski shooter. He coached them all to gold medals in world championships and Olympic games! His secret? Applying scientific methods to the training!
Talent or hard work?
It is not always the most talented the becomes the best players. Hard work has so often shown to give the best result.
Adjust the practising!
A coach should adapt the training methods to the situation. When I was coaching in Fiji I discovered that the players were good when practising, but as soon as it came to tournaments they froze. So I started doing absolutely all the exercises with counting - either the number of times over the net or on points. It worked - the Fiji girls beat Australia and New Zealand in an international championship! I also did some practising, in Fiji, Norway and else, by distrubing the players to get them to concentrate - by shouting, clapping, banging on boxes and so on!
Top-table
An exercise that can be very useful is top-table. It can be played until the coach shouts "stop!". The loosers moves towards the bottom table while winners moves toward the top table. Let the best players start at the bottom table and/or give the weaker players more starting points.
Practise doubles
In team matches in championships there are often doubles. So it is very importane to practise doubles - and before the championships let the team players practise doubles!
Many players
The clubs should try to get as many players, and preferable at a very young age. Many of the top players in the world startet 4-5 years old! It is said that you need 500 players to find a talent. And even the most keen talents might quit of several reasons, like school/university studies or an interest for other sports or boys/girls..!
Fun and motivation
Even if you always shall look at table tennis as a serious sport, it is important that the players and also coaches are motivated and have fun. Have some fun exercises like round-the-table and top-of-the-table, and have a fun competition where everybody plays with the wrong hand or pen-holder grip! And remember to have rest periods, like in Christmas and/or summer holdidays - and/or after a long season.
Longer rallies
Table tennis might be fascinating to watch for people playing themselves but for the general public the rallies are very short. As in tennis it is the long rallies that excites. Might be change the regulations for the rubber? Not that it should be short pimples without sponge but perhaps rubber with reduced spin and speed.
Never call it ping-pong!
Ping-pong is the social activity (unless you are living in China). You would not call yourself a ping-pong player, would you? You are a table tennis player - you play sports, a good sport, one of the world's biggest. So players, coaches and administrators: Never, never, never use the word "ping-pong"!
Never silly videoes or pictures
Never post silly pictures or videos of table tennis on internet or else - like in invitations to tournaments. Always show the sport of table tennis!
More associations/clubs
Some believe that it should only be only one assocation/club in a citry but that might mean a lot more travelling that many players/parents can afford. In Oslo we once had 11 individual clubs and that was great for everybody!
Find the spectators!
Live-stream on the internet is a way to show table tennis to people, but it is posible to get spectators to come to tournaments to watch. Invite schools, retirement homes, hospitals, military and so on. They have their own transportation - so give it a go!
Make a development plan!
Every table tennis association, from international to club level, should make a development plan with goals and a timeline for when the goals shall be reached. Questions that all associations should ask: Here.
Coach education
Anybody coaching should have coach education - a good player is not automaticly a good coach. To be a coach is much more than just know how to play!
Coaching Committee
Every table tennis association should have a coaching commitee; more than one coach so that there always will be coach available if the headcoach is sick or is at tournaments to coach.
Commitee Members
All committe members should have their duties/roles - not only be present at committee meetings!
Have a media responsible!
From clubs to national associations: They should all a have a somebody responible for contact with the media: Send results of competitions, fixtures or anything of interest. It might be the secretary but it might be better with another person in the comittee or else, with this as his/hers only duty.
Change the attitude of the general public!
Too many people still view table tennis as a social hobby and not a sport: Something you do in the basement with a beer in hand. So clubs and national associations should highlight table tennis as a serious sport and not "fun for everyone". Get the results from any competition into the newspapers' results columns, send press releases and invite journalists! Yes, every association/club should, as mentioned, have a media responsible!
Cinema advertising
For many, many years I have suggested cinema advertising before children's films - where both children and parents/grandparent are present. A short clip showing a rally in slow motion, a sweaty face concentrating on a serve, the audience in the stands cheering. Showing the sport of table tennis - not the hobby!