Practice and training are two different aspects to table tennis.

To many players, practice consists of merely hitting the balls in a robot-like fashion to master a stroke.

In other words, a player can hit 1000 forehands and 1500 backhands everyday and master the two. However, will this be enough to prepare yourself for match play?

The term train means to “prepare the mind/body for a competitive competition.”

The problem with hitting a whole bunch of balls in a robot-like fashion is that there’s no give. What I mean here is that no table tennis match will go as planned as they do when you’re practicing.

Have you ever seen a match consisted of two players who stood in the same spot and traded shots using the same stroke?

I doubt it. You won’t find any player who just “goes through the motions.” There’s never a match where a player will:

• Hit the ball at the same speed
• Serve the same
• Return the ball to the same spot
• Let the ball casually bounce off the table because you did something different.

It just won’t happen! I can guarantee it!

So what are some good training techniques you can use to prep you for competition? Here are two that will help you:

1) Practice cross-court shots.

These shots happen when you are at one side of the table and the ball is traveling towards the opposite side of the table.

Have a partner return the ball to the opposite end after you have hit the ball from one side of the table. This will help you to improve full table footwork as well as setting up the body correctly for the return shot.

I would suggest doing 10-15 of these shots at varying speeds, spin, and ball placement.

2) Practice combinations.

Try doing this by hitting three different shots back-to-back. This will help you to work on setting up your opponents.

Have a partner start you off by hitting the ball with varying speed. Let’s say you have a low traveling ball that lands close to the net. You can start with a light push. On the second shot, you can put backspin on the ball. On the third shot, try looping it.

By switching up the combinations, you will develop an arsenal of lethal combinations that will mystify your opponents.

These are just a couple of ways you can do to get the most out of your training sessions. Although realize there are many more which I plan on covering in the future.

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