USA
Table TennisUSA
Table TennisFor Promoters and Coaches Who Wish to Set Up or Teach a Junior Training Program
By Larry Hodges
You can get more information on Club Programs at the USATT Club Programs Page at www.usatt.org/club_programs.
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Some would say that if you have to ask, there's no point in explaining. Why
is there Little League Baseball? Nearly every other sport in the U.S. has junior
programs, whether it be baseball, basketball, football, soccer, tennis,
softball, lacrosse, etc., etc. Why not table tennis?
If you are reading this, it is likely that you are either a coach or youth
organizer in some way. You may do it for a living, or as a volunteer; either
way, you have an interest in junior table tennis. Perhaps you've wanted to set
up a program for a long time, but weren't sure how to go about it. This Primer
is for you!
There are two parts to setting up and teaching a junior training program. First,
you have to know how to set it up. Second, you have to know how to teach it –
specifically, how to coach juniors, as opposed to coaching adults. We will
address both in this Primer.
There's another reason to set up a junior program – you get paid for it.
Suppose you have 20 kids at each session, at $7.50/2-hour session. (Many
established programs charge more.) That's $75/hour, about triple what a
typical coach gets giving private coaching. Plus, if you are a full-time coach
– or hope to become one – this is where you get your students from.
Let's be realistic. To a beginning junior, a 1200 player looks like a star.
A 1500 player is incredible. So, if you are an established player, your playing
level alone is impressive to new players, and in their mind, gives you all the
credentials you need.
The person who will teach the class does not need any coaching experience. What
he needs is the proficiency to demonstrate the basic shots, and knowledge of the
basic techniques. There are a number of books on table tennis that can help out
in this regard. Or contact USATT (719-866-4583 or admin@usatt.org) for
information on becoming a certified coach, if you aren't one already. USATT
also has an office-produced 86-page manual called Instructor's Guide to Table
Tennis, which you may consider ordering. It is also online at the USATT Club
Programs Page at www.usatt.org/club_programs. It covers all the basic shots and
techniques you will need to teach.
If you are a promoter looking to set up a class, but would prefer someone else
to coach it, you can get a complete listing of USATT coaches from the Club
Programs Page.
So how does a coach or organizer go about setting up a junior training program?
Ideally, you can teach the class at a local club, in return for a small fee
and for bringing in new players. You can get a complete listing of USATT clubs
at the USATT Club Programs page at www.usatt.org/club_programs. If you are
thinking of starting your own club, you can also access the USATT's Club
Handbook, also available at the Club Programs page. If there isn't already a
facility with tables for you to teach your class, then you're going to have to
do some legwork to get one.
Get out the phone book and start out by contacting local recreation centers.
(They may be listed under "community centers.")
Local churches are also possibilities – for these, you might ask local
players about possibilities.
Schools can be a great resource. A
survey done by this author a number of years ago showed that about 1/3 of
schools already have ping pong tables – and most of those schools had ping
pong clubs. Find all the schools in
your area with tables or clubs, and get in contact with them about coaching or
using their facilities.
Balls are an ongoing expense, but you'll only need training balls, which are
inexpensive. If you only do regular
table play (i.e. no multiball training), then you won't need too many. If you
use multiball training, you'll need about one to two gross per coach. Contact
table tennis distributors about getting discounts. One way to get a good deal is to sell equipment from the
manufacturer/distributor that gives or discounts the equipment for you. Most are
willing to make deals if you become a distributor for them. (You might want to
browse the list of USATT
certified equipment dealers.)
Robots are valuable tools for coaches, and if possible you might consider buying
or borrowing one for the class. They
are very good for beginners to work on basic strokes.
They are also useful in group training when you have an odd number of
players. They are also a great
attraction for junior players, who love to use them.
It's helpful to have a practice partner to help out with a junior program – but it's not necessary. You can generally have a higher player to coach ratio in a junior program than with an adult program. The practice partners do not need to be coaches – just reasonably good players. You can usually find volunteers to help out in this regard. Or you may pay them a small fee, especially if you have a large turnout.
You will need to make lots of copies of the flyer. The flyer should specify that the class is for junior players. It's best to put the flyer on colored paper, to make it stand out. The flyer should include the following information:
A sample Junior Training Flyer is at the end of this Primer.
Getting junior players (from around ages 7 to 17) into USATT clubs has always been a difficult task – but only because it was done in such a haphazard fashion. The three most important things in getting juniors into USATT clubs are:
To those setting up a program from scratch, this almost seems contradictory
– to get juniors, you need juniors. Where do you begin???
The key thing is to set up a training program and then promote it until you get
enough junior players so that you reach "critical mass" – enough junior
players that the program is attractive to new juniors. At that point, the
program becomes nearly self-supporting, with players joining in as fast or
faster than they leave. A successful junior program may not need to actively
recruit new players – once they reach this critical mass, it becomes
self-supporting through word of mouth – and your goal should be to reach this
stage. How do you do this?
We will assume you have set up your program, and are now trying to get junior
players to join in – i.e. are trying to reach "critical mass." Here are
tried and successful ways of getting junior players into your programs. Before
you start on these you will need to put together a flyer about your program, and
a press release. (Many programs use a free introductory class, perhaps six weeks
long, once per week, as a "hook.") You might consider a first-time free
promotion with any of the below, or even free 30-minute lessons.
Fax or email your press release to the
calendar section of every local newspaper.
Let's elaborate:
Distribute flyers at Asian churches and schools. Look them up in the phone book, or ask local Asian players about them. Then mail, fax or email the flyer to them. If you call up the school leaders and tell them about your table tennis program, they will probably send students your way. The Asian community (especially Chinese) is the easiest group to reach if you live near any large city, and can be the foundation of your program – or at least get your program to "critical mass." (This is the same theory used in martial arts in the U.S.) This is probably the single most successful way of getting new junior players.
Distribute flyers at local schools. (See article on this by Dan Seemiller in the Jan/Feb 2001 USA Table Tennis Magazine, page 60.) Offer to teach a class during their PE classes, or do exhibitions.
Give copies of the class flyer to all local club members to give out to relatives or friends. Family members of current club members are a treasure trove of new players. Make sure to give a copy of the flyer to any new player who comes to any local club.
Do a mailing of your flyer to all current and past USATT junior members in your region. You can get address labels very cheaply (3 cents each) from USATT. You can get them by age, by zip code, or just about anything else.
Put up your flyer in every local Rec Center, YMCA, and Boys' and Girls' Clubs that has tables. Look them up in the phone book, and call to find out if they have tables. It might be a good idea to create a flyer with tear-off phone numbers at the bottom. You might also ask if you can teach a class at the facility, and get them to promote it for you.
Put flyers in bottles and toss them out to sea. We just had to include this!
If you haven't taught table tennis before, and aren't sure how to coach
each shot, contact USATT about getting a copy of the USATT Instructor's Guide.
You can reach them at admin@usatt.org or 719-866-4583. It is online at the USATT
Club Programs page at www.usatt.org/club_programs.
There are three things you need to know here. First, you have to decide who hits
with whom. Second, you need to know specifically what to do in each class.
Third, you need to know how coaching juniors is different from other coaching,
such as coaching an adult class.
Who Hits With Who?
In a perfect world, every player would get to hit with a stronger player all
the time. But that's impossible. So you generally have players hit with
players of roughly the same level. Sometimes you can have a player spend part of
a session with a weaker player, and part with a stronger – they balance out.
If you can get a practice partner, then if he hits with one of the stronger
players, that player can then hit with a weaker player.
Some coaches make up hitting partners on the spot. Others keep track (on
paper or on a computer) and rotate hitting partners. It's your choice.
A Typical Class Schedule
Many junior coaches have found it successful to have sort of a "contract"
with the players. The contract is that if the players work hard the first half,
the second half will be mostly games.
The drills themselves are usually 15 minutes long, with each player doing 7.5
minutes. (Some drills, such as serve & attack, can be done for ten minutes
each.) Stress to the players that both players are drilling at all times. That
means that if one player is doing a footwork drill, the other is doing a control
drill – practicing ball control and consistency.
A typical training session could be divided into the following segments. You
should vary the sessions, and when possible tailor the drills to the players.
Stretching & Jogging (10 minutes)
Start the class off with a stretching routine, followed by a few minutes of
jogging to loosen the muscles. (Some say it is better to jog first, to loosen
the muscles before stretching.) Since you often don't know who will show up
for the specific class in advance, this is a good time to work out who hits with
who. For this reason, it's a good idea to have one of the juniors lead in
stretching while you make plans.
Forehand & backhand warm-up (drives & loops) – 20 minutes
Have the players hit forehand to forehand and backhand to backhand, as a
warm-up, for five to ten minutes each. Advanced
players will do this for only five minutes or so, and then warm up their
forehand and backhand loops. Players may also combine these warm-up drills with
footwork drills.
Footwork drill (15 minutes)
There are a wide variety of possible drills. See the Instructor's Guide
for examples, under "Scheduling Practices."
The most common footwork drills are given below. Players should normally
do two footwork drills, either doing an extra one during the warm-up phase, or
in the player specific drill.
Here are some footwork drills. Note that the driller normally hits each ball to
the same spot (either forehand or backhand) so the practice partner can make
steady returns.
Player specific drill (15 minutes)
This is where you either tailor a drill to the player, or throw in different
drills for variety. For example, a player developing a backhand loop may use
this segment to work on it. See the Instructor's Guide for examples of other
drills. You can sometimes use this segment for serve practice.
Break (5 minutes)
While the players are resting, you can set up the second half game plan.
Serve & Attack drill (20 minutes)
This is the most popular drill among junior players. There are two main ways
of doing this drill. One way is for the server to serve backspin, the receiver
pushes it back to a pre-arranged spot or area, and the server attacks, usually
with a loop. The other way is for
the server to serve anything, the receiver return as if it were a game (or
perhaps playing slightly more control so server can attack), and server attacks.
Note that this is where players can practice their serves.
Games (30 minutes)
It's important to stress that this is practice, and that this is the time
to try out what they have been practicing, even if it means losing sometimes.
There are many options on what to do here. Here are some possibilities:
For general coaching techniques, you should refer to the Instructor's Guide
to Table Tennis, available from USATT Headquarters and online at the USATT Club
Programs Page at www.usatt.org/club_programs.
What we will go over here are how to coach junior players –
specifically, the differences between coaching juniors as opposed to adults.
General Principles
Ball Bouncing
Younger kids – 6-10 years old or so – should start out with ball
bouncing. This simply means bouncing the ball on their paddle over and over.
Younger kids may struggle to do this more than once or twice, due to lower
coordination. Ball bouncing is a way to develop the hand-eye coordination needed
in table tennis.
Grip
Because they have smaller hands, many juniors tend to put their index
finger down the middle of the paddle. This can make the grip too floppy. It's
OK for the finger to go down the middle a little bit for younger juniors, but no
more than about 45 degrees.
Serves
Juniors have great difficulty in generating spin on their serves.
Creating spin involves grazing the ball, which takes a fine touch not yet
developed in young juniors. However, they take great delight in whatever spin
they do create, so teach them advanced serves early on. Although they usually
don't like doing serving practice on its own, they will try out their newly
learned serves whenever they play games or in serve & attack drills, and so
get practice that way.
Timing
Beginning juniors often have difficulty timing their shots. One way to
help them with this is to time it for them – as you rally with them, go "Da-da,
da-da,…" timing the "da's" with the ball's contact with
the racket and table, so the junior knows when contact should be. You'll be
surprised how much this helps beginners, especially younger juniors.
Drives
When first learning to stroke the ball, it's best to use multiball
training. A beginning junior simply doesn't have the hand-eye coordination to
properly stroke the ball that doesn't come at them perfectly, and they can't
keep the ball in play long enough to get a good workout. This is true of both
regular drives and looping. To keep it fun and interesting, sometimes put a
target on the table for them to aim for.
Many juniors tend to point their racket up when stroking forehands or backhands.
This is because their elbow is lower than an adult's, and so it is more
natural for them to hold the racket's tip pointing more upward. This is okay
as long as the racket tip is no more than around 45 degrees upward.
Stress consistency. Most juniors want to smash, but they first must learn the
proper stroke. Set a reasonable goal of how many they should hit in a row, and
keep increasing it until they can hit 100 or so in a row.
Looping
Juniors may have to let the ball drop more when looping than adults. Many
coaches (especially from Europe) now believe that junior players should start
out by learning to loop early on, letting the ball drop down below table level,
and topspinning it back. The theory is that it's easier for them to do this,
since the ball drops down to a more comfortable level for them, and it allows
them to develop topspin control early on. You may wish to coach this way, or use
the standard method of teaching forehand and backhand drives first, and then
looping.
Pushing
Like serving, juniors often don't have the fine touch needed to create
spin yet, and so their pushes are not that spinny. However, especially for
younger juniors, the slowness of the push shot allows them to rally longer than
with drive shots. It is sometimes important to stress that players should
normally play aggressively, and while pushing is important, too much pushing
will slow down their development.
Discipline
What do you do if a player is disruptive or a disciplinary problem in
some way? There are several ways of handling this. The most successful is to
give a warning first; if this doesn't work, sit the player out for a short
time.
Additional Reading
Successful Coaching (previously titled Coaching Young Athletes)
by Rainer Martens, Ph.D, from Human Kinetics Publishers, is an excellent
resource on coaching junior players.
A junior training program is an ongoing program, with regular meets every week. You may want to have an off season where you close down for a month, but most successful programs run nearly year round. You may break it up into three-month segments, and collect fees for three months at a time. The key is to reach a critical mass so that there are enough juniors in the program that it becomes their own peer group – and they keep coming back, week after week, month after month, year after year. Most successful junior training programs have a very small turnover – if a 10-year-old plays regularly one year, it's more than likely he will still be there five years later. (It's late in high school and when they go to college that juniors tend to drop out – but that's a separate issue.)
Junior
Table Tennis Class
at the
Maryland Table Tennis Center
18761-Q Frederick Rd., Gaithersburg, MD 20879 • 301-519-8580
Times: Thursdays, Saturdays & Sundays, 4:30-6:30 PM
Ages/Levels: Ages 8-15, all levels
Fees: $150/20 sessions. Make checks out to Maryland Table Tennis Center
Coaches: USATT Certified Coaches Cheng Yinghua, Jack Huang, Larry Hodges (usually two coaches/session)
Directions: From the Beltway (495), take 270 North. Go to exit 11, Montgomery Village Ave. Drive 1/4 mile to first traffic light, Frederick Rd. (355), and turn left. Drive 1.1 miles and turn right at Econo Lodge sign (steep uphill). Go 100 yards until road dead ends, and turn left. Go 100 yards and take first left-hand turn into MDTTC parking lot.
More Info: Contact Coach Larry Hodges at [CONTACT INFO]
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Participant's Name______________________________________ Date of Birth_____________
Address_______________________________________________________________________
Home Phone________________ Work Phone_________________ Email__________
I accept full responsibility for my and my children's participation. I relieve the coaches, directors, sponsors and any others involved in the class of any liability for injury, loss or damages.
Signature______________________________________________
Date____________________
(Parents sign for those under 18)
Sample Press Release to Newspaper Calendar Sections
To:
Calendar section, Washington Post
From: Larry Hodges, Maryland Table Tennis Center
Subject: Junior Table Tennis Class
Date: January 1, 2001
Would it be possible to include the following in your Calendar Section? Thank
you.
The Maryland Table Tennis Center in Gaithersburg, Md., has junior training
sessions on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, 4:30-6:30 PM. The coaches for the
sessions are USATT Certified Coaches Cheng Yinghua, Jack Huang and Larry Hodges.
The training will cover the basics of table tennis, including the basic strokes,
serve and return of serve, tactics, footwork and equipment. Fee is $150 for 20
sessions. For more information, contact Coach Hodges at [CONTACT INFO].
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