My experience with my coach

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   My 'first' lesson with my coach two years ago is still in my memory.  I told him that I would like to increase my accuracy of my stroke (especially smash) and learn how to attack with my backhand better.  I also asked him if I should switch to shakehand vesus learning how to use reverse backhand (I told him that I am afraid of my mobility because I am getting old).  At last, I told him that I am willing to learn from the bottom up (really basics stuff).

After hitting a few rounds, my coach suggested me to switch to the shakehand grip because of the range cover (mobility) and my 'bad' habit of the stroke.  By the way, my coach was using penhold grip when he played professionally, but switched to shakehand because of the mobility problem.  He said that the fundamentals (or the philosophy of ping pong - how to hit the ball) for shakehand and penhold are the same.  I remembered he told me that all the things I learnt for ping pong were "wrong".  As an example, I always thought that I should not apply too much force forward(sometimes none) because the ball will surely fly outside of the table.  However, he said that you have to apply the force forward to 'control' the placement of the ball returned.  This contradicted my logic at first because I thought if you apply large force forward, the ball will fly uncontrollably outside.  After trying several attempts, I noticed what he says is correct because when the incoming ball has some spins and you do not apply any force, the spin will control your return.  However, if you apply enough force, the ball will be controlled by your force (the placement affected less by the spin).  Of course, you have to adjust the angle of your paddle and ball flight period (rising, peak, dropping).

Due to the time constraint, I could only go to my coach once a week (two hour lesson).  I think I spent about 75% of time for my forehand stroke.  However, my backhand is much more consistent than my forehand.   He said that it is due to the fact that my forehand had some 'bad' habit in my muscle memory while I never really learnt backhand before.  He said that it is easier to teach someone who never play ping pong before than someone who has 'bad' habit.  So, what kinds of 'bad' habit do I have?  First, hit the ball sideway instead of forward
(I need to change the timing of hitting - also my waist need to turn).  Second, the ball has no curve (I need to learn how to 'snap the small forearm').

During these two years of training, I asked my coach a lot questions, and read a lot of different materials in various websites (e.g., mytabletennis.net, bokett.com, pingskills.com).  Also, watched a lot of different videos (including training and tournament videos in youtube).  Sometimes I thought -- why the video and some materials are different from what my coach taught (scratching my head).  Also, why my coach asks me to change how to hit again (did he said to hit it straight on, why now change it to curve inside?)?   After a while, I discovered that he sometimes asked me to do some stuff so that it can correct my old habit.  Thus, if you want the coaching works for you, listen to your coach!

For the last six months, I started learning how to loop (kind of late).  However, I read somewhere that it is better to learn how to do the 'closed table attack' before looping.   The reason why is that you can know how to correctly generate 'force'.  Also, one thing (as many of you already knew) is that there are two styles of looping - Chinese style and European style.  My coach always teaches me that I have to open the angle of my elbow (almost like a straight line) and snap it.  If you watch how Timo Boll or other European players loop, they do not open a large the angle of the elbow at all (kind of like a chicken wing).