No partner? Here are our two best tips to practice table tennis on your own.
Table tennis is very much spotted to be played with others. You generally need to have someone to return the ball to you, so that you can practice your different shots. What are the options if you don’t have someone to practice with, though? If you can practice on your own, it means you’re not always relying on having other people with you. You can get extra hours in working on precise shots and drills, which will improve these areas of your game.
Use a table tennis robot
This is the most effective way of practicing table tennis on your own, but it’s one of the most expensive options. Top of the range table tennis robots can be over $2000, meaning you need to be serious about your practice if you really want to invest. You can get cheaper models as well, which go for $100-$200. These are more accessible but don’t have the same number of features.
Robots are generally most useful to beginners, but can also be used for more advanced players if used correctly. Simple robots will serve the ball to you to a place on the table that you specify, allowing you to practice returning the ball. Once you’ve mastered returns consistently, you can start working on returning the ball to different parts of the table and working on both backhand and forehand shots.
More advanced robots will allow you to add spin to the ball and other more difficult shots, as well as increase the speed of the serve significantly. This will help you to prepare for more difficult players as well as shots that your usual training partners don’t use very often. By practicing against a wide variety of shots, you’ll round out your overall game which will make you a much more consistent player when you move back into a game situation.
Focus on serves
The main thing you can practice when you’re on your own is your serves. You don’t need another person there, and you can really focus on getting consistent serves to different parts of the table without having to play the rest of the game after each serve. If you still need to pick up your equipment, get yourself a set of bats and a bucket of balls to go with your table. If you still need this, we recommend checking out the Best Ping Pong Tables at DDPlan. Once you have all of your equipment, you can start working on your serve.
You can get significantly better at serving the ball by just doing 10-15 minutes a day. By this time, you’ll do more serves than you would over months of practicing traditionally. This will give you a significant advantage over people who only practice at their local club. You also get the chance to work on serves you aren’t as good at. People generally find a serve style that works reasonably well for them and will use it every time. You won’t want to try a new serve that isn’t as polished, as you’ll get beaten much more in your practice sessions. If you can work on these new serves on your own, they will be up to speed when you play against others.
