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- Move from a frontal to a lateral return,

- Find your optimum stroke distance,

- Take some distance from the ball, with a little backhand

(BH) and a lot of forehand

- Learn to play from the hip (BH) and elbow (FH).

Video 1:

The video below shows how the student sets his distance from the ball on the forehand stroke. This player started by setting his distance on the right hand side, with a regular stroke close to the body.

Advice from the coach:

Progressively move away from the ball to find the best possible strike distance.

Video 2:

When setting his distance, this student takes the ball late after the bounce, rolling it and finishing with the wrist, while moving back.

Here's a little table tennis vocabulary:

Taking the ball late: contacting the ball on its way down.

Rolling: moving your racket around the ball

Advice from the coach:

Move closer to the bounce in order to make better use of your arm and shoulder, enabling you to get on the ball faster.

Time for some practice

We are going to experiment using three serves and returns in both forehand and backhand

Exercise 1

Serve the ball (from the left corner of the table, forehand or backhand)

In this situation, you have a few spare balls. Either after abounce on your half-court or directly on the volley, you will hit the ball and send it directly back to your opponent's halfcourt, as shown in the animation.

Advice from the coach:

Position yourself as shown in the animation, to the side of the table with your profile to the opponent. Find the distance which enables you to send the ball over regularly, without having to force it.

You'll need 7 accurate strokes out of ten to stabilise your distance.

Balance your shots by working on your backhand too.

Exercise 2:

Return slow, wide balls.

The balls are served by another student, from the basket onthe opponent's half table (by hand or using a racket).

This exercise enables you to coordinate your movement with your strokes.

Advice from the coach:

Do a shuffle step before getting in range of the ball, with both feet well balanced on the floor.

Finish your arm movement, moving it towards the target.

Exercise 3

Return randomly distributed balls, with an accelerating rhythm.

A number of different rhythms can be used; they'll modify the time available and the positioning of the student.

Advice from the coach:

The difficult part of this exercise is to combine wide strokes on both the forehand and backhand.

Remain steady and ready on your feet (legs slightly bent) and be aware of the ball's trajectory.

Practice by varying the rhythm.