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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
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    12

    can playing table tennis help you play tennis better?

    i love playing tennis. I play it as much as i can. but when i cant play tennis, i think about playing table tennis but never tried. I was wondering if table tennis helps you play tennis better?........if anybody has any suggestions or advice it would be greatly appreciated.Thanks................................ BTW i am new to this forum.

  2. #2

    Talking Ping pong

    I know 1 tennis player who had a backgroung in table tennis thats made a good tennis player. It appears the footwork and short backswing help him time the ball and hit topspin.
    Hope this helps

  3. #3
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    Apr 2009
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    San Antonio, TX
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    i think there will be a short adjusting period when switching between the two. i play both.. my table tennis game is impressive. it is what built interest in tennis for me. go for it, it's a lot of fun especially once you become good (just like tennis).
    Last edited by Lawn Tennis; 06-08-2009 at 05:40 PM.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
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    13
    oh man, playing table tennis screws me up big time. I try to stay as far away form it as I possibly can before any sort of real tennis practice, lol.

  5. #5
    It helps you as far as conditioning goes, ping pong is actually a pretty good cardio workout, other than that, the two have nothing in common.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
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    Clearwater, Florida
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    I played ping pong as a kid. It helped me with my future tennis, including a western topspin forehand, a topspin backhand (and of course slice), learning to stalk and find the ball, many details. A guy that I coached for his second comeback in early 1992, Bjorn Borg, was an avid ping pong player as a kid. He won six French Opens and five Wimbledon. Need to say more?
    Regards and best wishes,
    Oscar Wegner
    TennisTeacher.com
    Oscar Wegner
    www.TennisTeacher.com
    THE LEADER in modern tennis teaching methodology.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by haretrigger View Post
    I know 1 tennis player who had a backgroung in table tennis thats made a good tennis player. It appears the footwork and short backswing help him time the ball and hit topspin.
    Hope this helps
    Yes, I agree with that. Both of these 2 sports require the players to produce great spin and "slice" shots.
    The difference are the strength and agility that involved during tennis games.
    Enjoy every tennis games with my Wilson ncode racquet. Big fans of all Tennis ATP matches.

  8. #8
    Hi,
    Playing table tennis also has a lot of health benefits. It’s a great workout system, allowing the body to sweat a lot. This increases the heart rate of the body. Also despite being the fastest racket sport in the world, table tennis is actually gentle on the body. As it is a non-contact sport, it makes for an excellent and convenient recreational sport for all people of all ages.

    ___________________
    table tennis
    Last edited by tristen; 07-16-2009 at 12:59 AM.

  9. #9
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    Sep 2009
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    Quote Originally Posted by Oscar View Post
    I played ping pong as a kid. It helped me with my future tennis, including a western topspin forehand, a topspin backhand (and of course slice), learning to stalk and find the ball, many details. A guy that I coached for his second comeback in early 1992, Bjorn Borg, was an avid ping pong player as a kid. He won six French Opens and five Wimbledon. Need to say more?
    Regards and best wishes,
    Oscar Wegner
    TennisTeacher.com
    Oscar,
    I couldn't agree more. As a parent of 2 Div I tennis players that I coached, we have seen great improvements since getting our own table. In their Jr days, I noticed that all the top southern players played a lot of table tennis. Fish and Roddick are 2 that I know of in the Pros as well. It is super for hand/eye and the strokes can be very much like the MTM swing across the ball.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
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    240
    No, it cannot help.
    The only thing it may possible help with is improving your concentration and focus.
    table tennis involves little movement and tennis and table tennis have COMPLETELY different strokes.
    In tennis you follow through when swining but in table tennis its a different technique for everything...
    Why am I fighting to live, if I'm just living to fight
    Why am I trying to see, when there aint nothing in sight
    Why am I trying to give, when no one gives me a try
    Why am I dying to live, if I'm just living to die?
    -Tupac Shakur

  11. #11
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    Sep 2009
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    Quote Originally Posted by Robyna View Post
    No, it cannot help.
    The only thing it may possible help with is improving your concentration and focus.
    table tennis involves little movement and tennis and table tennis have COMPLETELY different strokes.
    In tennis you follow through when swining but in table tennis its a different technique for everything...
    Not true at all for a rec table tennis player!
    Are you a pro table tennis player? Oscar was a pro tennis player and is the most noted tennis instructor on the international level,
    so he might know a little about how tennis strokes are affected.
    And, Cause many, if not most tennis players mimic their tennis strokes when playing ping pong.
    Using the MTM approach to strokes, you use the racket like an extension of your hand. This also works well for rec table tennis, but I can't speak for high level table tennis. Maybe someone else can.

    So clearly using the paddle and racket like an extension of your hand, can have a very positive impact on your tennis game. It is super for working on pulling up and across the ball, and I have used this to teach this form to my 10 yr old son. We often play table tennis prior to going to the courts for timing and tune up, along with great practice on rainy days! It is also super for timing and handling the fast exchanges in the net game.
    Last edited by airforce1; 09-06-2009 at 10:12 AM.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Robyna View Post
    No, it cannot help.
    The only thing it may possible help with is improving your concentration and focus.
    table tennis involves little movement and tennis and table tennis have COMPLETELY different strokes.
    In tennis you follow through when swining but in table tennis its a different technique for everything...
    A few observations. How many of you know that during the 1960s and the the 1970s, more pro players went to high school in the St. Louis city area than any other city in the United States. St. Louis coaches produced the Buchholz brothers, Chuck and Bob McKinley, Justina Bricka, Ken Flach, Arthur Ashe, Carol Hanks Aucamp, Trey Waltke, Mary Ann Eisel, Jimmy Connors, and Renee Blount, the first black woman to win a pro tournament given Althea Gibson won Wimbledon as an amateur. Every one of those players and a lot more pros went to high school in the St. Louis area, a record that stood up against California and Florida, produced by the likes of coaching greats Dick Hudlin, Bill Price, Lloyd Brown, and Larry Miller, to name just a few of the many great St. Louis coaches. In fact, in 1964, three women all from St. Louis were ranked in top ten rankings.

    This despite the fact it was a cold weather city with no real indoor clubs and players had to play at the Armory on a gym floor. Bill Price was the world ping pong champion and coached many of the aforementioned players, and influenced a lot of the great St. Louis coaches. Guess what was the common thread all those players had in common. PING PONG. Yep, they all played ping pong in the offseason. I just spoke with Ken Flach (won four grand slams in doubles) and asked him how he viewed the role of ping pong growing up (we went to college together and I was a ping pong champion though he crushed me in tennis) and he said he views tennis (just like Oscar Wegner teaches) as ping pong on a big table, slice, sidespin, topspin, then put it away when you have the chance. He still teaches tennis as if it's ping pong

    I think the game develops feel and playing with the hands, and since eye hand coordination is so important (Oscar Wegner's MTM focuses on tennis as hand-eye game..not a hand eye feet game), that explains why ping pong kept the great St. Louis players sharp when they then hit the courts in warm weather. Yes, you follow through in tennis, but in both you hit across the ball, and that is the key power source in todays modern tennis swing. The modern swing is shaped with the hand, and ping pong promotes that. Price's theories had a huge impact on these great players, and when Andy Davis and I converted to teaching Oscar Wegner's MTM as our foundation, we brought the ping pong tables back to our program after we realizes they helped teach the modern strokes (you don't hit a ping pong ball from a closed stance unless inadvertently).

    For those who want to read an interesting and free History of Tennis Instruction, I invite you to go to:

    http://www.moderntenniscoaches.com/f....php?f=20&t=13

    It's very interesting and makes you realize some things we are being told are now always what really happened. The 1975 entry is fascinating.

    As they say regarding tennis instruction and anything else, "Those who do not know their history are condemned to repeat it."
    Last edited by teachestennis; 09-06-2009 at 12:57 PM.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
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    240
    Quote Originally Posted by airforce1 View Post
    Not true at all for a rec table tennis player!
    Are you a pro table tennis player? Oscar was a pro tennis player and is the most noted tennis instructor on the international level,
    so he might know a little about how tennis strokes are affected.
    And, Cause many, if not most tennis players mimic their tennis strokes when playing ping pong.
    Using the MTM approach to strokes, you use the racket like an extension of your hand. This also works well for rec table tennis, but I can't speak for high level table tennis. Maybe someone else can.

    So clearly using the paddle and racket like an extension of your hand, can have a very positive impact on your tennis game. It is super for working on pulling up and across the ball, and I have used this to teach this form to my 10 yr old son. We often play table tennis prior to going to the courts for timing and tune up, along with great practice on rainy days! It is also super for timing and handling the fast exchanges in the net game.
    Actually, it's true for a majority of players.
    Okay, if someone played table tennis they could start tennis and be good. But that is probably just natural talent or something,
    yes; there are similarities between table tennis and tennis.
    But there are 3 times the differences,
    you have to stretch your arm out more, work at hitting in wider/different angles, the obvious one: move around A LOT more, and tennis requires more plans of tactics and stratergies.
    Why am I fighting to live, if I'm just living to fight
    Why am I trying to see, when there aint nothing in sight
    Why am I trying to give, when no one gives me a try
    Why am I dying to live, if I'm just living to die?
    -Tupac Shakur

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    New England
    Posts
    703
    Very good topic which started several months ago and I hope the originating Poster is still around to read the responses. It reminds me of the question posted a few months back re: Wii Tennis and how that may or may not enhance your strokes. Answer=No Way

    For the most part most of you make valid insertions but I'm leaning towards Robyna's concept(s) on the overall benefits.

    1. Very little extended Footwork required beyond the dimensions of the table for the most part.
    2. Lots of wrist work used in creating spin that you do not use in Tennis in that manner.
    3. Concentration & Focus kinda go together as I see it. But yes, they need to be greatly amplified to be successful for good Hand / Eye coordination.

    Bottomline I don't think I would turn to Table Tennis to hone my Tennis game. However having said that, when you breakdown the
    [Forehand & Backhand Slice] the positioning is pretty much the same construction with far lesser follow-thru, so there you go
    .
    The only acceptable loss is when your opponent was better than you on that given day.
    It is never acceptable to lose when your opponent was not.

  15. #15
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    Apr 2009
    Location
    San Antonio, TX
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    Coach, that kind of reminds me of your take on racquet ball and it's effect on one's tennis. Didn't you say something like if I had never played racquet ball, my strokes would be more sound? Moreover, are you suggesting that I not play table tennis on rainy days?

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