unnecessary-movement-and-anticipation-issue
oliverlim asked 2 years ago
Looking back at my videos of match play, I found that I have a very bad habit. Basically I tend to anticipate where the ball is going. This results in good players seeing me move before they hit the ball and going the other way. This early movement before knowing where the ball is going also results in my position being stable. My bat angle/position also tends to “bob” up and down or left and right. This results many times in my hittting the ball with my blade edge or hitting a poor shot back due to the unstability of my body.
I have tried many things including saying a sentence like “stable, watch, pause, react” etc but I still have the same issue. It’s almost an ingrain habit. If I do manage to condition myself on those days to wait for the ball to be hit then move, I find many times then that I am so stuck or rooted to the floor that I react too slowly which is also a problem.
Do you have any exercise or advice that I can use to correct this issue?
Dan Academy Coach answered 2 years ago
Hey Oliver,
Ok this is something I have had in the past and really needed to work in as well! Just doing lots of irregular drills is the best way to fix this problem. One of the best is just getting someone to block you anywhere in the table and you have to topspin into their backhand, this helps yoh start to read where the ball is going better and not guess to early.
Also Multi-ball is a great way to speed up your movement and become more stable because it’s faster than normal speed play so you get used to switching and anticipation of shots and in games it becomes easier. The last thing is just to try as much as you can to stay relaxed and loose in games, if you are tense or stiff these moments get a lot harder and you will feel rooted to the spot. Let us know how it goes!
Dan 🙂
