What would be my choice? Do I prefer going to taking personal lessons from a coach or go to a table tennis training camp? My answer would be a training camp.
There are so many good and bad sides to table tennis training camp and personall lessons from coaches.
Personal Lesson from Table Tennis Coaches
The table tennis coaching and lesson from a coach personally costs money. The coaches charge between $30 to $100 per hour for personal lessons. In our area, the table tennis players who are rated 1900 to 2100 give personal classes. They charge $30 per hour. The residential coaches at the club charge between $40 and $60. The top players in the country give coaching, and they charge close to $100.
Being a beginner of table tennis, you need to go to a personal coach first. Thats where you can fix some of your basic techniques like grip, forehand, backhand etc… It is important to have good traits carried over to your game life.
The second step would be to find a coach who can help you improve your strokes. I would not prefer going to a 2200 USATT rated player at this stage. You have to understand your game well and you have to figure out what kind of strokes you need to improve. There is no point in going to a coach who can’t understand you and carve you for your style of game. There are so many egomaniac coaches out there who teach all kinds of wrong techniques. In my case, I had to go out from my city and travel to other places to have some coaching because I like only certain coaches.
Table Tennis Training Camp
The table tennis training camps are not the same everywhere. There are coaches like Dan Seemiller, Mark Norby, Stellan Bangsten, Chen Yingua conduct coaching camps two or three times every year. Then there is advanced coaching camps from Chen Weixing, Rosskopf etc… I have attended some of those training camps.
The reason why these coaches and players run camp because they can save a lot of their time. These players have a tight schedule and can’t be available for private lessons.
Before you go to some of these camps, you have to pass certain stages like you pass certain stages in your school career. Before you go to a camp, make sure you have the basics like grip, forehand, backhand, spin understanding etc… It would be a waste of time if you don’t have these basics and go to a camp. You can be left alone in the camp if you dont have the basics.
The advantage of camp is your chance to play against varity of players who have diffetent skills. The coaches can watch your game and give your tips.
Before you go to a coach, you have to do some home work. Here are few:
1. Make sure the coach you go to is a likable person and not an egomaniac.
2. Make sure the coach you go to speak your language. If you speak English and going to a coach who speaks only Chinese can cost you more time to understand.
3. Make sure you can follow up with that coach any time.
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I am looking for a table tennis training camp between 6/10 and 17/10, I don’t really mind where it is.
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