Analysis and Table Tennis

During practice, emphasize technical analysis. The ball behaves in a predictable way during practice; you can reliably predict its speed, spin, and destination (if you have a good practice partner). These conditions allow you to determine the minute adjustments that need to be made to your grip, stroke, or stance. You proceed to make adjustments until you are satisfied with the effectiveness of your stroke in a particular drill. You can then infer that your final stroke will be effective in all situations that are like the one represented in the drill;. It is very difficult to make these cumulative adjustments during play because the situation changes from one moment to the next.

During play, emphasize tactical analysis. When you play, your technical skills should have been developed during practice so that you don’t have to think about them. If you think about technical minutia during play, you will not be able to attend to the complex nature of the game and your reaction time will suffer. This is not the time to experiment with new modifications to your technique. You do not have here the luxury of predictability. However, you must think about exploiting the weaknesses of your opponent. In between sets you can think about general strategies e.g. which serve to use and how to return the third ball. During sets you should think about immanent strategies e.g. how to place the ball in a way that will inconvenience your opponent.

During play, the good player performs the exactly the sufficient amount of analysis that is necessary for victory. The graph where the level of analysis is on the x axis and the level of performance is on the y axis produces a normal, bell-shaped curve. Over-analysis, or improper analysis (i.e. technical analysis) leads to paralysis (i.e. longer reaction times and hesitation). However, a mindless player – though he is likely to have shorter reaction times - cannot exploit the weaknesses of his opponent and is vulnerable to his opponent’s tactical sense.