Grip, ready position and bat control
Ready when: nothing, this is the first card.
What you are learning
Holding the bat with the shakehand grip, standing ready, and controlling the ball on both sides of the bat by tapping it up and balancing it while walking. Loose fingers give the touch table tennis needs.
Words on this card Bat, Shakehand grip, Ready position, Forehand, Keepy-uppies
- Bat
- The racket; the wooden part is the blade, the sticky surface the rubber.
- Shakehand grip
- Holding the bat as if shaking hands, the first finger along the back of the blade.
- Ready position
- Standing an arm's length from the table, feet wide, knees bent, bat in front.
- Forehand
- Hitting on your bat-hand side, or across the body on the other side.
- Keepy-uppies
- Bouncing the ball up on the bat again and again.
Show it first for the one teaching
- Shake hands with the bat: three fingers round the handle, the thumb on one side and the first finger along the back of the blade.
- Stand an arm's length from the table, feet wider than the shoulders, weight on the balls of the feet, bat in front.
- Tap the ball up on the forehand side, then the backhand side, then alternate.
Your part while they practise
Check the grip.
Step by step
- Hold the bat: shake hands with it, first finger along the back of the blade.
- The ready stance: an arm's length from the table, feet wider than the shoulders, weight on the balls of the feet, bat in front.
- Tap the ball up on the bat, forehand side, backhand side, then alternating.
- Walk with the ball balanced on the bat.
How much: 5 tries of each 8 min a session 4 days a week
Say one thing Pick one line from "What you will see" for today and say only that.
The game: Keepy-uppies
Tap the ball up and count; beat your best.
Who plays: the child against their own best.
How to play, turn by turn
- Turns
- Tap forehand side only and count until it drops
- Then backhand side only
- Then alternating
- 3 tries of each; add the best of each
- Fair play
- A grown-up taps with the other hand.
- Points
- 1 point for each tap in your best tries, added together.
- Fouls
- The count stops
- Two taps in a row on the same side when alternating
- A catch with the free hand
- A fist grip instead of the shakehand grip
- Winning
- Beat your best total.
- 15 points for 1 star
- 30 points for 2 stars
- 50 points for 3 stars
Easier or harder
A bigger ball or paddle.
Alternate sides of the bat.
What you will see, and what to say
- the grip is a fist
Loose fingers, shake hands
Gentle hold. - the bat is below the waist
Bat in front, knees bent
Ready.
Self-check
10 taps in a row on the forehand side and 8 alternating sides.
Fitness for this
Warm up first: how to warm up, at workonfitness.com. For strength and stretching, its exercise library shows each exercise step by step, with an easier version.
This card trains grip, feel, ready position.
awiseathlete.com/sports/table-tennis/table-tennis-b1