A lot of players ask me “what is the right sponge thickness for me?” and “how do I tell if the sponge is any good?”

The first thing you need to examine is how thick you want your sponge. To do this you need to know the properties of the different thicknesses. So let’s look at this aspect first.

Properties of different thickness

The thinner the sponge the more control you will get, the thicker the sponge the more speed and spin. The thicker sponge allows the ball to sink further into the rubber and wrap around the ball on impact. This allows better grip on the ball and therefore more spin. The thinner sponge allows more direct hitting as the ball goes through to the wood. You get a flatter trajectory as you don’t get as much grip on the ball.

Now let’s examine your playing style and see what suits you best.

Playing Styles

Players that like to play defensively would tend to use a thinner sponge like a 1.0mm to 1.5mm sponge. This gives them more control over the ball, especially when it is hit hard at them.

Attacking players that play a flatter more controlled game would be better with a sponge around 1.5mm.

Players at the other end of the scale that like to attack with a lot of topspin should look more at the 2.0mm and 2.2mm sponges. Often the manufacturers will call their sponge thickness Max (Maximum). This normally refers to thicknesses around 2.2mm.

The different manufacturers of rubbers usually offer a few different sponge thickness options for each of their rubbers. Some of the more popular rubbers will offer thicknesses ranging all the way from 1.0mm to 2.2mm. However most rubber suppliers will offer thicknesses of 1.5 to 2.2mm for attacking rubbers and some of the thinner options for defensive rubbers.

Beginners

To start with I would recommend that beginners use sponge thickness of around 1.5mm. You may go up to 2.0mm with a more controlled type rubber and sponge. The 1.5mm sponge will offer you better control to learn your strokes. You will be able to generate enough spin to do your basic strokes correctly but will not be overwhelmed with the speed. If you use a thick and fast sponge first you will feel like you need to compromise your strokes to have enough control on the ball. The slower sponge will allow you to execute your strokes fully and with confidence.

Quality of Sponge

This is a more difficult question as it is often very difficult to tell the quality of a sponge until you hit with it. If you are a little more experienced look for a sponge that isn’t too aerated without substance. You can see this on some pre-made bats. The sponge needs to be a little firmer to allow it to grip around the ball and not just let the ball go right through to the wood.

Hi Alois/Jeff,

I have been a passive visitor of your website (pingskills) for over a month. I have been following your training videos very closely and have learnt a lot about the game and how to play strokes more effectively and technically.

I work with a Software firm here in India and I competed in an Intra-organization Table Tennis Tournament, and all your skills, learning helped me a lot, and today the tournament ended and I finished as the runner up (lost to a classy national level player). I just wanted to thank you for all the teachings imparted which helped me to get to the finals. I’m eager to develop my game to new heights, and learn lots more from you.

Thank You once again.

Regards,

Aashish

PingSkills are proud to present 3 more video lessons to help you improve your Table Tennis

• Ready Position
• Drop Shot off a Lob
• Drop Shot off a Chop

If you have any questions regarding these lessons then be sure to use the Ask the Coach section of our website. We love to talk about Table Tennis here at PingSkills.

The 10,000 hour Rule

In his book he talks about the 10,000 hour rule. This rule relates to the amount of time required to master something. He refers to “The Beatles” being given an apportunity to play in Hamburg for 8 hours a day 7 days a week. On their first trip they performed 106 nights for 5 or more hours each night. On their second trip they performed 92 nights and on their third trip they performed 48 times for a total of 172 hours on stage. The last two trips in 1962 involved 90 hours of performing. They pefrformed in total 270 nights in just over a year and a half. By the time they had their first success they had performed 1200 times.

Another example is Bill Gates who had the opportunity to do real-time programming as an eighth grader. In 1968 his school decided to spend some fundraising money on a computer terminal. The terminal was hooked up to mainframe computer downtown. At that time most colleges didn’t even have computer clubs. From the time the school received the computer, Gates spent most of his time in the computer room. Over the next years he had opportunity galore to learn his trade and he used it.

Lesson for Us

The lesson here for us is that mastering a skill doesn’t come easily or even quickly. The Beatles didn’t just happen to get good. They put in hours and hours of work before success happened, as did Bill Gates. For we Table Tennis nuts, the same applies. You just can’t get good within a couple of weeks, or even months. To really succeed and to become great at the game requires dedicated work over a long period of time. So if you are struggling with a new serve, in many cases the simple answer is get out there and do it more. I often get complaints from students that their serve isn’t working. When I quiz them on how much they had practiced it, the answer is often “I did some serving last week” or something similar. If the Beatles had to put in 270 nights of playing for around 5 hours a night, over a year and a half to get better, we shouldn’t start complaining that we can’t do a skill until we have done some serious training!

PingSkills offers you our Training Secrets Revealed DVD as a method of teaching you how to improve your game. The answers are most often not in the type of guitar or rubber you are using but more in how much and how well you have trained. The answers are about what drills that you do and how you structure your time when you are training. It is about how much time you devote to each part of your training.

If you are stressing about a skill that you can’t perform, don’t! Just get out there and put some more time into it. Mastery will happen when you put in the quality time.

Outliers is a great book with many other intersting observations. It is certainly recommended reading, not just for Table Tennis.

I read the blog “Why Table Tennis Is A Horrible Spectator Sport” the other day. It was a very interesting article and I’ve heard a number of people agree with most of what was written. I personally though don’t think that Table Tennis is terrible to watch. In fact it is my favourite sport to watch but you could say that I am a little biased.

When people find out that I play Table Tennis, the first thing I hear is: “Wow, I love watching it when the players are 10 feet back from the table smashing the ball back and forth.” However here in Australia at least you don’t actually get to see Table Tennis on TV very much. The problem is that the sport is simply not popular enough. People have enough sport to watch with football, cricket, soccer, basketball and car racing.

Too Complicated?

When the Olympics were on in 2008 we did get to see some Table Tennis here thanks to the tremendous efforts of the Australian team. A few of my work collegues occassionally did mention what a terrible shot it was not to get that simple serve back. However I don’t think that this is a problem with the complexity of the game. After playing with the correct equipment and a decent coach for only 15 minutes most people would understand how difficult it can be to return a good serve. This understanding then helps people enjoy the game. I believe we we should be trying to educate people about the intricacies of the game rather than trying to simplify it.

Short Rallies

Are short rallies really a problem? The length of a rally doesn’t affect my enjoyment of the game. What I like to see is competitors trying to perform under pressure. Watching the events unfold and seeing how the players deal with each stage of the match is fascinating. Trying to see if one player is getting nervous or watching someone save match point with an unbelievable shot, these are the things I like to see.

Your Thoughts?

I don’t believe that there are fundamental problems with the sport. It’s just that at the moment it is not popular enough in certain countries to be shown on public television. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Let us where you are from and how Table Tennis is perceived in your country. And importantly, do you think Table Tennis is a great spectator sport?

Well it is hard to believe but another year has passed us by. I’d like to thank all of our readers for supporting PingSkills in 2009 and we hope to keep you inspired to improve your Table Tennis in 2010. We’ve got a big year planned. Here are a just a few of the things we are hoping to achieve:

• Make a lot more free lessons
• Produce a new DVD - “Receiving Secrets Revealed”
• Start selling some PingSkills shirts

Good luck with all of your own goals for 2010. Aim high and make this year one to remember!

Alois and Jeff

We’re currently experiencing some issues with the download speed of our videos. We’ve had a couple of customers email in and let us know that the download is taking over 10 hours. We are looking into the issue and will let you know as soon as it is resolved.

What are we doing to solve the problem?

We’ve logged a support call with our website hosting provider and are following up with them on a regular basis.

Sorry

Sorry for the inconvenience caused and if you have been affected then please send us an email to let us know. We take issues with the download process seriously and aim to offer the best service we can. Thanks for your patience.

If you order soon it can still be there for Christmas.

Go on, treat yourself.

If you have and had any luck please give us some tips here at PingSkills.

After giving the game on the ITTF site a try I can honestly say that I need some work… In fact I am still searching for my first point. To take my advice, it may just need some ‘perfect practice’.

It may also have something to do with the fact that I come from the dinosaur age but then I gave a couple of kids a try and they had about the same degree of success as I did.

So any tips for this dinosaur?

After also trying the Wii game of Table Tennis I realise that I should probably stick to the real thing. After spending much effort to master my strokes and looking for perfect technique with my strokes on the Wii Game, moving the controller to the exact specifications of a deadly forehand topspin, I came across a couple of youngsters that with the flick of a finger were sending the ball hurtling past me at breakneck speeds.

So where to from here with my Table Tennis video game career? Probably back to the real game is my best bet…