5Ss Spirit Skills Strategy Speed Satisfaction

Ever had the satisfaction of having a champion praise you for your game ? Know how good you will feel ? In this issue (blog) I will write less and let you watch more. So that you can SEE DO GET after all that's the fundamental way we learn to do all the things we did.

To attain satisfaction there are 4 stages prior to this. Well spirited, skills, strategy and speed.

SPIRIT

In my earlier blog on the spiritual side of ping pong, I have covered extensively on good spirits while engaging in the game. To start with patience is the most virtuous without which any player would give up easily. The next spirited "component" is a passion to be better as time goes by, yes it takes time so do not expect to become professional overnight. Yet another component is that you must have an genuine desire to learn and get with people to learn from. Unfortunately, reading blogs and watching youtube only gives you the imagination of what to do. So you must be willing to get out there, play the games, sweat it out to learn. Make time for it, not excuses. Now that's the spirit ! SEE, DO (until eventually..) GET.

SKILLS

Ping Pong is renowned not only as a sport, but more so as an art! Of course, one of the most important skill is the serve. Do spend time practicing the serve. Next the rally, the start of which is the return. Followed by a string of various strokes you must learn, in order to have a decent game. Strokes such as the Push (short and long), Drive, Top Spin, Side Spin, Block, Back Spin, No Spin or "Dead" shot. Just to mention a few of the common ones.

Video shows the then 12 years old Ai Fukuhara doing a record time drive.

STRATEGY

If for some or whatever reasons you have only learnt a few skills, you could hardly have strategies enough to execute in any game. Quoting the late legendary Bruce Lee, "I fear not the one who knows 10,000 kicks and practices each about 50 times, but I fear the one who knows only 1 kick, and has practiced 10,000 times" So be patient, do not start learning a new skill, example backhand, till you have mastered your forehand drive, spin and perhaps block. Take a moment and watch the video below, you'll get a few ideas.

Each start of a rally involves a strategy, for example, serve a fast top side spin down the line of your opponent's forehand, forcing him/her to loop or top spin for a return, drive the ball to his/her extreme backhand. Another example is to engage speed and spin, by a variety of the two, you can alter the "tempo" a take command of the game and rallies. By that I mean, sometimes fast sometimes slow returns, thus confusing your opponent.

SPEED

Speed is an important component in your ping pong game. Although it is not necessarily the most important, all players should aspire to develop speed in his / her game. Most veterans resorts to short pips out covering, (hehehe I am one of them) but many young players are learning to use pips out coverings. In fact past champions in world rankings have used them, such as Jiang JeLiang and China's master head coach Liu GuLiang (you can watch below) uses short pips out coverings.

SATISFACTION

I will not dwell into this too much as I am certain we all have our days of feeling satisfied with our efforts and days when we just couldn't get the satisfaction even after playing for 3 hours. Yup, that's ping pong.

Below you will find Tristan giving Ma Long a hard time. I am sure he feels satisfied even though he lost the match to the current world number 1.

Flore Tristan vs Ma Long - You can watch all the 5Ss (Sorry guys/gals it's in Mandarin)

Reminder and Conclusion

Regardless of your current level of play, or your age, book me as coach or teacher if you will.

Stay Healthy .... Wealthy and be at Peace with yourself, your family and the world.

Cheerio and God Bless.