Many of the world’s top coaches are asking the questions…
How can we get both players engaged during a drill?
How can we transition from offense to defense and defense to offense during drills?
How can we get more effective practice during a three-hour session?

When doing a private lesson, I usually have my student begin with a slight footwork drill for warm-up, consistency, and confidence. After a couple minutes, I’ll usually have him start with serve or serve return for the remainder of the drill. Many of my students are “bummed” when we start the drill with the serve because it “messes up” the drill. Before reading the rest of this article, I want you to watch a very short video of me doing a drill without the serve then doing the drill combining it with a tournament serve.

I would like to briefly make some comments about the table tennis stance, then illustrate my final point by showing you a couple short video clips.

 
 
 
 
 
Dear Northeast Ohio Table Tennis Players,
 
Would you please take this 2 minute table tennis survey?
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SBKXLRR
 

 
"I have traveled throughout Europe for most of my life training and competing.  Samson's clinics are much more detailed and organized than any that I have ever attended.  I'm very excited to be a part of his summer clinics and help the Ohio players." - Robert Eriksson (Swedish Men's Singles Bronze Medalist)
 
Many players have been asking about the exact format and details of the clinics here in Akron, Ohio.  So I decided to publish the detailed outline so that you can know exactly will take place throughout the weekend.
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As a special promotion for new players, we are offering a free week of leagues and classes!
If you have never attended our leagues and classes at the Shaw JCC, your first time is free during the week of June 7.  If you are a regular attendee, we thank you for your commitment to growing the sport and want to encourage you to invite friends and family to our free week.
Check it out here:
http://www.samsondubina.com/free-week

 
 
 
 
 
What does it take go from the club level to the elite level?  This is the question hundreds of players are asking.  Before giving you some of the secrets, I’m going to refute 2 myths.
 
Myth #1 – The Formula

Dear Students,

As we begin a new season of training in preparation for the US Nationals.  I would encourage each of you to re-watch some of these fitness videos and choose several exercises to do on a regular basis to improve your strength and speed.  Write down which exercises that you feel will help you the most and we will go over them together in our next lesson.

See you soon!

Coach Samson

(So that you avoid hearing the language in the first video, I recommend turning off the volume)

At the lower-levels, it is critically important to unit-task, to focus exclusively on one particular skill and get it right. With many of my students who are rated 300-800, I will focus exclusively on their forehand loop or backhand push for 20-30 minutes and give them homework on doing shadow strokes or robot practice for just one skill at a time.