A year of table tennis training can be broken down into three main cycles—In-season, off-season, and pre-season. So with the US National championships over seven months away and the North American Teams not till Thanksgiving, it’s time to put that racket away for awhile and go into the cycle of off-season training. During the in-season cycle of the year, you should have been focusing on match-situations drills and methods to compete at a higher level. This is much different that the off-season period. This cycle is more physically intensive and you will only be playing table tennis 1-2 times per week just to keep some feeling.

The type of physical exercise is not that important. What is important is that the exercises build explosiveness, power, and quickness. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways such as running, weight training, and/or swimming. The best way to build explosiveness and power is by weight training. The weight should be heavy, with few repetitions (6-8), and the movement explosive. Squats is an exercise renowned for building explosiveness and is excellent for table tennis. Another approach is to use lighter weight and to do more repetitions (12-15). However, this tends to build more endurance and not as much explosive power.

In addition to your strength training routine, it is also important to maintain and build endurance. A great way to accomplish this is by running or swimming. Do any one of these on days that you don’t weight train and work at a pace that is relaxing and comfortable for about 45 minutes. This will build the endurance you need to take you through even the longest of matches.

You should be doing one of the above exercises at least four times per week and play table tennis no more than twice a week. A sample routine is as follows:

Monday: Weight Training (Legs). Tuesday: Table Tennis for about 1-2 hours Wednesday: Weight Training (upper body). Thursday: Running. Friday: Table Tennis 1-2 hours. Saturday: Swimming. Sunday: Rest. Repeat. Of course adjust any to combination that better suits you.

This will give your body enough time to recover from the added physical activity and enough table time so that you don’t lose your touch. Continue this program for a couple of months to receive the maximum benefit. When the pre-season training time comes and the amount of table tennis is increased, you will see a noticeable difference in your game. Guaranteed!

Train hard!

Eric