Table tennis coaching - Reaching the top form

The most critical question for a coach is: ""How to assure the best form for a given period of time, and how to use the player's maximum potentials, if I know that in each development phase there are the rising of the form, the top form achieving, the form stabilization and the time fall?"" First of all one thing is sure. There is not even one table tennis player who is in top form the whole year arround. Thinking of the training and the annual events calendar (both international and national), it is obvious that the players are too much pressured and their top form can not be foreseen with just one maximum. So we have to foresee such a practice which assure the top form at least in the most important moment (e.g. World Championships). Many different factors influence the player's top form. Some of them are:

• Quantity and quality of training (training intensity and volume, technical and physical).
• The psychological profile of the player.
• His nutrition and habits.
• The competition calendar.

Quantity and quality of training helps a talented player to reach his potential and become a good player. However there is not a guaranty that a certain type of practice will produce the top form in a specific time period. The quantity of the training is dependent to physical, technical, tactical and psychological preparation. As a coach you must know the individual abilities of the regenaration of your players and you must plan your practicing accordignly, so that the player can reach the top form in the important matches. I will give you an example of the periodization with which you can achieve two peaks of the player's form exactly when it is important or even most important.

Simple periodization (the target is the Table Tennis World Championships)
We have two competition periods (Sept 15th - Dec 1st) and (Feb 15th - May 15th). The preparation periods should precede to each of these competition periods while one month transition period should be foreseen at the end of the season. First preparation period has 2.5-3 months duration beginning on June 15th till Sept 15th. During this period broad preparation of the physical conditions should be made together with technical practice with multi balls. First competition period follows with matches which take place each weekend. The goal of training is to maintain the basic physical abilities and rise the playing and tactical abilities step by step. While the training intensity is gradually increasing, the training volume is decreasing and the playing and tactical elements come in the first place. During the second preparation period (Dec 2nd - Feb 15th) the training volume is increasing while the intensity remains on the same levels (or just below the levels of the competition period). I have to point out here that the best results in single sports (such as table tennis) is achieved in two or three months after the period of the highest intensivity. The second competition training schedule is the same as in the first competition period. Just before the important tournament (World Championships) the training intensity has to be diminuished. At this moment the player's form is increasing reaching the top at the time of the crucial match.

© Denis TT World

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