Welcome to Big Island Table Tennis Association!

Beginning table tennis after a tennis career, I sought those identifying names for the basic set of shots that make up the game. In tennis we have serves, volleys, ground strokes, plus a few specialty shot types like overheads, half-volleys, and drop shots. With a few modifiers that’s about it. You can understand and play all phases of the game with just those few sensible, commonly used terms.

As we watched the amazing Chinese National Team players demonstrating drills at our club, we noted a very clear distinction between the movement of these visiting athletes and our club players. Despite adequate strength and fitness, our own tottering mortals lurched and lunged for shots that those lighter-than-air ethereal players seemed consistently poised to consummate.

Recently our club had the good fortune of hosting former world champion Jiang Jialing and two members of the women’s Chinese National Team. In awe we watched demonstrations of their drills – loop versus block, dancing footwork across the baseline – and then as a finale, these champions each played a single game with one of our players.

When we search for a table tennis coach, there’s a tendency to look for the very best player we can find. It’s true that the best players are examples of optimum execution in the sport. Great coaching certainly is critical to great play. But does great play necessarily predict great coaching?