The equipment needed in this session is tennis balls, table tennis balls and table tennis rackets. The session is divided into three parts. The first part starts with running exercises as in previous sessions. In the second part, the tennis ball exercises are continued but at the same time great attention is paid to the bouncing of the ball. The children must discover by themselves, the required tossing height of the ball. The coach must emphasize the initial movement of the arm when tossing the ball as well as the follow through movements of the body.

Drills

• The children bounce the ball with one hand from a standing, a sitting, a walking, a running, and a jumping position.
• They run while bouncing the ball without chasing after it.
• They run and bounce the ball with right and then their left hand to various heights.
• The children do all the above exercises zigzagging through obstacles.
• The aim in all the above exercises is to give symmetry and rhythm to the childrens movements. At this point, the children must learn to master their body. In the third part of the session, the children are presented with a table tennis racket for the first time. The coach will say a few words about the racket its history and how it developed into what it is now (material, shape, weight.). The children are shown both grips (European-Asian), some simple movements are shown and then the coach moves on to the first drill.

Drill

All the children face the wall and have the ball bounce in front of them and then they strike it towards the wall. They must control the force of the strike. If everything goes smoothly, they do the same with the other side of the racket and then do a combination of both sides of the racket. If they succeed with the exercise, the children then bounce the ball on the racket while counting the number of bounces they manage. After this, they do the same with the opposite side of the racket. Next, they bounce the ball on the racket while running straight ahead or zigzagging along.

This session is very important. It requires great attention from the children and the coach. The coach will stay on session four until he feels that it is thoroughly mastered.

Source: Table Tennis: From A to Z e-book

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