1. Ball Bouncing: A player takes a bat and bounces a table tennis ball on the forehand and backhand sides. Recording how many they achieve and establishing personal best scores (PBs). If a table tennis ball is too difficult I use balloons.
2. Relay Races: Starting with just walking, take a table tennis ball from one box and put into another, distance and number dependent on level or movement required and numbers in the session. Build to sprint, introduce side step, shuffle movement, backwards etc.
3. Speed Agility Quickness Ladders. I use a couple of indoor ladders in my sessions. Developing basic footwork skills and co-ordination. I use ladders with players as young as 5yrs and they appear to both enjoy and show improvement in these sessions.
4. Adaptive Games: Any indoor game that provides correct movement, jumping, running, throwing skills that can be safely played in the space provided. We have played rounders, cricket, balloon volley ball, soccer and hockey within a table tennis session.
5. Swiss Ball: I use the Swiss Ball in a number of games, especially with the youngest group. The children instantly respond to playing with the ball. It is large, soft and colourful. The ball is suitable for a number of balance and agility games. The favourite game is the ball chase. Everyone stands in a circle and you pass the ball by rolling it around the middle. The first player touches the ball and then has to run round the outside of the circle and regain their place before the ball returns. We play it so that even if you don’t return in time the next person carries on so there is no delay or highlighting failure of the child who did not get back in time. In this way even if a play has limited function they can still participate.
6. Parachute: I have a small 12 person parachute that I find ideal for the younger players. There are many games you can play and involve everyone. A good introduction game and a way to learn players names is to get them to call out their names one by one and run under the parachute. You could call out an age or month of birth or favourite colour and players respond by running under and then out again to a different place. There are loads of variations. Having a ball on the parachute and tying to make it go round or throw in up and catch. A session with a parachute with the youngest players is always full of smiles and laughing.
7. Ball work: I have around a dozen different types of balls. Big, small, soft, bouncy, wobbly, noisy, heavy etc. There are a number of games that can be played, throwing, catching, bouncing etc. It doesn’t matter if the ball is not the correct ball for the sport that you are coaching; just having different ones to chose from makes it more exciting. I have a 1kg liquid filled rubber medicine ball this always proves to one of the children’s favourites. We play passing games and rolling games with it, it is too heavy to throw or kick and it seems to attract a high level of fascination and challenge.
8. Chinese Skipping: This is a game I remembered watching as a kid but never tried it out myself until last year while I was at a top table tennis club in China. You take a large piece of elastic and make a loop around your legs and that of another. The two players stand apart and stretch out the elastic. That is the game set. One person performs a movement, either jumps onto the elastic or inside the ring. The next player then copies it. The movements then get more complicated with each player then jumping out of the ring. The elastic is then raised a little and the same sequence begins again. The last one left who hasn’t made a mistake is the winner. The young group in China made it look extremely easy and showed a high level of agility.
9. Foot Shuttlecock – Bean Bags: I picked up a couple of foot shuttlecocks. These have large feathers on them and a rubber weight at the bottom. They can be kicked, tapped or hit with any part of the body. This can be done between two players or in a larger circle. Bean bags or Hacky sacks serve a similar purpose.
10. Hula-Hoops: The simple hula-hoop is very underestimated. Just trying to hula can provide good hip rotation as well as co-ordination skills. Using them as part of an obstacle course, trying to roll them or even having them as “dens” in tag or it. I use one game where I have a Red, Green and Yellow hoop. When I say “stop” they have to go to red, “go” they move to green, “wait” and they go to yellow. Moving on they have to use a different movement, ie put their right foot into red, left foot into green right hand into yellow. I start with clear; “Stop, Go and Wait” instructions then gradually introduce them into conversation. “Ok we will STOP there.” I then wait to see if they go to the red hoop. “Just wait there!” and see if they go to yellow. The kids enjoy it and they get used to listening, movement skills, co-ordination skills and I introduce language comprehension, some kids still can't tell their left from right!
Table Tennis Fundamental session: My Table Tennis Fundamental session lasts for around 45mins. In the first 8 weeks the 5yr-8yr olds rarely play and exercises on the table. I sometimes do not even put a table up. Warm-ups are done through slow movement games (parachute) and include stretching. The activity level is then gradually increased using the ladder or a ball game. I would try to incorporate a degree of table tennis specific movements, sideways shuffle and one step work, hip and shoulder rotation etc. I would also introduce table tennis specific basic skills, correct grip, ready stance, and bat and ball control. For the last few minutes I concentrate on calming the kids down with games that require balance and controlled movement. In this way I hope to introduce more formal Cool Downs at a later stage and they are delivered back to their parents in a reasonably calm state of mind.
Where do we go from there?
I have a completely different approach to coaching the “Tots” (Beginner 5yrs-8yrs) the fundamentals in comparison to the “Mates” (Intermediate 8-12yrs). But like all levels I think it is very difficult to generalise. What motivates a 6 year-old and what motivates an 8 year-old depends more his or her personality than their age and each one is different. Some players seem to be motivate by beating someone, others are motivate by winning prizes. I use the ITTA 1 Star proficiency Award as well as stickers, posters, sweets, coloured balls, in fact anything that might appeal.
The name of the game for me is FUN. If the session is fun then they will come back for more. This is the key motivator for kids. I coach a lot of different sports and maybe this makes me look at it a little differently. I am delighted if a kid chooses to play table tennis, I am also delighted if they turn up to play cricket, soccer, GAA or any other of the sports. I think to get a child to play sport of any kind is a success and if we can give them this habit for life then we have achieved the ultimate success which is of a higher value to me than medals but harder to judge. If we get more kids playing sport I believe we will have a healthier and happier society. As a sports coach I’m glad to be part of that process.
What I hope is that when a kid turns up to play table tennis for the first time that he enjoys the experience and has fun. If he has fun, it is not too far to travel and not too expensive “they will be back!” Not everyone who comes through my door is destined to be a great table tennis player but I hope everyone who comes through my door leaves after enjoying the experience and better equipped to remain active in what ever they choose.
In the same way I hope that the kids who discover they enjoy table tennis as 12-17 year-olds, that they have the fundamental skills already in place. Co-ordination is a skill that can be taught and it like many other skills is best taught at an early age.
Put simply a child of 12 who has not developed fundamental co-ordination skills is physically illiterate and who is responsible for that?
Owen Kelly is an ITTA Tutor and has been a qualified table tennis coach for over 25 years. He is currently Head Coach for Munster Special Olympics Table Tennis and is a Buntús Tutor for CCLSP. He has expereince coaching a number of sports including Cricket, Athletics, Soccer, GAA and Short Mat Bowles. He married with 4 young children and lives in West Cork. More coaching articles can be found on his website Table Tennis Ireland under Coaches Corner. (www.ttireland.com) 
