Joze Urh Impact of Footwork and Balance On Making Contact With The Ball

[Kim4U]

Joze Urh is an energetic and innovative coach, constantly developing advanced coaching techniques. Currently, he is the Slovenia National Coach & Head Coach of the Slovenian Training Center, who led the Slovenian Men's Team to the Bronze Medal in the European Table Tennis Championships in 2017.

A former Yugoslavia National Team Player, he started coaching in 1986. During his career he coached in Italy & Slovenia, and successfully led table tennis players from all levels, helping them win medals in Cadet, Junior, U21 & Senior competitions.

During this lecture, that he gave during the ITTF Rough Diamonds Training Camp in Otočec, Slovenia in 2017, he focuses on the importance of footwork and balance for a player, to make successful ball contact.

In Part 1:

- how aside from hard work, luck is also a factor in an athlete's success (0:00-1:15)

- how coaching mistakes that are made at a young age sometimes cannot be fixed later on & the proper technique needs to be learned from the start of players career (1:15-4:30)

- what makes a good coach & how tough it is to fix bad technique habits (4:30-6:50)

- distance, time & obstacles - factors that influence players movement (6:50-7:55)

- specific movement in table tennis & how it is influenced by the game itself (7:55-9:47)

- example how the quality of a players technique influences a match, how taking risks means making many mistakes (9:47-10:54)

- each player can be classified into 3 categories depending on their basic table tennis position, how body weight and a players center of gravity is essential for a high level table tennis player, if it isn't correct - no chance for success (10:54-14:00)

[Kim4U]

In Part 2:

- How rhythm affects a players game, why it is essential for a table tennis player & how every step counts (0:00-3:10)

- how center of gravity, position of the feet and body & footwork come together to enable a table tennis player to successfully play the game (3:10-6:15)

- video example #1 of good and bad table tennis technique & analysis (6:15-9:56)

- video example #2 of good and bad table tennis technique & analysis (9:56-12:30)

- video example #3 of good and bad table tennis technique & analysis (12:30-15:20)

- how training has to have a purpose & the exercises have to be applicable to competition situations (15:20-16:47)

[Kim4U]

In Part 3:

- video example #1 of good and bad table tennis technique & analysis (0:00-2:36)

- video example #2 of good and bad table tennis technique & analysis (2:36-7:36)

- why balance is so important in table tennis, how the change in rotation of the ball makes a huge difference & why the new plastic balls play a big part in the style of play of a table tennis player (7:36-11:06)

- how the players grip, angle & position of the racket have to adapt to the new balls (11:06-12:43)

[Kim4U]

In Part 4:

- video examples of good and bad table tennis technique & analysis (0:00-4:33)

- how footwork and balance have to be taught simultaneously with table tennis technique (4:33-5:43)

- the Q&A part of the lecture question 1 (5:43-9:02)

- the Q&A part of the lecture question 2 (9:02-10:46)

- the Q&A part of the lecture question 3 (10:46-12:22)

- the Q&A part of the lecture question 4 (12:22-13:32)

- the Q&A part of the lecture question 5 (13:32-16:47)

Thank U!

This coach is talking little bit too much and repeats sometimes things too often, but it was quiet interesting.

The most important thing is to stand wide and to keep the body balanced between both legs. If your torso is outside the left or right leg, you lost the perfect balance point and will not have anymore a stable position to play with good techniques.