Last Updated on October 4, 2025 by Sorin Petroj
Perhaps the most apparent benefit of table tennis drills is that they replicate aspects of games, training your body and mind to move, react, and make decisions within specific scenarios you experience almost every day in competition. Professional players understand this fundamental principle, with the ITTF High Performance Programme emphasizing “intensive, structured training weeks” that prominently feature both technical drills and match play scenarios.
A single drill can focus on one aspect or combine different elements. The concept could be simple yet valuable, or quite advanced and complicated with several areas to work on simultaneously. According to recent training methodologies, professional players spend 4-6 hours per day in total table tennis activities, with approximately 60-75% dedicated to technical drills and physical conditioning, while 25-40% focuses on match play and sparring.
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This versatility makes table tennis drills crucial for your table tennis practice. Drills help you become a more consistent table tennis player in competition. The more you practice training sessions with drills, the better your timing, consistency, and accuracy become.
The importance of table tennis drills
Table tennis is 90% mental, so having lots of repetition in your practices helps both the physical movement and mental aspects of your game. As Larry Hodges emphasizes, “consistency and good form lead to speed and power,” suggesting that drill-based repetition is essential to build a sound technical foundation before adding more advanced skills or speed.
Tom Lodziak, international coach and author, reinforces this principle: “The best way to improve is with a mixture of regular match play and lots of focused, structured practice. Drills help you develop specific skills.” This advice highlights the importance of planned exercises to isolate and improve key areas of play, rather than relying solely on matches or unstructured practice.
Drills can make you a better player in multiple areas depending on the style you practice. Timo Boll, a three-time Olympic table tennis player from Germany, demonstrates in this video how to play safer by using footwork and practice drills that help keep your focus on the ball instead of getting caught up in competition adrenaline.
If your training has been correct and you’ve created good habits during drill practice, such as maintaining a wide stance for backhand returns and executing 5 consistent forehand topspins in a row, you’ll execute those good habits in matches better than if you had practiced with incorrect technique.
Structuring Your Practice Sessions: Timing and Progression
Recent coaching methodologies recommend organizing your table tennis training into structured sessions with specific timing allocations. Richard McAfee, cited by coaching experts, advocates “15 minutes each day” of targeted shadow practice, showing that even relatively short, highly focused drills conducted frequently yield strong results.
Both Lodziak and Hodges recommend practice session timing of about 15-20 minutes per focused drill segment, noting that variety and intensity are more effective than unfocused, lengthy sessions. This approach aligns with modern training principles that emphasize quality over quantity in skill development.
For optimal results, structure your practice sessions to include warm-up, technical drills, footwork practice, multiball training, serve and return work, and match play simulation. This comprehensive approach ensures balanced development across all essential table tennis skills.
10 Essential Table Tennis Drills by Skill Level
I’ve organized these table tennis drills by skill level to help you choose appropriate exercises for your current ability. These include the best human-assisted and robot table tennis drills available, incorporating both traditional training methods and modern multiball techniques.
Beginner Level Drills
1. Ten in a row (Beginner)
Mark your target with tape on the floor. Use a ball that’s easy to control, such as one with no spin from a short serve. Start your service motion as usual but stop just before hitting the ball. Hit from this position, ensuring the ball goes over the tape. If it doesn’t, start again from the beginning.
You need to complete this table tennis drill 10 times in a row without error to be considered one complete set. This exercise is excellent for building confidence under pressure and developing consistency in your service technique.
Tip: If you cannot achieve 10 in a row without missing, don’t get frustrated. Keep practicing this drill until you can complete 10 consecutive successful attempts.
2. Target practice table tennis drills (Beginner-Intermediate)
This service practice drill works great with another player and can become a friendly competition. The goal is to knock targets from the table consistently with the fewest serves possible. Place servers at all 4 corners of the table and hit each corner in order.
Start by placing 8 targets and aim to knock down all of them with 8 serves. Keep repeating until you hit all 8 targets with 8 serves. After achieving this goal, progress to smaller targets and repeat the process.
Intermediate Level Drills
3. Forehand and backhand topspin drill (Intermediate)
This drill focuses on correct stroke direction and trains good footwork patterns. It’s essential for making quick transitions between backhand and forehand strokes while maintaining concentration on the ball.
The backhand and forehand strokes are two of the most critical shots in table tennis. This drill helps you develop ball feel while moving back and forth and changing between shots. It also improves racquet familiarity and proper technique application.
When practiced against a wall, this drill excels at improving control and technique. Focus on making decisive first moves and reacting quickly when the ball passes you, emphasizing both tactical decisions and quick reactions.
4. Two backhand and two forehand drive drill (Intermediate)
Begin by moving in a pattern, making forehand groundstrokes between positions. Keep your eye on the ball until contact. Once you’ve completed the forehand sequence, move to the backhand side and repeat using backhand strokes.
This drill develops consistency with your forehand and backhand topspin drive shots. Maintain your non-playing arm extended at shoulder level and follow through with your racket in a straight line for every shot.
5. Shadow practice table tennis drills (All Levels)
Shadow practice helps you see the ball better, improving foot speed and movement. You’ll also enhance your footwork and hand-eye coordination.
Practice this drill alone or with a partner to ensure you hit balls quickly and correctly. Start at one side of the court and jump to the other, developing speed and stamina through quick side-to-side movement.
Begin in the middle of the court and run forward to reach balls that can be hit down the line to your forehand. The ball should be positioned so you move forward, not back toward the court’s middle. Repeat to the other side for balanced development.
Advanced Level Drills
6. Multiball footwork progressions (Advanced)
Modern coaching emphasizes multiball training as fundamental to developing advanced skills. These drills enable executing a large number of strokes quickly, sharply improving consistency and form through high-repetition technical practice.
Incorporate movement by alternating ball feeds between wide forehand, middle, and wide backhand positions, requiring quick movement and position recovery after each shot. Advanced players should aim for a minimum of 100 consecutive balls in a single drill session to maximize muscle memory development.
Progress from fixed placement drills to alternating patterns like “two to backhand, one to forehand,” then advance to randomized distributions that challenge adaptability and maintain proper technique under match-like pressure.
7. The Falkenberg Table Tennis Drills (Advanced)
Footwork excellence requires covering all table tennis court areas and using all strokes in every possible situation. In terms of scenario training, once you’ve practiced this from both table corners, it becomes familiar during matches because you’ll encounter these situations repeatedly.
The Falkenberg drill excellently practices opening and turning in your backhand corner. While not extremely common, this situation crops up regularly during competitive play. The comprehensive BH/FH, middle, BH/FH nature covers many possible angles and provides ample time for appropriate turning steps.
This method proves particularly advantageous if you’ve found yourself missing balls while trying to move into position too quickly. The drill’s structured progression builds confidence and precision in complex positional transitions.
Dimitrij Ovtcharov demonstrates excellent footwork drill training in this video:
The first shot is played while facing the net, but when you rotate for the second, you change direction and hit from an open stance position. Through repeated practice of this footwork drill, you cover all table parts from any position.
8. The backhand, middle, backhand, wide drill (Intermediate-Advanced)
This drill begins simply with the feeder pushing to you, and you return in a very defined way with a straight bat angle. Hit either forehand or backhand each time while the feeder varies between wide forehands, wide backhands, or down-the-line shots.
You can alter whether you’re defending to the backhand or forehand corner by adjusting clockwise movement in your return and the anti-clockwise rotation of your body during the shot. This drill excellently develops ball placement, accuracy, spin, and control.
9. Serve and return practice drills (All Levels)
Richard McAfee advocates organizing practice around specific sequences, noting that “every chapter includes training drill ideas for the first 5 shots in the rally.” This approach reinforces that planned drills for set periods, often 10-20 minutes per skill, should dominate training sessions.
Practice short backspin serves followed by push or flick returns, then transition to faster topspin feeds to different areas. This helps players practice transitioning from defense to attack while improving anticipation skills essential for competitive success.
Use multiball to simulate realistic point patterns: short backspin feed for practicing pushes or flicks, followed by faster topspin feeds to different areas, helping players transition from defense to attack.
10. Advanced blocking and counter-attack drills (Advanced)
Return to basics and counter-attack with push or chop returns using a soft touch yet big swing motions. Initially challenging, you’ll develop feel for these returns and improve accuracy significantly. These basic strokes become well-disguised and often irritating to attacking opponents.
The key principle involves not over-hitting when facing topspin attacks. Keep returns low and controlled because even faster returns will have backspin and won’t generate excessive speed. This technique stems from the beginning of table tennis history and remains effective today.
Focus on taking pace off the ball through slight pullback motions at contact, creating short returns perfect for maintaining defensive positioning while disrupting opponent rhythm.
Modern Training Methods: Robot and Multiball Integration
Contemporary table tennis training increasingly incorporates systematic multiball and robot exercises designed for specific skill development. These methods prove particularly effective for intermediate players seeking to advance their technical precision and tactical awareness.
Fixed placement routines involve setting robots or feeders to deliver balls to specific locations, polishing individual strokes through repetition. Alternating placement patterns like “two to backhand, one to forehand” or “middle-backhand-forehand” sequences help develop rhythm and anticipation while adjusting pace as skills improve.
The most advanced training incorporates randomized ball placement and spin variation, closely mimicking real-game unpredictability. Modern training guides stress using robots that randomize placement and spin effects, preparing players tactically for competitive scenarios.
Table tennis tips from other players
When competing, don’t fear sacrificing occasional points strategically. Many players serve short against loopers due to anxiety, allowing opponents to stay close and anticipate short serves. Keep opponents guessing by occasionally serving fast down the line or to their backhand. Although you might lose a point, it makes your short serve more effective later.
During serve practice, devote focused time to perfecting specific serves. Concentrate intensely on one serve type for approximately 30 minutes, analyzing each attempt to identify successful elements and areas needing improvement. Study serving techniques of world-class players, observing their backswing, body movement, contact point, racket angle, follow-through, and ball positioning.
Visualization proves crucial whether practicing at home, playing at clubs, or competing in tournaments. Before serving, visualize your entire serve motion, including stance, toss, contact point, the ball’s trajectory from your side to your opponent’s side, and possible returns. Imagine common returns and prepare for unexpected variations, enhancing focus and adaptability during games.
Table Tennis Drills – Your Path to Improvement
These systematically organized table tennis drills will enhance your footwork, backhand, and forehand strokes while emphasizing practice’s transformative power. With consistent application of these exercises, you’ll develop the technical precision and tactical awareness necessary to elevate your competitive performance.
The drills focus on your game’s key areas: forehand shots, backhand technique, footwork patterns, and strategic thinking. Regular practice using this structured approach, combined with proper session timing and skill-level progression, will accelerate your development significantly.
Your next steps for implementation:
Start with drills matching your current skill level and gradually progress to more challenging exercises. Dedicate 15-20 minutes to each drill type during practice sessions, maintaining focus on quality over quantity. Incorporate both solo practice and partner-assisted drills for comprehensive development.
Consider investing in multiball training or robot practice to supplement traditional drill work. These modern methods provide the high-repetition, controlled environment necessary for rapid skill development, particularly beneficial for intermediate and advanced players.
Track your progress by recording successful completion rates and gradually increasing difficulty as your consistency improves. Remember that professional players dedicate significant portions of their training time to drill work, making this structured approach essential for serious improvement.
For players seeking to compete at higher levels, combine these technical drills with regular match play and video analysis of your performances. The integration of structured practice with competitive experience creates the optimal environment for sustained improvement and tactical development.
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