Had my first practice session at my local club today and was told by several players that my backhand is bloody good and that I was surprisingly good for someone that only picked up a bat for the first time a few weeks ago. Flattery will get them everywhere.

So, I’d like to get into match play. I feel fairly confident on the backhand and have a slight advantage being left handed. My forehand is reasonable when it hooks up, but my reading of spin is terrible and I usually always counter it with the opposite spin that I’m supposed to. Any deftly floated long back hand shots are currently also beyond me.

Any players out there that care to share their tops tips for progression?

Practice…look where it got Forrest Gump!

Pics of your ‘Backhand’ or it aint true

Can’t give table tennis tips, but for any sport….

Practise doing things right. Spending long hours practising the wrong things will just make you good at doing things wrong.

Get some coaching – so you know what is right and wrong. The best players in the world at all sports have coaches that help them every day…..why we think we can achieve our best by just going out and doing it escapes me.

Play against players better than you, but also worse than you – in game play you have to be able to deal with both and beating players who are less predictable is a challenge too.

Endless repetition. Loop vs chop return, forehand and backhand, plus topspin lifting the short push return if you’re an attacking player. The game is more about muscle memory than pretty much everything else due to the sheer pace of the rally.

Good anticipation and footwork will vastly improve your forehand.

Working hard on your serve – novices lose matches because their serve isn’t tight enough. Also, at lower levels you tend to win by not making a mistake, so patience rather than all out attack.

Reading spin gets much easier once you learn what to look out for – it gets instinctive.

Plus tight shorts which say Butterfly on them, and endless discussion of rubber compounds on table tennis forums.

Get a good serve