## Rackets For beginners - Palio Expert 2 - [Comparison with other Palios](https://tabletennisarena.com/palio-expert-vs-master-vs-legend/) ## Beginner Guide IMO the minimum set of skills you need to develop is a forehand drive, backhand drive, forehand push, backhand push, plus a backspin serve that you can reliably keep low and on the table. To get feedback, you can post on Reddit or the Table Tennis Discord. I recommend the Discord as they have a section specifically for video feedback. You'll get feedback quickly and from players who know what they are doing. No harm in posting here as well, though. So, here's my plan for you, assuming you have no coach or club, only a robot: - Join the table tennis discord [https://discord.gg/UJEwAaV6](https://discord.gg/UJEwAaV6) - Go watch some videos on the FH drive. Record yourself hitting the FH drive and post to the Discord `#video-review` channel. Implement the feedback received and re-record, re-post to get more feedback. Repeat. At some point when you are starting to feel good about the FH drive you will want to incorporate movement into your FH drive drills. The simplest is the "2 point forehand". Try to get your robot to deliver one ball to the FH corner alternating with one ball to the middle. Move back and forth to hit every ball with your FH. START SLOW and work your way to more frequent balls and faster oscillation. - As soon as you feel you are making decent progress with the FH drive, repeat the above for the BH drive (while still practicing your FH drive, of course). - Once you feel good about hitting the FH and BH drives while moving you're ready for transition drills. Try to get the robot to feed you alternating FH and BH balls, ideally in a way that you DON'T need to move much. Then progress to balls wider apart such that you need to move a bit to the right to hit the FH then back left to hit the BH. - Once you feel you are making decent progress with your drives, then repeat the exact same steps above for your FH and BH pushes. Get a handle on the FH push, practice it while moving. Do the same for the BH push, then practice transitioning between them. Other notes: - In addition to the above, practice your serves as much as you can. Every single point starts with a serve. Get good at it. Serving is the one aspect of the game that you can practice by yourself and it's nearly as effective as practicing with someone. Practice serving until your brain goes numb. - If you have the opportunity, practice with another person as much as you can. People deliver the ball much less consistently than a robot and you need to practice against this. Just trade, for example, FH drives with each other at a pace where you can both keep the rally going. Don't try to "win" a rally when you practice. - When you practice with another person, devote some time to serve/receive practice. 95% of points have a serve receive. Get good at it. Having an excellent serve/receive game can mask a lot of your other flaws. - When you have access to a partner of course spend some time playing games. You're here to have fun, right? Learning to read your opponent (what spin they are using, where they are going to hit the ball, etc) is another valuable skill which can only be learned by playing with someone else. Regular matches are fine but I also like to do competitive drills. Let's say your focus today is on improving your FH drive. How about a drill where you trade 3 FH drives but on the 3rd drive you get to play the ball anywhere and finish with a competitive rally? Alternate who hits first and keep score.