Week 3 - Table Tennis

Skill focus: Singles and doubles rallying

Session equipment:

Markers or cones
1 racket per student
1 ball per student
4 - 8 x Table Tennis tables (or trestle tables with portable nets)
Rebound wall
Bibs or braids

Download Table Tennis - Week 3 activity card to support teaching before and during the sport session.

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Fast start - Capture

Equipment: 8 markers (to set out playing area), 4 sets of 8 braids or similar (4 different colours).

How to play:

4 students are designated taggers who each wear a different coloured braid. The rest of the students are 'free'.
The taggers chase the students who are free and attempt to tag them.
When a free student is tagged they then put on a braid of the same colour worn by the student who has tagged them and become a tagger.
The aim is to tag the most students and create the biggest team.

CHANGE IT!

Vary the size of the playing area.
Use equipment while moving around the playing area (eg bouncing a ball)

Skill development

Activity 1 - Round the table

Equipment: One racket per player, one table tennis ball per table, one table per group.

How to play: Players play a stroke and then move around to the other side of the table to join a line of players waiting for their turn.

The first player serves the ball and then moves to the other side of the table to join a line of players
Players take it in turns to hit one shot and then move to the other side.

Activity 2 - Hit the square

Equipment: Table Tennis racket per player, one Table Tennis ball between two, table, square paper target per pair

How to play: Players serve and rally the ball to see how many times each pair can hit a square target.

Form players into pairs (two pairs per table)
Pairs play on opposite sides of the table (not the ends)
Players try and hit the square as many times as possible in a set time period.

Activity 3 - Back track

Equipment: 1 ball per group, 1 racket per player, 2 cones per group

How to play: Players in groups, lined up in single file facing a rebound wall. The first player in line hits a ball at the wall above the line and quickly moves aside for the next player to hit the ball. The first player runs backwards and joins the end of the line, marked with a cone.

Form groups. Allocate wall space.
After the first ball is hit, the player moves to the left and then to the back of the line.
Waiting players stand behind a cone marker to control space.

Activity 4 - Dribblers and robbers

Equipment: Table tennis balls and rackets

How to play: Players (dribblers) with a ball move around the court dribbling. One or two players are robbers and they attempt to intercept dribblers’ balls without making body contact. (Play with 1 robber per five dribblers, for example)

On your signal, dribblers must dribble the ball with their racquet as they move around the court.
Robbers try to win possession of a ball.
Dribblers who lose possession become robbers and try to gain possession of another dribbler’s ball (not the ball they have just lost).

Modified small-sided games

It's time for competition!

Teams compete against each other in the game outlined below. You can use the 'Table Tennis Draw' as a guide to organise the competition, across the 4 sessions try to ensure each team has a fair number of games.

Allocate 3 points for a win, 2 points for a drawe and 1 point for a loss for each game played. Record results and points in the School sport program results spreadsheet.

Remember, to give students an update of the leader board each week.

Game - King / Queen of the court

Equipment: Table Tennis balls and rackets, tables

How to play: The pair that wins the rally stays on the table and becomes the King or the Queen. The losing pair is replaced by the next challengers (from the same team). When a pair beats the King or the Queen, they move to the other side of the table to replace the King or the Queen.

Split teams across 2 tables (to ensure more game time).
Two players from each team at either end of the table and remaining players waiting at the side.
One end of the table is designated the King and Queen end.
A player on the King and Queen team serves the ball from the right side of the table to the opposite right-hand side of the table to start the rally.
The winner of the rally (point) stays at the table (if they are not King and Queen, they move to the King and Queen end), and the losing team is replaced by the next members of their team.
Play for a set period of time.