How Important is Training Your Eyes for Table Tennis?

Should you train your eyes for table tennis?

Most of us are truly fortunate to have eyes that work but unfortunately, we often take our eyes for granted and in many cases neglect our vision. The same goes for our feet (they hold our bodies upright and allow us to move) but we rarely pay attention to that part of our body. Similarly, we use our eyes every day to view the world and through our vision, we are able to do countless of extraordinary things. Yet we forget that our eyes are powered predominately by white muscles (Fast twitch) which means we can develop those muscles. Instead, we often strain our vision by looking at screens for too long and allow our eyes to deteriorate over time due to little or no eye exercise. We can and are able to strengthen our vision by using certain exercises to develop eye movement, increase eye speed and visual focus.

Are we missing a trick?

An amazing fact: “table tennis was banned in the Soviet Union between 1930 and 1950 because the Stalinist authorities believed it was harmful to the eyes” Today we know that couldn’t further from the truth. In fact, it’s the opposite, table tennis provides huge benefits to your eyes and mind. I went to Steve Brunskill’s Vision training last weekend and not only did I learn a lot but I felt that we are missing a vital element in our table tennis training.

Steve has developed lots of training methods to elevate your visual endurance, speed, and focus. The training enables anyone who wants to enhance their game and it’s a training system which can be used to develop your table tennis, in-directly. All you have to do is invest some time practicing, which can be done at any time but I personally would use it as part of my pre-play warm-up.

How important are your eyes?

I think we all know how important our eyes are but I think many of us don’t know or realise that we can develop our visual performance. If we take some time to enhance our vision by building the muscles in our eyes, naturally we will upscale ourselves into a higher level player. I noticed eye development training many years back but I didn’t pay direct attention to it because I felt reaction speed was the requirement for better sports performance. I recently found out that our reaction speed can only be developed over a long period of time and the gains are so small, it’s nearly unnoticed.

I am always looking for marginal gains so if reaction speed is developmentally limited, then how can we develop something else to aid our reaction? And the answer is simple, by using our eyes! I was doing a few eye developmental training myself but I had not dived deep enough. After the course, I truly grasped the importance and how exactly to execute certain drills for fast and noticeable benefits in sport (table tennis) and life. Going to Steve’s, course reinforced things that I learned over time but the course also enhanced my knowledge and understanding of how important our vision truly is. I walked away, a wiser man and a coach that can deliver specific eye training to my players which can enhance their games.

Taking Vision training into the practice hall

As of last weekend, I have taken Steve’s vision training into the hall and it will remain in my warm-up routine for life. I have adapted a few of the training systems to suit my players and some new personal concepts but the general vision training in my view it’s a wonderful (Marginal Gain) of which I will always use from now on.

If you want to learn more contact Steve Brunskill – 01642 827282 / 07595641751. Email: info@swervettc.

In the meantime, I suggest for all players and coaches to open their eyes if they truly want to enhance themselves or their players.

What you can’t see you can’t hit