Get To The Perfect Playlist For Table Tennis Performance

In this article, let’s look at how to choose the perfect soundtrack for your training or matches.

No the Beatles don't have to be on the list...unless you want them to be.

Photo source: Contributed by Steve Grant to celebritiesplayingtabletennis.com

Choose rhythm that matches your activity
Ethiopian distance runner Haile Gebrselassie was famous for setting world records running in time to the rhythmical pop song “Scatman.” He selected this song because the tempo perfectly matched his target stride rate.

As I mentioned in the last article, luckily for us, table tennis is one of the most rhythmic sports in existence! Let’s take a look at how we can find the songs that help us find our perfect rhythm:
I estimate that I forehand counterhit close to the table at about 72 strokes per minute, forehand loop to block at about 52 strokes per minute and forehand counterloop back from the table at about 40 strokes per minute. Of course each of these will slow slightly if I’m doing footwork while performing the stroke.

But it’s rare to find music this slow, and I wouldn’t want to risk slowing my heartrate either, so I’d opt for music at about 144, 104 beats per minute (BPM) respectively for counterhitting and loop-to-block drills and aim for one stroke per two beats, and 160BPM for counterlooping and aim for one stroke per four beats. Of course, if your focus is to increase the tempo at which you do these drills (which sometimes it should), then you should select slightly faster BPM than your current rate for performing each drill.

Irregular rhythm drills such as third ball attack can be more difficult to determine a stroke rate for. I studied a video of Wang Liqin practicing 3^rd ball attack and each instance of the drill created 7 ‘sounds’ (ball hitting racket or ball hitting table) in about 1.9 seconds. This equates to an average of 224 ‘beats’ per minute. Music is rarely this fast, so I’d be inclined to try music at half that, 112 BPM, for my 3^rd ball drills and roughly the same for my service receive drills.

If I can’t have that much control over the BPM of my playlist, I’d probably aim for songs at 120BPM as a good average across all my drills and also for matches, where I’ll be performing a variety of skills at once.

Not sure what the BPM of a song is? Just google the title of it and “BPM” or otherwise google, for example, “120 BPM songs” and look through some lists to find some you like. It's not a hard and fast rule, though. Some songs have the right BPM but the song itself has a slower energy, and vice versa. So, if you listen to a song that lists a BPM of 120, but it doesn't get you pumped to play or train, cut it from your playlist.

I'll finish by listing a few songs around 120BPM on my playlist to get you started:
- 'It's My Life' by Bon Jovi
- 'Get Lucky' by Daft Punk
- 'Alive' by Empire Of The Sun
- 'We Take Care Of Our Own' by Bruce Springsteen
- 'I Gotta Feeling' by Black Eyed Peas
- '4 Minutes (ft. Justin Timberlake)' by Madonna
- 'Gangnam Style' by PSY
- Get rocking, and stay tuned for Part 2!