Step up to table tennis success! Table Tennis: Steps to Success combines the knowledge and experience of master instructor Richard McAfee with essential table tennis techniques and strategies for today’s player. With a unique 11-step approach designed to maximize table tennis instruction, you’ll learn the proper grip for your style of play, execution of the basic strokes, and the correct way to apply spin to the ball. Then, build on these core techniques with masterful footwork, serves, returns, and stroke combinations. Best of all, learn how and when to apply those skills in match play. With competitive strategies—adapted for both you and your opponent’s playing style—you’ll raise your game to a new level. And with clear instruction, comprehensive coverage, detailed photo sequences, and drills to ensure mastery of every technique, you’ll be playing—and winning—in no time. As part of the Steps to Success Sports Series—with more than 1.5 million copies sold—rest assured that Table Tennis: Steps to Success is the #1 resource for learning, and loving, the game. Contents Step 1. Preparing to Play Step 2. Hitting Drive Strokes Step 3. Understanding Spin and Footwork Step 4. Executing Spin Strokes Step 5. Serving Step 6. Returning Serve Step 7. Using the Five-Ball Training System Step 8. Understanding Styles of Play and Tactics Step 9. Playing Intermediate Strokes Step 10. Performing Intermediate Serves Step 11. Competing Successfully in Tournaments
Richard McAfee has a lifelong commitment to table tennis. In his early years, McAfee was a successful player, winning many singles and doubles events including the 1972 U.S. Open Class B Championship and the Southern Open Men's Singles title. Later McAfee began to focus on his true passion of coaching. He has coached national champions in each of the past three decades, seven world-ranked players, and two Olympians.
In 1994 McAfee was named competition manager for Table Tennis at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. This led to further management positions on the international scene and earned him the International Olympic Committee's Olympic Merit Award. He is also certified by USA Table Tennis (USATT) as a national-level coach, their highest level. Honors include the 2004 U.S. Olympic Committee Doc Counsilman Science Award for table tennis, the 2003 Georgia AAU Coach of the Year award for table tennis, and the 1999 U.S. Committee Developmental Coach of the Year Award for table tennis. McAfee was inducted into the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame in 2005. From 2009-2012, he served as the chairperson of the USATT's National Coaching Advisory Committee. He continues to travel around the world conducting coaching education courses for the International Table Tennis Federation. He has taught more than 800 coaches on four continents.