Like many of you around the world, I am stuck at home because of the coronavirus outbreak. All the clubs and sport centres are closed. There is no coaching. No table tennis. To try and stay active (and sane!), I am making a series of short, light-hearted videos about how you can play table tennis … Keep reading
It truly is scary times we are experiencing. Both the public health scare of coronavirus and the social and economic impact of social isolation. I hope everyone is staying healthy and doing what they can to stay active and positive. As for me, most of my coaching has been cancelled, including the training camp I … Keep reading
Over the past two weeks, I have been testing the new JOOLA Dynaryz rubbers. There are two versions – Dynaryz ACC and Dynaryz AGR. Both use the same hyper bounce and advance traction technology, which helps players generate more spin playing with the new generation plastic balls. In this review, I’ll give my impressions of playing with the rubbers – looking at topspin, blocking, pushing and serving. Keep reading
In local league table tennis, you’ll often have to play against pushers. These are players who like to push again and again and again. The pusher’s aim is to frustrate you. They want to draw you into a pushing match or force you to attempt a risky attack. The outcome is often an unforced attacking error, frustration, more attacking errors and more frustration. How do you beat these annoying players? Here’s some tactics you can try… Keep reading
Technique is a contentious issue. If you line up 10 coaches and ask them how to do a forehand loop (or any stroke), you will most likely get 10 slightly different answers. How can this be? Surely there is a correct way of playing a shot and everything else is incorrect? Well no, not exactly. If only table tennis were that simple! In this blog post, I give my thoughts about good technique and bad technique and hopefully give some clarity on this confusing issue. Keep reading
Shhhh…I have a little secret. Bribar Table Tennis have just released a new table tennis bat. It’s called the Bribar Rally table tennis bat. And the cost? A ridiculously low price of £24.99. This bat is aimed at beginners and social players looking for a decent quality but affordable bat. I have been testing it out over the past month and spoiler alert…it is quite possibly the best table tennis bat I have ever played with for under £25! Keep reading
![[Video] What’s wrong with my game?](https://www.tabletenniscoach.me.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Whats-wrong-with-my-game_-380x214.jpg)
In this video, I get some feedback from Rade Markovic (Head Coach – ASV Grünwettersbach) about my table tennis skills. Rade watches me play with Juan Perez, a Spanish junior player, and then delivers his verdict. What is the biggest issue with my game? What do I need to do to improve? Keep reading
I have suffered badly with nerves in the past when playing competitive table tennis matches. One technique which has helped me control my nerves is mental rehearsal. This is a technique which is very common with professional athletes in all sports. But you don’t need to be a professional athlete to experience the benefits of mental rehearsal. Any table tennis player, at any standard, can benefit. In this blog post, I explain what mental rehearsal is and how you can use it when playing to boost your performance. Keep reading
One of the players I coach often struggles when he gets to the 3rd game in a match. He told me… “I have found that I quite often win the first 2 games comfortably maybe 11:5 or 11:6 but then in the 3rd game I lose. I am sure this is a psychological thing. I have asked around and even some much better players than myself experience this from time to time. What’s going on? How to beat this?” In this blog post, I explain how you can overcome “3rd game syndrome” and win the 3rd game and the match. Keep reading
A few days ago I had the pleasure of coaching at the Top Edge & Gertsen Training Camp at St Neots Table Tennis Club. Part of my role was to do 1-to-1 sessions with some of the players. In these sessions I asked the players what they wanted to work on. The players were a mixture of ages and standards, but strikingly most of them wanted to work on the same thing – backhand topspin vs backspin. This is consistent with my own coaching sessions in Cambridge. Backhand topspin vs backspin seems to be a shot which is very difficult for a lot of players (myself included) at the amateur level. Why is this? Keep reading