In this week’s blog post I’m going to address some issues raised by a reader of my blog called David from the USA. David has been playing table tennis for many years, but has become a little disillusioned because of illegal serves, white t-shirts and poor venue lighting. In the blog post, I’ll give my thoughts on David’s concerns and what the table tennis community can do about it… Keep reading
A lot of players struggle against long pimples. It’s a common issue, especially at lower levels. When I started playing, I was completely confused in my first matches against long pimples players. I didn’t know what the heck was going on! But in quite a small period of time, I was able to make rapid improvements and start beating the players I was losing to. So in this blog post, I’m going to share three simple steps you should follow to get good against long pimples players. Keep reading
Over the past month I have been trying out the Bribar Winning Loop table tennis bat (cost £29.99 – £36.99). This is one of Bribar’s best ever selling bats, aimed at beginners / developing players. In this blog post, I share my experience of playing with the bat, suggest who it is suitable for and whether you should buy or not…
In local league table tennis in the UK, we have a strong tradition of handicap competitions. This is where players are given points advantage / disadvantage based on rankings. I usually do pretty well in handicap matches. Our league team has won the the league handicap competition three times in the past five years (maybe our handicap ratings are too lenient!). In this blog post, I share some tactics I have used over the years to help me win handicap matches. Keep reading
Returning serves is hard. It’s the thing most players at the beginner and intermediate levels struggle with the most. But there are ways you can get better at returning serves, even if you have only just started playing table tennis. In this blog post, I give some simple advice about how you can return more serves, plus I share a BIG NO-NO, something you should never do… Keep reading
I am very happy to announce that I have my first sponsorship deal! It all started when I published a video on how to do a chop block with Craig Bryant. Craig is sponsored by Bribar Table Tennis and when they saw the video they got in contact with me. We had a good chat and shared lots of ideas about how we could work together. And the outcome of our conversation is that I am now (proudly) a Bribar sponsored coach. Keep reading
It’s summer time! My favourite time of the year. It’s also the time of the year when a lot of people have a break from playing table tennis. This is completely understandable. The weather is good. People want to be outdoors and do other activities. Often people are away for holidays. So if you really want to get an advantage over your clubmates and your opponents, now is the time to keep practising! Keep reading
I coach a player in his 80s (he wants to remain anonymous, so I’ll call him Harold). When he was younger Harold was a defensive player. But it’s not easy for Harold to play this way any more. So I have worked with him to change his playing style. This has not been easy. In fact it’s been very difficult. But Harold has made huge progress. And he has succeeded in changing many of of his defensive habits. In this blog post, I’ll explain how Harold has managed to change his habits and how you can change your table tennis habits too. Keep reading
How do you return a backspin serve, which lands short, in the middle of the table? You actually you have far more options than you think. You can be very creative in how you return a short backspin serve. I picked up some great tips in a group coaching session I attended this week, which was run by Craig Bryant. In this blog post I share some of the things I learnt from Craig about how to improve the variation of your service returns. Keep reading
This week, I want to share with you a very, very, very good coaching website, which is still relatively unknown. (Shhhh, let’s keep this as our secret!). A few months ago I noticed that Dan Ives – the mastermind behind the Table Tennis Daily website – had launched a new coaching website with professional player Tom Maynard. Interesting, I thought to myself. This could be good. Dan very kindly gave me access to Table Tennis Daily Academy. I’ve now been using the site for a few weeks and I want to share my views on whether it’s any good and if you should sign up… Keep reading