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
The league season in Cambridge finished a couple of weeks ago. It was my second year playing in Division 1. Last year my team finished 2nd. This year we finished…..2nd again! In this blog post I give a review of my season, sharing a few highs and a couple of big lows, including a 7 match losing streak. Ouch! Keep reading
I have great pleasure to announce that I am now a full-time table tennis coach. Over the past few years I’ve been doing both my day job and table tennis coaching on the side. But my coaching has been going so well, it has become viable to do it full-time. I am hugely excited by this. In this blog post, I share some of my plans for the future and also explain how my new career has got off to a disastrous start! Keep reading
I’m taking a short pause from my table tennis blog because of illness. I was admitted to hospital last week and diagnosed with bacterial meningitis. Fortunately I was diagnosed and treated quickly, so I was able to avoid some of the really bad complications you can get with the infection. I am now recovering at … Keep reading
Over the past week, I passed a new milestone. My table tennis video lessons on YouTube have been viewed over one million times. Woohoo! I’m very excited by this, being a bit of a digital statistics geek. I’d like to see a big thank you to anyone who has ever watched, liked, shared or commented on one of my table tennis lessons on YouTube. And please send me your ideas for new table tennis video lessons. Keep reading
This week’s blog post is dedicated to the great Larry Hodges. If you don’t know who Larry Hodges is, where the heck have you been? This man is MR TABLE TENNIS. He’s an inspiration to me, both as a coach and a writer. In this blog post, I’m going to briefly explain my love of Larry, shamelessly plug his new book (and a previous book which is the best table tennis book I’ve ever read) and share a recent interview, where he reveals his most important table tennis tip he’s ever written. Keep reading
Over the past two years, I’ve given over 1,000 hours of 1-to-1 table tennis coaching lessons. That’s a lot of coaching. Even though every session is focused entirely on the needs of the player I’m coaching, I’m also constantly learning. Learning how to be a better coach. Learning how to improve my instruction and drills. Learning more about table tennis. Since I’ve reached a 1,000 hour coaching milestone, I thought it would be useful to share some of the lessons I have learnt over the past couple of years. Keep reading
Last night, we finally lost a league match. It’s our first loss since January 2014. During this time, we have won 51 matches and drawn 3, across 4 different divisions. It’s been a fantastic run, but the frustrating thing is that we had our chances last night. We could have kept the unbeaten run going for longer. Read on to find out what happened… Keep reading
Ma Long wins again! At the Rio Olympics Ma Long once again showed why he is the top ranked player in the world. In the men’s singles final, he crushed his Chinese rival and reigning Olympic champion, Zhang Jike, 4-0. Gold medal to Ma Long. What a performance! Is Ma Long the greatest table tennis player of all time? Here’s my thoughts… Keep reading
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has launched a new version of table tennis, called ‘TTX’. The new game has a bigger ball, simplified rackets with less spin, time limited matches and extra points for clean winners. Not everyone is happy about the new game, but I think TTX sounds great fun. In this blog post I explain why you should play a game of TTX too. Keep reading