News & views

Lessons learnt from 1000 hours of coaching

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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

We lost! Our three year unbeaten run has come to a crushing end

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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

Magnificent Ma Long – the greatest table tennis player of all time?

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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

Ignore the haters, TTX sounds great fun!

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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

How to set up a website for your table tennis club (for only £5)

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A slightly different blog post from me this week. For my day job, I work in digital communications (e.g. managing websites, email marketing, social media etc). I’ve been doing this for 15 years, so know a thing or two about building, managing and promoting websites. I thought it would be a nice idea to share my web design knowledge with the table tennis community. In particular, I want to help those table tennis clubs who don’t have a website. In this blog, I’ll explain how to set up a website for your club, what content you need and how to promote your website. Keep reading

What went wrong with my season?

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It has been a league season of mixed fortunes. Our team remained unbeaten all season in the league, yet we only finished in second place. I achieved a respectable win percentage (84%), but this was lower than the previous two seasons. We won the handicap competition, but crashed out of another cup competition in the quarter final due to a shocking performance by myself. So, what went wrong? In this blog post I reflect on my playing performance over the past few months and examine my big tactical mistake. Keep reading

The perils of coaching, losing a league title and Chinese obsessions – reflections on table tennis in 2015

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Without doubt, this has been my busiest table tennis year. I’ve coached more hours than ever before, played in two different leagues and written 40 articles for my website. I even found time for a trip to Vienna to learn from one of the world’s top coaches. With so much going on, I thought I’d share some of things I’ve been up to, including a farcical coaching accident, losing a league title and becoming slightly obsessed with Chinese table tennis players. Keep reading

Anton Kallberg – future world champion?

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There is plenty of excitement at the moment about 18-year-old Swedish player Anton Kallberg. He has had a rapid rise up the international rankings in the past year and once again confirmed his potential with an impressive run of results at the 2015 Swedish Open. I have to confess, I’m excited too. It’s very early days, of course. There have been plenty of 18-year-olds who have shown potential, but never made an impression on the world’s top 50, let alone the world’s top 5. But I think Kallberg is different and has the potential to reach the very top. Read my blog post to find out why… Keep reading

Table tennis needs Grand Slams

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One of the things I find frustrating about table tennis is its lack of media exposure. In the UK, the only time that table tennis gets any decent national media exposure is during the Olympics. But once the Olympics are over, table tennis disappears and is forgotten about for another four years. What we need is for table tennis to be in the media spotlight more often. One way to do this would be to introduce Grand Slam tournaments, similar to tennis. Keep reading