The Expert Table Tennis Podcast is back (finally). But we’re currently in lockdown because of coronavirus, so I thought I’d do something different. In this episode, I’m joined by Alex Horscroft – a new guest writer for the Expert Table Tennis blog! Alex only started playing table tennis at the age of 12 and he admits that he didn’t even take it ver…

This is Episode #8 of The Expert Table Tennis Podcast with Ben Larcombe and Harrie Austin-Jones. This month we’re talking talent, practice, and why a few weeks ago Harrie almost quit table tennis altogether! If you’ve ever worried that you might be untalented and felt on the verge of quitting, this is the episode for you! I hope it’ll also be inter…

Harrie’s not been very well this month so this is a special bonus episode of The Expert Table Tennis Podcast with Ben Larcombe. In this episode, I’m joined by Tom Lodziak for a chat about how to crush it as an adult beginner. Like Harrie, Tom didn’t start playing table tennis until his mid-twenties. Over the past 12 years, he’s worked hard to impro…

This is Episode #7 of The Expert Table Tennis Podcast with Ben Larcombe and Harrie Austin-Jones. This month we’re discussing the quality and quantity of your training. This season, Harrie’s made some changes to his weekly training schedule. Instead of playing as much table tennis as possible, he’s going to focus on just three high-quality sessions …

This is Episode #6 of the Expert Table Tennis Podcast with Ben Larcombe and Harrie Austin-Jones. This month we’re chatting about the physical side of table tennis. Is physical training even important for table tennis? If so, what kinds of stuff should we be doing? Harrie has a background in physical power sports like rugby, sprinting and bodybuildi…

This is Episode #5 of the Expert Table Tennis Podcast with Ben Larcombe and Harrie Austin-Jones. This month we’re chatting about the mental and emotional side of our sport. If you struggle to beat your nerves, handle the pressure of a big match or manage your crazy emotions at the table – and let’s be honest, that’s all of us, at one time or anothe…

This is Episode #4 of the Expert Table Tennis Podcast with Ben Larcombe and Harrie Austin-Jones. This month we’re chatting about our favourite table tennis drills! If you’re looking to add some more table tennis drills into your training, this is the episode for you. We’ll be sharing some regular, irregular, multiball, and service/return drills. Sp…

This is Episode #3 of the new style Expert Table Tennis Podcast! This month we’re doing an end-of-season review of Harrie’s table tennis season and setting goals for 2019/20. We break the year up into three phases; pre-season (May-August), first-half (September-December), and second-half (January-April). We also speak in terms of process, performan…

This is Episode #2 of the new style Expert Table Tennis Podcast! I’m joined once again by my good friend Harrie Austin-Jones and this week we’re chatting about the ultimate beginner’s guide to table tennis. Harrie’s been playing table tennis for about two and a half years now so, in effect, I’m asking him… “If you could go back in time to when you …

After a two-year break, The Expert Table Tennis Podcast is back! From now on, I’ll be joined for each episode by my good friend Harrie Austin-Jones. This first episode (of what I’m calling “Season 2”) is your chance to get to know Harrie and his epic table tennis journey, so far. Sponsored by… TableTennisUniversity.com Today’s episode is sponsored …

Sam Dance is a member of The Expert Table Tennis Academy (my online community) and has a fascinating table tennis story to share that includes some karaoke, Patrick Franziska (a professional German table tennis player), and lots of local league table tennis. From time to time I like to share the real life story of an ETT Academy member. I always fi…

Dan Seemiller is an American table tennis legend. He is five times US Men’s Singles Champion, twelve times US Men’s Doubles Champion, and seven times US Mixed Doubles Champion. That’s pretty impressive, to say the least! But he didn’t stop there… Dan transitioned to table tennis coaching and coached the US National Team for 10 years. He has also be…

Samson Dubina was last a guest on the show roughly 18 months ago. In that episode, we discussed his training and preparation for the Team USA Rio 2016 selections. Today, we’ll focus on TT-Flex! Unfortunately, Samson didn’t quite make it into the Olympic team but he’s had a fantastic 2016 – both as a player and a coach. In May he managed to achieve …

Colin Wilson is probably the perfect guest for an episode of The Expert Table Tennis Podcast. As a player, he represented England for many years and is a double Commonwealth medallist. As a coach, he has worked with the English national team at all levels and trained some of the top players in the country. On top of all that Colin also works with t…

Jeff Plumb and Alois Rosario are the guys behind PingSkills, easily the most popular table tennis coaching channel on YouTube. They have been teaching table tennis to players the world over ever since they made their first PingSkills video back in 2007. Alois Rosario is one of the best table tennis coaches in Australia, and has worked closely with …

Back in 2010, Dan McLaughlin decided he wanted to become a professional golfer. The only problem was, he’d never played 18 holes of golf in his life! He didn’t let that stop him, though. He packed in his job as a commercial photographer and began “The Dan Plan” – 10,000 hours of golf deliberate practice. He’s now six years into his challenge so I t…

Alan Cooke is the Performance Coach at Table Tennis England. That means he works very closely with our national teams and travels with them to tournaments. If you watched any of the World Team Championships out in Kuala Lumpur you will have seen Alan corner coaching Paul Drinkhall, Liam Pitchford, and Sam Walker to an incredible bronze medal result…

In many ways, you could say that Gavin Evans was always destined for table tennis greatness. He was born into a family where both parents played to a high-level and he had two older brothers who were both part of the England Youth Squad. Add to that Gavin’s immediate love of the sport and you have the perfect combination. He began playing at 5-year…

Sean O’Neill is one of the most knowledgeable and respected table tennis coaches in the USA. As a player, he represented USATT during the 80s and 90s, reaching a career high world ranking inside the top 100. In 1995, Sean transitioned to coaching and has worked with a number of top USA players, as well thousands of beginners and improvers. Among so…

William Henzell is without a doubt the greatest table tennis player Australia has ever produced. He has won the men’s national championships a record 13 times, consistently been ranked among the top 100 players in the world, and had some fantastic results representing Australia in the Olympic and Commonwealth Games. Then, a couple of weeks ago, Wil…

Tahl Leibovitz is a Paralympic gold medalist, is currently ranked #8 in the world in Class 9, and has over 25 years of table tennis experience as both a player and coach. Who better to join me on The Expert Table Tennis Podcast for the first episode of 2016? Rio 2016 is just six months away and 40-year-old Tahl is training hard so that he can be in…

Nick Ryder started playing table tennis in the early 80s at a young age. His dad was a coach and he was living in Yorkshire, which was one of the strongest counties for table tennis in the country. By the age of 14, Nick was already a very strong player and found himself #6 on the England cadet list. Upon entering the juniors, Nick found the going …

I first met Billy Shilton about this time last year when he convincingly beat Sam Priestley in Band 6 at the Nottingham Grand Prix during The Expert in a Year Challenge. He was a very solid young player even back then (and seriously under-ranked) but over the last 12 months he has come on leaps and bounds, winning a number of international Para med…

Brian Pace is a professional table tennis player, national level coach, and creator of Dynamic Table Tennis. As a player he achieved a peak USATT rating of 2610 and was ranked within the top 300 in the world – so he’s played at the highest level! I’ve been trying to get Brian on the show from the very beginning and we’ve finally made it happen. We …

You probably know Christian Ortner as half of Piing of Power, the guys who make table tennis videos for the ITTF, Butterfly and a host of other companies. He has been active in the online table tennis community for almost three years now and has justed started his own YouTube channel, Mr Piingo. What you probably didn’t know about Christian is that…

Brett Clarke is half of the coaching team at ttEDGE, a website created by three-time Olympian William Henzell to provide online coaching and instruction to table tennis players the world over. Brett was also part of the Australian National Team for over fifteen years and spent two years as National Team Coach in 2009 and 2010. During that time he r…

Danny is currently ranked 5th in England and 217th in the world. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, he won silver in the men’s team event and bronze in the mixed doubles. He is training at the world-famous Werner Schlager Academy in Austria alongside a host of top international players. But he wants more! After taking a year away from inter…

Tom Lodziak is a Cambridge-based table tennis coach who blogs over at www.tabletenniscoach.me.uk and offers one-to-one coaching to players of all ages and abilities. Back in May, Tom made the trip to Austria to visit the Werner Schlager Academy Table Tennis School for a week of intensive training. The WSA is one of the best training centres in Euro…

This is part two of my conversation with English table tennis coach Marc Burman. If you haven’t yet listened to part one you can check that out here. Marc Burman was my first ever table tennis coach and coached me as a nine and ten-year-old back in 1998/99, at the local leisure centre. I count myself very lucky to have stumbled into his club as a b…

I first started playing table tennis about 16 years ago, aged 9, at the local leisure centre (Westcroft). The coach there at the time was Marc Burman and it was him who introduced me to the sport, taught me the basics, encouraged me to enter my first tournament, and eventually advised me to join Crusaders TTC (who I would go on to represent at juni…

How to introduce Larry Hodges? It’s a tough one. He’s probably the busiest man in table tennis! Larry is a full-time table tennis coach at Maryland Table Tennis Center in the US. He also runs the website TableTennisCoaching.com and writes a daily blog and “tip of the week” every Monday. He is a key figure in USATT, has won national titles as a play…

If you haven’t heard of racketlon before you need to check it out. It’s an incredible sport that combines table tennis, badminton, squash and tennis to determine who is the best all round racket sports player. The sport is relatively new but is growing in popularity in Europe and already has world rankings and a world championships. So, who is the …

Chris Main is the head coach of North Ayrshire Table Tennis Club, a thriving club located on the West Coast of Scotland in Saltcoats. Saltcoats is a small town about 45 minutes away from Glasgow but Chris is on a mission to transform it into a hub of table tennis activity. The club has won the Scottish National League four years in a row, is home t…

Adam Gittings is 18 years old, lives in Doncaster, and has Asperger syndrome, dyspraxia, and type 1 diabetes. Three years ago he was invited to a South Yorkshire disabled sports trial day at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, where he was given to opportunity to try out a load of different sports and see if he had the potential to join an…

Tin-Tin Ho first picked up a table tennis bat at the age of two. Three years later, on her 5th birthday, her father announced that she was now ready to begin training for table tennis. She began playing at home with her father and her brother Ping and improved very quickly. Twelve years later Tin-Tin is still playing a lot of table tennis. She is n…

It is the dream of table tennis players the world over to own their own full-time club – a facility they can call home, do whatever they like with, and build into a superclub. I know I’d love to have my own club one day. Well, one man who has done just that is 19-year-old Kevin Korb from California, who is the new owner of The TopSpin a full-time, …

The Rio 2016 Olympic Games are less than a year away (they come around quick don’t they!) and one man who is determined to do everything he can to get there is Samson Dubina from Ohio in the United States. Samson is 32 years old and has been playing table tennis for twenty years. He made it to the World Championships in Japan in 2009, but other tha…

Sam Priestley has been a good friend of mine for over ten years. We first met at a church youth group when we were both 15 years old. Sam has never been particularly sporty. He did a lot of rowing back when I first met him but then quit while he was still in school. He was never particularly good at racket sports or football. Towards the end of 201…

Sam Walker first played table tennis at the age of two. Since then, he’s put in a huge amount of work. He first represented England at the age of 11 and finished the cadets (U15) ranked #2 in the country. At 16 he took the decision to move to Germany and play table tennis full-time. It paid off! In the past four years, he has transformed himself in…

Istvan Moldovan was my coach on the B75 Summer Table Tennis Training camp that I attended in Denmark last summer with Sam. He is a very experienced coach, a qualified performance psychologist and has played table tennis at the highest level – he was part of the Norwegian national team for many years and achieved a world ranking around the #100 mark…

Rory Scott is a table tennis player and coach from Horsham in the UK. He is 38 years old and has been playing table tennis for about 23 years. For the past 10 years, Rory’s level and ranking have been fairly steady and he usually finds himself somewhere between 200th-250th in England. Now Rory finds himself approaching the age of veteran’s table te…

For as long as I can remember Paul Drinkhall has been the table tennis player us English have put our hopes on for international success. Today, he joins me on The Expert Table Tennis Podcast to talk about life as a professional table tennis player. Paul entered the senior game in 2009 and I think it’s fair to say he plateaued for a few years, hove…

For as long as I can remember Paul Drinkhall has been the table tennis player us English have put our hopes on for international success. Today, he joins me on The Expert Table Tennis Podcast to talk about life as a professional table tennis player. Paul’s talent was first spotted at the age of nine (back in the 1999/2000 season) and he has been pa…

iCoachTableTennis is a new table tennis blog aimed at coaches. It was started by Lloyd Gregory and Daniel Ives (from episode five and six) in March 2015 and on today’s ETT podcast I’m joined by Lloyd. The idea behind the blog is to bridge the gap between the coaching theory and research Lloyd began learning about during his MSc in Performance Coach…

Daniel Ives is the founder of TableTennisDaily, one of the most popular table tennis websites in the world. I actually used to play against him as a junior in tournaments and county matches (he would always win), so I’ve known Dan for some time. In January 2015 he travelled to Beijing, China with STIGA to film a four-part documentary series called …

Daniel Ives is the founder of TableTennisDaily, one of the most popular table tennis websites in the world. I actually used to play against him as a junior in tournaments and county matches (he would always win), so I’ve known Dan for some time. In January 2015 he travelled to Beijing, China with STIGA to film a four-part documentary series called …

Mark Simpson is a good friend of mine. I shared a house with him back in 2007 at Grantham Academy. Since then he has studied Psychology at the University of Nottingham, played table tennis semi-professionally in several European countries and completed a Masters degree in Sport Psychology. In today’s episode I talk to Mark about his ‘Train Smart, P…

Back in 2008 a 28 year old from Pennsylvania decided he wanted to get really good at table tennis. He joined a club, started working with a coach and set his eyes on a USATT rating of 2000. Two and half years later he achieved it. That man was Alex Polyakov, author of the books Breaking 2000 and The Next Step, and he was my guest for episode three …

In episode two I’m joined by Welsh table tennis player Dan O’Connell. Dan is currently ranked number one in Wales and finds himself just outside the top 600 players in world. He returned just over a week ago from the World Championships in Suzhou, China where he reached the last 32 of the mixed doubles with teammate Charlotte Carey. During the show…

It brings me great pleasure to be able to present to you episode number one of The Expert Table Tennis Podcast. I have wanted to start a podcast for so long now and I’ve finally got it all together. My first guest is table tennis player, coach and blogger Matt Hetherington. Matt runs the popular blog mhtabletennis.com and is well known in the onlin…