How to Become Your Own Table Tennis Coach
Today’s post is a collection of thoughts I had whilst watching Sam play at a local club this week. I realised that if you want to get good at table tennis… YOU NEED TO BECOME YOUR OWN COACH! The problem is…
Ben Larcombe
Hi, I'm Ben Larcombe! I'm 29 years old, I live in Tunbridge Wells, and I'm a professional table tennis coach.
How to Play Aggressive Table Tennis at 50+ Like He Zhiwen
Table tennis is a brilliant sport to get into at any age. Why? Well, because unlike many other sports, such as football and tennis, you can continue playing competitive table tennis well into your 50s, 60s and beyond. Learn to…
Converting USATT Ratings and UK Rankings
I’ve always been a bit obsessed with table tennis rankings and ratings. Like many players I used to track my ranking each month and often know before I left the tournament hall how many points and I gained (or lost)…
Der beste Tischtennisschläger für Anfänger
Als Trainer werde ich häufig gefragt, “Was ist der beste tischtennisschläger für anfänger?”. Dies ist eine wichtige Frage. Als Anfänger brauchen Sie nicht gleich den besten Schläger der Welt, aber Sie benötigen einen Schläger, der es Ihnen erlaubt, dem Ball…
How to Build Your Own Custom Table Tennis Bat
If you’re new to table tennis and just looking for a good quality first bat then I would recommend you check out my post The Best Table Tennis Bat for Beginners. If you’ve been playing for a while, and you’re…
Can Anyone Become an Expert at Table Tennis?
Over the last few years there has been a lot written about the roles of talent and practice in the process of skill acquisition and the development expertise. The majority of this (Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, Bounce by Matthew Syed,…
Using Your Waist on the Backhand Loop
I was watching a few table tennis videos on YouTube yesterday and stumbled across this old video of Ma Long practicing his backhand loop with multiball, fed by Liu Guoliang. I’ve seen this video before but it was only this…
How Do You Solve a Problem like Fan Zhendong?
If you follow the ITTF World Tour, or international table tennis in general, you’ll know all about Fan Zhendong. For those that don’t here’s a very quick overview… Fan Zhendong appeared pretty much out of the blue in 2012 as…
Lessons From Basketball: The Scrimmage
I’m continuing my series looking at lessons we can learn from other sports and games. Today I’m looking at basketball and in particular, the scrimmage. I have to admit I’d never heard of a scrimmage until a few months ago…