Hello! My name is Ben Larcombe, I’m 28 years old, and I’m a professional table tennis coach based in Tunbridge Wells, England. If you would like me to coach you, click here to find out how to make that happen!
I started ExpertTableTennis.com in 2012 as a place to share my table tennis coaching knowledge with the world. Since then the site has grown considerably and as the number of articles has increased it has become more and more difficult to find old content.
I have created this page as the hub for all of the table tennis coaching content I have produced over the years. I have a separate page similarly dedicated to table tennis equipment. I hope the information you find here helps you to improve your table tennis.
Contents
Table Tennis University
If you are looking for online table tennis coaching from some of the best table tennis coaches in the business then you need to check out TableTennisUniversity.com!
How to Play Table Tennis in 10 Days
If you are new to table tennis then you should check out How to Play Table Tennis in 10 Days – a 5,000+ word resource I created that takes you through everything you need to know to go from complete beginner to competitive table tennis player.
It’s an accelerated table tennis course that I have spent years refining and I believe it is the fastest way to learn how to play table tennis!
Here are some other table tennis coaching articles that I have written that relate to mastering the fundamentals of the sport.
- Table Tennis Rules and Regulations
- The ABCs of Table Tennis
- The Four Basic Table Tennis Strokes
- Table Tennis Grip: Some Good and Bad Examples
- Table Tennis Stance and Ready Position
- How to Play a Forehand Drive
- How to Play a Backhand Drive
- How to Play a Backhand Push
- How to Play a Forehand Push
- Developing a Super Heavy Backspin Serve
- How to Serve Faster in Table Tennis
The Expert in a Year Challenge
In 2013 I had, what I believed to be, a brilliant idea. I would pick a novice table tennis player at random, intensively train them in the skills of table tennis for a year, and see how high they could get up the English men’s ranking list.
The challenge started on 1st January 2014, with my friend Sam Priestley as the guinea pig, and a top 250 ranking as our goal. Ultimately, we failed. But we learned so much and Sam got a lot better at table tennis in a pretty short period of time.
The links below will tell you everything you need to know about it;
- The Expert in a Year Challenge Archive
- Table Tennis England: From Knockabout to Top 250 in a Year
- BBC: Can You Succeed at Anything with Enough Practice?
- Huffington Post: Guy Plays Table Tennis Every Day for a Year
Guy Plays Table Tennis Every Day for a Year
A month after we finished the challenge a YouTube video I made showing Sam’s progress over the year went viral. It has now received almost 3 million views and inspired countless people to start learning a skill themselves.
Expert in a Year: The Ultimate Table Tennis Challenge
Six months after finishing the challenge, Sam and I wrote a book sharing our experiences and the lessons we learned from a year of table tennis. Expert in a Year: The Ultimate Table Tennis Challenge is available to buy from Amazon for your Kindle or as a physical paperback copy. There is also an audiobook, narrated by Sam.
1001 Table Tennis Tips
I am currently working on a new table tennis book called 1001 Table Tennis Tips.
The Table Tennis Playbook (FREE Download)
I created The Table Tennis Playbook back in 2013 as a free ebook for members of The Expert Table Tennis Academy. In 2015, it received a much-needed update and professional redesign.
The Table Tennis Playbook is intended to be a comprehensive training manual for table tennis players of all abilities. The ‘plays’ contained within it are split into service and receive of service exercises. The focus is very much on match-specific practice drills, always starting with a serve, a series of shots and then going into free play (if the rally hasn’t already broken down). There are no ‘regular’ footwork exercises, or similar, in the playbook.
Table Tennis Training
- Back to Basics Table Tennis
- “Service Detention” and How to Improve Your Serve
- Are You Doing What You Think You’re Doing?
- Transferring Technique From Practice to Competition
- Rhythm and Timing – Underrated Table Tennis Skills
- Are Table Tennis Drills a Waste of Time?
- Upgrade Your Table Tennis Practice
- What Do You Work On When Everything Needs Work?
- High-Intensity Table Tennis and 60 Minute Practice
Physical Coaching
Here you will find links to all of my articles covering the physical side of table tennis.
Technical Coaching
Here you will find links to all of my articles covering the technical side of table tennis.
Strokes
- How to Play a Forehand Loop
- How to Play a Backhand Loop
- Improve Your Forehand Loop by Relaxing the Wrist
- Using Your Waist on the Backhand Loop
Serve & Return
Tactical Coaching
Here you will find links to all of my articles covering the tactical side of table tennis.
Mental Coaching
Here you will find links to all of my articles covering the mental side of table tennis.
Table Tennis Drills
Regular Drills
Irregular Drills
Multiball Drills
#AskBen
- Should You Carry a Spare Table Tennis Bat?
- How Can I Transfer My Good Technique in Practice to Competition?
Clubs, Camps & Coaches
If you are serious about improving your table tennis you would be mad to try and go it alone. You will improve much faster if you make good use of table tennis clubs, training camps, and coaches. Here are some posts highlighting the best of the best in these categories.
A Parent’s Guide to Table Tennis
Here’s a series of blog posts aimed at providing tips to parents of table tennis kids. I believe this is a really important topic as parents have a big, and often undervalued, role to play in the development of their children’s sporting abilities. I hope that this series will help to guide parents as they nurture and assist their kids.
Guest Posts
- What Do You Work On When Everything Needs Work? – by Sam Priestley
- 5 Tips to Improve Your Table Tennis Fitness – by Steve Brunskill
- Is Intra-Team Competition Beneficial in Table Tennis? – by Mark Simpson
My Table Tennis Coaching Videos
The Expert Table Tennis YouTube channel began in 2012 and now has over 6,000 subscribers. If you aren’t yet a subscriber go and check it out! Here’s a collection of my most popular coaching videos…
- How to Improve Your Shakehands Grip
- Teaching Sam Priestley the Forehand Drive
- Metronome Table Tennis Training
- How to Smash a High Backspin Ball
- Using Wrist in Your Forehand Loop