The Expert Table Tennis Podcast

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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 some of his students are former guests on the show Brian Pace and Tahl Leibovitz!

[Read more…] about #33 – Sean O’Neill: Top Tips for Intermediate Players

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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, Will released a statement on Facebook announcing his retirement from competitive table tennis. With Rio 2016 Olympic qualification just months away this came as a bit of shock to many table tennis fans. Despite cutting back his training in recent years, Will is still the best player in Australia and everyone would have expected him to qualify for his fourth Olympic Games.

[Read more…] about #32 – William Henzell: Time to Retire

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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 a position to give his all at what will probably be his last major competition. I caught up with him last week for about 40 minutes to ask him about his book Ping Pong for Fighters and to hear some of the lessons he’s learnt from competing at the highest level for so many years.

[Read more…] about #31 – Tahl Leibovitz: Ping Pong for Fighters

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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 tough and wasn’t sure whether all the hard work and sacrifice was really worth it. He slowly began to drift away from the sport and quit completely at the age of 20. He didn’t pick up a bat for twenty years, until coming back to the sport in 2012 after taking his son along to a local kids coaching session.

[Read more…] about #30 – Nick Ryder: Making a Comeback After 20 Years

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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 medals.

Billy is now 17 years old and living and training in Sheffield at the national centre. He is still hoping to qualify for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games in his new class (and is flying to Costa Rica next week to see if he can pick up enough ranking points to make it there), but obviously the big one for him will be Tokyo 2020, in five years time.

[Read more…] about #29 – Billy Shilton: Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Dreams