Weekly Training Update - 14/08/2026

 I've just returned from summer camp which was held at Nishkam school, Birmingham by the Birmingham Table Tennis Academy from the 3rd to the 5th of August 2026.  The three main coaches there are Ed Lynn, Lee McHugh and Mustafa Manager.  I also did a one to one with former England international Sam Wilson who was forced to retire from the professional game through injury.  I worked on a further refinement and upgrade to my pendulum serve which I'm finding out more about constantly and also how to serve a fast long reverse pendulum service.  Ed Lynn suggested that I work on tomahawk and hook serves since I don't use my wrist much during service.  I found a lot of the stuff we did on serve/receive very helpful and also the work we did on forehand open ups against backspin.  I can now return the ball with quality rather than just merely getting it back over the net.  I'm going to put some of the photos and short videos here for readers to gain an impression of the summer camp and contact details if anyone wants to get involved with BTTA.











Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Weekly Training Update - 25/07/2026

Image
 This week I've been working on 2 serves that I'd more or less abandoned in favour of the pendulum and reverse pendulum service but re-discovering how useful they can be.  The first is the lollipop or windscreen wiper serve, a serve which had disappered from the game until made popular again recently by French star Alexis Lebrun.  With the assistance of my return board I noticed how much top and sidespin was possible with this serve, a prodigious amount but it must be served short otherwise its vulnerable to counter-attack.  I was unable to serve the backspin version.  I was able to do both the backspin and topspin versions of the hook serve.  There was definite topspin but not as much as with the lollipop serve and a lot of backspin.  This is a definite antidote to my usual backspin serve.  I'd noticed a lot of unwanted sidespin with this, probably a sign that the bat is tilted although it seemed perpendicular.  Its important to look at the ...
Read more