Recent content by Ben Larcombe

Yes, that is a valid point. We are working a lot on speeding up his footwork and perhaps telling him to try and keep his heels off the floor would help. Thanks!

Here is Sam's latest video. It's a set we played this morning when I was playing left-handed. We'd love to hear your comments on Sam's strengths and weaknesses at the moment and what we should be working on with 53 days until Sam's first tournament.

I uploaded this video of Sam playing a few practice games against me today. Definitely worth a watch as it gives you a good idea of Sam's current level and strengths/weaknesses. Enjoy...

That sounds very similar to Sam's experience! I guess it takes time to turn yourself into a strong match players who can react to all the different variations and also make things difficult for your opponent. I think that if you've learned the basics though the match results will come with time...

Hi Diego, you are probably right and I'm sure Sam has lots of small technical issues. If we had a couple more years I think it would be worth working on them all but with only 4 months left our priority is very much on using what Sam already has to best effect and not trying to change too much...

Thank for following. Sorry for the lack of Instagram videos recently. It takes so much time doing all the videos and I have so much other stuff to do. I'll try and remember to put some on Instagram from time to time though over the final few months.

Sounds good. Where do you usually play? Drop me an email at [email protected] and we can hopefully sort something out :)

We only went to Medway to watch. It was a good experience for Sam though and we arrived at 8am, to simulate true tournament conditions, and had a good knock up before settling down and watch the band 6 event. I think Sam has a much better idea of what he's up against now! And in answer to your...

I'd love to continue it beyond the year. Have to see if Sam is up for it. It certainly wouldn't continue to be every single day though. Not sure my marriage could take it! Haha I disagree that top 250 is completely out of the question but then again, who knows. Where would you draw the line? Is...

It probably isn't impossible but I agree that it is very close to impossible. That's why I chose it :) You are completely right about the disparity between Sam's technique and his match-play. We've got a little while to focus our attention solely on closing that gap and hopefully it'll pay off.

He is playing well. His technique and fundamental game is solid and it is slowly, week by week, transitioning into his competitive game. We have 11/12 weeks roughly until his first tournament so we still have plenty of time and then I reckon we will do about 6 or 7 tournaments in total...

Hello everyone! You may or may not have heard about what I'm trying to do this year. It's called The Expert in a Year Challenge and the basic idea is to take a complete beginner (Sam Priestley, aged 24 at the start), spend a year intensively teaching him table tennis, and see how good he is by...

I liked this a lot and some great questions being asked. Play to win (rather than playing not to loose) ^ This is spot on! ^

Very nice :)

I'm a UKCC Level 2 coach and I did the course about 18months ago I think. I have to admit I wasn't expecting much from it, it was more like I felt obliged to do it. However, the tutors were great and there were a few other decent coaches on the course so I had a pretty alright time in the end...