I'm Rules and Research Secretary for Preston Table Tennis Association. We're a local league association and have approximately 200 members who play in 18 member clubs fielding a total of 35 teams in three divisions. We were formed in 1928/29.
What follows is an unashamed account of my experiences today, tomorrow and Saturday as the Indian men's and women's teams come to Preston to play England at Preston Guild Hall on 16th May prior to the Commonwealth Championships which start in Glasgow next week.
Jim Clegg our Association's chairman is the brains and driving force behind bringing the third in the series of England vs India Internationals to Preston which has involved amongst other things finding funding, arranging the players accommodation, transport, practice facilities, match venue, publicity, schools table tennis festivals ..... I think you get the picture of the cost and work involved. But this post isn't about all that. It's about how one local league official and player - me - is sat at home buzzing and grinning from ear to ear thinking about what has been the best table tennis day of my life, and the impact bringing the England vs India table tennis match to Preston is having on our local area.
First though, I must thank on behalf of our Association Preston Council, the St Augustine's Table Tennis Centre where we are based, UCLAN, The Preston Guildhall, Preston Gujarat Society, our leagues helpers and coaches, the local schools who took/will take part in the Schools table tennis festivals, Katy Parker, our volunteer helpers and coaches, the North West Develpment Agency and the ETTA. Lastly I'd like to thank the Indian Men's and Women's teams who have been simply brilliant today. I know this sounds like an oscars thank you speech, but organising this event is very expensive and time consuming for our league and without all these people helping in one way or another, we simply couldn't have afforded to host this event.
Wednesday 13th MayAfter getting back late from watching my summer league team play I read Jim Clegg's email again with all the planned itinerary for the days leading up to the international on Saturday. I double check what my roles will be as I've never been involved with anything like this before. Jim's running it like a military operation as he knows how important it is our league and table tennis in our area for everything to go well. He's worked extremely hard for this and isn't going to let us cock it up now!
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I'm buzzing so can't sleep and work in to the night making sure all my video recording equipment has been charged up, the tapes wound to the beginning and bags packed. I then make up my new bat - a 729 Red Spirit with a sheet of Gewo Proton XP450 I bought tonight from Bill Thornton's, who brought his stall down to our summer league and an old sheet of 802-40. I can't use my normal match bat as I'm not comfortable with the sheet of 799 I put on the backhand a few days ago and tomorrow will involve a lot of backhand feeding for kids.
I don't get to sleep until 2am. It all seems so unreal. Hopefully the Indian Teams will let me video them practicing after the schools table tennis festival has finished. Jim's asked once, and was told by someone yes but the actual coaches may say no on the day so I'm nervous about this happening
Thursday 14th May7:10 I'm off to the see the physio at the hospital first for a further checkup on my elbow. The appointments 8:10. All goes well.
9:20 Time for a hair cut - can't look like a mess when on such an important day for our league.
10:20 Read haggisv's reply on the Adham thread and a quick check on some other new posts and then I'm off to our table tennis centre.
11:50 Arrive at the centre and meet up with Jim and some of our senior coaches. The Indian team is due to arrive at the centre 12:00 for a buffet lunch before we all leave for a local school where the table tennis festival will take place. Katy Parker has arrived just before me. She's joined later by the Schools table tennis coach for our local area. They're both here to help us out. Jim gets us all together and runs through what will happen at the school and what our roles will be. The kids will be under 11's with little or no experience of playing table tennis and will be coming from surrounding schools. The coaching will be basic level with the emphasis on keeping the kids engaged whilst practicing some of the easiest drills from the ETTA's coaching course. We'll have helpers - senior pupils from the high school - who'll keep those not practicing on the table engaged in some of the other ETTA coaching drills such as bouncing a ball on the bat. I'm nervous.
12:30 The Indian men's and women's team arrive along with their coaches. They look so young, or maybe I'm getting old. Very polite, but very quiet. We mingle politely and eat.
13:10 We all board the coach for the local school. On arrival it's a short walk to the gym which has already been set up with five tables all in a row. Two coaches per table with 1 helper. Jim has already spoken to the Indian team coaches last night about what's planned. I'm not sure at this stage whether they will just stand around watching, waiting for the last 40 mins or so of the afternoon when it's planned they play "exhibition" rallies, or if they'll join in.
13:20 I have a gentle knock with my buddy coach on my table to release some nerves and get used again to the 802-40 again. Constantini, one of the coaches and who seems to work closely with the women's team walks over to our table and looks at the ETTA coaching exercises on the table. He seems genuinely interested and recognises them. We have a quick chat. Nice guy. He then puts a ball on the bat face and turns the bat over, effortlessly rolling the ball as he does so on to the other side of the bat and then back again. It never leaves the bat surface and it's not rushed. Very sobering to see just how important touch is and how easy it can seem when done by someone who knows what they are doing. The school girl helpers mouth drops in amazement as he does this - mine would have too but I manage to stop myself. I take the opportunity to ask if he minds if I film the men's and women's team pratising later back at our Centre but he explains he can't make that decision and goes over to speak to who I think is the chief table tennis coach Bhawani Mukherjee. Whilst he's gone I try rolling the ball over like he did. Mmmm. Not as easy as he made it look. I stop
Before he comes back the coaching sessions begin. My job is to simply bounce the ball once and pat the ball back hand to backhand to one of the kids at the other side of the table 5 times. Once this is done the kids rotate and the next kid comes forward to try (they are lined up 6 deep). At fist they struggle to get the ball back so I pat the ball to them and catch their return. Then pat the ball to them again and catch the ball. It makes it easier to control this way, especially as I'm sharing the table on my side with kids lined up doing the same thing with my partner coach on the other side of the table. It's going well, the kids are laughing, their eyes are bright and wide open and they are keen to get to the front of the queue and have a try. Looking around the teachers are watching intently with smiles on there faces, the ETTA rep is happy, everyone is laughing and smiling and having a great time and photos are being taken. Then it gets even better. The Indian male and female players and coaches start to join in. They stop the kids and point out mistakes they are making holding the bat - often they grip it in their hand and don't extend their index finger - sorry no pen holders here
They really are getting involved and the kids are loving it. One of the Indian women players suggests I try to rally with the kids now. I do as suggested! The teacher looking after my set of kids asks if she can have a go practicing too and of course this gets the kids even more engaged.
One of the Indian players who'd been watching asks if he can borrow my bat as he wants to feed some of the kids himself. He soon realises I have short pips on my backhand and switches it over to the inverted side! Of course the kids love this. They don't know who the players are other than they are Indian internationals and I doubt they realise how lucky they are, but right now that doesn't matter because they are having fun. As are the players, the teachers and the helpers. It's brilliant and the highlight of my time in table tennis. Some of the Indian women's team are also around the table I'm on and they help the kids out too with basic coaching tips. The same is happening on all five tables.
14:15 Jim calls the coaching to a halt and we collect the bats and balls back in whilst all but two tables are put away. Barriers are put down the middle of the gym to separate the two remaining tables and two of the Indian men's team and two form the women's team start to play exhibition style points. The women soon get the kids cheering and clapping as one steps back over the barrier in to the men's court to lob return the smashes of her compatriot. The men go for more power loops working their way around the table so they are almost in line with the net rather than behind the table. And so it goes on for about 20 mins. They can't do this for long as after the schools festival it will be back to our centre for a training session. Constantini comes back over to me to let me know it's ok for me to film the training session. I thank him and go over and thank the Head Coach too.
When they've finished Katy Parker (ex England women's number 1 and now involved with table tennis development in the North West Of England) takes over. She plays points against some of the teachers and the kids love this especially on the rare occasion a teacher smashes the ball past Katy. She then has a quick knock against Constantini - obviously only for show. He loop drives and she chops it back. With far more spin being used now, a few mistakes are made and I don't think the kids really grasp how difficult it is to play spin. Adham's idea might work after all, but the kids today preferred the spectacular to the technical rallies.
After almost an hour and half of the festival, the kids attention span is starting to wane and it's nearly home time.
15:00 it's time to wind it up. The Indian team receive a huge cheer and round of applause and are surrounded by the kids. They have been really brilliant joining in like this. A couple of the teachers come over to Jim and ask if our coaches can come back to the schools to help run more table tennis sessions. The whole purpose of the visit is working. People talk about what to do to promote table tennis eg change the rules, spruce up the game for TV, well they should have been here today and seen how alive the kids were. Nothing can beat hands on playing involvement for kids and the interaction of the Indian teams and their management was brilliant. I wish the ITTF would make it a requirement of all national teams to interact with school kids like this rather than leave it up to their good will.
Some of us drive back to the Table Tennis Centre to get it set up for the Indian teams to practice. The Indian team / ETTA official and the rest of our coaching staff travel back on the coach a few minutes later.
16:00 We've got the tables and barriers set up. Four tables, two for the men's team and two for the women's. I've got my camcorders sorted and get to work videoing. It's fascinating watching them. Nishant from my summer league team comes down to watch. He is in awe. He promises, no more messing around for him. He'll knuckle down. He'll practice harder. I smile.
17.40 I stop recording as the training session winds up. The Indian teams warm down and leave. They have a function in their honour to attend later at Preston Gujarat Society. Some of our officials will be there, but not me. Too high powerd for me
We put the tables away.
18:00 Jim, myself, Tony and Nish have a chat in our office. It's been a tiring but brilliant day. The Indian Teams have joined in superbly and I hope they've enjoyed themselves too. They were certainly laughing and smiling at the Schools table tennis festival earlier.
And tomorrow it all starts again with another Schools festival but this time at the other end of Preston.
Final Thoughts tonight:People around the UK will probably only see a couple of lines in the press about the result of the match on Saturday and they'll wonder what's being done to promote table tennis. Well I hope this helps. There is so much more going on and so much fun to be had doing it - as long as you're not the one tasked with the hard work of pulling it all together, which thankfully I wasn't!