My dad had played table tennis when I was much younger (1970's) and he used SP's forehand and backhand. I remember watching him play a couple of times in the Blackburn league. At home my brother and I used to get some MDF out and lay it on the dining room table. We'd get books from the bookshelf and stand them on end across the middle of the MDF - that would be our net. That's what got me started. However, apart from a brief spell in my final year of High School 15-16yrs when I got chance to play at school, I concentrated mainly on chess and badminton.
At college 16-18yrs age, I continued to play badminton and represented my college a few times which I was chuffed about. Never the best but would give 100% and was reliable. At University, I joined the badminton club but just played for fun. I tried to join the tennis club, but no one from the tennis club showed up at a Fresher's event in my first week there - so I stuck with badminton.
I Left Uni in 1986 and returned home and joined a tennis club about 4 miles away. I played there for 2 yrs including playing in Mens Fylde Tennis league (bottom divisions) but I never felt part of the club. There was a "pecking order" there, and it rains a lot in Preston so I spent a lot of time using small square pieces of sponge to mop up the shale courts, hoping someone would turn up and agree to play me. Some people were nice there but I finally packed in after a first team player arranged to play me one morning. It was on one of my days off work and I biked to the club, carrying all my stuff on my back to find him playing someone else. He told me the other guy was better than me so he didn't want to play me. He cut me dead and I had no one to play. That was the final straw. I left.
With no tennis, and having drifted away from table tennis after school, my mum put me in touch with someone she worked with who played badminton in the Mid Lancs badminton league. I was invited down to a club night and made to feel really welcome. It was local too, so I could walk to our home venue in 15 minutes. Whilst never being good enough to play in the first team, I was invited to play in the second. I played for that team for about 16yrs. Unlike table tennis where there is a steady stream of youngsters entering the sport, in badminton the team aged together and only occasionally did new peole join the club and often they had simply transferred from another club in the league. What was good though was that each team consisted of 3 men and 3 women so there was a good mix of humour and err opinions on life and other matters (table tennis I find is male dominated at club level so there's not that variety). After each away match we'd go to the pub for a drink and a chat, during games we'd have a good laugh and at the end of the season we'd all go out for a meal together. Badminton at our club was a social sport. Eventually though, babies, family, careers, physical wear and tear and importantly costs took their toll. Our home venue was a local school but they began to operate on a commercial basis rather than a community basis. Eventually we were simply priced out of the venue. Costs, insurance, having to pay for a caretaker to open and close the venue - something we'd previously been allowed to do ourselves - all meant we as a club could no longer afford to play there. We had a team meeting and our club folded.
With no competitive sport to play I occasionally played badminton at a social / coaching session run by a friend at a leisure centre about 6 miles away in Leyland – it was as much about trying to stay physically fit and playing the sport. My friend got me to play occasionally for his team but I'd lost interest in playing competitive badminton. Instead, a work colleague who has since become a good table tennis friend, told me about his table tennis team and the Preston Table Tennis League. Having not played since the early 80's I was intrigued. I spent a year following him around, watching him play in our Premier Division. We'd also meet occasionally and play at my works social club. He also got me my first bat - a Taico 200 DF bat (very slow), with Joola Cava on my forehand and Goldway S936 SP's on my backhand. The S936's were slow and could take the pace of the ball and I could still drive with them. Pity they are no longer an authorised rubber. However, as is usual, I wanted more. A Stiga Pro Clipper blade was on sale. I bought it, along with some Bryce (never speed glued though - too much hassle for me, stick and play, was all I wanted to do). On the backhand went some Tango Ultra and a more aggressive game was born.
After a season of following my mate around I settled on a club called Jacobaeus – different to my friends but local. When my friend had played there, they seemed welcoming and they were only a few minutes walk from where I used to play badminton. I joined Jacobaeus in about May 2004. Two months later, the School upped the costs of using their facilities, insurance was now needed to keep the clubs tables in storage at the school and they wanted more money. The club decided to move about 10 miles away to a Methodist Church. One of our players was the caretaker there. Ironic, I'd chosen a club because it was friendly and local and within a couple of months, they were now the furthest club in the league away from me. However, fortunately by this time I'd been able to afford to buy a car so "have bat will travel" was born.
I played in Jacobaeus's second team. We played in the bottom division. A mixture of new players to league play and old players who were no longer good enough for the higher divisions. I also started to go to our leagues coaching sessions. I had spells of playing SP's both sides and inverted / SP or MP combinations. I switched bats, I switched rubbers and makes. Nothing beats the feeling of turning up for a knock for the first time with a new setup. Nothing. It's a buzz. You fell like you can't lose. And then you hit the first ball – the all so important first ball, the first point. You have to win it. It will set the tone for the rest of your life with that set up. Oops. Equipment doesn't win points, people do. Expensive lesson still not learned.
Then our league moved to the St Augustine's table tennis centre. Our Committee had fought for years to get a purpose built table tennis facility built, one which could become the home of the whole league and which would hopefully secure it's future. Prior to this we were losing clubs because local business were taking back social rooms and staff clubs to make more office space, or companies were simply closing. Our league had been dying.
One night after a Friday night session at the Centre, I got talking and then arguing with Jim Clegg - then Chairman of the league. He wanted all the clubs to move to the Centre (help spread the cost of hiring it) - I didn't want all "our" eggs in one basket and didn't like the way clubs away from the centre were being forced to move to the centre or subsidise those who did play there. It ended at nearly 11pm with Jim (who I'm now friends with - unless we're on the golf course
) telling me to either shut up or join the Committee. Shortly afterwards, I joined the Committee as Rules and Research Secretary. One of the things I wanted to do was improve our leagues profile - it would increase interest within the local community and raise our profile to a wider audience which would help with keeping our ETTA Premier Club status and with the success of us applying for grants. I made a video about our leagues move to the centre which was played at a "get together" of clubs at an ETTA event. From there I decided to setup my "PathfinderPro" account on YouTube - but that's a separate story.
I continued to play for Jacobaeus for the next few years but left the PTTA Committee in 2010 because of family circumstances - I was to become a dad and family would come first. Just like a lot of people, table tennis would have to take a back seat. On January 11 2011, my daughter, 9 days overdue was born sleeping. We didn't know anything was wrong until her mum went in to labour and we got to the hospital.
That knocked me for six for a long time. Some people from table tennis rallied round me, including one person in particular on this forum. Since then I've had spells where I've helped out the PTTA committee but I've never really had that desire to play competitions anymore. I've had spells where I've represented my league playing for Preston B team in the Lancs and Cheshire town team seniors competion (not a big thing as often the best players in our league are too busy or won't commit to a whole days play on a Sunday, so choosing a team can become a case of who's left). I've also played in the Vets for Preston's C team. With Jacobaeus, we've had promotion to the Prem and relegation followed by promotion and this year we went from 2 team to 3 to try and offer a youngster the chance to stay at the club and play in Division 1 – a step up for him. My appearances have been limited though.
Away from competitive play, about 3 yrs ago our league was running out of qualified coaches. To keep our Premier Club status with Table Tennis England (ETTA at the time), our league needed to have a certain number of qualified coaches. We asked for volunteers but no one from the league was interested. In some respects I find table tennis players to be the most selfish, or inward looking "sports" people I've come across. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground - there are those who you know will help and put something back without question and others who just take, take and take some more. To get the league out of a situation 2 of us who were helping the committee out at the time, agreed to train up - the league would help with the course fees we would qualify and help out for free. First Aid training, attending a Child Protection course and a Government child protection checks were taken. Also we needed to pass the UKCC Level 1 training course. 3 days over a 12 week period, syllabus included, Technical resources and activities; Coaching methods and styles; Communication, Personality and Motivation; Applied Physiology;Understanding the Basics of Reflective Practice. The course seemed to be as much about how to connect with people, the responsibilities of a coach and how to plan effective sessions as it was about actually understanding and learning technique. I don't think I've ever been so out of my comfort zone as I was doing that course. In person, I'm basically shy and don't like being the centre of attention, even for just a few minutes whilst I explain and demonstrate something. However, after 3 yrs I'd have to say that although coaching still scares me, it's also what gives me my greatest satisfaction in table tennis. Helping someone help themselves, seeing them improve and smiling / being happy because they can recognise that improvement or having a parent, adult or child come up to you after a session and say thank you, they enjoyed a session and got something from it - it's a brilliant feeling. But it's not always like that. Sometimes you wish you could transport kids back to the 70's and instead of playing of state of the art tables in a state of the art venue, get them to play on MDF with books as a net, grrrrrrr. And I've made mistakes, twice I think I've driven kids away from playing for a while because rather than being constructive I've lost my patience with them and told them straight they weren't as good as they thought they were and should talk less and listen more. But coaching is as much a learning process for the coach as it is the student and you learn as a coach that you have to adapt to the people you're coaching as much if not more than you should expect them to adapt to you – especially true at the lower levels where a child might not be there out of their own choice. Less so for elite athletes who are there because they want to learn.
Anyway, so that's it really. This will probably be my last season playing competitively. I don't enjoy it and health issues make it too frustrating. I will continue to turn up and watch / support my friends play because that's what friends do and I enjoy watching them play. And I'll still continue to try and help people when they want help at coaching or social sessions. As for Committee work, I help update the website and will help out occasionally with advice on rules issues or on with helping out at events. I'll also probably start to film local league matches again soon. As for equipment testing - that's a whole new separate chapter. And talking of equipment, after switching to double inverted I'm still using it. I really miss playing with Dr Evil OX on my backhand but whilst recovering from back surgery I couldn't play matches, only offer limited help with coaching. And when I'm coaching I'm only allowed to use double inverted - so I've got out of touch with using SP's. I'm still amazed by those who mock pimples, and I have the upmost respect for those players who can play with pimples one side and inverted on the other especially if they can can twiddle too. To learn to play with one type of equipment is hard, but to have to learn how to play with two different types of equipment and be able to switch mentally mid point from one technique to another, wow all credit to those players, now they really can multi-task.
So there you have it. My table tennis story.
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