I am often asked how do we get more youngsters playing table tennis.

It is a great question and one that has many layers in the answer. In short, we have to get more bats into childrens hands and stop trying to turn them into league players straight away!

Now I know thats not what people want to hear, but the main driver for children playing sport is the social interaction. Yes they like to compete and win but it is not the main reason they stick with a sport. The bottom line is it has to be fun and they have to enjoy spending time with the other children around them for this to stick.

We are not only competing with other racket sports and the bigger hitters like football, netball, rugby etc., but also newer sports like Dodgeball, Flag American Football and Wall Climbing. We need to ensure that when a chilkd experiences our sport for the first time, they love it and want to come back. Understanding why they want to play hits at the very heart of this.

So we need to provide a really good blend of opportunities for these children. Not just the standard play into competition, but festivals of skills with ideas around what excites kids. Robots, off table exercises, challenges and guided discovery into skills are just as important as getting them rallying as soon as possible.

If you look at what is happening around the South East at present, we have some excellent approaches to introducing children to the sport and how they can fall in love with it and stick around.

Its not an easy solution, but if we can provide more than one approach, we will get more bats in more hands and then playing for longer!