Performance pathway

The route to becoming an England Leopards player

Table Tennis England Pathway vision: A progressive, coherent, and smart pathway system capable of recognising and developing players with the potential to excel at senior international level.

Download our Pathway & Performance Plan and Performance Squad Standards 2023/24 at the foot of this page.

Pathway Guiding Principles

To achieve our ambitions, we have set out a number of guiding principles that will be help support us along the way:

Shared goals and clear objectives: Everyone in the pathway is clear what our goals are and how to get there.

Coherent across environments: It’s clear how players transition through the system, and stakeholders are aligned at the correct points.

Developmentally appropriate and progressive: Tasks, activities and benchmarking is appropriate for the age and stage of a player’s development.

Player centred: We care about our players and their welfare and give them a voice to input back into the system.

Holistic: Player development is shaped by the interaction between biological, psychological, behavioural, social and environmental factors.

Life balance: Consideration is given to how players’ education and wider activities fit into their development. A renewed attitude on the role of personal development for talented table tennis players and the positive impact wider identity can have on performance.

Smart identification: How we recognise capacity for development is smart and evidence informed.

Collaborative: Best practice sharing becomes commonplace, and the performance team is dedicated to working closely with clubs, schools, and other talent development environments.

Aims of the pathway

Our pathway and performance programmes will have a series of outcomes:

  • Produce senior level athletes capable of international podium success at European, world and Olympic Level
  • Provide meaningful life experiences for players and support skill development that will transfer to wider settings
  • Support player exit pathways for meaningful long-term engagement in the sport
  • Develop coaches with expertise at specific stages of the player journey, capable of providing the right environments and skill development that is age and stage appropriate
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