The first of four South West Under-19 training camps took place on Saturday 16th November, and it was a promising start to the series. Held in Portishead, the camp saw 26 players from across the ‘north’ of the region attend. The feedback from the players was extremely positive, which bodes well for the future camps.

Several key takeaways emerged from the camp. First, it became clear that players need to take ownership of their own development. Instead of being passive participants in their training, it’s important for them to engage actively and drive their own development. Another crucial insight was the importance of mastering the basics — quality movement and consistency in fundamental strokes are essential before advancing to more complex match play tactics. Also players ability to draw on multiple serves is important before match play tactics can be developed.

The learnings from this camp will not only inform future camps but also help to structure talent and pathway development discussions across the South West and feed in to coach CPD over the coming year. There are 3 Coach networking and CPD events being planned with details to follow.

The dates of the 3 remaining camps are:-

• 2nd March 2025 – Plymouth Joola Table Tennis Club
• 15th March 2025 – Portishead Table Tennis Club
• 11th May 2025 – Cornwall Table Tennis Centre

By moving the camp around it is hoped that more counties will take up the opportunity and nominate players that they believe will benefit from the camps.

Special thanks to Nick Davidson as Head Coach of the programme and Graham Slack who ran the 1st Camp.

We look forward to seeing how the players benefit from the intensive programme and seeing how the learning can be applied in the development of Juniors in other environments across the South West.