What a fantastic, inspirational day the 28th December 2013 will be for RTTC. Darius Knight came down and spent nearly 6 hours with us all, Cadets, Juniors, Seniors, Vets and Super Vets.
It was a superb fun packed day of table tennis, games, fun and a chat with Darius and a chance to ask all the questions you wanted.
We started at 10.00am with a room full of Juniors (and some Seniors) and Darius led us through his daily warm up win he is training, he led a jog round the hall with some exercises along the way, we then has some stretches by the table and then we got down to some table tennis. We spent the morning thinking about keeping your bat high, when driving and blocking, keeping the shot short and accurate and keeping the ball on the table, we went through loads of different exercise and then had a top table event with no spin, only driving and using all your skill to get the other person out of position. We also went through a quick repertoire of serving, something we could all be better at and receiving, the two most important shots in table tennis.
We then broke for some lunch by Debbie Andrews and a chat to put the world of table tennis right in this country from funding, talent development areas and the club structure in the UK.
The afternoon session was a free session and we have a few more seniors turn up, this was a look at spin and the effects you can have on the ball by brushing it lightly, this was a great session and really enjoyed by all, we then had a game of Sudden Death and with Darius out first round it was Oli Reynolds who came through to beat Martin Edwards in the final, great little fun game.
Another free session with Darius helping everyone with their game lead us to a team event with 2 senior teams against one another and 2 junior teams against one another, senior event was a close call with Jermaine Fearon, Josh Sidki, Martyn Green and Rik James winning 14-12 over Oli, Darius, Martin Edwards and Lee Harvey.
Darius is a fantastic ambassador for table tennis in this country and we were really chuffed that he took the time to come down and see us… maybe one day again, well see!
There has to be thanks from us to, firstly Darius, a big thank you, to Rik, John and Alan for sorting out the day, all the players for taking the time after Christmas to come down and welcome Darius to the club and get involved in the day, parents and guardians for being able to bring the kids down and Debbie Andrews for the fantastic sandwiches and cakes.
