COACHING

OUR  COACHING TEAM

The members of our coaching team are highly experienced, featuring former Commonwealth Games gold medallist Gareth Herbert, former six-time England singles champion Dennis Neale, Welsh senior No. 2 and former coach for Table Tennis Wales Mike Marsden, former England junior No. 2 George Downing, former England/Singapore national head coach Liu Jiayi, and development coach in China, Singapore and the UK in the past 30 years.

Coaching Philosophy at Archway Academy

At Archway, all coaches believe that the development of technique is vital to enable players to maximise their potential and play at the highest level. Many people believe that good technique is about how good a certain technique looks to viewers and onlookers. At Archway, we believe it to be more than that. We believe that there is clear link between technique and tactics which is sometimes overlooked. If you have technical excellence, it expands your options in matches from a tactical perspective. For example, if your opponent serves short topspin serves and a player cannot demonstrate the correct technique with the flick, you are unable to execute the correct technical feature and therefore limit yourself and have to rely on second rate tactics to see you through. Using good technique in table tennis is beneficial because as well as it is promoting high performance, it also reduces the risk of injury. 

It is vital that Archway players develop the skills necessary to perform the required techniques of table tennis correctly. If players learn and use incorrect techniques, they may at first do well, but they do reduce the possibility of playing at a high level. We often see this in table tennis where a young player will play quite defensively, opting to simply keep the ball on the table, whilst their opponent who is trying to play in the right way loses out because they haven’t at this point developed the consistency of positive play and therefore making mistake after mistake. At Archway, we encourage players to perform in the right way and give players the responsibility for learning correct techniques, practising them and using them in competition. We as coaches make teaching correct technique a priority and on a daily basis, we observe players and make the necessary changes to ensure that the correct techniques are being used. The role of the coach at Archway is very important as the skills passed on to players at an early age can be carried through an entire career. If taught wrong at an early age, techniques can be so ingrained that it is difficult for players to change so we believe that it should not get to this point. All Archway coaches ensure that we stay up to date with the latest techniques and teaching methods. By doing this, ultimately, the players benefit from the use of correct technique, which will optimise performance. 

In competition, when cornering players, we often hear the opposing coach say things like “Keep the ball on the table”. At Archway we say, “Be positive”.
Gareth
HEAD COACH: GARETH HERBERT
  • Former England No. 1.
  • Winner of two Commonwealth Games gold medals in Manchester in 2002.
  • Bronze medallist in the men's singles and team bronze medallist at the Commonwealth Championships in India in 2001.
  • Team gold medallist at the Commonwealth Championships in Singapore in 1999.
  • Team gold medallist at the Commonwealth Championships in Glasgow in 1997.
A Message from Gareth

The great thing about table tennis is just about everyone has played the game at some point in their lives, it's one of the most popular sports in the world. I started playing table tennis aged ten and I found that I improved quickly and with coaching I excelled at a rate that I never could have imagined. Very quickly, I could win games against my sister who was seven years older, definitely my mum as she wasn’t sporty, play leaders at my local play centre, my table tennis coaches, adults who play regular local and national leagues and so on. I found that when I had somewhere to play and people around me who could develop me technically, the rest was in my hands. Any success was dependent on my love for the game and how much effort I was prepared to put in. 

Table tennis, when played at the higher levels, it's one of the fastest sports around. Just a couple of hours a week playing table tennis as a hobby can vastly improve health and fitness.

Table tennis can be played competitively right up to your eighties and beyond. You can start at an early age and in China, children are starting earlier and earlier and it is now not unusual for children to start playing as early as three years old.

When I started playing table tennis I had no idea what I could achieve, it was pure, I just loved hitting the ball and finding out my boundaries, how hard could I hit it and still hit the table, how much spin could I get? These are the two things that kept me motivated and keen. Before long I began to take the sport more seriously as I improved and began to receive letters to my home with all formal letters starting the same: “Dear Gareth I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected to play for…..” It was the last words that differed, initially it stated that I would be playing in the local cup competition, then my town, then the county and ultimately “England”. 

It all happened so quickly but I remember every step very clearly. I achieved just about everything I wanted to in the game as my targets and aspirations changed. I met my wife through table tennis and whilst I do not play competitively any more, all my best friends were met through table tennis. I have been able to give back to the game of table tennis and start careers for others in the game.

At the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002 I became a double gold medallist which is something that I am very proud of. My biggest achievement of all is that I have managed to take my sporting beliefs and transfer these skills into my everyday life at home and at work and have managed to introduce several thousand people, both child and adult to a game that I love and that has been a part of my life for nearly three decades.

Whatever your aspirations are, the most important thing of all is to enjoy the game and I am confident that you will grow to love the game as I did.

Gareth
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