Tom Lodziak 
Last week, I went to the Quarter Final session of the Team World Cup in London. I could write a gushing blog post about how amazing all the professional players are, but I don’t fancy doing that. Instead, I thought I’d write some light-hearted ramblings about my experience. So stick with it. I’ll try and entertain you with my witty (this might be pushing it) table tennis anecdotes and observations. Keep reading
Table tennis is a fast game. You need quick reactions to cope with the random patterns of play. One way you can improve your reaction time is by simply watching your opponent. In this blog post I explain why watching your opponent helps you to react quicker, move quicker and play better quality strokes. Keep reading
I’m always looking for opportunities to receive coaching myself. This helps me improve as a player and a coach. Recently I had a coaching session with Eli Baraty – a top coach who has helped produced many national title winners. Eli helped me with a few things, in particular getting more whip on my forehand topspin. Keep reading
Last weekend I coached at a beginner training day in London. The purpose of the day was to teach some basic table tennis skills – drives, pushes, serve and receive. Throughout the day, I picked up on several mistakes the beginner players were making. They were making the same mistakes as the beginner players I coach in Cambridge. I’m sure they are the same mistakes any beginner player makes in any part of the world. So I thought it would be useful to share some of these mistakes, why they need fixing and what you should do instead. So if you are a beginner player, this blog post is for you… Keep reading
Over the past week, I passed a new milestone. My table tennis video lessons on YouTube have been viewed over one million times. Woohoo! I’m very excited by this, being a bit of a digital statistics geek. I’d like to see a big thank you to anyone who has ever watched, liked, shared or commented on one of my table tennis lessons on YouTube. And please send me your ideas for new table tennis video lessons. Keep reading
Angled shots are great way of stretching your opponent, keeping him off-balance, and opening up the table so you can control the rally. In this blog post, I explain what I mean by ‘angled shots’, why they are effective and how you can practice angled shots in your training sessions. Keep reading
To kick off 2018, I thought I’d give you a challenge. For a 30 day period, your challenge is to work on, and improve, your weakest stroke. And I mean really work on it. During any table tennis training session you do over the 30 days, you have to spend a good chunk of time practising this weak stroke. The whole purpose of this is to use focused, deliberate practise in a condensed time period (30 days) to transform your weakest stroke into something which works in a competitive match. Keep reading
It’s time for my end-of-year table tennis quiz! How good is your table tennis knowledge? I have 20 questions about table tennis during 2017. Each question has four possible answers for you to choose from. At the end of the quiz you can see how your score compares to others and you can even add your score to the quiz leader-board. Good luck! Keep reading
When I post a coaching video on my Youtube channel, I usually get a few comments, where my technique gets completely trashed. I get told I do this wrong and that wrong and I should try to play the shot like the best professionals (usually someone from the Chinese National Team). But how true is this? Do you have to play like the best professionals in the world to be any good at table tennis? Is there such a thing as ‘perfect’ technique? Let’s explore these questions… Keep reading
This week I beat an opponent who I lost to twice last season. The biggest factor for my win, was my note-taking. Yes, that’s right, good old boring note-taking! I regularly make notes about my opponents. I make notes about an opponent’s playing style, how I lost points, how I won points and what tactics to try the next time we play. In this blog post, I explain why I write notes about my opponents, what I include in my notes and why you should make notes too. Keep reading