Tom Lodziak

Best table tennis rubbers and blades for advanced players

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What are the best table tennis rubbers and blades for advanced players? There are literally hundreds of rubbers and blades you could potentially buy, and a lot of them are very good. In this blog post I give my recommendations on really good table tennis rubbers and blades you can buy. I also give advice on how to do your own research and testing. This blog post is really aimed at those players who have moved beyond the intermediate level and are now becoming advanced table tennis players. Keep reading

How to destroy opponents with long serves

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If you play table tennis at an amateur level, especially at lower levels, you can dominate your opponents with long serves. These are serves which land very deep on your opponent’s side of the table, ideally with a lot of speed and spin. In this blog post, I explain why long serves are effective (especially at lower amateur levels) and how to do devilish long serves which can give your opponents nightmares. Keep reading

Tactics for beating weird players

Tactics for beating weird players

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If you play in local league or amateur tournaments, you will come across all kinds of weird and awkward styles. These are players with strange looking strokes and movements. They may not look great, but somehow they have developed an unorthodox playing style which works for them and can be infuriatingly effective. In this blog post I give four tactics to try when playing against weird players. Keep reading

I’m now a full-time table tennis coach!

I’m now a full-time table tennis coach!

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I have great pleasure to announce that I am now a full-time table tennis coach. Over the past few years I’ve been doing both my day job and table tennis coaching on the side. But my coaching has been going so well, it has become viable to do it full-time. I am hugely excited by this. In this blog post, I share some of my plans for the future and also explain how my new career has got off to a disastrous start! Keep reading

Short pause from blogging

Short pause from blogging

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I’m taking a short pause from my table tennis blog because of illness. I was admitted to hospital last week and diagnosed with bacterial meningitis. Fortunately I was diagnosed and treated quickly, so I was able to avoid some of the really bad complications you can get with the infection. I am now recovering at … Keep reading

A light-hearted look at the Team World Cup 2018

A light-hearted look at the Team World Cup 2018

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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

7 common beginner mistakes in table tennis (and how to fix them)

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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