Table Tennis England Coaching Conference 2026
As part of Table Tennis England’s commitment to coaches and coach development, the first ever full Table Tennis England Coaching Conference took place in Nottingham on Saturday 21 March 2026
Conference title: Developing coaches. Empowering players. Building the future.
Saturday 21 March 2026 09:00-17:00 | East Midlands Conference Centre Nottingham
Titled “Developing Coaches. Empowering Players. Building the Future”, the conference focused on elevating coaching impact - on the table, in the training hall, and within the wider table tennis community.
Information about the 2027 Table Tennis England Coaching Conference will appear here.
When and where was the conference?
A full day of keynote speeches, workshops and opportunities to network, the conference ran from 9am-5pm on Saturday 21 March 2026.
The conference coincided with the Mark Bates Ltd Senior National Championships and took place at East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham, with conference attendees receiving tickets to the Friday and Saturday of the Championships.
What will the conference include?
The conference opened with keynote speech “An overview of modern table tennis coaching: aligning coaching practice with player development” ahead of a series of workshops and discussion sessions either side of a networking lunch.
For the first workshop, attendees chose from:
- Creating positive learning environments
- Motivating young players
- Effective progression from beginner to performance pathways
- Key psychological demands players face at different stages
- How coaches can create supportive, confidence-building environments
- Practical strategies for helping players manage pressure and emotions
- Simple mental skills coaches can integrate into everyday training
- Using video analysis tools
- Integrating data into coaching feedback
- Analysis workflow examples
For the second workshop, chose from:
- Tactical awareness
- Opponent Analysis
- In-match coaching strategies – Corner Coaching
- Practical approaches to coaching players with a wide range of abilities and needs
- Understanding SEND in a community coaching context
- Simple adaptations that make sessions accessible, enjoyable, and safe
- Strategies to welcome and support players from diverse cultural and social backgrounds
- Real-life examples suitable for clubs, schools, and community settings
- Building a club coaching culture
- Volunteer engagement
- Club development
- Embedding the player development framework
- Delivering long-term programming
After a networking lunch, the conference resumed with a series of core sessions ahead of a concluding message. These sessions were a facilitated discussion, a practical scenario-based discussion, and a panel discussion on ‘what makes a great coach?’. More information is available below:
- Supporting coach wellbeing & preventing burnout
- How do we attract and retain more coaches?
- Performance vs. participation: balancing priorities
- How do we support women and girls in table tennis?
Small groups will solve real-life coaching challenges (possible topics)
- Managing players with contrasting abilities in the same group
- Preparing athletes for major competitions
- Addressing plateauing performance
- Handling parental pressure
- Player transitions
- Adapting sessions for limited facilities or resources
- oThe panel will be made up of: elite coach, national team athlete, coach developer, coach from non-performance environment
- Topics being covered: effective communication, creating environments where athletes thrive and Player Development Framework
- There will also be an audience Q&A