Performance Development Team

Meet the Performance Development Team staff.

Aled Howell – Coaching and Education Manager

Christine Weatherall – Coaching and Education Administrator

Support coaches

Charlotte Carey

European Youth Table Tennis Championships at Baltiska Hallen in Malmo, Sweden.

Currently playing professionally in the highest leagues in Spain and Portugal, whilst living and training full time in Barcelona, Charlotte is a seven-time Welsh National Champion and has over 50 national titles, has represented Wales at four Commonwealth Games and has a Commonwealth bronze medal.

She is currently undergoing a degree in Sports Coaching and Fitness and says: “As I’m getting into the later stages of my playing career, I’m excited to incorporate coaching into my life and share my passion with the younger generation. I have coached several summer camps as well as coaching team Wales and Ireland in international events and I’m looking forward to working with the GB Programme.

“As support staff I will try my best to help the youth team based on my previous experiences on and off the table and do my utmost to prepare them well as a sparring partner for competitions, give advice with season planning and on the table in matches.

“As a female who had to move away to improve at a young age and has played abroad for over 10 years, one of my goals is to help and encourage young girls into following the same path as I did and help them have long careers playing table tennis.”

Gordon Fearn

Gordon has more than 40 years of experience in sports coaching from early years through to elite athletes. These include coaching both Georgina Walker and Emma Vickers to their combined seven individual U21 national table tennis titles. He has also done work with gold medal Paralympians James Rawson (table tennis) and Richard Whitehead (100m, 200m).

Gordon was UK Children’s Coach of the Year for his work around Fundamentals of Movement, and was Nottingham (twice) and East Midlands Coach of the Year for table tennis. He is also coach-accredited in numerous other sports and is a qualified tutor and assessor for both Multi Skills and table tennis.

More recently he has been working with the GB Futures squad both on camps and at events, focusing on developing the fundamental skills for players to help them to progress to the next level.

He says: “Really excited to be given the opportunity to work with the Futures players. This is such a key age for them to form good habits both as a player and a person. I would like to help create an environment where the players play without fear and are in what is known as the Learning Zone.”

Vidal Graham

Vidal is currently the head coach at Grantham College TTA and has been a full-time coach for over 20 years with seven national titles as a coach. Vidal has previously work with the Youth squads and supported on camps and international events. He also has four British League Premier Division titles as a player, along with playing professionally in Sweden.

He says: “I’m excited about this opportunity to work with GB’s best players and help them to progress to the next level.”

Nat Green

Natalie started playing table tennis as a six-year-old, due to several members of her family already playing and quickly developed a love for the sport and through lots of hard work she won her first national title as an 11-year-old and represented England for the first time as an under-12. Her playing career saw her represent England all the way through to senior level and play at world, European and Commonwealth championships, as well as winning over 20 national titles.

At the age of 22, Natalie took her first coaching job for Greenhouse Sports, and saw this as a fantastic career move and an opportunity to pass on her own knowledge and skills to the next generation of players. After this, she moved to working for Table Tennis England as a regional coach, in the Eastern region and later in the East Midlands as well as supporting some national team coaching, with the cadet girls, whom she coached at the European Youth Championships.

Her other coaching-related roles have included working at Grantham College Academy and tutoring and assessing for the association up to level three.

In more recent times, Natalie have taken some time away from the sport as a secondary school PE instructor, however, she has spent the last year working with some of the leading youth players in the country at the Charles Read Academy Table Tennis Performance Centre. Alongside this, she has also been working on the DISE (Diploma in Sporting Excellence) programme for Table Tennis England.

She says: “I hope to continue to pass on my knowledge and experience to any players on the pathway so that they are able to fulfil their potential.”

Matej Mamut

Matej is an ex-international player and has represented Croatia at all age categories and was also part of the cadet team that won a European silver medal. Matej currently plays in the top league in Slovenia. 

In 2017 Matej started his coaching career in England working as an assistant coach in the National Centre in Ackworth under the guidance of now BPTT coach Matjaz Sercer and working with a number of top England players including Jasmin Wong and Felix Thomis.

Matej now works at the University of Nottingham with the performance athletes and has supported on England camps and coached players such as Liam Pitchford at international events. He has also been able to utilise his degree in kinesiology to support the players’ physical development too.

He says: “I am very excited to work closely with the youth squad after working closely with Liam. There are many talented athletes, I will give my best to help them get a maximum from each of them.”

Ashley Robinson

Ashley Robinson is a former Irish national team player who has competed at multiple world and European Championships. He has also represented Northern Ireland at two Commonwealth Games. Ashley has won six Irish national titles at Senior level, with the most notable being a Men’s Singles title win in 2020. 

As a coach, Ashley has worked in several countries and was the head coach of LOOPS table tennis club in Australia under the guidance of former Olympian Simon Gerada. Returning to Ireland in 2020, Ashley took on a role as the lead coach for Table Tennis Provider in Dublin while working simultaneously with the Irish national teams on a monthly basis. Ashley was also a crucial part of the coaching team that travelled to Tokyo with Colin Judge for the 2020 Paralympic Games. 

He says: “I’m excited to get involved in a new project and play my small part in taking this programme to the next level. I am also incredibly excited to get a chance to work alongside a growing team of World Class coaches like John, Carlo and Matej.

“I have known and worked with John and Carlo for many years and I have full belief that the new set-up in Sheffield will provide a great platform for us to help get the maximum out of the players which can hopefully lead to medals on the world stage and Olympic stage.”

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