My GBTT Training So Far – Kiishi Adekola

I am so delighted to be sharing my GBTT futures training experience with everyone and I am so grateful to TTS selection committee for the opportunity given to me to join the GBTT futures training programme, and I must say that it has been a wonderful experience so far. The first of the GBTT camps was on the 30^th – 31^st of March, 2024 with the second on 12^th– 14^th of April. They have been at The David Ross Sports Centre in Nottingham. Each training session lasts 7 hours long per day. We would have roughly an hour for lunch and a few toilet and water breaks.

I have learnt so much. It has also been a great experience meeting new players with different styles and learning multiple ways to train, warm up and cool down for table tennis. We have been told how to use and not use foam rollers and how we should be using them at the start and at the beginning of a session or even just in your free time. We have also learnt ways of just simply using the wall for stretching and helping with support.

We used tennis balls to aid coordination by throwing them against the wall for reflex exercises and staying in a press up position to help build up our core strength as well as other core building exercises. We were shown and talked about the fact that we don’t always have to do a full running exercise to warm up and that we could side step in a small space turning in different directions all the time. This drill could also be done with a partner by throwing a tennis ball at them while still moving or playing reaction games with a partner and even setting up cones and working in a group.

On the table, we did a varied number of exercises including irregular and regular consistency, control and attacking. while varying the length at which you stay in and back from the table and serving practice. We had some multi-ball drills where we were playing shots against topspin and backspin and some shadow play using a power cord playing a backhand and a wide forehand. We also did a lot of match play and turned exercises into matches.

A major focus at the camps, has been adaptability. We sometimes used different types of table tennis bats that we don’t all normally use such as pimples and sandpaper bats. We were encouraged not to always blame the conditions or your resources, but to focus on personal excellence; always striving to be the best you can be no matter who you are. We were taught to focus on the “CORE” which stands for C=Commitment O=Ownership R=Responsibility & E=Excellence.

Despite the long travel and long training sessions which leave me sapped of energy at the end of the day, I am learning a lot and really do enjoy the GBTT trainings. I would say that the things that I am enjoying the most about this experience is experiencing the different playing styles and using the foam rollers and using the tennis balls to warm up. My takeaway so far is being aware that motivation can vary as you may not always be keen to do play or continue but “Commitment” should always be consistent.

Nottingham is a beautiful city, though I haven’t been able to explore it due to the training durations, but the little I have seen from the taxi rides to and from the training centre (DRSV) has been beautiful and the Nottingham University campus is so serene and the people there are lovely and friendly. Hopefully, I will get to explore the next time.

Some of the photos taken during the training camps are presented below: