Some of Europe’s top coaches have been sharing their knowledge and expertise at the ETTU Coaching Conference in London.

Hosted at the iconic Greenhouse Centre, around 70 coaches from across Europe, including 40 from England, are attending the three-day event, which ends today.

The series of lectures included two by Germany’s Richard Prause, a former international player and national coach who is currently sporting director of the German Table Tennis Association.

He talked about Plastic ball – Influence on the Technique and Tactics of Table Tennis as well as Service / Receive in Modern Table Tennis, after which the coaches had the opportunity to try out some advanced service techniques, and receive some tuition of their own from Prause, on the tables.

Benjamin Schmitz, the German TTA fitness coach and Dimitrij Ovtcharov’s personal trainer, presented a lecture on Speed in High Performance Table Tennis / New Aspects of Weight, Coordination and Neuro Athletic Training.

Alongside these and other lectures, coaches had the chance to network and share their own knowledge with colleagues from around the continent.

ETTU President Ronald Kramer, who also attended, said: “The coaches are the keepers of knowledge in table tennis and we have not always in the past had enough energy in safeguarding and enhancing the occupation of coaching.

“We need to want to share our knowledge to make the overall table tennis community better. Conferences like this are important because we bring knowledge to a comparative level between all coaches.

“Real top-level sport comes from a level playing field where all the players have the same knowledge to work with because all the coaches have the same knowledge.”

The conference was organised in conjunction with Greenhouse by Aled Howell, Coaching and Education Manager at Table Tennis England. Aled said: “It’s a massive honour to get some of the best coaches in Europe together here in London and a great opportunity to share knowledge with each other.

“The lectures have been fantastic and given the coaches a lot of food for thought, it’s been a really good event.”