Table Tennis England approached Living Sport to support them locally to understand their club development needs, and to provide them with local insight into Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

Amber Harris, Project Officer at Living Sport, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough County Sports Partnership, explains the results of recent insight gained from table tennis clubs.

Living Sport carried out an audit of a variety of club’s from across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough; this audit investigated the current needs of the clubs, the present coaching landscape, the club facilities and provision and the capacity for club’s to expand.

Key findings from these audits were:

• The clubs’ main priorities are increasing social participation, increasing junior participation and increasing/ developing their competitive membership
• 91% of clubs required more volunteers
• All were interested in developing the grass roots elements of their clubs, and were interested in welcoming beginners into their clubs.

Following these audits table tennis clubs within the county have become significantly more engaged with us as a County Sports Partnerships, with clubs benefitting from attending club forums, gaining funding to improve their workforce, and expanding their clubs to new environments through the Satellite Club programme.

Moving forward we hope to work collaboratively with Table Tennis England on their local club development work. Improving the coaching workforce within the county is a priority, and we will be working alongside the Coach Development Manager in order to achieve this. Through carrying out audits with table tennis clubs in the county, we can now provide a more bespoke offer, helping them to address their needs and achieve their aims.