The boys from the England Youth Squad (EYS) are working hard this week at an international training camp in Slovakia.

The opportunity is part of the restructured EYS programme aimed at setting standards, increasing the intensity of practice and focusing on delivering performance when it matters most.

This is the first international training camp for many of the young athletes and they have been working with National Coach Matjaz Sercer and assistant Matej Mamut and Bosnian coach Igor Mihailovic.

Slovakian national Cadet and Junior players are providing sparring and competition and the collaboration between the nations and their coaches has been praised by the England Performance Manager, Ceri Ann Davies:

“We thank Slovakia sincerely for their hospitality and the coaches here for their passion and openness,” she said. “Our athletes have been developing confidence and a better mental approach, being more assertive in general. They are great to work with.

“We are also focusing on body position and footwork for service, receive and the opening of points where most games are won or lost.

“If we keep this up as a team, and our athletes continue to motivate themselves each day and work this way back at their clubs, we can be confident that England will make quick progress.”

One of the players, Shayan Siraj, said: “I think the training intensity has been very high. I think it’s been massively beneficial to me personally so far, because I have had a lot of new advice on my mindset and body position for serve and receive, which is the most important part of the game for actually learning how to win in close matches when under pressure.”

The other players in Slovakia are Naphat Boonyaprapa, Naphong Boonyaprapa, Rhys Davies, David Gofton, Jake Grayson, Ben Piggott, Louis Price, Thomas Rayner, Edan Regan, Felix Thomis and Josh Weatherby.