Youngsters from Sir John Sherbrooke School in Nottingham had fun and inspiration in equal measure when three of Britain’s best players joined their TT Kidz session.

Liam Pitchford, Paul Drinkhall and Tom Jarvis took a break from training for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament to work with youngsters at the University of Nottingham’s David Ross Sports Village.

The visit was in support of the Aspiration Fund, which UK Sport launched last year to allow sports not currently in receipt of full funding to develop plans to help teams and athletes qualify for Tokyo 2020.

It was also in support of the Travel to Tokyo initiative, which is part of Get Set, Team GB and ParalympicsGB’s youth engagement programme, created with funding from Sport England and delivered with support from programme partner ukactive.

Travel to Tokyo inspires half a million families to start their active journey to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. No matter how big or small, every activity counts and Travel to Tokyo encourages family members to explore programmes like TT Kidz and get active to win. Whether it’s playing table tennis as a family or a walk to school, all activity can be logged at the Get Set website and can earn fantastic rewards for the school.

What is TT Kidz?

TT Kidz is an eight-week programme developed by Table Tennis England to get more young people active and provide youngsters with an inspiring, engaging and fun first experience in the game.

Children learn all the basic skills necessary to enjoy a great game of table tennis, as well as all the benefits that an active life brings, including fitness, hand/eye coordination, building social relationships and generally having a great time!

Hundreds of children participated in the first round of sessions, organised by clubs across the country. The next round of courses is due to start in February and children can now get booked on by visiting the TT Kidz website.

Schools can now also get involved with TT Kidz and can purchase their own kit bags and access to online training and resources to show you how to deliver TT Kidz activities. Schools can buy this from the schools section at the TT Kidz website