The search for elite players of the future could be coming to a table tennis club near you!

Table Tennis England is broadening its talent pathway by encouraging clubs to apply to become a Performance Club.

Performance Clubs will partner with a Centre for Excellence, working through them with national performance staff to ensure promising young players are given the necessary skills to reach their full potential.

Working mostly with players under the age of 14, clubs will ensure they work on developing athletic, technical and mental skills through delivering the necessary quality and quantity of training, as well as building links with local primary schools to identify talented youngsters.

Three Performance Clubs have already been confirmed – Corby Smash, Bishop Auckland and Wensum in Norwich – and no upper limit has been set on the number which can attain the status.

Table Tennis England’s Head of Talent & Performance, Simon Mills, said:

We are excited to be working with some new clubs and coaches in order to broaden the reach of our pathway and provide greater access to the Table Tennis England performance philosophies and trademarks.

This will also allow us to share our knowledge and learning from England Leopards successes at all levels of the pathway.

I am delighted to welcome our first intake of clubs and hope that this will be the first of many announcements.

A rolling application process exists for Performance Clubs and each club will need to apply initially and reconfirm on an annual basis that they wish to continue.

For more information on how to apply, visit the Performance Clubs page on our website.