Table Tennis England’s National Youth Coach Matt Stanforth has won a place on the ITTF’s 2017 Mentorship Programme.

The initiative sees up-and-coming coaches partnered with some of the world’s top coaches, who pass on their knowledge and experience and help to develop the skills of the mentees.

Matt will be mentored by coaches based at the China Table Tennis College in Shanghai having been accepted on to the programme after an application process.

The relationship with his mentors will be based partly online and partly in person – he will travel to Shanghai later this year to work with them for a week.

Matt, who has chosen to focus particularly on the transition of players from youth to senior ranks, will also have to complete an assignment essay on that topic, to be published on the ITTF website.

Matt, who also coached the England women’s team until earlier this year, said:

“A lot of coaches put their names forward, so I’m very pleased to be accepted. As a coach, you are always looking for ways to learn and develop and you never stop growing.

“It’s a great opportunity to learn from some of the world’s leading coaches and to develop myself as a coach, and to bring back information to help our programme and our coaches.

“I’m looking forward to looking at what China are doing and how we can apply it to what we are doing in this country.”