Let us know about young talents with England potential!

September 18, 2025 | Paul Stimpson

Do you know a talented young player aged 8 to 11 who has the potential to one day represent England?

In recent months, since the first England Hopes Trial event, where players were predominantly recruited from the U10-13 National Championships, the Performance coaching team has received a lot of videos and emails from coaches and parents who want to highlight the skills of their players.

We have therefore created a process for information and supporting videos to be submitted to the Performance team for consideration.

The online form is hosted on the England Hopes Talent Recruitment page on this website.

Coaches, parents or other individuals can send us information about a talented player, including their age, club, how long they practise for each week, their style of play and their achievements and hopes.

Anyone filling in the form is also asked to send supporting video via file-sharing platform. The videos should show:

• ONE match played against another child within the last three months (practice match at club is suitable)
• FH and BH drive and topspin (played to a coach’s block)
• Two x movement exercises (one regular and one irregular of your choice – played to a coach’s block or multiball)
• Service, short and long (10 serves to be performed in isolation, followed by 10 serves being performed in a rally situation).

Applications will be reviewed at four points in the year by the talent team and an outcome will be decided on a case-by-case basis – it is possible a local Pathway Development Centre (PDC) will be informed about the player, they may be placed on a list for a Hopes squad trial, or there may be no appropriate actions at that point in time.

Head of Pathway Development, Emma Vickers, said: “It can be easy to miss talent, particularly since it’s crucial that players are identified on a pathway in table tennis by 10 years old at the latest.

“Our new initiative involves filling out a short form that includes some details about the player and then asks for the player to be filmed undertaking some identified exercises.

“We’re keen to identify talent in as many ways as we can, and this is another method at our disposal which we hope will help us unearth some potential gems.”