This was interesting for me because aside from all-wood blades, I hadn't really tried any fiber composites that didn't have carbon in them. I was curious to see how JOOLA's new Hugo Calderano ARY-x blade played, especially with the fiber on the outer layer and with a stiffer Koto top wood layer.
You can also find on my channel the review of Hugo's ARY-c which is an arylate carbon inner blade, and the first impressions of his Trinity Charged and Dynamic rubbers.
These are my initial thoughts after trying the blade for the first time:
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Back in 2019, I had an extremely unique opportunity to spend a whole three weeks with the full Chinese National Table Tennis Team. The full contingent had nearly 90 individuals, from all the best players and coaches in the world, to physical trainers and therapist, and support staff.
It was a one-of-a-kind chance to see players like Ma Long, Xu Xin, Ding Ning, Liu Shiwen, Fan Zhendong, Wang Chuqin, Sun Yingsha and many more up close and personal.
In my latest long-form YouTube video, below, I chose some observations which I think will be useful for all players that I noticed during my time in closed training with the team. I tried to pick things that I think will be a little more specific and will help people think about how they train.
Check out the video below:
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Calling all basement ping pong players, competitive table tennis office workers, YMCA hustlers, first time table tennis beginners, and those who just love the game and want to learn the basics. Working alongside JOOLA, I put together a series of ten videos, into what I think is the perfect starter course for learning how to play table tennis. From the basics of learning how to serve, the ITTF rules, to figuring out the techniques for your first forehand and backhand topspin shots and more - this JOOLA Basics course is free to watch in it's entirety, hosted by me - ITTF Level 3 Coach Matt Hetherington. Please enjoy and I hope these are useful on your table tennis learning journey!
Learn the basics of table tennis with ITTF Level 3 Coach Matt Hetherington
1. Learn the Basic Table Tennis Racket Grips:
This covers learning the basic grips of the table tennis racket, namely the most commonly used shakehand grip, and the traditional penhold grip.
2. The Basic Forehand Topspin Drive
3. The Basic Backhand Topspin Drive
These are the two foundation strokes in table tennis, the topspin drives with both the backhand and forehand. These are the basic skills players will spend a lot of time learning the technical details of, as an important foundation of their game development moving forward.
4.. Ready Position and Movements
5. Basic Beginner Level Table Tennis Serve
This is a simple introduction to the very basic principles of serving in table tennis, you will find a video further below going over the ITTF rules which show the official guidelines for having a competition legal serve within the rules, but above is the most simple concepts of serving.
6. Learn the Forehand Backspin Push
7. Learn the Backhand Backspin Push
These backhand and forehand push techniques are important to develop capabilities in handling backspin serves, chops at the recreational level and moving through to later learning short, half long and heavy long pushes in your game.
8. Forehand Topspin Loop
9. Backhand Topspin Loop
These techniques are all about generating heavier topspin, and using body weight and more developed topspin shots to lift backspin and create tricky rotation for your opponents to deal with. These videos will show you how to take the foundation forehand topspin drive concepts and incorporate more racket drop, leg and core movement and brushing action to create a topspin loop.
10. ITTF Regulation Table Tennis Serve
This video is one you will need before you start playing any matches in clubs or probably even social competitions outside of your home or garage! Here I cover the ITTF rules for a regulation serve, including the ball toss requirements, visibility of the ball during serve toss and contact and where the ball can be struck.
So there are ten fairly simple and concise videos to help you learn, what I would consider, the most important foundational skills to begin learning the sport of table tennis. Even small improvements in these areas can create a big advantage over friends, competitors in the garage, opponents in the game room or workplace, and more.
Hope you enjoy, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment on any of the videos and I will get back to you, and be sure to subscribe as you continue to look for free table tennis coaching content to improve your game.
While my content is totally free, and without any obligations, if you should so feel the need to contribute by way of coffee, or red bull in my case, you can donate one here: Buy Me a Coffee
As you may know at the beginning of this year, the 2025 World Cup Champion from Brazil, Hugo Calderano, signed with JOOLA. After that happened there was a lot of work that went into sampling equipment, and at the end of it JOOLA released two blades and two rubbers in the premium select categories with Hugo's name on them.
The setup that Hugo settled on was the Hugo Calderano ARY-c blade, an innerlayer carbon blade with a limba top layer, and a combination of Trinity Charged 57.5 degree hybrid rubber on the forehand and Trinity Dynamic 52.5 degree hybrid rubber on the backhand.
The rubber came to market first and I was able to make a video review with my initial impressions of them first, you can see that below:
Then after another couple of months the blades were released, and I was finally able to get my hands on both the ARY-c and the ARY-x (no carbon, only ARY fiber) blades. This meant that today I had the chance to combine the full setup together and go and make a new video with the ARY-c blade and the Hugo rubbers together!
Hope you enjoy the reviews, I will be testing out the Hugo Calderano ARY-x blade also with the same rubber setup in the very near future, as well as adding a lot more new content to my youtube channel, including a look at the long-awaited new JOOLA table tennis shoes. So be sure to subscribe over there!
A couple of weeks ago I randomly decided to look back at my blog, and I realized as the internet has changed, and AI scours for answers to people's questions - my blog was actually picking up a lot more traffic. Buried amongst all of the content I spent years writing - were answers to people's questions.
That made me think, as I look to build momentum on YouTube - why not come back to my blog, share more content, and give context around the videos I am making.
In my most recent video (at the bottom of the post), I spent 5 hours putting together, I took a trip down memory lane and gave my honest perspective on the things that hindered me from reaching my dream to be a professional table tennis player.
It's important to note my definition of a professional table tennis player is one who makes their main living from playing table tennis. During my career I would happily call myself a professional table tennis coach, but rejected the notion that I was ever a professional table tennis player.
Althought I played in 3 World Table Tennis Championships, among other international events, it's not a milestone I ever considered that I had achieved, and in this video I talk about why.
Here are the key points of the half hour long video:
1. I wasn't a competitive athlete
I didn't have the mindset of an athlete. I didn't have the competitive drive. I loved to play - but at best of times I hated to compete. My personality didn't care enough to win at all costs, but hated the pressure and the implications of losing. The more I trained, the more I expected of myself, and this ultimately cause me a lot of harm in my career building, which I eventually started trying to shut out by losing any competitive fighting spirit that I had in competition.
To be a professional in anything, especially sport, you need to be driven, fiery, competitive, and with a laser focus.
2. Lack of planning and organization of goals
I had a dream, I didn't have a plan. I was drifting, hoping that investing hours at what I thought were the right things would get me to where I wanted to be. Becoming a full time professional athlete does not happen by accident. I hadn't broken the dream up into a pathway for success, and therefore I lost my way.
Be deliberate in your intentions, if you want to be a professional, you need to plan and goal-set like one.
3. Thing outside of the table
When you see a tennis player on the court, or a football player on the field, you imagine the hours of practice they must have gone through to get there - which is true by all accounts. However a lot of the work to become a well rounded professional athlete happens off the court, or field - or table.
The physical training, the hydration, the recovery, nutrition, among many other things.
I was weak in all of those areas, and most of my competition was as well - improvement in those areas could have helped me surpass a lot of my rivals at the right times during my career playing - at least domestically.
4. Lean into expertise
If you have experts and can access them, then use them. It can be a significant investment, one which athletes in other sports make and surround themselves with a team of professionals in other areas. The physio, mental coach, nutritionist, physical trainer etc. All of those experts can work wonders in professional sports, and having that support can take you to much higher levels.
Granted it's expensive, but if you really want to reach the absolute highest of your potential, experts in other fields will help you to unlock it.
I'm looking forward to making more videos and also catching up posts on other videos I have made since my last blog posts. Feel free to subscribe to the YouTube channel and ask any questions there in the comments.
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