Table Tennis Scotland Pathway Camps

Connor Burgess is a 14-year-old table tennis player from Shetland. As part of #RuralInclusion month Connor told us about his journey into table tennis, the challenges of training while living remotely and what it means to be able to train at National Centre Inverclyde as part of Table Tennis Scotland's Pathway squad.

Getting started

I started playing table tennis when I was 11 years old after Covid. I went to a beginner session with a few friends and soon found it fun and challenging to play. I was getting coached by the club coach and after a while I started to improve. I remember getting a table tennis table for Christmas the following year, so got to play more regularly in my garage. I found myself playing in the Shetland senior league and doing better in local junior competitions, even managing to win 1 or 2.

I started to play in a few national competitions and although I was at a lower standard to start with, I still enjoyed competing in them. I was invited into the Scottish north regional squad in September 2024 which is when I started to take the sport more seriously. During this time, I worked up into the Shetland senior premier division and started doing better in local junior and national competitions. I was then selected to join the Scottish pathway training squad which trains at the national sports centre Inverclyde, in Largs.

Training at home

At home, my usual practice is with a robot in my garage 4-6 times a week and I have online sessions with a Scottish coach every two weeks.

The only downside to this is I hardly ever get training with other people which means there is some aspects of my game which have not been a problem while training with the robot but start to show when training or playing games with other people. I have some practice sessions with local league players in Shetland, but this isn’t very regular. We sometimes get a national coach visiting Shetland and try to cram in as much training as possible when they are here, but unfortunately this does not happen very often.

Training at Inverclyde

The main advantage of coming to the centre is having experienced national coaches taking multiple sessions along with high-quality training partners always make the journey worth it.

Having all the facilities including accommodation and meals in the same building allows maximum training time over the weekend which is something I rarely get to do in Shetland.

Being able to train alongside top quality players really helps to increase the quality of my game and set targets for upcoming/ rest of the season. It also gives me the opportunity to take valuable things away with me which helps increase my training in Shetland and allows me to share training activities and exercises locally.

Inverclyde highlights

Other than getting a day off school as it takes me so long to travel there, getting to meet lots of new people that share similar sporting goals is really nice. The facilities at Largs are great and the staff have always been really friendly.

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Date published: 24 September 2026
Date updated: 24 September 2026