Table Tennis Athlete Jeffrey Jarvis
Location: Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire
Coach: Dennis Beech
Coach, Dennis: “Jeffrey plays an excellent technical game and has a demon serve. A lot of players on the circuit are afraid to face him.”
Jeffrey is 31 years old. He started table tennis as a teenager at school for his Duke of Edinburgh Award. He achieved gold and has never looked back. Table tennis is his whole life and he is now ranked no 3 in Great Britain in the British Table Tennis for Disability national rankings.
Jeffrey travels a 160-mile round trip to Cheshire every Saturday to train because the South Cheshire Special Needs Table Tennis Club is known as the best training centre in Britain. Coach Dennis says what he sees in Jeffrey is total dedication. He will take any and every chance to train and compete. Dennis has coached him for the past 8 years. Jeffrey heard he had been selected for Shanghai when it was announced to the crowd and competitors at a competition in Crewe. He was over the moon. Dennis had held back from putting him forward for the last world games in Dublin because he had his eye on Shanghai – table tennis being China’s national sport this would be the pinnacle of Jeffrey’s achievements.
Jeffrey is in the GB squad for INAS – national governing body for learning disability sports. He has been to numerous countries to compete for GB. Because he loves languages and because he is very good at the shots which just tip the net he has learned to say “Sorry!” in about 10 different languages. In preparation for Shanghai he has also learned it in Chinese.
Before the world games Jeffrey will compete at an international event in Poland. Two weeks after his return from China he goes to Japan and after that a competition in the Czech Republic.
Jeffrey is known on the circuit as one of the most difficult players to face. He plays an excellent technical game and has a demon serve which often wins the point outright. A lot of players are afraid to compete against him. Mastering the table tennis serve is the most difficult technique in the game and he has worked hard at pushing his serve to the top level.
At home he competes in two leagues. A lot of his time is spent keeping up his levels of fitness. He does 15-mile walks with his mum Beryl and goes to the gym. Each athlete in the GB squad has been given a fitness diary…. Jeffrey has already filled four of these.
Jeffrey’s Melton Mowbray coach is Shirley.
Jeffrey works part-time for a council museum. He is extremely skilled at inputting computer data. Dennis describes his learning disability as severe. Jeffrey has almost no speech but uses a voicebox to communicate well through typing his words.
TO ARRANGE AN INTERVIEW WITH THE ATHLETES OR COACHES, PLEASE CONTACT THE SOGB NATIONAL OFFICE.
TELEPHONE: 020 7696 5569 OR EMAIL TO: pr@sogb.org.uk