Table tennis star Ryan Henry reckons rubbing shoulders with triple Paralympic medallist Ross Wilson is helping to accelerate his rapid rise to the top of the sport.
Ardrossan’s Henry, 23, claimed singles silver and doubles bronze at the International Table Tennis Federation Para US Open in Texas earlier this summer.
Henry dropped just a single set on his surge to the final, where he came up against a familiar face, and then world number two, in Wilson.
He may have gone down 3-0 in the all-British final but the experience outweighed the result.
“It was a really good learning opportunity to have a pressure free game against Ross,” said Henry.
“If the only game I'm losing is against second in the world, then it’s been a good competition.
“Whenever Ross and I train together, he is really good at giving little tips, being very helpful and guiding me on the different things he encountered when he was coming through.
“It's the same as when I play Billy (Shilton) and Josh (Stacey) and all these guys that are ranked a lot higher than me and have a lot more experience.
“I’m just trying to learn as much as possible from them.”
Henry leapt onto the international scene last year when he swooped silver and bronze at the Under-23 European Championships.
Around the same time, he crossed the border and swapped North Ayrshire for South Yorkshire, finding a new home at the prestigious English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.
The move saw Henry become a full-time athlete, with Wilson and co on hand to help navigate the next chapter in his quest for world domination.
“With constant top-level coaching and playing with guys who are at the top level, I'm quickly learning how to think about a match,” added Henry, one of 50 promising young athletes supported by funding from a partnership between SportsAid and Entain, owner of Ladbrokes and Coral.
“It’s not just physical stuff like forehands and backhands, but how to think your way through different styles and situations.
“Now I have more of a game plan, whereas before when I was only training a few times a week, I was almost hoping that I would play well that day.
“You don’t go full time to get better results at British level, you want to try to become the best in the world.
“I know that's the aim for everyone, but it’s my goal too.”
Entain, owner of Ladbrokes and Coral, is proud to be championing the next generation of British sporting heroes by providing talented young athletes with financial support and personal development opportunities in partnership with SportsAid. Visit entaingroup.com to find out more
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here