As a table tennis coach I usually spend my time writing about the technical side of the game but today I've decided to take a break from all that and have a look at the best iPhone apps for table tennis players.

Christmas is over and now if the time to spend that Christmas money. Perhaps you got a new iPhone for Christmas, or just some iTunes gift cards. Either way here are a few apps that I think you need on your iPhone if you're a table tennis player.

Not all of the apps in this post will be specifically for table tennis but I'll be explaining why I think each is perfect for a table tennis player. Enjoy the post...

1. TTProPlanner (£2.49)

"Introducing The first Table Tennis Pro Application: TTProPlanner
The ultimate Table Tennis buddy. Designed especially and to accommodate for all levels of Table Tennis players to reach their full potential. With tons of content, ability to fully plan your training regime and 70+ tailor made sessions."

This is by far the best holistic table tennis specific app available. It allows you to track your goals, organise your table tennis calendar, plan individual sessions, store notes from matches and view a wide range of table tennis drills. 

If you are interested I recommend you check out the promo ad here. The apps costs £2.49 but it has so many features that it's definitely worth it.

2. Tapatalk (£1.99)

"Stay connected with your community on-the-go with this award-winning forum app. The #1 forum app on mobile."

So Tapatalk isn't exclusively a table tennis app but it does allow you to access three of the big four table tennis forums on your iPhone.

Table Tennis Daily, Table Tennis Talk and OOAK Table Tennis all support Tapatalk. The only forum that can't be accessed via Tapatalk is MyTableTennis.net, which is a bit of a shame but never mind.

I use Tapatalk to access the forums a lot so for me it's been a great app for table tennis.

3. Virtual Table Tennis 3 (Free)

"Virtual Table Tennis™ is the only one based on 3D PHYSICS and supported ONLINE MULTIPLAYER Table Tennis game series in the App Store."

I'm not usually one for playing games on my iPhone but I downloaded VTT3 because it was free and I was very impressed with the graphics and game play.

If you're looking for a table tennis game for your iPhone this one is probably the best and it's free!

4. TTTrack (£1.49)

"TTTrack: An app that is the first of it's kind. This is a very unique and powerful tool used to analyse table tennis. Table Tennis has never before been able to be analysed, purely because of the speed of the game and the amount of things that would need analysed."

TTTrack is made by Keith Knox, the same guy who built TTProPlanner. It's basically an app that allows you to perform basic match analysis on a table tennis game.

At the end of the game it displays stats showing how points were won and common errors. The results can be used to analyse an opponent or work on your own game.

It's relatively easy to use and a really good idea. It's probably not quiet as complete as it could be but I'm hoping a few updates will get it up to standard. Get idea, just missing a few features at present.

5. Twitter (Free)

"Wherever you are, Twitter brings you closer."

You've probably got Twitter on your iPhone already. Twitter and iPhone go together like Spaghetti and meatballs. Unlike Facebook, Twitter was made for mobile making it great on any handheld device.

The reasons I love Twitter as a table tennis player are; the ability to follow professional table tennis players (I wrote a post listing which pro's are on Twitter), getting the latest news from clubs, organisations and brands in table tennis, and up-to-the-minute results from tournaments.

It's really great when you're not at a tournament being able to see the results and games updated minute-by-minute by players at the tournament. If you follow the right people you can feel like you're actually there.

6. You Are Your Own Gym (£1.99)

"Can't find the time to go to the crowded gym? Do you keep doing the same workout routine and not seeing the results you want? Tired of spending money on gym memberships and overpriced equipment?

Use the body you have to build the body you want!

You Are Your Own Gym is the affordable and fun workout program that requires only your body and your surroundings. These workouts are quick, easy, great for all fitness levels and they work! Even the beginner workouts will challenge those that come from a weight training background while improving stability and range of motion."

Staying in shape is a key part of being able to play table tennis at a high level. The 'You Are Your Own Gym' app by Mark Lauren is the best fitness/training app I've found and great value at just £1.99.

It has a huge range of exercises that you can complete at home, without any equipment. There are also exercise programs to follow and videos for each exercise.

I've just started using this app and have not been disappointed.

7. YouTube (Free)

"Watch the world’s videos and keep up with your favorite YouTube channels with the official YouTube app for iOS. Sign in to access your subscriptions, playlists, uploads and more."

There's so much good table tennis on YouTube that you'd be mad not to have the app on your iPhone. There are about three or four channels now specializing in uploading the latest matches from ITTF events and the top leagues. You also have access to instructional videos from PingSkills and others. Don't forget the Pongcast which is a great table tennis catch-up show which comes out about once a month and is definitely one to watch.

All available for free on YouTube on your iPhone. And Google have released a decent app now so you don;t need to use the old Apple one. What more could you want.

8. Butterfly (Free)

"English - Butterfly Table Tennis 2012 Europe catalog 

- 90p. catalog 
- Butterfy news 
- Butterfly videos"

Now this app isn't amazing. It's really just an up-to-date Butterfly catalogue and a few other bits and bobs like a new feed and links to their YouTube channel but it looks very well made and is a step in the right direction for table tennis brands and technology.

One thing to watch out for are the different versions of the app. The 'Butterfly' version is massive (173MB) whereas the Butterfly.tt.en one is only about 30MB. I don't believe there is any difference between the two except the Butterfly one can support different languages, so save yourself some space and get the English one.

9. ChoPong (£1.99)

"ChoPong is an easy to use and powerful Table Tennis Scoreboard that adds lot of fun when playing with your friends. On top of the Scoreboard you will also find powerful features that can improve your Table Tennis skills, even if you are a professional player."

I have to admit that ChoPong is the only app in the list that I haven't actually used myself. It looks quite good though. It's basically a table tennis scoreboard with a few aditional features chucked in, a bit similar to TTTrack, I think.

It looks very well made and for £1.99 it might be worth a look just to see what it can do.

10. Foreign Table Tennis Apps (Free)

#10 on the list is a shout out to a few foreign table tennis apps. They aren't available in English so I'm not able to read them but they look very cool. Here they are...

• TTWorld (a Chinese table tennis magazine available on the iPhone, you'll need to search "table tennis" to eventually find it, title is in Chinese characters).
• BTK Safir (from what I can tell the first table tennis club to develop it's own app)
• SmartPing (the app of the French Table Tennis Federation)

So there are my top 10 iPhone apps for table tennis players. Do you have any of these? What do you think of them? Have I missed any good ones out? Leave a comment below and let me know. Also if you've enjoyed the article please hit like!

Thank you for reading.

Ben Larcombe (www.experttabletennis.com)