by Professor Miran Kondric PhD

As Chair of the ITTF Sports Science and Medical Committee, I feel very responsible for and committed to table tennis science and medicine; I hope that the 16th ITTF Sports Science Congress was a great opportunity to reinforce its development.

Success in sport is much more likely if players follow a sound training programme based on scientific training principles, so as to prepare themselves physically and mentally for the rigorous demands of national and international competitions.

The main challenge of this two day event was to engage in discussion on what are the actual priorities for improving scientific research among table tennis. We especially have to stress that researchers from various countries around the world have frequently expressed concerns about the way sporting systems are increasingly impacting on players’ achievement, with the possible effect of impairing their health.

Concluding on the last day of the Congress we saw that there are many good practices in various sport training methods that represent the quality we desire for professionally managed table tennis. We have to present and share these practices in order to demonstrate that we are not simply talking about problems, but we are also addressing problems.

Another challenge of the Congress was to improve co-operation between scientists among all bordering sciences. I do hope, however, that every participant has returned to their country and will present the conclusions and ideas of this Congress to their colleagues, so that they may be used in their future research work. We at the International Table Tennis Federation will do our best to implement all the ideas or recommendations in our scientific work.

During the Congress, we had three invited lectures, 42 oral presentations and 55 poster presentations; a number of which we all can be very proud.

In conclusion, I need to remind you of your final obligation to this Congress; those who have not sent yet full papers, I would like to ask you to do it as soon as possible when you return home (deadline for receiving final document is Sunday 5th May.

It is important for us to be on time with publishing the final document and to continue with good practice from previous congresses where we managed to enter also Web of Science.

Looking forward to meet you all at our 17th ITTF Sports Science Congress in 2021.

16th ITTF Sports Science Congress: Register to Researchgate

16th ITTF Sports Science Congress: International Journal of Racket Sport Science