The course consisted of lectures on a variety of topics, both theory and practice being addressed; a detailed itinerary included such elements as technical skills, psychology, practice routines, multi-ball demonstrations and interactive ways of learning.

Most importantly the students were encouraged to exchange opinions and ideas on a wide range of topics.

Locally matters were organised by Anders Thunström, the Course Director and Mikael Andersson, Director of High Performance for the Swedish Table Tennis Association.

Present on behalf of the International Table Tennis Federation and one of the guest speakers was Massimo Costantini, ITTF High Performance Elite Coach.

Feedback from the coaches in mind, we are looking forward to the next edition of this forward thinking activity. Our thanks go to the Swedish Table Tennis Association, Halmstad University, the lecturers and of course, all the participants for making this project a success.

Reaction

“Firstly, we as ITTF welcomed this fantastic initiative which we were delighted to support. Gaining knowledge of great table tennis in the land of champions is something ever coach dreams of. My own lecture was based on my experience in the United States, enhanced with trends related to training youths. Besides that, I enjoyed talking to all 24 participants coming from all over the world. As often happens, table tennis talk went on all day long.

The course had a great atmosphere and brought many delightful moments. I hope this coaching course won’t be an isolated one but the first in a long series; many thanks to the Swedish Table Tennis Association for the great organisation of the activity.”

“I think the level of the lectures was on a very high level throughout the course. The subjects covered a wide range of important aspects in the sport of table tennis, so ideally the participants learned something for their future careers.

Trends among youth in the world was presented by Massimo Costantini, we had a psychology lecture on ”Performing under Pressure”, a multi-ball session with the Swedish men’s head coach, Mr. Peter Blomquist. He was assisted by former World Champion, Jörgen Persson; these are just a few of the different topics we had; the expertise was really there.

I hope that the coaches attending the course listened with a critical mind, using what they feel is useful to their situation by attending the course. I hope it has given them more ”tools” as a coach to ideally be more comfortable and be a better coach to their respective players.

It has to be applied within the situation you currently are in, and by doing so, best assist players to improve to the best of their ability”.

“I have been coaching at a high level for over 25 years and running Level Two and Level Three ITTF coaches courses for the last 10 years.

I also studied in Sweden, so this course was a very good opportunity to update myself on the latest techniques and learn how to implement them into my teaching back in Chile. I will do a national course to update for the high level coaches within the country”.

“I loved this course. Every single piece of information was valuable in that it helps us improve as coaches.

It is true that we have different realities back home, so as Anders said in his presentation, we need to adapt what was explained here to our own situation.”

“Here each of the lecturers explained a very good topic related to their strong background. Now I want to see the information received implemented and for all of us to meet again in a year to see the progress within everyone’s actual situation.”

”I am going to assist players and make sure that I’m going to give support and provide guidance to players to grow and to become better in order to reach their objectives.

It is equally important for coaches to practise multi-ball training, as it is for the players, to increase their feeling and control.

I will share the information I have gathered from this course along with pictures and video material and share it with the national association.

For future courses, I would like to see added material about women’s table tennis, coaches and educators”.

”I enjoyed the course a lot. I want to develop my coaching philosophy and aim to develop the game in order to beat China.

I liked the psychology lecture a lot, along with the information on leadership in sport and individual coaching, which I will implement and study more in depth to be able to help my players mature so they can search for solutions rather than be offered them.

I will also write a blog post about my time here which will go out nationally to all of our coaches”.

“We thank the Swedish Table Tennis Federation for the organisation of this course, Halmstad University for hosting us and for the good organisation.

Everything ran like clockwork; this was a pilot project, aiming to give high level coach education in a non-formal structure. The course was based on the experiences of professional full time, high level coaches from Sweden and the rest of the world, in addition to the combined efforts of the Continental Development and Educational units from the ITTF High Performance and Development department.

We had very high level lecturers and topics that we would like the coaches to implement in their regular work back home and to transmit in each one of their countries to other coaches, so the knowledge is shared and the level of the play will increase accordingly.

The final outcome is to have higher level coaches, thus players that will reach a better playing level and reduce the gap between the Chinese players and the rest of the World”.