ITTF – ETTU Women’s Coaching Seminar, Bratislava

Bratislava hosted the ITTF – ETTU Women’s Coaching Seminar between 6-8 June 2019. Focused on the specifics of coaching women in table tennis, the event (as part of the ITTF Europe Development Programme) was a fantastic opportunity for 31 coaches from 15 National Associations to gather and share their experiences.

The Slovakian capital saw 28 female and 3 male coaches, who mostly work with their female athletes on a daily basis, enrich their experience by listening to two knowledgeable coaches with high profiles: the Austrian National Team Coach, Jaroslaw Kolodziejczyk, and German National Cadet Girls Coach, Lara Broich.

Both experts shared their significant experience, accumulated through years of work with top-level athletes, highlighting coaching principles and showing useful examples, ideas and tips for table tennis practice. 

The Women’s Coaching Seminar began with a session by Kolodziejczyk on the topic of “Coaching of young table tennis players” followed by another topic, “Major technical mistakes (early detection and correction method)”. Afterwards, Broich conveyed to the present coaches the importance of “Footwork learning methods with young table tennis players”.

Taking advantage of an organised Women’s Activity, ITTF Continental Development Manager Katarzyna Kubas gave a short update of the ITTF Women’s Development Programme Report. In addition to a Seminar led by Eva Odorova and Branislav Kaluzny from the Slovak Table Tennis Association, participants were also treated to a wonderful sight-seeing tour of Bratislava.

Development Camp U-17, Saarbrucken

Saarbrucken in Germany was the home for a recent Development Camp for U-17 players, held between 9-16 June and led by coaches Krisztina Toth, Slobodan Grujic and ETTU Development Manager Neven Cegnar, alongside coaches from Belarus, Belgium and Portugal.

Taking part in the Development Camp, which featured seven table tennis sessions and three fitness sessions, were six male and five female athletes from six National Associations and eight sparing partners from TTC Saarbrucken. The aim of the Camp’s Program was to work on correcting and stabilising the technique as well as specific endurance.

Afternoon training sessions focused more on the technical and tactical level of participants, and greater attention was paid to playing the service, the return of the service and the quality of the first ball. The final stages of the Camp took the form of a tournament in a round robin system, which intended to bring very important information to the players and coaches about real opportunities and show the strengths and weaknesses of each player individually.

In summary, the camp was held in an excellent working atmosphere, with a homogenous group and that the present athletes and coaches had the opportunity to gain new experiences that will contribute to their further development so that everyone returned home upskilled and motivated.