by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor
Arriving in Kathmandu on Wednesday 19th October, Arif Khan was welcomed by Shanker Gautam the Secretary-General of All Nepal Table Tennis Association.
Meetings ensued the following day with various officials including Chaturananda Rajvaidya the President of the All Nepal Table Tennis Association and Shanker Gautam, the General Secretary.
It was agreed that Arif Khan should conduct School Teacher Courses in the eight districts of Nepal and then select coaches from those districts to attend an ITTF/PTT Level One Course. In addition it was decided he would conduct training sessions with both the national senior and junior teams with the assistance of local coaches.
An intense schedule, starting in Kathmandu on Sunday 23rd October and finishing in Pokhara on Tuesday 15th November, Arif Khan conducted coach education courses in Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Biratnagar, Dharan, Dang and Butwal. He covered the whole of the country. A total of 123 students attended of whom 24 were female.
“It was a great experience travelling to all these places; the good thing was that I received a fantastic response from all the participants wherever I went. They showed a great deal of interest in learning, the officials in all the districts were extremely co-operative and did well in organizing the courses”, Arif Khan
One major aspect of the itinerary completed, the next step was the organisation of training sessions for the national teams. Overall 28 players of whom 11 were female attended, the schedule began on Thursday 17th November and concluded on Monday 12th December. Grateful for the efforts made, the national association organised a picnic at the end of proceedings to thank Arif Khan for his work.
“All the players worked very hard and learned; they showed a big improvement in their way of thinking and playing table tennis. All the national team players gave an excellent feedback to the training they received”, Arif Khan
The training camp concluded; it was back to coach education to conclude matters. An ITTF/PTT Course was held from Wednesday 14th to Saturday 17th December.
“All the coaches showed great enthusiasm in learning and gathering the information, because of the hard work 26 coaches out of 29 passed the practical test. The feedback from the coaches I received from all the participants was very positive”, Arif Khan
A total of 29 coaches, seven female, from the eight districts, who had already completed the first six hours through the School Teachers Course, attended..
“My thanks to the President and General Secretary Nepal National Olympic Committee, for their full support; also to Mr. Chaturananda and Mr. Shanker for their co-operation in making this a successful course. They worked very hard and left no stone unturned. Merry Christmas and very Happy New Year to everyone”, Arif Khan
Matters concluded Lama Tendi Sherpa, General Secretary of Nepal Olympic Committee addressing all present, being most praiseworthy of the efforts made by all concerned in promoting the Developing a National Sports Structure Course; notably he praised Arif Khan and the International Table Tennis Federation.
A successful endeavour with Arif Khan also being able to meet Jiban Ram Shrestha, the President of the National Olympic Committee, during his visit; similar to all concerned, he applauded the progress that had been made during a very intense period.
The All Nepal Table Tennis Association can look forward to 2017 in a positive manner.
