by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor
The first part was due to start on Saturday 19th August and is planned to conclude on Sunday 10th September; the second part is scheduled to begin on Sunday 8th October and end on Friday 3rd November.
Spain’s Ramon Ortega Montes “Moncho”, the Development Officer for the Latin American Table Tennis Union is the expert designated for the initial section; later in the year the man at the helm will be Switzerland’s Georg Silberschmidt.
Meetings were held to form a plan of action; the decision being that with many students totally new to the sport of table tennis, an ITTF Club Coach Coaches course was the best option.
Pertinently Moncho met with Dennis Knight the Vice President of the National Olympic Committee.
“We are supporting table tennis with this Developing a National Sports Structure Course as we are sure that there are other sports apart from track and field.” Dennis Knight.
Eleven students attended, three being female with, in addition to St Kitts and Nevis, the national associations of Guyana and Nigeria alongside St Vincent and the Grenadines being present. Notably the two participants from Nigeria were studying medicine and veterinary at the local university.
Furthermore, there three further course members who caught the eye. Clairmon Joseph was an infant school teacher, Joleen Rogers could not find child care help and thus was accompanied by her eight year old son; whilst Nigel Weekes taught chess.
“I really see the difference now between begin directly at the table or doing a good logic progression of exercises from co-ordination to the table; with this course I found many solutions to problems that already appeared when teaching or how to face them in different ways”. Clairmon Joseph
“Now I know how to teach table tennis and the first one I´m going to begin with is my son”. Joleen Rogers
“We are really happy to witness the knowledge of the experts in table tennis; we value what this brings to Saint Kitts and Nevis”. Nigel Weekes
Importantly of the whole group seven course members gained the Club Coach Award, two received the Community Leader Certificate.
