by Dora Jeler, High Performance and Development Operations Manager
The camp was a great opportunity for the International Table Tennis Federation to kick off the new High Performance Training Camp Programme, aimed at promoting potential champions on their next career step.
Camp participants boasted a status of between no.100 and no.180 on the world rankings and were able to profit from high level international practice partners. Notably Lily Zhang of the United States, Egypt’s Dina Meshref, Romania’s Daniela Monteiro Dodean, Frenchman Enzo Angles and Argentina’s Nicolas Galvano attended, as did the host nation’s Shao Jieni, João Geraldo and Diogo Chen as well as other members of the Portuguese national team.
Our thanks goes to these players for their excellent training efforts.
Daily training consisted of two intensive sessions per day, practices designed to the individual player’s needs.
“If the mental element plays a very important role in table tennis, this aspect is even more pronounced in this age category, because along with improving their table tennis skills, players need to keep up and face success and failure continuously. Making them comfortable in dealing with this challenge is the key to unlocking their best performance, whilst encouraging them to keep an open mind to welcome new technical and tactical solutions. To do so requires patience and a spirit of trust to build one’s ability. If you are able to perform something well once, you will also be able to perform it a thousand times; it is a matter of having the proper method to do so!” Massimo Costantini
A successful initiative, it was one which Belgium’s Nina Kolareva appreciated.
“The camp with Massimo Costantini was of a high quality, full of relevance and advice for individuals. We had two practice sessions per day; service, individual practices, physical training and multi-ball. The group was quite small but there were a number of practice partners. A big thank you goes to the Portuguese coaches and local staff who made us feel at home.” Nina Kolareva
Now, the next stop for ITTF High Performance will be Formia, Italy on Friday 8th March, we will welcome selected Under 15 and Under 18 age group players for a combined training camp in preparation for the Italian Junior and Cadet Open.
