Coaches up their level in table tennis

Local table tennis coaches, along with representatives from St Lucia, Antigua & Barbuda, St Kitts & Nevis and Grenada, will until March 12 be involved in a Level Two Course at the West St George Secondary School.{{more}}

The course opened last Saturday with Swiss national Georg Silberschmidt being the main facilitator for the Olympic Solidarity event. Another Swiss national, Samir Muladic, a colleague of Silberschmidt, will also lend his expertise to the eight-day course.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Silberschmidt told the participants: “There is no secret in sports, but in the eight days, I will give you the secret.”

President of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Table Tennis Association Tyrone Jack also spoke directly to the coaches.

“I know that the tendency is to inflate one’s ego and see oneself as the best coach with the best technique…. The one who has attained the highest level of training, who has the right to be the national or regional coach… It is not necessarily the players with the best technique who wins or the coach with the better technique or better playing record who coaches the winner,” Jack commented.

Your attitude sometimes drives away potential champions and good administrators and the regional game suffers… Let us endeavour to be the change agents for the good of regional table tennis.

Also giving remarks at the ceremony were director of Physical Education and Sports- Nelson Hillocks and president of the St Vincent and the Grenadines National Olympic Committee – Trevor Bailey.

The level two course forms part of the SVGTTA’s Development of a National Coaching Structure (DNCS). (RT)