On the 28th and 29th July young coaches from all over England came together for a coaching weekend at Lilleshall National Sports Centre.
The National Young Coaches Academy is funded by Youth Sport Trust and back in February the young coaches from table tennis attended the first weekend along with coaches from other sports at Loughborough University.
The follow weekend was a more sport specific weekend with coaches working on tactical/technical development of table tennis along with workshops on coaching philosophy, introduction to performance analysis, technology, strength & conditioning and goal-setting.
The coaches were also given the opportunity to watch the Great Britain players Joanna Parker and Paul Drinkhall in action at the Olympics with match analysis taking place after each match.
ETTA Regional Coach Stephen Gertsen headed up the programme for the ETTA and led workshops at the Loughborough and Lilleshall weekends.
Stephen said: “The young coaches have come on a huge amount since the Loughborough weekend back in February, they are a credit to themselves and the ETTA and with the right exposure have the potential to develop into very good coaches of the future.”
Thirteen coaches attended the final weekend and all will have gained invaluable knowledge which they can transfer into practice in the clubs and regions they work. Jon Pett and newly appointed Southern Regional Coach Aled Howell were also in attendance at the weekend and passed down their knowledge and experience to the youngsters.
The future looks very positive for the young coaches and they have been encouraged to continue to coach as much as possible in order to gain more and more experience. The Youth Sport Trust programme will again run in 2013 where a complete new bunch of young coaches will be offered the same fantastic opportunities.
Coaches in attendance:
Matthew McCormick- North West
Tyla Anderson- London
Isaac Beevor- Eastern
George Haskell- South West
Paul Bergin- South East
David Pringuer- South East
Charles Sketchley- West Midlands
Murray Wilson- London
Amy Wells- North West
Ben Brown- Eastern
George Tester- South East
Joe Cutts- Yorkshire
Roseanne Hurst- Yorkshire
For the latest news from the East check:
http://updates.etta.tv/east/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Eastern-Region-Table-Tennis/166373573454268
Twitter: @Gertsen_EastTT