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ITTF Course to improve nucleus of Coaches

Feb 20, 2011 Sports

By Edison Jefford

The Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA), in an ambitious move, has self-funded an ITTF Level One Coaches’ Course aimed at improving the number of qualified coaches the association will have in its repertoire mainly for its decentralisation programme.
General Secretary of the GTTA, Godfrey Munroe, told the participants yesterday that the Course is critical to the association’s success internationally since it provides the necessary basis to be in a position of educational strength on the new methods of the sport.
“Success internationally depends on this methodology. We are here to learn and we will have an environment where you can learn. I am very enthused to see so many of you here today,” he told an audience of mostly participants in the Level One Coaches’ Course.
Guyana’s ITTF approved Level One Course Instructor, former 11-time National Champion, and a Caribbean Champion, Sydney Christophe is conducting the Course, which started yesterday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall and will conclude formally on Tuesday.
“I am happy to be in Guyana to conduct this Course. Whether your accreditation is approved or not is solely up to you. This is an opportunity for you to do some things better that you did them before,” Christophe told participants during his introductory remarks.
He said that the worse coach is the one who thinks that he/she know everything and that was one of the problems that the Course is aimed at addressing. According to Christophe, listening plays one of the most important roles in becoming an effective Coach.
Christophe disclosed that when the idea of the Course was mulled, he contacted the ITTF since it was an initiative that could have received funding from them. However, after communicating the intention to the world parent body for the sport, Christophe stated that the GTTA found that there were monies already allocated to Latin America and the Caribbean and therefore, they could not have benefitted belatedly.
He lauded the local association for their perseverance in ensuring the course was held. “The hope is that if you have 30 coaches, we could have 90 hours of table tennis. I am very happy that table tennis is being given this amount of priority,” Christophe indicated.
Director of Sport, Neil Kumar reiterated that the opportunity was great for table tennis in Guyana when he said that the association will be able to greatly impact communities since six regions are to benefit from the certification that will follow the Course.
He urged the association, and by extension other associations, to continue working with the Sport Commission develop sports. Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) Executive, Garfield Wiltshire told the participants that they are fortunate to have Christophe conduct the Course.
“It’s great that Christophe is giving back to the sport; he brought lots of recognition to Guyana in his prime. I urge you to take what you learn, put it to good use and go back to your communities to make an impact,” Wiltshire said yesterday during his remarks.
He told the participants that they have a lot of days of hard work ahead and pleaded with them to not be interested in the mere
certification of the Course. He told them that they are to behave in a much more serious manner to facilitate the GTTA development.
The Course is in keeping with the association’s Strategic Programme, which is to have a nucleus of Coaches trained as a means of complimenting its aims of decentralising the sport while at the same time standardising the methods for coaching in Guyana.
It is also aimed at increasing the coach to player ratio (giving players more attention) while also complementing the GTTA Table Tennis for Schools and Communities programmes, raising the level and competitiveness of the sport, enhancing the technical and tactical capacity, popularity, participation and profile of the sport among other important goals.
Coaches must complete a mandatory 30 hours of theoretical and practical training with six hours supervised; successful participants must be able to proficiently demonstrate the ability to execute and implement the elements/topics dealt with before being certified.

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