COACHING 

EUROPEAN COACHING CONFERENCE 2009

Zagreb (HRV), 20-22 November 2009

The second annual summit of European coaches in 2009 was held in Croatia’s capital city Zagreb from the 20th until the 22nd of November. In three days nearly 60 participants from 23 Associations took part in the biggest expert’s gathering on the Old Continent.

The conference represents the second significant step into the challenging area of coaches’ education and a very important moment for ETTU. Many Associations sent their biggest experts and that is a fantastic feedback, which only proves that the direction is the right one as obviously the belief that all the table tennis stakeholders in Europe should work hand in hand is growing and expanding.

To read and or download the general program of the conference click here

The conference hosted for the first time a table tennis star, Werner SCHLAGER, who was the keynote speaker of the first day of the Conference. The last World champion from Europe presented his point of view on what Old Continent should do in order to have a World Champion in the future again. He hopes that one of the possible solutions could be “The Werner Schlager Academy”, which will open its doors next year.

Hosting a highly profiled expert from China, LI Xiaodong, can also be considered as a new momentum in Europe, which shows the determination of reaching the ultimate goal – to reduce the gap between Asian and European players. Besides, it is also the best demonstration of how the cooperation between Europe and China is enhancing. LI addressed the audience with a lecture about the possible future development of table tennis and about the differences between the game in Asia and Europe from the Asian point of view.

A view that was underlined several times was the need to establish a master directive, which should encompass the knowledge and the prediction of future trends in the first place. Besides, the participants could hear many tips all focused in the development of the game onto a higher level:

- “always consider the specific situation in your environment”,

- “for a sustainable success it is crucial to stay ahead, to be clear and precise and to go with the trend but yet to be innovative”,

- “be irrational with rational, attack when you should defend, attack when you should control, attack when you should be attacked,”

- “take into consideration all the possible skills that define our game and do not neglect all the other aspects, especially the cultural characteristics, that make a difference as well: hard work, tolerance, quickness, cleverness and principals such are initiatives, speed, change, fitness, consistency”.

- “do not always make your young players learn from the older ones as such an approach is not securing the desired development as well as no change between different generation”.

The second topic, the comparison between the Asian and European players and the various systems adopted on the two continents, was equally resourceful and interesting. In China it is believed that the main difference arises from the system itself and from the perception of the game as a whole - table tennis is a national sport in China, while in Europe there are no collective investments and many talented players are isolated. Additionally, the coaching practice is run differently in China: Chinese coaches were all top level players and they have a strong formal education; their work is concentrated to the hall, unlike in Europe, where coaches take over many organizational and other tasks. 
 
To read and or download the LI Xiaodong presentation click here

The other topics that were presented at the Conference were the following:

- the Olympic Project was in focus of the members of the ETTU Expert Group: Radivoj HUDETZ gave an overview of the performed activities in 2009; Michel GADAL talked about the 2020 talent identification program; Istvan KORPA, the program’s head coach, updated the audience about the progress of the 2009 generation and about the plan for the generation in 2010. Steen HANSEN and Peter SARTZ revealed the plans for the 2016 Olympic selection.

To read and or download the Expert Group presentation click here

- ITTF’s Executive Director for Education & Training, Mikael ANDERSSON, presented the department’s program.

To read and or download the ANDERSSON presentation click here

- Leandro OLVECH, the Co-ordinator of Development Programmes at ITTF, was busy with their global Development.

To read and or download the OLVECH presentation click here

- Dr. Miran KONDRIC pointed out the necessity of cooperation between scientists and technical experts in table tennis.

To read and or download the KONDRIC presentation click here - players' questionaire - coaches' questionaire

- ETTU’s Umpires and Referees Committee Chairman, Paul SCHILTZ spoke on the subject of “Match conduct and coaches expectations”

To read and or download the SHILTZ presentation click here

- ETTU Youth & Development coordinator, Polona CEHOVIN SUSIN presented to the present coaches the European Youth & Development Program and the variety of opportunities that are offered to Associations through it.

To read and or download the CEHOVIN presentation click here 

Although the schedule was rather dense the conference was still running in a very cooperative and positive atmosphere, which assured also a very constructive outcome of the open discussions, which where dealing with different topics:

- the necessity to work on the calendar – the first step being the change of the date of the Cadet and Junior Top 10 to September,

- the European championships are normally always on the agenda and the Conference was not an exception; this time the spotlight was on the Youth Championships, whereby one of the proposals was to split them and to include a mini cadet player into the cadets’ team,

- the coaches also expressed their wishes to revise the playing systems and formats at some events

- the very last thus the newest idea was dealing with the change of the age in different youth categories as a consequence of the newly introduced Youth Olympic Games, where a uncommon age category will be used.

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR
but before that you are invited to read more about the content of the Conference by clicking on the corresponding links in the above text, where you can find all the presentations from the Conference, which are published with the kind approval of the lecturers.