The table tennis club B75 keeps developing their international training camp that is held every summer from 15th to 31st July.
It all began more than 10 years ago. A father wanted to create great opportunities for table tennis development for his son who was a player even though the child and his friends were born in the outlying area of Denmark. First collaboration with Swedish and Chinese coaches was established. It has now developed into an annual international training camp with players and coaches from 40 different countries. By the way the B75 club itself has also gone through a huge development culminating two months ago with its first team winning bronze medals in the highest Danish league Stigadivision.
The international training camp consists of 128 players and 24 coaches who practice on a total of 64 tables. Every day they practice 2 ½ hours of multi ball and 2 ½ hours of regular exercises. The practice is highly individualized. Each group of 16 players and 4 coaches work together for 5 10 or 15 days to improve the areas that each player want to develop. Every day there are check-in and check-outs where the training sessions are planned and evaluated from both the coaches’ and players’ point of view.
“We are proud that players and coaches from ‘all over the world’ choose to travel to Hjoerring to practice and learn from each other at our Summer Camp. We have worked hard the latest 10 years to develop our camp into international level. We are happy to have gathered some of the world’s best coaches under the same roof” says Camp Manager Lars Rokkjær who is also the leader of the ITTF HOTSPOT Centre in B75.
This year B75 has introduced a new tool to increase the learning potential at the camp. It’s called a “roadmap” that visualizes where you are now in your development process and also shows your future goals and possibilities. It is a great way to get an overview of respectively the player’s and the coach’s ideas for short medium and long term development goals.
Mohamed Elbeiali Egyptian national team player and in May 2018 ranked as nr. 101 in the world is sparring at the camp. He says: “I really like to be here. This is my second year on the camp. It is one of the best camps I have even been to. The atmosphere is fantastic. I hope to come next year”.
Why do players and coaches from 40 nations come to this camp? The answer might be the camp’s philosophies and pedagogy.
Any player can attend the camp. It’s all about your effort. Age and level do not matter. This year the youngest player is 5 years old. The oldest is 78 years old.
An important theme is the fact that no human being can see itself. Therefore you need help and feedback from other players and coaches both during practice and during feedback sessions in order to develop. Table tennis is indeed a competitive sport but during practice the players should help each other. It is important that the coach does not only focus on and have knowledge about specific table tennis skills. The coach should be able to facilitate training sessions where the players work together. We believe that this increases the learning outcome for all players.
B75 is selected as one of ITTF’s Hotspot Centre. The training methods and philosophies at the summer camp are implemented into the daily practices and camps of the table tennis club B75. B75 is open for visitors all year round.
The summer camp 2019 is scheduled for 15th to 31st of July.
Videos about the Summer Camp 2018:
Summer Camp Promo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTDAOthB_TA
B75 Development Roadmaps:
Players and coaches working at their development plan “the roadmap”
https://www.facebook.com/InternationalTrainingcampDenmark/videos/1633010716797959/
