The ETTU Executive Board the Austrian Ministry of Sport and all relevant regional authorities have promoted and funded the project “ETTU Women Center LINZ” to support the development of women’s table tennis.
Last week the ETTU Coaching Committee meeting took place online led by the Chairman Jaroslaw KOLODZIEJCZYK with the guests ETTU Executive Board Member Athletes Commission Chair Galia DVORAK ETTU Development Manager Neven CEGNAR ITTF High Performance Dominique PLATTNER and Center Management and founder Robert RENNER.
The ETTU Executive Board led by President Igor LEVITIN and Galia DVORAK as project supervisor the ITTF HPD represented by D. Plattner (on behalf of CEHOVIN and CONSTATINI) and CEGNAR welcomed the project as a pioneering modern and holistic project.
In the next month detailed information will be provided but the meeting was set up to speak about the general project framework and question the Coaches about the possible problem areas.
The philosophy behind the project is to provide an open and easily accessible Training and Coaching platform for Girls and Women of Europe.
The project will offer
– Full Cooperation involvement & communication with the National Associations and the Coaches about administrative and sport technical topics.
– up to 30 Full scholarships (living in LINZ – inclusive accommodation Food Coaching Practice and so on)
– inclusive daily care and assistance in education topics
– A Pool of up to 60 players in total — hybrid system of players in residence and players that come regularly for short Camps — all players will be seen as individual cases and handled flexibly.
– Extraordinary senior sparring partners
– The organisers would like all coaches of the talented players to be involved. All Associations shall be fully involved in the coordination of the individual calendars and careers.
“We want to be a platform for all stakeholders in female table tennis but especially for the girls that come from “smaller” table tennis countries and girls that do not have the chance to access professional surroundings explained Robert RENNER Manager of the Austrian National Team Training Center and the Champions League Club LINZ AG FROSCHBERG.
“We keep the door open and hope that European associations coaches and administrations recognise this unique chance to practice without expenses for women and girls. This is the first Center that offers a chance like this for players to become professionals. We express our thanks to our President LEVITIN who will organize the scholarships funds and thanks to the Austrian Authorities for covering all other costs. We helped a lot of players to develop. We worked with LIU Jia from age of 14 Sofia POLCANOVA from age of 10 Petrissa SOLJA and Iveta VACENOVSKA both from the age of 17 Linda Bergström from the age of 18 Stefan Fegerl from the age of 14 and many more.”
Galia DVORAK added: “I think European table tennis needs a step forward in every area but in women sport we need it more and this project can bring an immense boom in various countries on the elite level and in the grassroots of table tennis.”
For more information contact RENNER at linz@ettu.at
