Kelly SIBLEY inspires girls in ETTA East region

Olympian Kelly SIBLEY made a guest appearance at the ETTA East Region girls training day on December 2nd. A massive turnout of thirty girls made the journey to St Neots table tennis club in Cambridgeshire to mix it with one of Britain’s finest. Girls from,

Olympian Kelly SIBLEY made a guest appearance at the ETTA East Region girls training day on December 2nd. A massive turnout of thirty girls made the journey to St Neots table tennis club in Cambridgeshire to mix it with one of Britain’s finest. Girls from all over region were in attendance and there was county representation from Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Bedfordshire, Suffolk and Essex! Regional coach Stephen GERTSEN organised the day for the girls and was delighted with the effort and obviously the healthy number of females in attendance.

The day proved a huge success with Kelly doing demonstrations to the youngsters whilst explaining the importance of the key coaching points at the same time. Kelly also practiced with players throughout the day and supported the girls no matter of age or ability level.  The girls absolutely loved the day and were inspired by Kelly’s charisma, attitude, workrate and ability level.  A question and answer session took place at the end of the day with players searching for key ingredients that make a successful sports person. Kelly was open and honest in her answers which made the discussions free flowing and natural.

Mark DARE led the training and was ably assisted by Maria INGLES, Mark JARVIS and Hugo BROWN. The East has a fantastic network of coaches at present and the ‘coaches corner’ initiative has played a vital role in this. Coaches such as Lyn ATTRIDGE, Janet HOBLEY, Maggie GAMBRIL and Helen ARNOLD came as part of this programme for experience which again worked well. ETTA Chairman Alex MURDOCH and Development Manager John ANDREWS also came along to show support for the day.

(courtesy of ETTA)


Photo: ETTA East Region girls training day in Cambridgeshire (courtesy ETTA)

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The European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) is the governing body of the sport of table tennis in Europe, and is the only authority recognized for this purpose by the International Table Tennis Federation. The ETTU deals with all matters relating to table tennis at a European level, including the development and promotion of the sport in the territories controlled by its 58 member associations, and the organization of continental table tennis competitions, including the European Championships.

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