As T&T's Table Tennis players are getting a much needed technical boost with the help of foreign coaches who are in this country hosting a camp to aid in the development of the players...
The camp is expected to run for 7 days and touches on areas including skills development and mental strength...
00:00 The balls are in their court as the day's local table tennis players have chosen to take their skills to a new level by taking part in a booster camp with the aim of long-term athlete development.
00:10 The 15 participants are between the ages of 11 to 19.
00:14 The objective is to have a structured environment for skill development for young kids.
00:24 So this is just one of the initiatives towards that.
00:29 So what level are the participants at?
00:31 I would say at the level of Central and South America.
00:38 They have that level of talent but they just need the environment and the time to continue working because at a junior level we're not really very far off.
00:58 Skill alone will not get them up to standard though as the level 3 coach indicated they've been working on their mental strength.
01:05 When you look at it we're focusing on things. This camp mainly is focused on mental preparation because we have a psychologist who's doing some sessions.
01:17 So just how important is sports psychology to table tennis? Well, it was one of the questions answered at this camp.
01:24 We spoke to sports psychologist Nadine Sami who was assigned to get the athletes in the right frame of mind.
01:30 So we had the Table Tennis Association reach out to us a couple of months ago and this is a part of their long-term athlete development program.
01:38 We at Sport Company were very happy to be invited on board to do this.
01:43 They've recognized the importance of the mental skills training.
01:46 So we had a session with them at their training beforehand. We kind of laid the foundation on what sports psychology is, why the brain is important in sports.
01:57 But we were very focused now here and it's myself and Jabari John who's one of our interns at Sport Company focusing on emotions and goal setting and mental preparation for this camp.
02:09 And judging from the feedback the participants seem to be absorbing the information.
02:13 What do you hope to learn from this camp? I hope to improve my form and my speed when playing.
02:20 And are you learning that so far? I am and it's really helping me improve my game and how quick I move to hit the ball.
02:30 So what have you learned from this camp so far and what are you hoping to learn?
02:34 I've learned a lot of stuff, a lot of new techniques, a lot of new services and attacks, a lot of strokes that I never knew that I could have played.
02:43 Learning is part of it and this is like an opportunity you don't get every now and then that we're able to get at the Ironies Coach to come up here and train everybody else.
02:53 It's really nice to have our abroad coach come across and teach us new stuff because it's very important I think for younger players to have the advanced techniques for when they have to go outside and play against tough opponents.
03:08 Now all they have to do is take their new found skills out into the world. Sergio Lufo, TV6 Sport.
Be the first to comment