Triangle Table Tennis Club Proves Perfect Home Level One Coaches Course
Courtesy of ITTF
Opened just over one year ago, The Triangle Table Tennis Club, situated in Cary, North Carolina, USA was the host for a recent ITTF/PTT Level One Coaches Course; proceedings commenced on Sunday June 7th and concluded on Saturday June 11th.
Organized under the auspices of the International Table Tennis Federation and in conjunction with USA Table Tennis, the Course Conductor was Christian Lillieroos.
A total 23 students attended the course.
Christian Lillieroos Reports
Christian Lillieroos reports on his visit…
Table Tennis clubs in the USA are seeing the benefit of having certified coaches working in the club. To not have certified coaches working is a liability for clubs and many clubs now refuse to have coaches without a certification.
The five day ITTF/PTT Level One is a very comprehensive course that has become very popular in the USA; the country now has over 200 ITTF certified coaches and now has the second highest number of ITTF certified coaches in the world after Egypt.
Five Years Ago
Notably, the program started only five years ago when Glenn Tepper, the ITTF Deputy Chief Executive Officer, came over and led a Level One Course and Course Conductor Course, following an initiative from Richard McAfee, the most experienced course conductor in USA.
The program has exploded in growth from there. The formula, with almost exclusively self-funded courses, has been a true success.
Mike Babuin
The Triangle Table Tennis club is spearheaded by Mike Babuin, who was the organizer of the course and is the High Performance and Program Director of the club.
Mike has a PhD in environmental science and has been a member of the Board of Directors of USA Table Tennis for seven years. It is interesting to see how many people in the club have a relationship with Environmental Science.
Gaining knowledge, everyone focused at a theory session
Photo courtesy of Christian Lillieroos
The Premises
One can wonder what is the connection with table tennis? The club is a Mecca for table tennis enthusiasts and large enough to host the 350 entries for the Cary Cup tournament with space for 32 tournament courts.
For day to day training it fits 40 courts with a nice Pro shop, lighting good enough for television, a Gerflor court mat on a wooden floor, a very impressive club. It is located only 10 minutes’ drive from the Durham/Raleigh airport in North Carolina in an excellent location.
The Head coach, who also took part in the course, is World famous “Feiming Tong”, who played for the China national team and also has a Masters Degree from England. It was the best location where I have ever led a coaches’ course. The theory portion of the course was held in the Pro shop.
A practical session, participants respond the Course Conductor Photo courtesy of Christian Lillieroos
Participants
Participants came from many parts of the USA, one coach from Hawaii, one from each of San Francisco, Connecticut, and Florida.
Notably 21 of the coaches passed the practical test. It was an impressive group of coaches from experienced Danny Hill, to four coaches who were ex-professional athletes in China, to one ex-professional Baseball player.
Preparing to practise the skill of multi-ball
Photo courtesy of Christian Lillieroos
ITTF Level Two Course Ahead
This course was the first ITTF Coaches Course in the Carolinas. An ITTF Level Two is already in its planning stage; many of the coaches have great potential for Level Two. We hope after this initial course many more will follow.
The most appreciated feature of the course was how to market table tennis and create junior programs on a larger scale. In the USA the culture is mostly private lessons and seldom in a group.
The location was outstanding and I hope many table tennis coaches and players will have an opportunity to visit this world class Table Tennis club.
The Para element, in common with all courses, proved popular
Photo courtesy of Christian Lillieroos
