(by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor / Photo: courtesy of Freddy Almendariz)
Guayaquil, the biggest city in Ecuador but not the capital, that distinction belonging to Quito, was the home for an ITTF Level Two Coaches Course from Monday 3rd to Monday 10th October.
Supported by Olympic Solidarity and organised under the auspices of the ITTF Development Programme in liaison with the Ecuadorian Table Tennis Federation, the National Olympic Committee and the Province of Guayas, a total of 15 coaches, 10 men and five women attended, two being visitors from nearby Peru.
The expert on duty was Philip Molodzoff, the expert responsible for writing the ITTF Level Two coaches Manual.
He was welcomed to Ecuador by Augusto Moran Nurques, the General Secretary of the National Olympic Committee, Marcia Bonilla, President of the Ecuador Table Tennis Federation and Alfonso Delgado, President of the Province of Guayas.
All gave speeches at the opening ceremony.
“A very motivated and animated group worked and trained hard during this course”, explained Philip Molodzoff. “The improvement made by the coaches in demonstrating the strokes was really important because the average starting level was not too high.”
Matters concluded; a training camp for players under the age of 13 years was staged. Notably five course members attended and thus had the opportunity to put theory into practice.
“The exam results at the end were excellent for most of the participants”, added Philip Molodzoff. “In total 10 coaches from Ecuador and one Peruvian woman passed successfully the Level Two exam with a mark over 10; impressively six of them reached more than 15 and are now eligible to access a Level Three Course.”
Most importantly the outlook bodes well for Ecuador.
“Now Ecuador should have soon 11 Level Two coaches of whom four are women and Peru one, after completing 50 hours coaching including five hours supervised, have been completed”, continued Philip Molodzoff.
At the end of the course, participation certificates were awarded with both Marcia Bonilla and Alfonso Delgado expressing their delight with the course.
“I thank everybody for their welcome and conditions for the course, especially to Freddy Almendariz, my translator from English to Spanish”, concluded Philip Molodzoff.
Considering ten years ago Freddy Almendariz could not speak a word of English and he translated for a Frenchman; that’s pretty good!
The course participants were from Ecuador: Fernando Apolo, Fabricio Calderon, Catalina Cedillo, Santiago Chang, Freddy Contreras, Oscar Magallanez, Ivonne Montaleza, Tatiana Nieto, Augusto Orellana, Vicente Reyes, Rocio Salazar, Christian Silvestre, Ivan Solano.
Meanwhile from Peru the students who travelled to Guayaquil were Nilda Fernandez and Carlos Yabar.
