Prime Ministers Coaches Scholarship
Scandinavia 2007 Report (Table Tennis)
Helsinki, Finland 5-10 May

Authors:
Julian Wootton & Wayne Gear

Helsinki, Finland 5-10 May
We were hosted by the Finish Table Tennis Association and in particular Emanuel Christianson (Finish Head Coach). Emanuel explained that the Finish structure is club based and there are falling participation numbers throughout the country. The National team is currently in a rebuilding phase with the established players all retiring due to age and other commitments. Finland is engaging in a youth policy to build for the future and have implemented several programs to achieve success.

Finland Table Tennis has similar type numbers in terms of registered players to that of New Zealand and talking to the Vice president of the Finland Table Tennis Association problems and obstacles faced are parallel with those faced by us. Firstly they have engaged Emanuel as full time head coach; his main objectives are to create coaching structures and to develop youth for the long term future of the National team.

Emanuel has vast experience as a coach; his CV includes being head coach of the largest table tennis club in Sweden and coaching duties around the world for the ITTF. Emanuel operates from a National training centre with 5 dedicated tables, coaching is run 4 nights a week for the National squad (most are based in Helsinki) with ages ranging from 11-21, some players are based elsewhere in Finland and they have to attend camps prior to major tournaments in Helsinki. These players have to provide proof of training to Emanuel and all players are subject to strict fitness testing. Emanuel explained that the main requirements for all National players were fitness, mental preparation; self motivation and self awareness of ones own strengths and weaknesses.

The majority of this type of training and learning was conducted at a school (Makelanrinteen Uinitikeskus) which was adjacent to a sporting complex housing a weights gym, Olympic sized swimming pool, medical rooms; conference facilities massage centre and runways where various circuit training and specific sport training could be carried out.

Picture 1. Makelanrinteen Uinitikeskus sports center
What was explained to us was that this school was specific for athletes covering normal schooling subjects along with increased learning of sport related topics such as sports nutrition, sports psychology, injury prevention etc.

The facility provided a vehicle for the athletes to train in an outstanding centre while being surrounded by hundreds of aspiring athletes from around fifty different sports. Instructors and councilors are on hand to give one on one personal training and advice.

A major emphasis is placed on the general fitness and well being of the athletes and physical training either sports specific or general is part of the everyday education.

The school provides for 120 new athletes a year which range from the age of14 to 17 years old. To enroll for this school, each sporting association such as table tennis makes an application on behalf of the athlete. If and once accepted the school then provides the education and funding for the basic core training and fitness for the athlete and the sporting association can then concentrate on specific coaching and training.

The structure is based on a concept similar to that of the institute of sport but at an intermediate level as well as an elite level.

Picture 2. Physical training at Makelanrinteen Uinitikeskus
One of the beauties of the programs was that outside the school hours the sporting complex was able to be utilized for those who wished to continue training or working on their sport while providing services that could be used without leaving the boundaries of the complex.

A ten minute walk from the school and we were at another sporting complex which encompassed the table tennis centre, badminton centre, squash and equestrian. Various clubs ran out of the 13 table stadium where 5 tables in a cordoned off area were set aside at night for the Finnish Table Tennis Association and Emanuel to run his coaching groups and training squads.

The first training session we witnessed all players were expected to set their own multi ball exercises based around their perceived weaknesses with a training partner. Emanuel facilitated this and advised players during the exercises. At any given time the athletes can be working on different skills to each other. The coach or coaches provide assistance where necessary and are on hand to assist and provide
technical advice or where applicable add elements to the exercises which they see would benefit the athletes.

This was a major departure from squad training sessions that both of us had generally been involved with in that in New Zealand sessions are normally constructed and planned by the coaches setting the exercises and training for the athletes.

A clear advantage according to Emanuel was that system meant that players had to think for themselves and motivate themselves and those not truly dedicated were easily exposed. Assistance and guidance was still provided to players and this system allowed the players and coaches to evaluate their progress more accurately.

Similar to the New Zealand High performance program, Finland provides a number of national and regional training camps conducted in one of three main centers within Finland. Emanuel is dedicated to building a base for the sport in Finland to which players can lead on to be competitive at an international level. Finland is not sending a team to the European Junior Championships in 2007 because he feels that they are not at a level required to achieve success.

While he believes participation is still important players need to be aware that just because they are eligible, they are not necessarily selected to attend such events as the European Championships unless they achieve a required fitness and skill level.

Picture 3. Group session training Finish National Table Tennis Centre

In other sessions the main focus was on core strength fitness and the group engaged in 1 hour of physical training, this took place after technical training and game play practice.

Emmanuel is the sole coach for all National teams.
Picture 4. Wayne, Emmanuel and Julian at Finish table tennis centre.

Boras, Sweden 10-13 May
Information provided by Mats Hedin (National coach) Ulf Rodin (Executive Board Swedish Table Tennis Association) and Stiga representatives.

Sweden has historically been one of the world powers in table tennis. Table Tennis has recognition as a major sport in Sweden, due mostly to the all time greatest ever table tennis player Jan Ove Waldner and other prominent players such as Mikel Appelgren, Jorgen Perrsson, Peter Karlsson, and Marie Svensson throughout the 1990’s.

This group of players accumulated several individual and team’s World and European titles, and is largely credited for breaking the Chinese domination of World table tennis.

There are currently ten thousand registered players playing in 190 different clubs across the country.

Some of the problems currently facing Swedish table tennis are decreasing registered numbers which seems to be a trend across Europe, and recreating the successes of teams of the past. With the men’s team predominantly consisting of 5 players over the past twenty years the next generation of players got somewhat neglected leaving a gap now these players have retired from international (with the exception of Jorgen Perrsson).

Swedish table tennis is now making a conscious effort to develop their junior players to recreate achievements of the past. In 2004 a table tennis training centre / academy was created in Shirping, 150kms from Stockholm. The center is one of two training centers in the world backed by the ITTF
where countries can send players to train full time under the guidance of four full time Swedish coaches.

The training centre not only offers quality training and coaching but provides meals, accommodation, and a fitness gymnasium at the academy. When the academy is full there are also self contained apartments owned by the center. The facility including the apartments caters for 80 people at any given time.

There are currently 29 players staying and training at the center including the Swedish woman’s team who are in preparation for the World Individual Championships to be held in Zagreb, Croatia at the end of May. With the center allowing for overseas players to come and train this also benefits Swedish players in that they have an opportunity to train and play against other styles of play from Asia, Africa and South America.

The center was funded by the government and the city of Shirping. Another initiative implemented by Swedish table tennis is to develop a higher number of elite junior players instead of concentrating their efforts into existing established players. Like Finland, general fitness is high on the agenda and fitness testing is compiled twice a year by the federation and encouraged to be done on a regular basis through the clubs. The fitness testing is across the board for juniors and seniors and comprises of Seven elements including standing jumps, long jumps, dips, chin ups, leg raisers, acceleration test (sprinting over 20 meters) and the coopers test which is running as fast as you can for 3000 meters.

These testing standards have only been recently introduced but we were told that the Swedish men’s team at their peak in the late 80s early nineties were tested monthly and part of their success was attributed to the physical fitness and endurance of the team at the time.

To date in the junior program nobody has yet to fail the required standards set for the fitness testing.
A foreseeable problem for the future in Sweden is keeping their players within the country maintaining a league of quality standard and monetary rewards competitive withleagues in both Germany and France. An allowance is made for each team to have one
foreigner outside of the EU.

The large number of increasing pro tour and WJC tournaments also impacts on the timing and running the Swedish league and there are constant changes being made to allow clubs to maintain leagues and tournaments while the federation juggles with time allocations to provide national training camps.

Swedish table tennis is well established and well funded by the government which the federation decides how they spend their money. Extra funding is provided for high performance from the Olympic committee. To get this funding Swedish table tennis must achieve goals set by the Olympic committee. These goals at present are for the men’s team to be in the top eight at the World team Championships in China 2008 and to be in the top four at the European Championships 2008.

Most clubs have their own sponsors, some have several. In general most of the first teams of each club have a sponsor. Stiga helps out also by sponsoring a number of clubs also and subsidizing equipment for other clubs.

Most of the clubs assist in travel costs and expenses when their players play in National tournaments and the players reciprocate by wearing their club shirts when they play. Although table tennis in Sweden is popular, according to Ulf Rodin, television coverage is not a viable option as the production costs have to be paid for by Swedish Table Tennis. As this cost can be extremely high and there is no guarantee that a television station would then purchase the coverage.

To offset this, what they do is provide an online feed over the internet of games from the semi final stages of their national championships. This is an idea incorporated by the English Table Tennis Association at their recent National Championships.

The Swedish National structure allocates coaches to all National teams age groups. It is generally accepted that these coaches attend the National Tournaments where their players are competing. These coaches prepare for events by holding training camps and monitoring player’s preparation.

Swedish Junior Closed
Boras which is 40 kms south of Gothenburg was the location of the 2007 Swedish Junior open, one of 5 major closed tournaments on the season’s calendar. The two age groups contested are Under 14 and Under 17.

There are 48 places available in the draw which comprise of 16 seeded players who are automatically through to post section. The remaining 32 players play off in group play with two qualifying through into post section.

To make it into the 48 players you must be ranked in the top 48 available from the Swedish junior ranking list. This list comprises of points which are accumulated from the player’s six best results from regional tournaments and their junior ranking from the previous year. Around 50 different clubs were represented at the championships.

The championship is run with timetable scheduling over 3 days. The stadium consists of 9 tables cordoned off with Stiga tables, barricades and Taraflex flooring.

The standard of play was extremely high for juniors, especially the boys, with a high standard of stroke technique and speed around the table.

The best players had a lot of feel for the ball and advanced service and serve return ability. The under 14 boys winner (Anthony Tran) was aged 12 and was of exceptional standard and the Swedish coaches rate him to be a top prospect for the National team in the future.

The latter stages of the under 17 boys was of high quality as well, with a group of players all playing at the same high standard, the number 1 and 2 seeds were knocked out the at the quarter final stage.

The final was contested by the no 6 seed (Mattias Karlsson) and 5 seed (Mattias Oversjo), with Oversjo winning out with his clever use of short pimples on his forehand.

Both these players were in the Swedish team that won the world team cadets event in Serbia in 2006. The professionalism of all the junior players at the event was impressive, all players utilized all available space to warm up correctly and stretch before going near a table tennis table, several mental preparation techniques were observed as well.

Copenhagen, Denmark 14 – 18 May
We were invited to observe the Danish team prepare for the World Championships in Croatia and spend time with National coaches.

The Danish men’s side won the European team championship in 2005, bronze medal in both the 2004 Olympics in Sydney and 2005 World Championships in men’s doubles. Denmark has a top 20 world ranked player (Michael Maze), who also won the European top 12 in 2004.

The recent success of the Danish team has been attributed a lot to the systems and structures implemented from 11 years ago.

The Danish table tennis centre is situated within a state of the art purpose built national sports academy at Brondby (outside Copenhagen). The center houses a number of sports where their elite athletes come to train with their national sports teams.

The center also provides restaurants, gymnasium, medical facilities, conference rooms and hotel accommodation for visitors. Also included are a number of offices which are home to the National sporting bodies for 20 different sports. Table Tennis has its own training room with Taraflex flooring and 6 tables. This is for the sole purpose of the national squad, elite juniors and invited players.

Picture 6. Danish National Table Tennis centre.
Team Denmark (Denmark’s equivalent of Sparc) are also based at this centre and eachsport is given a assigned representative, who plays a daily hands on role in seeing how training is proceeding and developing player and coach plans.

We met with Stev the Team Denmark table tennis representative and he detailed to us
Team Demarks goals and objectives;
1. Overall planning
2. A cultural and political sound development of elite sports
3. Optimum training and coaching possibilities for athletes
4. A sound development of athletes physically, personally, and socially.
5. Recruiting of talents and development of these
6. Individual financial support for athletes
7. Counseling, research and communication of research results
8. Counseling of athletes on educational issues
9. Employment and social support
10. Providing counseling and financial support for national federations
11. Co-operation with municipality authorities regarding elite sports and facilities
12. Co-operation with media and sponsors, and sales of rights and other services

Picture 7. Team Denmark, National Sports Academy, Brondby, Denmark
Peter Sartz (National coach) and Thorstein Hævdholm (National assistant coach) detailed to us how Team Denmark’s support had really helped Danish table tennis and the recent successes by Michael Maze and the National team may not have happened
without it.

The support from Team Denmark allows the centre to bring in top players from Croatia
and Sweden to name a few to play against the Danish team, amongst other initiatives.
This is a major cause for success both coaches believed.

Both coaches emulate that for further success the players and coaches need to be continually challenged and learning. Since there is a shortage of players of the level of Michael Maze, there is a need to bring players in to train with Maze of a similar caliber.

A relationship has developed between Denmark and Sweden that a mutual exchange of players at training camps provides further opportunities to train with players at a higher level. Included in tight calendar is a friendly home and away teams match against Sweden.

Denmark is hoping to embark on a similar type relationship with Germany who has the greatest number of players at an elite level in Europe. Not only the players but also different coaches are brought in and the Danish coaches sent abroad to enhance their skills which is intended to benefit Danish table tennis.

With just a week out from the World Individual Championships the Danish table tennis
team, were in their final preparation stages. We observed multi ball, service, return and
doubles practice throughout our 3 days at the centre, and we were made welcome by all
there and encouraged to ask questions.

The level of professionalism was high and no details were left to chance by the coaches,
training partners have been brought in to mimic other players styles and tables and balls
brought in that were to be used at forthcoming tournaments i.e. Tibhar equipment for the
Worlds in Croatia.

We also went to see the National junior squads with the Danish National Junior Coach, Mads Sørensen. Mads explained to us the National structure for juniors in Denmark. This is based across 3 regions, 1 in Copenhagen the other 2 across the other 2 regions of Denmark.

One of the main things we noticed was the expectation that players must be able to identify their own weaknesses and develop exercises (with coaches) to strengthen them, this was the same ideology employed by the Finish and Swedish systems.

Peter Sartz agrees a coaching plan with Mads and the same exercises and coaching philosophy are taught to all 3 regions by the regional junior coaches. Mads travels to all areas to monitor this and offer support to coaches and players.

The exercises are changed weekly and this is communicated to the coaches and players via the internet. This sharing of information and direction is vital in their structure system. It is quite important for the Danish system that the same thing is taught to all the players in the system across the country.

The juniors in Copenhagen train at a different location from the table tennis centre at Brondby due to the higher numbers. The venue they train at is at a multi purpose racquet centre in central Copenhagen.

The standard we observed was extremely high, and the players trained 4 times a week (3* 2hr 1* 4hrs). Physical training and self realization techniques again were essential parts of training.

All coaches are assigned Team coaching duties at start of the season and work with relevant players in preparation.

Denmark Table tennis appears to be in good stead with a successful structure in place at both an elite and beginner level. There are currently 8000 registered players in Denmark. They have currently 3 full time paid coaches, several part time, 4 administrators and office personal.

Some of the problems facing Denmark are one that at elite level Denmark they are somewhat reliant on the funding provided by Team Denmark (Olympic federation). The goals set by Team Denmark are high and there is continuing pressure to achieve these.

Table Tennis has a reasonably high profile in Denmark. Michael Maze was sports person of the year in Denmark in 2004 and Peter Sartz was coach of the year also in 2004. Despite this they have found it hard to get team sponsors and up until May 2007 they had no official sponsor for the year other than Team Denmark.

Another problem which is an ongoing one is that the table tennis league in Denmark is amateur. Since all the players in the national squad are professional including the top juniors, they play in leagues in Sweden, France and Germany. This often impacts on the training and planning and they have to be flexible when it comes to these players.

Like all the Scandinavian countries a challenge is to keep the 8000 registered players in the sport while obtaining the professional elite program and providing support for the clubs and players at grass roots level.

Recommendations
In conclusion from our Scandinavian trip which was both invaluable and inspirational we noticed fundamental differences in New Zealand coaching structures, ideologies and techniques.

From what we have observed we would like to make a set of recommendations for open discussion by New Zealand coaches and officials, and the TTNZ Executive board.

We believe that these changes if implemented in New Zealand will make Table tennis in a more professional sport and give our elite players the best opportunity to achieve success on the world stage are enhance our talented players to reach their true
potential.

1. Adapt our coaching techniques to include physical and core strength training, nutrition education and sports psychology.
2. Fitness testing to be mandatory and standards met before players can be considered for selection for New Zealand
3. Establish standardization of coaching principles and techniques to be used at National and regional camps. (All players within this structure taught the same thing as in the Danish model). Up to the individual coaches to deliver the curriculum in their own style.
4. Establishment of annual coach’s conference to discuss current coaching issues, problems and common strategies.
5. Creation of a coaches forum on the TTNZ website (closed to the general public), to discuss issues re point 4 mentioned above
6. Identifying talent and liaise with ITTF to send to player/s to the ITTF training center in Shirping Sweden.
7. Bringing in International players and or coaches to National training camps
8. Investigate on line streaming of major events such as National Championships to promote table tennis in New Zealand
9. Development of network paths to send current senior top players to European clubs. (utilizing players within New Zealand who have previously played in Europe and or have contacts with European clubs)
10. Investigate how viable playing a test match or matches and or a training camp with a foreign nation or nations prior to big international events.

Prime Ministers Coaches Scholarship Scandinavia Report (Table Tennis)
Authors: Julian Wootton & Wayne Gear May 2007