Waikato High Performance Programme 2009
Murray Finch Hillary Scholarship Table Tennis Skill Development Manager/WTTA Selector

This has been a breakthrough season for Waikato Table Tennis at senior high performance level.  It began with WTTA taking over complete responsibility for running the University of Waikato Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship Table Tennis Skill Development Programme from Table Tennis New Zealand (TTNZ).
It was decided to incorporate the Hillary Programme with the Waikato High Performance (HP) Programme and this has been an unqualified success.  Waikato players experienced solid success in provincial and National tournaments throughout the year in both individual and teams – most notably completely dominating the North Island Teams Events.  However, they saved their best for last and produced the best results in the most important event – the National Championships.

At the Nationals the Waikato Women’s team repeated last year’s outstanding performance finishing 2nd and the Women’s ‘B’ team placed 4th.  The Men’s ‘A’ team finished 5th, an improvement from 13th in 2008.  The Men’s ‘B’ team finished 12th but had a very credible win over 6th place Wellington along the way.  The Under 18 Boys team finished 5th.

Individually achievements from the squad;

1. Michelle McCarthy (Hillary Scholar) Won 1 tournament, finalist in 3 others, represented NZ in two priority senior events, won a bronze medal at Australian Open, nationally ranked 4th in the women.  Part of the 2010 Commonwealth Games Squad.
2. Sarah Her-Lee (Hillary Scholar) Finalist in one tournament, semi-finalist on 5, represented NZ in two priority senior events, nationally ranked 5th in the women.  Part of the 2010 Commonwealth Games Squad.  Waikato Closed Champion.
3. Jessica MacAskill (Hillary Scholar) Won 1 tournament.  Represented NZ at World Junior Championships. Nationally ranked 8th in the Women.
4. Myles Collins Semi-finalist in the under 18 Boys at National Championships, nationally ranked 4th in under 18 boys.  Key component of the success of the men’s A team at Nationals.
5. Armindeep Singh Represented NZ at World Individual Championships.
6. Puneet Kumar Stand-out performer in the local competition and won 10 of 15 matches in ‘A’ grade Men’s teams events at National Championships.
7. Simon Hoey-Burns and James Harter (Hillary Scholar)  Key components in the ‘A’ team’s performance at Nationals, had notable singles and doubles success in open events and were winner and runner-up respectively in the Waikato Mens’ Singles Closed Championships.
8. Haoyi Li Nationally ranked 7th under 15 girls.

Others such as Amy Chiu (women’s A team) Eric Lin (Men’s A), Kevin Chang Aaron Page (most improved) and Matthew Hetherington made major contributions as well.

The improvement in performance across the board came about because of a mixture of factors, including;

1. A co-ordinated planned programme driven by the coaches – Richard Lee and Murray Finch – with input of and support from the players.
2. More players of a competitive standard coming through the ranks locally and arriving from outside the Association.
3. More training – 4 sessions per week.
4. Greater purpose, intensity, work and sacrifice by the players.
5. Underlying support from the Association.

     Waikato Table Tennis’s assimilation of the Hillary Scholarship Programme Skill Development Programme into its structure and using it as a base to build a HP Programme on has been an outstanding success.  The Association now has a comprehensive HP programme that is well organized, affordable, meeting the needs of its players, producing results and has scope to develop.  Waikato is a TTNZ “District High performance Association” and is currently the only association nationally fulfilling the criteria.  The Waikato Association can be justifiably proud of its players and its High performance programme in 2009.
     To maintain momentum, the Association needs to focus on building the number of young players and beginners.  These are our future elite and we need a constant supply if we are to build on the success of the current structure.

Posted 07.01.2010