An Introduction to Competition coaching course facilitated in Ottawa and co-delivered in the Yukon and Northwest Territories. A pilot project that was a huge success.

“It is really satisfying and an honour to be part of this first blended learning Introduction to Competition Workshop Pilot. It was a tremendous learning curve that it is going help all of Learning Facilitators across country! Closely guided by their onsite Learning Facilitators Thorsten Gohl (NT) and Kevin Murphy (YT) our participants truly showed the power of the Women in Sport and how they intend to use our Table Tennis as a force for good in this complicated times that we are living in. The future is bright!” – Marles Martins, Technical Development Manager

Everything went as planned, covering the material for the base and advanced training modules, while asking questions, doing exercises and presenting structured practice plans. A total of 16 hours and over 1,000 pages to cover all the materials.

“Nice to step up to this level and learning more about Table Tennis and being surrounded by familiar faces from the North. It was beneficial for me and the others to be a player, now we can learn more about teacher. It was a lot of fun and enjoyed going into the depth of learning more about techniques.” – Gracie Brennan, trained Introduction to Competition coach

The set up in both Territories was simple with a computer screen or projector, connected to zoom and a Table Tennis table in the middle of it all. Working on hand outs, answering questions and of course teaching and learning in a practical manner on the table.

“It was a novel way to do a Table Tennis coaching program during a pandemic. The game adapts to the times and the technology and we have adapt as well in order to teach it to our coach candidates.” – Kevin Murphy, Headcoach Team Yukon

A huge thank you to Luba Sadovska and Zedplin Law, Table Tennis Canada’s Master Coach Developers, for following the course this weekend. All Coach Developers will meet next week to provide feedback and discuss the next steps in bringing all content alive through virtual workshops.

The next steps for the coaches will include participation in 4 multi sport courses through the National Coaches Certification Program, 3 more technical courses that will be delivered in virtual workshops, successfully finish the club umpire exam, hand in their portfolio and participate in an evaluation process that will showcase their skills in training and competition. Coach evaluators will help and support them in the next 6 month to reach the final goal in being certified as Introduction to Competition coaches.

We are looking forward to seeing these fine young women succeed and becoming future Arctic Winter Games and Canada Winter Games Coaches. Congratulations to everyone that contributed and participated in this weekends course.