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LATIN AMERICA
Ecuador Guatemala
Ecuador Thirty-six members of the Ecuador Table Tennis Federation attended an Olympic Soldarity Course in Guayaquil in July 2000 with sixty-five hours being devoted to practical work and twenty-one hours to theory. The course was led by Abilio de Cruz who returned to Ecuador in September 2003 to teach a High Performance Course and in September 2004 to conduct a further Olympic Solidarity Course. Meanwhile, in July 2001, Evelio Alvarez led an ITTF Development Project Course in Ecuador and in October 2005, Fran Camargo conducted a Marketing Course.
El Salvador Sixteen coaches (nine from El Salvador, two from the Dominican Republic, one from each of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Aruba) attended the international table tennis coaching course in El Salvador in June 2003. Carlos Esnard, the Technical Director of the El Salvador Table Tennis Federation was the course organiser and the expert was Abilio Cruz. Several further courses were held in El Salvador with a Training Camp prior to the ITTF World Junior Circuit event in 2005 being particularly successful. The camp was conducted by Emmanuel Christiansson and Swedish international, Peter Karlsson and surely set new records in terms of numbers. No less than ninety-four young players attended!
Guatemala Twenty-five coaches from twenty countries attended the ITTF Level One Coaching Course in Guatemala in October 2005; the course was under the direction of Brazil’s Marles Martins with Cuba’s Hugo Perez de Corcho of Cuba assisting. The ITTF Level One Coaching Manual was distributed and was made available for course participants in Spanish. Furthermore, advanced coaching sessions were held as well as `My Champion School’ information being disseminated. Several Caribbean countries such as Saint Kitts, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia and Haiti were present in Guatemala being led by very interested and motivated coaches. It was very pleasing to note that this group of coaches, who were present at the course left Guatemala with a new motivation and many new ideas on which to work. It was quite remarkable that the course in Guatemala even took place with the country having been hit by Hurricane Stan;
PHOTO BY TTF GUATEMALA
Marles Martins in Guatemala 2005
much credit for making sure that any such problems were overcome must go to Alfonso Saravia from the Guatemalan National Olympic Committee, his superb organisational skills assured the smooth running of the course. President of the Latin American Table Tennis Union, Miguel Delgado, was present at the course in Guatemala, which like other courses in Latin America, had one major factor in common; a passion for table tennis. A fact that suggests the future for the sport in Guatemala and in Latin America is bright, very bright.
Peru The success of the ITTF High Performance Programme was clearly shown in August 1999, when a record number of sixtyseven coaches from seven countries attended the one week course in Chozica just outside Lima in Peru. Conducted by Mikael Andersson, the impressive technical support from the local organisers and help from the Peruvian Olympic Committee set the stage for a good course. Ten sessions of three hours with fifty per cent of the time practically oriented was the basis of the programme. The response was not only good, it was very good. The mood was one of optimism, positive coaches, grateful coaches and critical coaches discussing table tennis and the improvement of players. “Educated in a country where winning world titles certifies you as good coach, it takes some time to understand the reality of our sport”, said Mikael Andersson. “There are many coaches who do tremendous work to keep our sport alive in all parts of the world; without doubt, credit must go to them.” Sweden has a record of success in table Mikael Andersson with dancers dressed in local costume in Peru in 1999 PHOTO BY PERU TTF
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El Salvador Peru
tennis that few can match so what about the future of table tennis in Peru? “More co-operation on a youth level; there is no lack of talented table tennis players but the organisation with regards to a calendar and joint activities has to be better”, continued Mikael Andersson. “Coach education is important; therefore, we need to think about a possible ITTF certification model.” The advice of Mikael Andersson was soon heeded with the ITTF Level One Coaching Manual and the ITTF Coach Education scheme being designed in the ensuing years. “ITTF World Youth Events can play a big role for smaller countries who have talented players; a good result in a world event can open doors to better financial support”, explained Mikael Andersson. “In my opinion it is clear that the ITTF can and will play a major role in developing our sport in Latin America and Africa, with the ITTF Development Plan we have a good programme to accommodate the needs in weaker continents within the International Table Tennis Federation.” The venue for the course was the beautiful country club `El Bosque’ possessing all the necessary facilities to run a first class course. Coaches from Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Cuba, El Salvador, Venezuela and Colombia attended and the success of the course certainly proved that Latin America has the ability to organise high