Annual Report 12/13 - The English Table Tennis Association

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6.6.4 The Junior Masters was
postponed due to the freezing
weather conditions at the venue
in Burton. Fortunately Grantham
College came to the rescue and
was able to provide a venue at
short notice to allow the event to
be played in March.
6.6.5 The Cadet Masters was
successfully staged at Burton
Uxbridge in February.
6.6.6 Both Masters events are now
second only to the Nationals in
prestige but are the toughest,
most challenging events in the
domestic junior, cadet and now
Mini-Cadet calendar. Both
Grantham College and Burton
Uxbridge did an outstanding job
with the provision of all of the
facilities required.
6.6.7 For the re-arranged Junior
Masters, the ever present Mick
Strode was taken ill only days
before the event. Thanks to
Diccon Gray, he and a team of
young helpers, plus understanding
umpires, managed the weekend
superbly, although as you would
expect Mick was sorely missed.
6.7 ITTF Hopes
6.7.1 A few years ago the ITTF invited
individual parents to enter their
child into a ‘Hopes’ programme
of training and competition. A
number of parents did this but it
was found to be expensive. The
following year ITTF came to the
national governing bodies for
entries to take part in ’Hopes’.
This, ETTA did on a self-funded
basis. Again, although we did
have some entries, others found
it too expensive and withdrew.
It is ‘hoped’ that others will be
interested in the future.
6.8 High Performance Sessions
(HPS)
6.8.1 Grantham - Wednesday and
Thursday 6pm-8-30pm
London - Tuesday 6pm-8-30pm
Cippenham - Wed 6-30pm-9pm
These run for 40 weeks during
the season. The HPS have
proved extremely successful, high
intensity, good quality practice
and coaching.
6.9 Youth Development Training
(YDT)
6.9.1 Jill Parker is responsible for this
activity which is eight weekend
camps throughout the season
with 18 young talented players
on each camp. Carole Moore is
the head coach with two regional
coaches assisting and sparring
partners. The regional coach
normally selects a coach from his/
her region to help and to improve
their knowledge and experience.
6.10 Youth Programme
6.10.1 The International Youth Squads
have had a number of training
camps based at the EIS in
Sheffield. There has been seen an
improvement with most players
during these camps and we are
trying to create more “practice”
sessions for the players. Players
need to practise with each
other. Coaching and one-to-one
sessions are important but you
cannot beat hours on the table.
This, of course, needs to be
quality with good intensity.
6.11 Youth International Competition
6.11.1 At the European Youth
Championships in Austria in
July 2012 the standout English
performance was the bronze
medal won by Tin-Tin Ho in the
cadet girls’ singles. Helshan
Weersinghe got to the last 16 of
the cadet boys’ singles.
6.11.2 James Smith was the highest
English finisher in the Euro-Minis
in France during August; all our
young players found the standard
very high.
6.11.3 England has been represented at
the Serbian, Hungarian, Czech,
French and Malta Youth ITTF
events.
Serbian Youth – notable
successes - Sam Walker, silver
medal boys’ singles. Helshan
Weerasinghe, silver medal boys’
doubles.
Czech Youth – Tin-Tin Ho, bronze
medal cadet girls’ singles and
gold medal cadet girls’ doubles.
French Youth – Tin-Tin Ho, bronze
medal cadet girls’ singles.
Malta Youth – Sam Walker, gold
medal boys’ team, gold medal
boys’ singles, gold medal boys’
doubles. Helshan Weerasinghe,