ITTF WORLD HOPES TEAM Summer Report

Transcription

1 ITTF WORLD HOPES TEAM Summer 2010 Report All photos by AN SUNG HO and from Dejan Papic October 10,

2 This summer second generation of World Hopes Team has been introduced. Similarly to last year, first camp and competition were held in Asia, this time in Korea and second one in France. Beside planned nine WHT we had seven other players that were present at most of our activities. It was result of our cooperation with European Table Tennis Union, Brazilian TTA and Puerto Rico TTA. Our road also crossed at Korean Open with our WHT 2009 member Tamolwan Khetkuen. Larger number of players demanded different approach and organization. Successes were achieved through outstanding cooperation with all coaches, Korean and French TTA. Branka Batinic, as a coach represented ETTU and her unselfish efforts helped a lot. One of the goals for this generation was to make our girl s team stronger. That was achieved girls did well. Comparing to last year we have more girls (5) than boys (4). The camp in Korea consisted of training full of high intensity, tests, many balls, conditioning, correcting current strokes and learning new ones. Some of participating players found that work volume was much higher than they were used to. With camp progressing cooperation with local coaches and training partners got better and initial bumps were replaced with smooth teamwork. Anticipated strong Korean WJC and very demanding camp made our performance goals shifted towards Euro-Mini in France. Tournament structure gave opportunity to compete with huge pools of same aged players. Comparing to 2009 we had only two days training in Schiltinheim. Throughout all our activities two players have shown their superior class and talent Marie Migot and Victor Hung Ka Tak. Marie deserves to be mentioned not only because she won Euro-mini and got second in Korea but also because of her huge improvement and attitude. She beat players that she used to lose by huge margin just a few months ago. Victor brought to our team skills and working habits that promote him into undisputed leader. After so-so tournament in Korea, he got gold in France and silver at WJC in Hong Kong (cadet single). All of non-wht coaches and NAs were satisfied with our activities and team spirit during our time in Korea. When they were introduced to Euro-mini tournament they expressed interest in joining our expedition in France. Although those players were the ones that had problems to follow rhythm in Korea, they took it as learning experience. However, effort at camp and commitment to follow us to Schiltingheim resulted in excellent performance. Simay Kulakceken lost final of 1999 girls after a few match balls and Darko Jorgic finished 6 th. Both of them claimed that it was best results ever achieved. As last year, excellent spirit and cheering for team members carried players through hard training and challenges at competitions. 2

3 World Hopes Team 2010 Players Girls: Boys: Neridee NINO (VEN) Filip ILIJEVSKI (CAN) Insana MAKAHURI (LAT) Victor HUNG Ka Tak (HKG) Marie MIGOT (FRA) Aaron WILSON (TRI) Ruo Fei RAO (NZL) Christopher WHEELER (SCO) Andrea KLAPA (ROU) ETTU, Brazil and Puerto Rico TTA Girls: Boys: Simay KULAKCEKEN (TUR) Nolan GIVONE (FRA) Joe SEYFRIED (FRA) Darko JORGIC (SVN) Brian AFANADOR (PUR) our WHT 2009 member Hugo CALDERON (BRA) Lucas PRANDI (BRA) Coaches Parents Claude BERGERET (FRA) Josephine HUNG (HKG) Branka BATINIC (CRO) ETTU Ljubo JORGIC (SVN) Fulya DIKER (TUR) David WHEELER (SCO) Matt LIU (NZL) Michel GARCIA (VEN) Aslan MAKHAURI (LAT) Terry MCLERNON (SCO) Dennis LA ROSE (TRI) Borce ILIJEVSKI (CAN) Emilian BULBUC (ROU) Luiz Fernando de PAULA (BRA) Julio COX (PUR) Yu BIN (HKG) 3

4 Program Nine days training (Daejeon), seven days of competitions (Pohang), one day traveling. Nine training days were divided into three microcyles each on consisted of 3 days 5 training sessions (2+2+1). During training period our typical daily routine would be two training sessions of hours. Microcyles topics were: 1 st consistency 2 nd serve and receive 3 rd different ways of winning a point In Korea we have started with Hopes tournament (team and singles) and ended up with WJC which had value as learning experience. Good cooperation was key for successful camps Dejan, Zita, Claude and Jean-Denise In Schitinghime we had just two days and we practiced with French squad. Three days of tournament were full Suggestions for future camps: To have different training-competition ratio. I believe that our first activity should be more training and just a few days of tournaments. Camp in France has to be planned for after tournament. Training targets Levels and skills inside our group varied a lot. It brought challenge to choose the right content and in order to get optimal benefits for each player sessions were run with a lot of individual approach. Training sessions targeted: - Consistency 4

5 - Precision - Footwork - Serve and receiving (second and third microcycle especially) - Training matches and game situations Numbers of methods were introduced to stress importance of consistency and precision ( ordinary exercises, 2 minutes tests, 20 attempts tests, multi-ball). One of advantage of having larger training group was combining experienced with new players. 12 year old Aaron and 13 year old Brian had good time playing together in team and double at Korean WJC Brazilians 12 year old Lucas and 14 year Hugo 5

6 Coaching Education Coaches education got additional form - workshops were taken place several times. Several coaches made presentation (Emilian Bulbuc, Borce Ilijevski, Dejan Papic) or submitted one (Dennis La Rose). Interviews were made (with Claude Bergeret) and Q and A sessions (mostly with Yu Bin). Like last year numerous discussions, individual work with players and their coaches and shadowing were regular activities. 6

7 Podium results WHT 2010 Silver Hopes Girls Single (U12), Korea Marie MIGOT Bronze Hopes Boys Single (U12), Korea Victor HUNG Ka Tak (HKG) Gold Euro-Mini Girls 1998 Marie MIGOT Gold Euro-Mini Boys 1998 Victor HUNG Ka Tak (HKG) Also, Silver-Euro-Mini Girls 1999 Simay KULAKCEKEN (TUR) Detailed results at: and in sent attachments. Simay at podium in France Hung Ka Tak with Jean-Denis Constant and his brother Hung Wah Tak 7 Marie ended her excellent summer in style

8 Comments about each player Marie MIGOT (FRA) was our best girl. Always positive attitude and ability to learn fast helped her a lot in overcoming numerous challenges. She was very rational in a way she practiced, acted and solved problems. Worked very hard both during training and tournaments. There was no good or bad practice partner for her. She always made sure that training was good and useful. On tournament she was learning from set to set, thinking all the time. Once when she knew and understood her opponent well her very good anticipation became a driving force. Although she demonstrated good counter-attack strokes her main strength was in good backhand serve and ability to give to ball a lot of rotation especially from backhand. She was showing a lot of maturity in controlling her action and emotions during game. Quite good against her peers in Asia! Victor HUNG Ka Tak (HKG) was our best boy. Excellent technical skills! His footwork is superior not only for his age group. Consistency and seriousness during practice are guarantees that he will make quite a good progress in years to come. Very light body frame makes his strokes still little bit soft, but he is still 12-year old, otherwise he would be competitive on a junior level. At this point he prefers consistency over risk and relies heavily on a three thing he does well: footwork, forehand spin and short return. Little bit more variety in his strokes, better backhand and more tools in return will enrich his game substantially. So far, he was lead very well and he already reached the point where he should plan well in order to reach top spots in international youth table tennis. He was more comfortable at practice than at tournaments. There is a plenty of room to improve in areas of pre-tournament preparation, strategies and arousal controlling before and during game. 8

9 Insana MAKAHURI (LAT) Huge improvement between Korean and French camps! This change happened mostly due to significantly improved mental preparation. During tournament in Korea advice were given about coaching and importance of positive self-talk. Aslan, her father and coach took it seriously and approached sport psychologist. During competitions in Korea body language and were negative and hurting her self-esteem. In France positive attitude with a lot of confidence.. Her physical preparation is excellent and credit for it goes to his father who is coaching other sports (weight lifting, athletics). Technically speaking she is using her powerful forehand spin to dominate early in rallies, frequently using down the line strokes. Adding some variation in her strokes and better serve will reduce risk in her game and improve anticipation. If she can get regular practice group no doubts that she would improve fast. Andrea KLAPA (ROU) Left-hander. Excellent team-mate and good fighter. She was eager to work and expressed great patience when learning or correcting technique.. Great physical potential will be much more visible once when her footwork and forehand spin techniques will get better. It looks to me that she master overall games, but didn t pay enough attention to details. Her technique will improve a lot, if nice timing and touch will be followed with proper recovery. At first competition in Korea, her desire to prove herself cost her place in SF (loss against Neridee Nino). Later on in France she lost only one game QF against Russian good defensive player Maria Malanina. 9

10 Neridee NINO (VEN) All her weaknesses were covered with extraordinary effort and firm determination to give her 100% all the time. Changing time zones and long flights made that her first days in Korea and France looked sloppy. Once when she would get in rhythm she would use fully her time and chances. Needs to improve her technique. Main problem was lack of proper counter-attack and really inadequate block. She worked on it and in France some improvement in block was visible. On the other side, she used very well her very good tomahawk serve and powerful topspin. On these qualities she should base her game aggressive with demanding rhythm, good 3 rd ball attack and lot of rotation. Left-hander. Filip ILIJEVSKI (CAN) Of all our boys I felt that he has improved the most between two camps. Remarks and homework laid in front of him were taken seriously. His game looked much better in France than in Korea. There he expressed good fighting spirit and found many smart solutions in critical game situations. Filip demonstrated a lot of weaknesses in technical skills which is understandable knowing that he had started to practice a couple of years ago. His first given assignment were to work at his basic position and footwork. He was playing without clear strategy especially in Korea. Area that was still critical for his game was emotional control. In several situations he was more thinking of the possible game outcome than of coming rallies. In France he was more in control. Next step - working on better serves and exposure to more different training partners. 10

11 Aaron WILSON (TRI) Definitely player with a lot of potential. This summer he played with big oscillations. For steady results he also needs steady training and obviously there is a huge discrepancy between ITTF camps and his usual routine. He demonstrated that he is fast learner and didn t mind be pushed to high intensity work. His extraordinary sense for ball helped him to adapt very fast to different opponents. Already gave some excellent performance against much better Korean players. My advice is to base his strategy at excellent blocking and fast topspin near the table. Also, exposing him to good training environment is must. Rewards will be substantial. Ruo Fei RAO (NZL) had a lot of problems to adapt to rhythm of training at our camp and high level of competitions. Busy schedule and fact that she is not used to tough tournaments made that her time in Korea good just for learning and adjusting. More experienced and then in her age category (1999) she performed much better in France. When patient and confident in game she was dangerous, but oscillations from game to game were big. It is typical for players without consistent training and with poor competition calendar. Hard work on physical fitness is must. She needs to be exposed to more tournaments and opponents with different styles. 11

12 Christopher WHEELER (SCO) is great coaching opportunity tough at training with excellent attitude. Hi is also, smart and eager to learn. Still 11 years old and without good competition experience he found it challenging to compete in Asia. France was better till he lost game to advance to knock-out stage. His game was still naïve and intentions easy readable. Although he felt most comfortable with high rhythm some strokes with better rotations and good placement would bring him couple of strides further at competitions. Two tasks are in front of him to add some variations to his strokes (strong is not always good) and to avoid going far from table at crucial moments. His hard training and supportive environment will sooner or later produce results. Simay KULAKCEKEN (TUR) What a transformation between her first days in Korean camp and end of tournament in France! Facing similar problems like other players a huge difference between daily routine at home and demands at ITTF camps and tournaments, she initial responded with passive and somewhat lazy approach to given task. With great support of her coach she has managed to steadily raise level of her training. In couple of games at Korea she gave a signs that she could play much better. At Euro-mini her confidence grew from game to game and she was just a point short of gold medal. With only a few technical tools at her disposal she was able to make maximum use of them in games. Simay is excellent tournament player, her game is without flamboyant strokes, but full of rational and smart decisions. Key for her improvement is better physical fitness. 12

13 Bryan AFANADOR (PUR) Our WHT 2009 member has joined us in Korean camp and tournament. His competitiveness and eagerness to improve brought his game to high level. It could not be seen through results at Korean WJC, but at numerous training matches he proved himself. He was excellent team-mate and leader for Aaron when they played in team together. His development is going in right direction - serious at training, tough at tournaments and playing with better defined style. Things to do insist more on playing forehand loop (taking forehand from middle instead of backhand, also sometimes forehand attack all the table). Hugo CALDERON (BRA) was one serious and hard working player. Although older than most of our hopes players, he was patient and committed to use his time and opportunities at camp to maximum. Strong and fast, he moved very well, but better footwork technique would make it more rational. He was able to play from any distance which made him occasionally dangerous but at the same time it was weakness. Aggressive and active he was able to dominate most of game. With better serve and receive he would go a few rounds further in Korea. One of our best players. 13

14 Joe SEYFRIED (FRA) At the beginning her training oscillated a lot, mostly because of his attitude. He was too susceptible to usual challenges at camps. He responded well at coaches remarks and from the end of Korean camp he managed to put his game together. In Korea he played well against couple of good players and was even better at Euro-Mini losing only game against Victor. Main technical problem was fact that he was sometime standing too close to table. That made him hitting ball at side or even behind his body. On the other hand, he demonstrated excellent eyes-hand coordination especially from the forehand side. Nolan GIVONE (FRA) In Korea Nolan gave us an idea about how colourful table tennis can be played by 11 years old. He confirmed his huge technical potential with ability to produce almost any kind of stroke. Superb timing and excellent solutions during game caught eyes of many. Still small body frame prevented him to finish points early in rallies. It is to be expected that after gaining power in a few years his all-round game will become more rational. Then he will be able to save energy that he wastes covering huge area behind table. Still, reason for disappointing results is not lack of clear table tennis strategy, but not adequate coaching. In Korea he had a great leader in Claude Bergeret during camp and tournament. At his age he still needed spark or signal that would come from bench. Lucas PRANDI (BRA) is very persistent player with good working habits. His technical strength is forehand loop. His level at training was much better than competitions. Hopefully good training will lead to better level and more confidence. Better coordination and more determination in critical moments are key for his improvement. Too many games he lost in 9/9 situation and this needs to be addressed. 14