Posts in category: Coaching

Sport Ireland – Code of Ethics Manual

Local Sports Partnerships – LSP Map Finder

Code Of Ethics Safe Sport App

The Irish Table Tennis Association is aware that its former Technical Director, Mr. John O’Donoghue, following a guilty plea, has been recently convicted and sentenced in respect of the possession of illegal material relating to children.

Our primary concern is the safeguarding of our members, especially children and other vulnerable people. With this in mind, we encourage anyone affected by incidents of this nature or anyone with knowledge of such incidents in relation to table tennis activities to contact the appropriate authorities or the Board of the Association. The crimes committed by Mr. O’Donoghue are reprehensible and are counter to our commitment to provide safe and healthy opportunities for children and adults to participate in our sport. Over the next few months, like other sporting organisations, TTI will be issuing a Child Safeguarding Statement, which is a requirement under the new Children First Act. We urge members to make contact, if they have any concerns. 

Useful Contact and reporting information

Ireland

ISPCC ChildLine – call 1800 66 66 66

GARDA Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Investigation Unit, call (01) 6663430

TUSLA http://www.tusla.ie/services/child-protection-welfare/contact-a-social-worker

TUSLA RECOMMENDS HOW TO REPORT A CONCERN

Anyone can report a concern about a child. If you have any concerns about a child you should report it to the Child and Family Agency. A report can be made in person, by telephone or in writing.

Any member of the public who has a concern about a child can contact the local social work duty service (http://www.tusla.ie/services/child-protection-welfare/contact-a-social-worker) in the area where the child lives for advice about reporting your concerns.

If a child is in danger outside office hours you can contact the Gardaí. 

Northern Ireland 

PSNI: Contact the police service on 101, the non-emergency telephone number, where you will be put in contact with a specially trained police officer.

NSPCC        Phone        0808 800 5000

Email:           [email protected]

Website:       https://www.nspcc.org.uk/

Coaching Blog – John Bowe

In 2009 when I decided to wind down from competitive play I wanted to become a coach and take on a new challenge and start to teach beginners the skills involved in our wonderful sport. Before I start to take you through what goes on the life of a coach I would like to say that I have been asked on numerous occasions as to why I won’t play in competitions around the country and quite simply the answer is I do not have the time at the weekends to play tournaments or to practice during the week due to other work commitments, otherwise I would be involved. If this situation changes I shall make my return to competitive play.

I do however have time to coach beginners and dedicate time to teaching them all the basics right through to intermediate and advanced play. I actually coach table tennis at least once every day in various locations around Dublin. One of the biggest challenges in Irish sport is having a location to base your club at and then to be able to have the club open every day for our beginners to grow. Unfortunately this situation is something you need to address going forward otherwise as a coach you cannot teach your beginners enough skills to get them to the level required to achieve success. Time is of the essence and either you find a club that is open regularly or you prepare for a mediocre outcome.

The current WIS programme has been of great assistance to myself and to other WIS coaches around the country. I would like to explain how I use this money to fund the coaching sessions in a new school. Firstly before you start coaching in a new school you must make it clear to the principal or the head of sport that the 8 weeks funding is there to get the club up and running and after I introduce table tennis into a school and I sell our great game then it’s up to the Principal to fund it after the 8 weeks are up on a long term basis. Otherwise you’re taking good money and throwing it down the drain. If the Principal or Head of Sport decides not to agree to these terms then you know that the interest is not there and you must decide to move on to a school or club who are willing to support your long term plan. Rhona in ITTA HQ has been instrumental in the success of the WIS programme and without her input I don’t believe it would have been quite the success it has been.

I am the head coach in High School Rathgar and Dundrum Table Tennis Club. Marcus McDonnell is the other junior coach in Dundrum and we both coach beginners on a Sunday morning at 10:30am for one hour. Of course the ideal situation would be to coach beginners everyday but like I said earlier trying to find a venue available everyday is the ‘’Challenge’’. Marcus has been fantastic since he joined up before Christmas and has added new ideas and formats to the already glowing junior section. When I began to coach our beginners, these children could not bounce a ball on the bat and after months and months of continued practice they have gone that extra mile and are really starting to progress on the table now. Myself and Marcus both completed our introductory ITTF LEVEL ONE course recently and are using the format in the ITTF programme to teach our beginners and already you can see the development going in the right direction.

Once a coach has completed the introductory skills i.e. bouncing the ball on the bat and other control skills it is then important to introduce Multi-ball to the coaching sessions and to teach the beginners how to do it themselves. It is so satisfying to see the progress on a weekly basis.

I recently brought my High School U13 team to Blackrock College to play a league match. We played Blackrock last year and got demolished and it was pleasing to see my guys had progressed in that short space of time to at least compete this time. The score lines in some of the matches were closer than the overall score suggests so I could see improvement (we lost 5-1). On the journey home I could see my team had hope for the future. They were in upbeat form and I explained that Richard Butler’s team were the benchmark for success and that we needed to reach that level and that I would ask High School for another evening to practice which was agreed. The players are delighted and all turned up for practice with a spring in their step yesterday.

Being a coach is a challenge but achieving success with your beginners is crucial if you want them to stay interested and to turn up when practice is on. If you need guidance or help just ask for it.

Yours in Sport

John Bowe

Table Tennis Ulster is delighted to announce the return of Jing Yi Graham as coach for our Elite, Development and Futures Squads for the remainder of the 2011/2012 season.  Jing Yi, who is well known and highly respected in table tennis circles, will commence regular coaching sessions at the Valley Leisure Centre and other locations. We would like to welcome back Jing Yi to table tennis coaching and wish her well in this new role.

IRISH NATIONAL CHAMPION TUTOR’S YOUNG LAOIS TALENT

TOP class current and future table tennis stars from across Co Laois and beyond have spent the last fortnight receiving expert tuition in Castletown.  The community centre there hosted the first ever Laois Table Tennis Summer Camp, where up to 60 of the best players from around the county were put through their paces by top class coach and Irish national champion John Murphy.  Special guest coach was Irish junior team manager and ITTA technical director John O’Donoghue who said that he was really impressed with a number of young players present. He also commented that a camp such as this gives players a great chance to improve their skills with the possibility that more local children will follow Amylou Hayes in playing for Ireland in the comming years. 

Mountrath coach Jimmy Hayes, who also works with a number of clubs in the county and who organised the camp, thought that it was a great 2 weeks. He said that the players really enjoyed it and showed great enthusiasm throughout the event.  “It was also great to see so many senior players and coaches come along on different days to help out.  The general view expressed by all is that a table tennis centre of excellence in the county is a must in the near future if we are to continue the progress made by many of the young gifted local players”.

Thirty five girls from all classes in Our Lady’s Girls National School in Ballinteer took part in Thursday coaching session. Table tennis has really grown in popularity at the school over the last year, so much so that coach Brendan Golden now takes an extra weekly session with the students as part of their PE class. Having been introduced to table tennis at school through the Women in Sport initiative many students from Our Lady’s have moved on to play at York Road TT Club. Our Lady’s Girls students attended last months’ Challenger event in Lucan in great numbers and performed very well.  

During this weeks’ very busy Thursday session students were put through their paces, practicing their fore hand, back hand and serving skills.

Our Lady’s Girls have two teams entered in the Leinster Schools League and their first matches take place this week against St Ronan’s and Scoile Bhride. Good luck to all involved.   

The Leinster Junior Close took place last weekend at IWA Sports Hall, Clontarf, Dublin. With two days of competition, there was some top class table tennis played.

Boys Events

In the Under 10s and Under 12s, York Road players were dominant, taking 1^st and 2^nd in both. Conor Gallagher took the Under 10 title over team-mate Ross McGarry, with Kevin Hutchinson taking the Under 12 title over Barry O’Toole. In the Under 14s, Club Donic’s Shi Zhao Li took the title, defeating ALSAA’s Ciaran Kelly in the Final. Li also made the Under 17 Final, but Corey O’Rourke was in fine form and took gold.

Girls Events

Mountrath’s Katie Hayes was a winner on the double, claiming both the Under 10 and the Under 12 titles. In the Under 14’s, first year cadet Meadhbh Slattery defeated Amy-Lou Hayes in the Final – she went on to claim 3^rd place in the Under 17 girls as well to cap a fine weekend. In the Under 17 Final, ALSAA’s Niamh Tracey pushed all the way before eventually losing out to Balgriffin’s Lavinia Maties.

Click here for winners in each event.

As part of ongoing development initiatives delivered in partnership with IWA Sport, the ITTA provided over the past month coaching support to IWA Sport Multi-Sport Summer Camps. Coaches Gavin Maguire and John Bowe were on site in IWA Clontarf to introduce a new sport to almost 100 children between the age of 5 and 12. Coach John Bowe provided some further insight into the Camps:

 “I was asked to coach at a Summer camp in the IWA and I was delighted at the opportunity. Having spent many years playing table tennis as a player its great to be able to pass on some tips and expertise to youngsters. I took part in my first Summer camp in 1984 and that’s where I began my interest in the sport. The children in the IWA were aged between 5-12 and I was very impressed with their attitude and how they all wanted to learn more. I believe strongly in excellent coaching at this level because if we can find some talented individuals and teach them the correct techniques and basics etc then Ireland can become a strong force in the future of International Table Tennis. The ITTA are making great progress and we all should get behind them and support them in any way we can.”

 Monday 18^th August sees the start of the ITTA Table Tennis Summer  Camp again in IWA Clontarf, under the supervision of some top coaches and ITTA Technical Director John O’Donoghue. There are still a small number of places available. For further information, contact John on (085) 278 2211.