The best table tennis association in Queensland?
Brian Guthrie is our new president and here are some of his visions for our association:
"2009 will be a brand new start for TTTA, building on the good work completed by past Boards.
Committees have been instituted to cover many areas including a much stronger and focused effort in the extremely important areas of coaching and club development. As President, I am committed to fairness in all the Associations endeavours, and I am sure it will be a great year for both the competitive and the social player.
The development committee will be working closely with the coaching committee to have TTTA recognised as the premier club in Queensland.
For parents, brothers, sisters, friends and others that has not tried their skills at the table yet; I invite you to come along and join with us as we develop a club for everyone!"
Brian Guthrie is junior-player Nick's dad and known by many as the former CEO of Townsville City Counsil.

Table tennis - one of the world's largest sports
Table tennis is an Olympic sport and one of the largest sports in the word. The world championships are the biggest sporting event - after the Olympics. There are no national league/series in Australia at the moment, but some players have moved overseas to make their living by playing table tennis in Germany and Sweden. Players wanting to make it into the Australian teams, like for the Olympic, should know that it is possible to combine sport on high level and schools. Time management and motivation are the key factors!

David selected to national squads!
Our own David Fielding, 14, is selected to the Australian youth/junior squads for 2009 (January to June), and that is very impressive and encouraging. Congratulation, David, keep it up!

Set your goals!
- This is the time to make your goals for the season, says Terry. And he points out that the goals should be achievable and possible to measure.
- To be the best player in the universe might be an interesting goal, but there are no such thing as Universe Championships! To make it to the 5 top ranked junior players in Queensland in 2009 is an achievable goal for some of our players, and it is easy to measure. So is a goal of beating Terry or manage to hit 100 backhand without missing!
Terry explains that the Coaching Committee will try to help the players set goals, both short term and long term goals:
- Do not be afraid of setting high goals, but also think through what it will take to reach them!
Terry will be doing a lot of coaching this year. He will be involved with all the coaching groups, from beginners to advanced:
- I am used to it, and with Paul wanting to improve his own standard it was hard to see who else could help out. I have also been so fortunate to coach top players in Norway and Sweden, and I believe that I can help our players improve their skills. It is important, though, that everybody will adapt to group coaching and do their best to lift their standard. My aim is also that we shall have a lot of fun, but we must at the same time be quite serious about our sport!
The summer holiday is coming to an end and we are all looking forwards to have fun and exiting matches in our venue! We will start our coaching sessions with the Advanced group on Sunday the 19th of January and them our other sessions will follow the coming week.

Paul is aiming for top ten!
Paul will give the coming season a go as a player - and his goal is to be ranked among the ten best players in Australia. Not an easy goal to reach, but Paul has this to say:
- I feel that we here up in the north do not get the ranking that we should have, but I will try to see if it is possible for me to climb on the national ranking!
This means that Paul concentrate more on his own practising that the last years, and has asked Terry to help him out with the coaching. Terry coached Paul in Brisbane way back in 1992, and says he will do what he can to help Paul reach his goal - as all the other players:
- It will not be easy for Paul to reach his goal, but with determination and commitment almost everything is possible, says Terry.

Want to go practise in China?
- Some of my table tennis friends in Norway have sent their kids to table tennis schools in China several times - usually during their school holidays, says Terry. - They play and practise with Chinese young players of very good standard, five hours every day. The intensity is very high, but everybody seems to like it and benefit from it. I have the contacts so please tell me if you are interested!

Social fun!
- The social doubles on Monday have always been very popular, people just come to have great fun, says Rhonda Miller. - The senior citizen group on Wednesdays are a little bit more competitive - you can play good table tennis even if you are a senior!

TTTA Awards 2008:
Most Improved Junior: Eliza Forster
Junior Encouragement Award: Jason Maher
Junior Patrons Trophy: Sean Chun Tie
Senior Most Improved: Katrina Forster
Senior Patrons Trophy: Rhonda Miller

Academy 2008 - the academy was never approved/started.
Newsletter 2009 - start of the season/year.
Coaching Comittee - 2009 - established and later cancelled.
Coaching plan, period 1 - 2009
Coaching plan, period 2 - 2009
Coaching plan, period 3 - 2009
The Turbo Table
Coaching Clinic - 2009 - Easter Holiday week-end coaching.
All Ages Tournament
Recuitment - 2009 - drives to get new members.
"Time for a change" - letter concerning coaching.
Coaches Workshop - 2010 - cancelled same day.