To Whom It May Concern: In December of 2007 I finally convinced Terje Dahl to help out at Townsville with our Coaching Program. Up to that point Terje had been focused on helping Tennis Townsville with their elite junior development program and their tournament administration. I had been keen to have Terje involved at Townsville Table Tennis for some time as he was one of my coaches at Brisbane during 1992 and I knew the high quality of professionalism and expertise he brought to the coaching role. At that time Terje was Queensland State Director of Coaching and also the Director of the Logan Table Tennis Academy of which I was a member of the Men's Elite Squad and directly experienced Terje's coaching methods. Terje was the first coach that I encountered that actually gave the players written practice sheets to follow and also had us fill out questionnaires and quizzes about Table Tennis theory and strategy. His sessions were incredibly high intensity and high energy and the routines were based on practical game plays with serve and receive practice as integral parts of the routines. This was in line with top-line Swedish coaching practices and was well ahead of what was being taught in Australia at the time. In a short period of time (four months), Terje had helped lift the standard of the Logan Men's Team (which at the time had no players in the Qld top 10) to where they beat a Brisbane side at a State League tie 6-0. The Brisbane side had the No2, 4, 8 and 10 ranked players in their side at the time and this was a remarkable victory. On a personal level I also credit Terje with being instrumental in helping myself achieve victories over the No1 and No2 players in the State that year- Kent Jamieson and Seref Bakanay. In my opinion at that time in comparison to other Australian Coaches I rated Terje as at least Level 111 in knowledge and practical expertise. I am somewhat puzzled that with a current scarcity of high-level coaches that Table Tennis Qld and Australia has not fallen over backwards to recognize and do whatever it takes to have someone of Terje's caliber involved in our sport. For seven months leading up to the Queensland State Championships in July 2008, Terje had been assisting myself with match preparation for our Junior Players. This has been 2 x 2 hour sessions per week with Terje providing the practice schedule for at least one of these sessions per week. During this time Terje again showed his professionalism and was always prepared ahead of time for the sessions with materials for the players to do "homework" on their Table Tennis. Again I feel that Terje was of great help to the players and this was reflected in the results of the players. Townsville's David Fielding was No2 in the U18 boys, Nina Zuchowski No 2 in U18 Girls, Eliza Forster was No2 in U13 Girls, Luke Blucher No2 in U13 boys, Carl Blucher No 4 in U18 Boys and the Townsville U18 Boys and Girls teams were winners in the teams tourney. It is my opinion that Terje Dahl is still at Level 111 in Table Tennis Coaching and I am hoping that you can recognize and accredit him to at least Level 2 so he can start to help make a difference in our Sport. Your Sincerely, |
