5. The table tennis player (in Australia and overseas) - skill-level - environment - motivation - to reach the top Skill level The international ranking:
Questions: - any surprising names on the list? Some missing or lower than expected? Any trends? Environment a) The international environment for table tennis players; compare China, Germany, France, Sweden and Norway (money, media, interest, competitions). b) The environment for table tennis players in Australia (personal environment/general environment). Use the white board! Here is my sketch. Motivation a) Internationally (from Chinese to German to Norway) b) Nationally and Australian club-level. To reach the top "Lack of training at a very young age is the reason why Norway is so low ranked internationally", says Norwegian national coach (now cadets) Jan Berner. "There are no short-cuts. One has to train hard to reach the top. Every day", says Li Shao Hua, Chinese top coach. "My biggest goal is to get the players to think more 'group' than just 'individual' like now.", says former Australian National Coach Marcus Gustavsson. His interview here. The Swedish story: In 1963 Erik Extergren Lollo Hammarlund and Birgitta Rådberg did some serious planning for Swedish table tennis: "We do not have the number of players like China, we do not have the money to hold camps like France. We must make sure we have many coaches with top education, that the associations and clubs are well developed with proper training squads, that there is enough (and good) competitions nationally". Huge success - Sweden became world champions for teams (men) in 1973, 1989, 1991, 1993 and 2000, with Stellan Bengtsson (1971), Jan Ove Waldner (1989,1997) og Jørgen Persson (1991) winning single titles. Why is Sweden not the world champions today? They forgot one thing in their planning: The media. Questions: - why are the Chinese best? - why is Australian players so low ranked? - can a player from Australia become world champion? |
