by Richard McAfee, Course Conductor

Administered locally by the Sri Lanka Olympic Committee and the Sri Lanka Table Tennis Association, a total of 18 coaches attended, the course being taught in English with translation available in both Sinhala and Tamil.

Responsible for translation was Wajira Wickramasinghe, an ITTF Level Three Coach. Translation is only as good as the translator; Wajira not only did a great job but spent many hours after class helping the coaches with their studies.

Always an ITTF Level Two Course is an intense week of learning both in the classroom and on the tables. The coaches worked as a team at their studies, the result of this teamwork was a high pass rate of 83 per cent.

In total 34 Sri Lanka Coaches sat the ITTF Level Two Course in November, with 91 per cent passing the course and an amazing 67 per cent (24 coaches) attaining the high score necessary to qualify to take a future ITTF Level Three Course.

Now the next step for the Developing a National Sport Structure Course programme will be the conducting of a rare ITTF Level Three Course from Sunday 19th November to Sunday 26th November. Coaches from three countries will be attending this very high-level coaching course, again I will be the Course Conductor.

Coaches are the “backbone” of the development of the sport in any country. The steps being taken by the Sri Lanka Table Tennis Association to educate its coaches is without doubt an important step forward for table tennis within the country.