by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Manager

Supported by both the United Arab Emirates Table Tennis Association and the Sports Ministry, the venue for proceedings was the Leaders Qualification Centre; the expert on duty was India’s Y.V. Pradeep.

It was his second such course in the region, having conducted a similar initiative in June 2015.

Participants came from a wide range of nationalities. Romania’s Profir Nicoleta Violeta attended as did India’s Ravisankar Panchikarla, K.P. Navaneeth, G. Girish and Vishal Ramesh Kumar Sharma. Also present were Poland’s Michal Adam Dabrowski, Karol Piotr Szarmach and Macie Lukasz Nowalinski in addition to Arante Faciol Angob and Jerly E. Roncesvalles from the Philippines.

“The ITTF-PTT Level One course was planned mainly because United Arab Emirates Table Tennis Association recently made a compulsory rule that all coaches and school teachers should be ITTF certified. It is part of upcoming programme to all academies and clubs.” Y.V. Pradeep

Notably the first United Arab Emirates Women’s League is planned; an inter club competition that will take place over a period of six months, commencing on Friday 30th March. All nationalities are invited; an event for players under 12 years of age will be included in the programme.

“The 30 hours course went very smoothly, all the participants participated actively in both theory and practical sessions. Some of the course members from Poland and India were former national team players now working as coaches. Also the group included physical education teachers who have now increased their knowledge.” Y.V. Pradeep

A successful course was completed; not only were the course members motivated, so was course conductor being motivated.

“Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to conduct the course.” Y.V. Pradeep

Notably, Y.V. Pradeep is the General Manager and Head Coach Table Tennis at Deep Sports in Burdubai, Dubai.