30 Oct 2018

Concluding on Sunday 21st October, Paris was the recent home for the Liebherr 2018 ITTF Men’s World Cup.

A different venue, a move from Disneyland, now premises focused on research and education as opposed to entertainment, the French capital city is the host for a gathering of a different nature but with a striking similarity; the subject matter is excellence.

by Ian Marshall, Editor

Based at INSEP, the National Institute of Sport, located on the outskirts of Paris, in the Bois de Vincennes, the annual Coaches Conference organized by the European Table Tennis Union and funded by the Internatiomal Table Tennis Federation’s Continental Development Program is being staged.

Proceedings commenced on Monday 22nd October and will conclude on Wednesday 24th October, a total of 27 coaches from 22 national associations are present.

On the opening day Liu Yan Jun, the Austrian Women’s National Team coach addressed those present; one day later, following a visit to witness first-hand the facilities offered by INSEP, Sweden’s Mikael Andersson was the speaker in question. He addressed the subject: “The main guidelines in the development of young players 14 years to 18 years old.”

Matters will conclude on the final with presentations from Professor Andreas Mierau and Dr Thorben Huelsduenker from the University of Luxembourg; the topic being “Neurophysiological determinants of visuomotor reaction time in table tennis”.

High level, in a different guise but just as was witnessed in Disneyland.

High Performance and Development Sports Science Mikael Andersson Liu Yan Jun Thorben Huelsduenker Andreas Mierau