Table Tennis England The Winning Edge Issue 5 | Page 14

HIT

The number of schoolteachers taking table tennis coaching courses
has gone through the roof. This is more than a playground fad.

F

or Jack Heald, PE teacher at the South
Leeds Academy, it began with the
installation of outdoor tables. Can
a secondary school host a table tennis
revolution? His isn’t far away.
‘Table tennis has got great participation here now,
mainly due to the outdoor tables, which allow kids to
play whenever they’ve got a break,’ explained Heald,
who got access to some expert training with the visit
of TTE North Development Officer Sally Shutt last year.
‘To go along with Sally’s visit we promoted our
after–school table tennis club and introduced the sport
into the GCSE Physical Education curriculum.
‘Sally’s lessons made a particularly strong impact on
the Year 7s, most of who hadn’t played at primary
school so their first impression of the sport was her
lessons, which did a great job at encouraging them to
begin coming to the table tennis club.
‘Our inclusion of table tennis in the curriculum
incorporates the TTE Young Officials award, which
counts as one of the four practical awards required for
the GCSE qualification. We were able to use the tables
and after–school club to get the students into the sport
before sending them off on the day course.

‘I would absolutely encourage other schools to get
in tables, clubs and coaching. Having someone like
Sally around is really important too, with all the
encouragement and ideas we get from her. She has
set us up in competitions with other schools, adding
a competitive element to what the kids do, which has
been a really healthy addition for the after–school club.’
It’s the inclusion of a league structure that Shutt
believes strikes a chord with both the pupils and the
staff, who need to show they are involving students in a
competitive sport.
‘We’ve now got 18 schools competing across Leeds,
with 180 players involved and we’re getting more all
the time, many that are contacting us out of the blue,’
Shutt explained.
‘Once they show an interest in the league, or just
the sport generally, it gives me the chance to go in
and coach the teachers, which I do free of charge to
start off, to give them the confidence to carry it on
themselves.
‘Because table tennis allows for girls and boys to
play together and it gets normally non-sporty kids
involved, schools are getting increasingly interested in
introducing it.’

© Shutterstock.com/Pavel L Photo and Video

HIGH
SCHOOL