THE
WINNING EDGE
At the high-performance level, attention to detail becomes essential. Shaun Marples gives two examples of players he’ s seen improve, and how.
KIM DAYBELL
“ STUDY HOW THE DISABILITY IMPACTS THEIR GAME”
‘ We have Kim Daybell( right) on the Para GB team who is on the border between Classes 9 and 10. We’ ve looked a lot at his disability, which includes limited pectoral muscles, and played around with his forehand to try and compensate. To begin with, he would fall out of the forehand and leave himself in a lobbing position, which we couldn’ t afford. So we worked on getting his trunk more involved, so he was pushing through onto his right side – he’ s left handed – so his body maintained its position close to the table.’
DAVID WETHERILL
“ CONSTANTLY TALK AND ASSESS”
As Marples points out below, severe impairments highlight the importance of a strong, flexible relationship between player and coach.
‘ The coach-athlete relationship here has to revolve around their classification, how that’ s looking internationally, and their disability, how they are looking to adapt their game to work with it. These adaptations might work or they might not, but having a relationship where coach and athlete are constantly talking and assessing is what we want. That comes from spending time together and spending time at the table, getting a low player-to-coach ratio. That’ s where the individual athlete plan comes into it, so if David Wetherill( left, a class 6 player) for example decides he needs to work on something specific, he’ s got the time and contact with the coach to do it.‘
WHEN TO CLASSIFY
A problem many grass – roots coaches will come across is questions over classification. Whether it comes from worried parents or eager players, they often want to know where they or their child falls. Despite our breaking down of the classes, the recommendation to most coaches is to encourage players not to obsess over it.
This is firstly because the method of getting someone classified is arduous at best. There is currently nobody in the UK who can make an official decision on it, with many British Para players travelling to Hungary to complete the process. But that verdict is far from final, as Shaun Alvey explains.
‘ I don’ t look at classifications at first, only when you get to competition level, and even then you get different criteria: the Special Olympics for example has a different set of classifications than TTE.’
Alvey also touches on the second, more immediate, reason why players shouldn’ t be worried about classification: it only becomes a factor in competitions. And, currently, para competitions on a local level are almost non-existent and are rare even nationally.
British Para Table Tennis coach Shaun Marples is clear that, despite its necessity at elite level, coaches should hold off on classification discussions.‘ Even when we go and play in competitions players worry about what classification they’ ll fall into.
‘ That’ s really unhelpful because they need to just concentrate on improving their game and get used to competing. The only classification discussion that could go ahead early on is whether they would be categorised at all.’
As Alvey puts it:‘ Let’ s get people playing the sport first. Classifications can come into it later.’
While discouraging coaches from progressing the classification discussion with players, Marples explains that having grass – roots coaches clued-up on classifications can make his life as a pathway and development coach far easier.
‘ We focus on 10 classifications at British Para, with an 11th for learning disabilities. It’ d be useful for us to get to the situation where coaches can approach the pathway programme and be able to say:“ We’ ve got a Class 7 girl who’ s really promising”.
‘ At the moment it tends to be a coach saying,“ we’ ve got a disabled girl here”, well, what is her disability?“ I’ m not actually sure.” If coaches have a level of education and awareness that would be really helpful. It is certainly the case that we’ d suggest different drills and exercises for a Class 3 athlete than a Class 6.’
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