All you need a participant to be able to do is hit the ball back from a bounce feed and you can take it from there.
FINDING ABILITY 9
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All you need a participant to be able to do is hit the ball back from a bounce feed and you can take it from there.
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What helps is that Alvey has the confidence and experience of knowing that wherever that conversation goes, he can handle the challenge it throws up and his club’ s facilities can see to almost any player’ s needs.
‘ We need to work hard as a sport to get our facilities to the state where participants don’ t need to check which sessions they can and can’ t get to.
‘ From a coaching point of view, we just need more people coming through that door who we can help. Anything that stops someone doing that is also the thing that’ s stopping us from doing our job properly.’
When it comes to coaching one-on-one with a disabled player, there is no one secret tool or insight Alvey has to offer, just patience and knowledge.
‘ All you need a participant to be able to do is hit the ball back from a bounce feed and you can take it from there. For some people, new to a session and playing with a disability, that in itself is an achievement.
‘ That doesn’ t make it any less of a success for the coach – you can see from the smile on their faces, from their reaction, that you’ ve made a breakthrough.
‘ I’ ve worked with people who can’ t balance a ball on a bat to begin with, but within weeks they are blocking the ball back to me even when I rip it at them as hard as I can.
‘ A lot of coaches feel under pressure to make something happen for people, quickly. Instead, with many disabled players, starting them off in social sessions is a better approach. Let them come and enjoy the game and have fun, then once they’ re happy on that level you can talk to them about coming to coaching sessions.’
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Top tips for coaching disabled players
Shaun Alvey, Inclusive Ping Pong
• Make it accessible.
• Make it fun.
• Make it exciting.
• Make it affordable.
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