THE
WINNING EDGE
WALK THIS
WAY
With our Coaching Pathway offering more options than ever for you in your coaching career, we meet a young coach whose journey has stretched the length of that path.
T ake a look at our pathway graphic on page 11. What does it tell you about your options as a coach in our sport? Why, in fact, do we call it a“ pathway”?
We want all our coaches to be the best they can be. If that means an inspiring, skillful activator who pulls new people towards table tennis, then great. If that means an international-level coach, working with the world’ s best, then that’ s equally great, and the point is that it’ s also equally attainable.
Highlighting that ability to skip down this pathway at your own speed is Paul Johnson, a Level 2 coach for nearly 10 years and, until one year ago, busy growing the sport through a club he set up in Gainsborough, north-west Lincolnshire.
“ Around August 2016, Table Tennis England put out that they were opening up their Level 3 qualification to an application process, which was great news for me as I could just apply for the qualification,” Paul recalls.
“ At roughly the same time, they also opened up applications for their first coach mentoring programme, where coaches would have a mentor from the national coaching staff. I saw this as a great opportunity for myself to learn from some of the national coaches, so I applied for that too.
“ I was accepted on to both the mentoring programme and the Level 3, but was told that due to the workload of both I had to choose one. So I decided to do the mentoring programme first across the 2016 / 17 season, and then follow that up with the Level 3 in the 2017 / 18 season.
“ I was then invited to be a coach on the England 913 squad, and to attend some of the England Youth squad training camps too. Alongside this I’ m also doing my Level 3 head coach qualification.”
That’ s a rise, over just 12 months, from club and regional coach to the international scene.
We’ re not telling Paul’ s story because we want, or expect, you all to follow suit. What we do want is for you to feel that there is nothing holding you back from making the kind of leap that Paul made. And we also want your experience of the pathway to be supportive, challenging and inspiring, which is the kind of experience that Paul reports on over the past year.
“ As part of the coach mentoring programme, I was given Alan Cooke( TTE Head Coach) as my mentor. We have met to observe and learn from my international sessions, and to also have a chat about how things were going and how I was progressing as a coach. This was fantastic for me as it meant that I could get an opinion on my thoughts and also learn from Alan.
“ Having done a lot of coaching on my own and having now, within the last few years, started to work a lot more within a coaching team, I do think it’ s important that you have a good support network around you, including other coaches that are like-minded and believe in what you are trying to do. That way you have people that you can trust to bounce ideas off and who can help and support you throughout your development.”