In the school holidays Zoe Mildenhall was privileged to be selected to attend the Oceania Hopes Training Camp in Auckland.
It was a four day training camp with high level New Zealand coaches and an international coach. She soaked up all the information and her game improved daily.
She won the award from the head coach for best attitude and commitment!
Following the camp she travelled to the Bay of Plenty Open with her Dad and her coach Paul Solt. Her results were very impressive:
Runner up under 13 girls singles.
Winner under 13 girls doubles with Karen Looi from Auckland.
Runner Up under 15 girls singles.
But the best result of the tournament for her was to upset the top seeds and win the under 19 girls doubles with Karen!
Paul Solt managed to find time to pick up a win for himself in the Men’s B Grade singles!
On Saturday 24th September, the 2nd one day camp for players in the Central Region was held with 30 players attending. An awesome coaching team had a program built on extending the players from the first camp back in July and a productive day was had by all. The camp was organised by Matt Ball with coaches Tim Seaholme, Natalie Paterson, James Wang and Tim Wilson involved.
Recently we had Wellington vets at the TTNZ Veterans tournament and also representing New Zealand in test teams vs. Australia at the TTNZ vets in Taupo (full results). Many Wellington players attended & placings achieved by Wellington players are listed below:
Over 40 mixed doubles Sabine Westenra (with Lyndon White, CAN) 3rd-equal
Over 40 women’s doubles Sabine Westenra (with Christine Young, WAIT) 2nd Over 50 women’s singles won by Sabine Westenra
Over 50 men’s singles Lindsay Ward came 3rd Over 50 mixed doubles Sabine Westenra (with Lyndon White, CAN) won
Over 50 women’s doubles Sabine Westenra (with Haiyan Zhang, QLD) 2nd
Over 60 mixed doubles Lindsay Ward & Leigh Grinlinton 2nd
Over 60 men’s doubles Chris Talbot & Lindsay Ward 3rd-equal
In the selected NZ Test Teams vs. Australia we had:
Over 50s women: Sabine Westenra (5-0 to NZ)
Over 60s men: Lindsay Ward (2-3 to Aust)
Over 65s men: Ian Talbot (1-4 to Aust)
Well done to the above and to all the Wellington players who attended!
Anna Wilson vs. Australia
Table Tennis New Zealand is excited to be sending a team of 15 players to the Australian Junior Championships in Wollongong in July after a collaborative agreement was signed between TTNZ and TTA aimed at fostering development. The last Junior Team to participate in Australian Junior Championships was in Queensland in 2010.
From Wellington we have Anna Wilson selected by TTNZ – congratulations from all of us to Anna!
Yufeng Wang in the ITTF Hopes week
The 2019 ITTF-Oceania Hopes (Under 12) Week was held in April in Waikato with local boy Yufeng Wang selected to attend after qualifying in the New Zealand Hopes Open held in Christchurch in January. The young players attend a week long camp headed by Eva Jeler, one of the most decorated coaches in the world.
You might know we have been running various junior training sessions and for Term 1 in particular is a new Thursdays beginner section from 7-8pm at Empire.
Please forward this to anyone you know who is or has a junior with a gap on Thursdays!
You are all welcome to attend an open-to-all umpiring course run by Malcolm Wong on Sunday the 23rd of September from 1-3pm at the Table Tennis Wellington Stadium in Newtown (after Titan club).
Please RSVP to me if you can come so we get an idea in advance of a head count.
Malcolm will cover material relating to basic, junior, and regional umpiring courses.
As a heads-up Table Tennis Wellington’s latest junior training for beginners & intermediates targeted for ages 8-13 (primary/intermediate school students) will be underway for six Thursdays from 6.30pm to 8.00pm. Notices went to primary & intermediate schools in the Hutt Valley area for inclusion in their school newsletters.
Fun Fast Goal Orientated!
When Term 2: Six Thursdays, 1 June – 6 July inclusive (6.30pm–8.00pm) Fees Term 2: $30 per player for the term (payable at the start)
Coaches ITTF level 1 qualifying coaches
Equipment Sports shoes. Bring your Table Tennis bat if you have one (or borrow one and return it at the end of the session). Comfortable sports clothes (e.g. shorts and t-shirt).
Grant Wilson recently completed running an ITTF/PTT Level 1 coaching course here in Wellington attended by 13 including 11 from Wellington. See the ITTF report.
The first program of the year is underway with a beginner Term 1 Junior Training on Thursday night with more in the works TBD (watch this space)…
Special thanks to Grant & also John Marrable for making this event happen and to all participants!
Table Tennis Wellington is running a junior training programme for beginners aged between 8 and 13 years of age (primary/intermediate school students) on Thursdays from 6.30pm to 8.00pm commencing Thursday 2 March 2017.
Fun Fast Goal Orientated!
When Term 1: Six Thursdays, 2 March – 6 April inclusive (6.30pm – 8.00 pm) Fees Term 1: $30 per player (payable at the beginning of the programme on Thursday 2 March 2017, cash or cheque)
Coaches ITTF level 1 qualified coaches and plus other top coaches.
Equipment Sports shoes. Bring your Table Tennis bat if you have one (or borrow one and return it at the end of the session). Comfortable sports clothes (e.g. shorts and t-shirt).
Hi all, we have two new Coaching sessions starting up for the season:
For Juniors (age 8-16) a Saturday 4:30-6pm session (see the TTW Junior Coaching Flier for details). This starts June 18.
For players at the level of Division 1 or Premier interclub standard there is a Thursday evening 7-9pm session (see the TTW Training Invitation Flier for details). This coaching group is now underway and targets preparation for the Wellington Open (July 30/31).
All sessions are at Empire in Petone. For further information contact Richard Lee on 567 0314 or 022 0684866.
FYI the next ITTF-PTT L1 Coaching Course will be held in Auckland at the Waitemata Table Tennis Stadium in Henderson over 2 weekends 4th to 6th June (Queens Birthday) and 11th to 12th June. Please refer to the flyer for further details.
Feedback from the Wellington City Council was that the SportsFest event for schools went off brilliantly and they got a lot of really positive feedback from the kids who played table tennis – so thanks to Bruce Northover, Rob Chung, Kevin Haines & Richard Lee for doing the hard yards on making this happen!
There are a pile of great photos from the event here:
[…] the Wellington Association has had a lot to savour from the opening 3 days of the tournament. The efforts of coaches Hayden Tapp, Depak Patel and Paul Solt are showing rich dividends as their players have kept upsetting more favoured opponents.
Hui Ling Vong finished the under 15 teams event unbeaten, a huge feat, while brother Chun Kiet was also impressive [in the U18s].
In the evening session for under 18 boys, Sean Hanson was most impressive in beating National Junior Nathan Watson in straight sets.
[…]
Jonathan Li (Counties), Liam Buckrell (Wellington)There were also some exciting and meritorious performances in the closing stages of the teams event, with one match providing our player of the day, Liam Buckrell – from Wellington of course, pictured here with his valiant opponent Jonathan Li from Counties.
These two boys were pitched together at 3-3 in a match which would decide silver in the under 13 boys B Grade. But, from the crowd gathered alongside one could have been forgiven for thinking it was the under 18 boys final. After a very tense fourth set the players shaped up for the deciding set, wondering who would keep their nerve longest.
Jonathan seemed to have prevailed when he stretched out to 10-6 after a number of long counter-hitting rallies. But Liam knuckled down to the job, returning every shot with interest and accuracy, and confounded everybody to triumph 12-10. It seemed a shame there had to be a loser in this contest.
One can only wonder what might have happened if Hayden Tapp had gone out to buy a lotto ticket instead of bench-coaching at this tournament – given the results versus the odds so far.
Berdy Fang ensured that Wellington did not have things all their way today, with two good wins over Frank Fu and Sean Hanson in under 18 boys.
[…]
Some of these juniors certainly know how to entertain and thrill!
Wellington took a squad of 8 players to the New Zealand Junior Nationals this year and every member came home with a medal!
The Under 18 team of Chun-Kiet Vong, Gareth Telfer, Ben Westenra and Ian Wang started their campaign with a grading match against Waikato to try and qualify for the A grade. They fought hard but were beaten 4:1 in the contest. Chun-Kiet won the only singles match. They then moved on to compete in the B grade getting through to the final before going down very closely 3:4 to Auckland 3. Chun-Kiet did exceptionally well winning 100% of his singles matches in B grade!
The Under 15 Team of Frank Fu, Sean Hanson and Adam Xiong did very well in the A grade. They topped there side of the group with wins over North Harbour 5:2, Auckland 2 5:2 and Northland 7:0. In the semi Final they accounted for their local rivals Manawatu 5:2. The final was against Auckland 1 who proved to be too strong however Adam raised his game to beat Roger Wang (one of Auckland’s best) to save us a from a white wash and result of 1:4. No other teams got a match off Auckland 1.
Hui-Ling Vong ended up as a draft player in two teams. Cook Islands in the under 13’s and North Harbour in the under 15’s. She was the star player in both teams. The Cook Islands team finished in 3rd place and Hui-Ling then enjoyed the extra support from the Cook Islands players and families for the rest of the tournament! North harbour finished 2nd in a round robin competition with Auckland, Canterbury and New Caledonia. Auckland won, but not before Hui-Ling took a very well fought win over her long time rival Nai Xin from Auckland (for the 1st time!) The teams events concluded with medals all round. It was a great effort and an outstanding result.
Thanks must go out to Hayden Tapp who assisted me with enthusiasm and quality in his coaching role and to Gabrielle Telfer for her management and cooking skills. Everyone was well fed and on time to every event. Also a mention to Sophie Telfer for her help to us all and to Till Armbruster (The Telfer’s homestay student) who unfortunately couldn’t play for us, but was a great team member, camera operator and hitting partner for the rest of the team.
-Paul Solt
Head Coach
Huge thanks to the Infinity Foundation for their support on the coaching and expenses!
Congratulations to three local Wellington players who were selected by Table Tennis New Zealand for the 2013 national squads. Be sure to pass on your congratulations next time you see them!
Frank Fu (boys under-15)
Chun-Kiet Vong (boys under-15)
Hu-Ling Vong (junior girls)
This will be a great opportunity for these players to train at the top next year and reach new levels of play. No doubt some of this will rub off on the rest of us!
Calm before the stormA few weeks ago, on Tuesday the 6th of March, 600 year five and six primary school students from the Wellington region attended the 9th Annual Pelorus Trust Stadium Sports Festival at Westpac Stadium. Thanks to coach Stephen Hirst and helpers (Rob Chung is in a picture below) table tennis was be one of the 18 sports involved.
Organised by Sport Wellington, the annual Pelorus Trust Stadium Sports Festival aims to expose primary school children to a variety of different sports. This year 54 schools applied to attend the event, of which only 20 spots were available. Given the delicate weather requirements of table tennis, outdoors was ruled out but thanks to Jamie Milne at Sport Wellington a place for table tennis was found within the concourse area (along with a couple of other similarly weather-sensitive sports).
While no doubt Stephen & co were run ragged by the end of the day, he reported the day as a great success and well worth the effort. They were able to distribute hundreds of leaflets listing the Wellington junior clubs to students and teachers and interest was high.
Coolmoves, the pros.One of the main hurdles was how to get tables from the Newtown stadium out to the Westpac stadium and back. Especially given that the Donic tables we have there need to be transported upright and in one piece. We owe many thanks to Coolmoves who were able to very professionally move eight tables to and from the Westpac stadium! Without Coolmoves we could not have been there.
The age range here parallels the primary/intermediate & junior club coaching program that Table Tennis Wellington has also been running with thanks to Pub Charity support. Stephen Hirst is also the coach for this program and has been able to reach many schools and junior clubs in the Wellington area. Programs like this and the stadium event help build the grass-roots base and feed into the junior clubs.
Table Tennis, everyone's favourite! Bats down, ready for the next group.
As an overview on what table tennis is on and when during the summer period here is some information. (If you have any info to add please comment or let me know.)
Summer Interclub
Summer interclub (team competition, a bit more casual than the main winter interclub season) is broken into two distinct (unrelated) phases, first the Composite Interclub (see here and here). Second the ‘pre-season’ (late summer) summer interclub round with a format to be determined. For more details watch this blog or keep in contact through your club.
Your club
Some clubs remain open with a small break, others close for a summer break. Consider visiting a different club every now and again – chances are you’ll play people you’ve never played before.
Waterloo: starts again early March (probably the first week).
Onslow: starts again late March.
Tawa: Porirua East School, 8 Martin Street, Porirua East (turn right to hall prior to parking area). Operates from 7pm each Wednesday night April to October.
Titan: open through the summer except for 4 weeks off from mid December. Key hire for the Newtown stadium is available too, contact Table Tennis Wellington.
Belmont: running until the 25th of November and is starting up again in the middle of March.
Karori: finishes November 21, starting again late February or early March, to be determined.
Empire: The the last Monday night is Dec 12, the last midweek – Tuesday Dec 20 then opening casually from Jan 17 (officially Feb 2), and the last Junior club is Friday Nov 11. Opening dates for Mondays & Fridays to be determined.
Moonshine & Victoria University: – refer to club contact information here.
For more details or for other clubs refer to the club contact information here.
Exercise
Summer is a good time to start and get into a regular fitness pattern, if you find one that fits your schedule and you can enjoy it, then you’ll be more likely to keep it up through the whole year (um, this is do as I say, not as I do). I remember talking to a veteran player who noted that he would tend to win more often as the winter wore on, as other people got less fit! A fair-weather runner like myself will be one of his easy victims come Composite Interclub…
Elite squad coach Stephen Hirst recommends: “… it is always good in the off season to build your base fitness, i.e. lots and lots of cardio, skipping, running running and more running. As you get about 2 months out before the season starts I liked to taper off the running and start to replace that with more speed work like shuttle runs between two cones 20 metres apart. Start introducing more strength stuff with weights like squats for your quads. My favourite was jumping over a wooden bench traditionally found in schools 3 x 1 minute, it really kills you but gets you very explosive for the start of the season. Also continue this exercise throughout the season… This is all I used to do and can highly recommend it.”
My tip: paint the fence – if it worked for The Karate Kid it will work for you.
At least get out there and mow the lawn…
Helping
There are probably a hundred unpaid volunteers of some kind that help run and facilitate table tennis in the Wellington region. If you’re not already one of this bunch, think of something you enjoy doing that could contribute in any way. Put your name forward!
There is probably a table tennis table at one of your friend’s houses – go there and play and give them a lesson. Nothing will give you more pleasure. Just don’t forget to bring your own bat otherwise you’ll be battling to a 15-all deuce in the 3rd set against their 11 year old son because trying to topspin using their pimple-out no-sponge half-torn up left-in-the-sun fly-swatter only leaves you looping directly into the carpet at your feet.
The ulterior motive is that you could have some more people to bring along to your club. Lend them your real bat or a spare and open their eyes to what it is all about.
Summer project?
You might not have space for a table-tennis table in your own house but…
make a mini table tennis table… then become the best in the world.
Click below for the Teams and Individual Entry Forms for the New Zealand Open Championships to be held in Christchurch from the 12th to the 16th of October, 2011. Please note the closing date of 31st August 2011. http://www.tabletennis.org.nz/nationalevents.htm
Table Tennis Wellington 