What makes a great table tennis coach?

Dan

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Dan

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Hey guys, we have had some good discussions on here about table tennis coaching, such as qualifications etc. But all this aside, what do you think makes a great table tennis coach from your experiences?

What qualities/attributes do good table tennis coaches have? Have you had any experiences with a coach, where you thought wow, that was great!

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Richard Prause coaching Timo Boll - Photo by: tischtennis.de
 
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That's a tough question Dan - seen some good coaches and some bad ones! In my opinion, a great beginner coach has masses of patience, enthusiasm and flexibility to deal with groups; a great club coach would be approachable with a wide knowledge of exercises/technique/equipment; at an advanced/professional level a coach should no doubt have excellent technical/tactical knowledge and be a great motivator. I am sure I have missed plenty there but I guess overall a good coach will keep learning, improving and sharing...?
 
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The coach should be strict, know how tell you what are you doing bad when you are training with him,at matches know what's the opponents weaknessess but at the other sides he should be sympathetic, funny and understanding.
 
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All the answers above are correct but 95% of coaches including the above miss one key aspect that sets a coach apart from the rest.
Coaching player's, player initiative, meaning thinking for themselves. This is achieved after you have taught the basic strokes, you do various problem solving... e.g. play a match and your only allowed to play with your forehand!
What does this do? it makes the player think ok, what serve should i do? (placement, spin deception) then where and what ball do I expect to come back? (place myself in a good ready position). Once i have played my forehand i also need to think about the placement of my forehand so i can play another forehand.

That is the difference between a top coach and normal coaches (most coaches can teach the FH, BH, and serve etc. but they cant and dont know how to teach players how to think.

I hope that makes sense.
feel free to ask me any question regarding this topic
 
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The greatest gift a coach can have is to make a player want to return the next day for more. All the rest is secondary.

But the most important element for a player's development is direct involvement by parents. It's not even important for the parent to be a professional coach.
Think of Tiger Woods, Andre Agassi, Andy Murray, the William sisters. Closer to home, in English TT we have; Carl Prean, Paul Drinkhall, Liam Pitchford and.....Dan Ives.
All these players will tell you that their number 1 influence was their parents. The technical benefits of good coaching was secondary.
 
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