Atoum delivers coaching basics to OSSA members

MUSCAT, Sept 10 -

Oman national table tennis coach Mohammed Atoum presented a webinar on table tennis coaching fundamentals to the members of the Oman School Sports Association (OSSA) as a part of sporting awareness programme.

Atoum commenced his online course through a brief introduction on some basics of table tennis. “There are more than 100 million table tennis players around the world. It is the top favourite sports in China as more than 27 million TT players are registered in China. The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is the top world’s association with 226 members. Table tennis was ranked as a Olympic sport in 1988 in Seoul Olympic Games. The table tennis sport focused on the speed and rotation of the player,” he said.

Then, the Jordanian coach explained about the TT in Oman. “Table tennis is one of the sports followed and played by many people in the Sultanate. The sport’s history can be traced to earlier 1970’s in Oman and the first association was established in 1988. Oman had joined as a member in Arab Table Tennis Federation in 1980 while the membership at ITTF was in the following year. The membership at Asian Table Tennis Union was in 1984. In 2014, Oman Table Tennis Committee was formed and in 2020 the status of the committee was upgraded to the association status,” he added.

RIGHT COACHING METHODS

The Oman head coach affirmed that the TT coach should use different easy technical approaches to deliver the right coaching to his players. “The player can receive the training instructions via auditory, visual, kinesthetic and sensory. The training of kids should focus on learning, joy and full activeness. There are proper technical techniques to be followed while handling the TT paddle with the palm,” he pointed out.

The discussion of the technical aspects featured the player’s proper standing position during the match and his best ways to respond to various shots. Also explained were the leg position during serving and returning shots and the proper method to control the ball and play shot to the opponent’s side.

Concluding the presentation, coach Atoum stressed on developing TT at the school level.

“The top potential players are normally spotted from schools. I recommend adding a specialised course of table tennis for the students in school. Moreover, another recommendation that can support the improvement of table tennis in the Sultanate is assisting the schools with the necessary equipment. I suggest a weekly class on table tennis as sporting activity for the students. Allocating some schools in each governorate as a centre for learning table tennis will be good move. The students can come, learn and play TT at this centre. With the above mentioned recommendations, we may grow and took some ahead steps on development of the technical level of table tennis in the Sultanate,” he ended.