Hungary Tomorrow

Callum Evans, Jac Jenkins, Caitlin Williams & Soffi Jenkins will travel with national coach Ryan Jenkins to the ETTU Eurokids camp in Kiskunfelyghaza, Hungary tomorrow for a week of intense training.

All updates and news here as it happens....

Welsh Top 12 (men) & top 8 (women) results

Full report on www.ttaw.co.uk

Happy Birthday..

August Birthday's

Naomi James - 11th
Jac Jenkins - 19th

Bristol GP forms out

http://etta.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/bristol_uwe_gp_03-09-11.pdf

Get it at the link above

Thanks

To PW Diest and Drumchapel table tennis clubs for coming to Wales this week for the start of the summer camps.

Next week we have the East and North East regions of England present with various top players such as Gavin Rumgay, Richard Andrews and Paul Beck!

Children in Need

Pudsey bear came to SWNC today to play Megan, Angharad and Charlotte for charity. Children in need are trying to raise £10,000 for people who most need it and the 3 Welsh stars will feature in a calendar which is being sold in Tesco's from September

Do your bit and get a copy when it's out....

Carey in Sport Wales Magazine

Charlotte Carey has been interviewed in this month's Sport Wales magazine and the article outlines her achievements over the past 12 months.

Copies of the magazine are available in reception of Sport Wales National Centre

A day in the Camp in Cardiff

After 5 tough sessions in the training hall, a tournament was what was needed to get the players in the zone this PM.

Girls tournament:
Seven girls fought it out over 3 tables to get the following finishing places
1 Chloe 2 Charlotte 3 Megan 4 Angharad 5 Marie (Belgium) 6 Nicole 7 Lucy (Scotland)

Boys Tournamentwith 17 boys battling it out in 4 strong groups, 8 players made it through to the QF stage:
Dan O'Connell beat Julien (Belgium) 3-1
Steve Jenkins beat Ryan Owen 3-1
Yongbo beat Callum Main (Scotland) 3-0
Scott Barton (Sco) beat Chris Main (Sco) 3-1

SF - Steve Jenkins bt Dan 3-0 & Yongbo bt Scott 3-0

Final - Yongbo claimed the top prize with the win against Steve


----------------------------------------------------------------------
Youngsters Competition
two groups were staged, with 5 players in each group

with semi finals and then a final between Ferndale's Chris Griffiths and Liam Winder, with Chris winning it, it was a great event.
Final Places - 1 Chris Griffiths 2 Liam Winders =3 Jac Jenkins =3 Stefan Jeczalik
=6 Steve Fawkes & Kate Roberts =8 Thomas Heyden & Jon Bisp =10 Jack Cole & Peter (Belgium)

BBC Radio Wales

Olympian Christian Malcolm's interview with Naomi Owen will be broadcast on Radio Wales next Tuesday (26th July) at 19:02. It will be repeated on Saturday 30th July at 06:31, and again on a Saturday afternoon in August (times tbc). It will also be on the Radio Wales iplayer for a week after transmission.

Barnsley GP

Day 1

http://etta.co.uk/news/high-drama-at-barnsley/

Day 2

http://etta.co.uk/news/jenkins-and-adomylete-lift-the-big-events-on-day-2/

TTAW summer Camps

The TTAW summer camps start next week with week 1 being a great starting point. We have Belgian and Scottish players coming to Cardiff to practice with our best to set the tone for 4 weeks of activity

29th July - TTAW women's Day

Cardiff - Upper Hall

29th July

2pm-7pm

All female players welcome at the 1st Women's Day session

Girls to meet Pudsey

Charlotte, Angharad and Megan will meet Pudsey bear in Cardiff later this month to shoot a picture for a children in need calendar which will go out in all Tesco stores to raise money for charity

Please show your support for table tennis and children in need and buy a calendar when they are on sale

The Last One....

The Barnsley GP is the last of the season and the following players are looking to end the season on a high:

Steve Jenkins
Ryan Owen
Dean Cundy
Conor Edwards
Charlotte Carey
Angharad Phillips
Chloe Thomas
Megan Phillips
Nicole Hall
Ryan jenkins
Nathan Thomas

With prize money on offer to reward those who have been the best players in the past 12 months, things should be exciting in Barnsley...

Results will follow here

Guess Who?

Well done to Nicole Hall and Conor Edwards for guessing this month's guess who as Sharlene Williams

Quick News

European Rankings

From ETTU website

Junior Girls

Charlotte Carey #145
Angharad Phillips #231
Megan Phillips #259
Chloe Thomas #262
Nicole Hall #345

July's Birthdays....

Happy Birthday to:

Conor Edwards - 2nd July
Ethan Lewis - 3rd July
Ash Stavrakis - 4th July
Laura Edwards - 11th July
Sharlene Williams - 18th July
Jess Neck - 29th July
Beth Roberts - 30th July

UKCC Course - Level 1

Course: Level 1

Course Code: 65576

Dates: 18 September 2011 and 30 October 2011

Venue: Sport Wales National Centre, Sophia Close, Sophia Gardens, Cardiff CF11 9SW

Tutor: Mike Prior

Co-Tutor/Assessor: Simon Oyler

Co-Tutor/Assessor: Aled Howell

Shadowing: Ryan Jenkins

Please email ryan.jenkins@ttaw.co.uk for any help booking onto the course

More Videos from the Masters

Here are some more videos from the Masters last month:

Lewis vs Conor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR0-IlOfb6Y

Ryan vs Chris
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoOgz4zRIRs

Nicole vs Beth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4O9CHOR55s

20th July

Is the Date of the next TTAW board meeting in Cardiff

Twitter

You can now follow me on twitter
@walesTT

keep things live and up to date

TTAW Development Day

The first TTAW development day took place today in Cardiff with an age range from 5 years old up to 13 years old taking part.

With the groups split into 3 categories of 5-7yrs, 8-11 yrs and 12-14yrs respectively. Each group had older Welsh International and club coaches practicing with them.

Ryan Oyler, Conor Edwards, Dayna Pierce, Nicole Hall, Rachel Cuss, Dan O'Connell and Steve Fawkes gave up their Sunday morning to help with the session which was great and shows their respect in helping younger players in Wales.

Players came from Rhondda, Cardiff, Carmarthen, Swansea, Ael y Bryn, Blaenavon, Pontypridd, Merthyr & Bridgend

Scott Johnston, Steve Jenkins and Nathan Thomas were there as coaches along with myself.

This will now be a monthly event and letters will go out shortly for the August development day.

(Picture - young girls with fun games on the day)

Pontypridd Summer Table Tennis Festival

The Pontypridd Summer Table Tennis Festival took place today, and was a great success with good spirited and high standard table tennis played throughout. The tournament attracted a strong entry of 40 competitors, all fighting it out to win their respective events, which included the beginners/improvers band, Band 1, and the Open.

The first event of the day was the beginners and was contested by 9 players including the youngest player of the day, seven year old Louie Evans! The event was eventually won by Ponty’s Callum Griffiths who beat Carmarthen based player Lawrence John in a tightly contested final.

The next event was the Band 1 competition, and was very open with many players capable of taking the top prize. There were some early upsets with the main one being 2nd seeded Sharlene Williams missing out altogether against both Steven Fawkes and Port Talbot based player Kean Pak. In the last 16 there were no major upsets with all top seeds progressing safely through.

It was a similar case in the quarters but with Stefan having to fight back from 2 sets down to beat Liam Winder. Dayna Pearce was also on a strong run getting the better of Steven Fawkes, to book her place in the semi-final. No.1 seed Callum Evans and no.3 Jac both won their semi finals against Stefan and Dayna respectively to set up another encounter in their short but competitive careers!

In the final Callum produced his best table tennis to win a great match 3-1. Jac threw all he had, but on this occasion Callum held out to take the Band 1 title. Sharlene went on to win the consolation event with a comfortable win over Ben Evans in the final.

The main event of the day was the open and with the good prize money on offer it attracted many top senior and junior international players! The top 4 seeds were Michael Marsden, Ryan Owen, Conor Edwards and Cameron Thomas. These along with the likes of Ethan Davies, Alex Prosser, Chris Griffiths, Nicole Hall, Ryan Oyler and Benjy Gregory made the tournament very competitive.

All seeds progressed through their groups but with Cameron having to settle for the runners up position after losing out to Ryan Oyler, likewise Conor after losing out to the inform Callum Evans. Leading up to the semi final stage there were some great battles with Cameron winning against Chris Griffiths, Ethan winning against Ryan Oyler, Marsden winning against Conor, and Callum winning against Benjy.

The four left standing included Marsden, Ethan, Callum, and Ryan Owen. The top seeds didn’t have the semi-finals their own way with Ethan pushing Marsden to 4 sets and young Callum playing very well pushing Ryan Owen in 4 close sets. In the final there were some great moments but Marsden had that extra level in the big points and took the match and the title in 4 close sets.

RESULTS:
Open
M. Marsden beat R. Owen (3-1)
Band 1
C. Evans beat J. Jenkins (3-1)
Band 1 – Consolation
S. Williams beat B. Evans (3-0)
Beginners/Improvers
Final Positions : Callum Griffiths, Lawrence John, Huw Standen, Alasdair Weir, Ayman Alkateeb, Macauley Morgan, Connor Priest, Vaughn Spragg, Louie Evans.

Wales go to Romania

Chloe Thomas, Megan Phillips, Nicole Hall, Laura Edwards, Angharad Phillips & Charlotte Carey will travel to Constanca, Romania for a 6 day training camp in August

It will be the first time Wales have ventured into the area to play table tennis

Men Top 12 & Women top 10

The TTAW Men's Top 12 event and the women's top 10 will take place on the 6th August 2011 in Cardiff

All the entry forms have been emailed out and the players have been informed. The entries have been taken from the TTAW latest rankings (June 2011).

Free entry for all spectators. Play starts at 10am

VQ

Newly Uploaded Youtube Videos from Masters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D29VjhT1vVA
Laura Edwards vs Caitlin Williams

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEW9vhVjGqw
Jac Jenkins vs Callum Evans

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwxqXT3gkdU&feature=related
Dean Cundy vs Ryan Owen - Q Final

July 1st - 2 years ago....

...was the first day in my new job as National Coaching Manager for TTAW.

The 2 years have passed quickly and i'd like to think I have made the necessary changes to benefit the sport in Wales.

From booking flights for players for events, to training 6 hours a day in the hall, to dealing with budgets, to meeting the Sports Council, to taking a coaching seminar, to picking up from the airports, to meeting with parents, to setting the season calendar, to writing for sponsorship, to organising the TTAW awards to writing a few emails each and every day - the job is full.

Things can always be improved, and I will always push myself to do better. Players, parents and coaches have a duty to do the same and not always put the blame elsewhere, but look more within to try and develop their games and make a better effort not to rely on what TTAW offer in terms of competition, coaching and management but what can they do, above what is offered, to progress.

So many players have become focussed on immediate results and not what matters in the longer term. No one remembers the best U13, cadets or juniors, but will remember the top seniors. Players can strive to get their games to a senior style as quick as possible to make advances.

Most of our better Welsh players will play in Europe next season which offers a more comprehensive assessment of their match status and we will see who swims and who sinks. Clubs will not be patient and will need results unfortunately. If I can pass on any advice from my playing career, is that you must learn variety and you must learn it quickly.

Lastly, the TTAW do a great deal for all its players and we try as an association (which is mostly run by volunteers) to punch above our level on a global basis. We are small and have few players - but we still (and you do as clubs, parents and coaches of course) manage to produce good quality players from time to time.

Working together is key and I am always here to listen and talk

Ryan Jenkins
National Coaching Manager
2009-present

Guess Who?

email rjttaw@gmail.com with your answer

First answer wins!!!!

Update on the ITTF Hopes Week

Jac Jenkins lost his first 2 matches against opponents from Thailand and Romania before winning against Sri Lanka and Austria today at the ITTF Hopes Challenge.

Tomorrow Jac will play his last match against another Sri Lankan opponent to finish his challenge tournament and see if he has made the ITTF Hopes team which will travel to China and Hong Kong in July/August.

If not, there is another opportunity to go with a European team, but if this doesn't happen he will be satisfied to go to Hungary and meet up with the other Eurokids players in August in Hungary

ITTF Hopes Update

The training is great, as you would expect, to find the hopes team that will travel to China and Hong Kong this summer. The other thing that is great is the coach education on offer. We have had Michel Gadal (France TD) talking about the French way, we have had Glen Tepper (ITTF), we have had Mikel Andersson (ITTF) and Zita Pidl (also ITTF) given the plans for the future of table tennis.

Now we have Werner Schlager, Michael Maze and Kristina Toth practicing and talking with the players which has made this week a fantastic experience for all.

The weekend's tournament will bring the competitive edge to the forefront, and we shall see sparks fly.

Pontypridd High School summer Open

Please email Jonathan Gregory for an entry form for the Pontypridd summer open

Date - Saturday 9th July
closing date - 5th July

email - jonnygreg@hotmail.com

3 categories for male and female - lots of matches all day

Happy Birthday to the following players for June

Naomi Owen - 3rd
Stephen Jenkins - 8th
Charlotte Carey - 11th
Callum Evans - 15th
Chris Griffiths - 19th