Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja
The Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), President, Ishaku Tikon, on Tuesday, expressd the commitment of NTTF towards building the capacity of Nigerian table tennis coaches.
He said the objective of the federation remains to produce quality players at all levels.
Tikon was speaking at the one day strategic meeting he had with coaches to fashion out plans and agree on ways of moving the game forward in the country.
He noted that the game of table tennis is dynamic and is advancing regularly with new technology and rules geared towards high performance.
The presidemt pleaded for cordial relationship between the administrators, coaches and players alike, saying team work is a far better strength than division.
“You will all agree with that table tennis is one of the games in the world that advances regularly with new technology and rules that is geared towards high performance. The coaches are the vehicle that drives the high performance engine.
“Recently in collaboration with the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), I attracted an ITTF level 2 coaching course that took place in Ibadan. I was not happy with the outcome of the course because out of the 15 participants, only three passed the course. I am working assiduously to source for materials that will help you next time. Furthermore, through NOC, I will be pushing for 70 per cent level 1 and 30 per cent level2 courses respectively from ITTF, ” Tikon said.
He said the cardinal programme of his administration is to give international spread and exposure to the coaches at international events. He promised to partner with state governments to develop table tennis at the grassroots levels.
“One important value of a coach is to produce quality players at all levels that will be integrated into the NTTF pool for further nurturing. The challenge most of you have is the low or zero activities at the local or zonal levels. However, we are planning on how to partner with the various state governments to really develop table tennis at the grassroots level,“ he said.
National team coach, Bello Nasiru (Alakoro), commended the NTTF boss for putting together the one day, meeting, saying it will enable the coaches to voice out their minds and chart the way forward for the development of table tennis in the country.
