Table tennis: “Some countries just like certain sports and that’s hard to change”

Table tennis is another relatively non-mainstream sport hoping for a boost as a result of coverage at the London Olympic Games. One of Wales’ top players in recent years, Ryan Jenkins (brother of fellow Welsh international table tennis player, Stephen) is now involved in a drive to encourage more people to take the game up and to improve coaching standards.

At the Sport Wales Coach of the Year awards earlier this month, he won the Contribution to Coach Development category. Such is his commitment to table tennis, the ceremony heard, he rarely has a weekend at home in Wales; instead he is travelling around the country and the world with those he coaches.

Here is the blurb from the event’s programme:

Ryan works closely with the newly trained and developing tutor workforce to ensure that Wales has its own pool of tutors and assessors to provide coach education opportunities in their local areas.

The scene is set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Photo: Flickr - bleublogger

Huw Silk: Congratulations on your Sport Wales award – can you describe exactly what you do in coaching terms?
Ryan Jenkins: I coach from under 11 right through to the men’s and women’s national teams. I’m in charge of development and performance table tennis plans.

HS: When did you first start playing? Most people have played table tennis at some level in school common rooms etc, but when and why did you decide to take it to a higher level?
RJ: I started when I was seven years old in the local boys club in Ystrad Rhondda. I started to get good and was invited to the Welsh squad when I was 12 years old. It just got out of hand! I love table tennis and that’s why I continued to the next levels.

HS: Do you still play at national level? What are your current and highest rankings?
RJ: Yes I still play as I want to show my players how always to be professional. My highest world ranking is 175, now I’m 278. My highest British ranking is first when I won the title in 1999 and 2005. I’m currently around fourth.

HS: Which top-level international tournaments have you competed at?
RJ: I have played in three Commonwealth Games, seven World Championships and eight European Championships. I have won six Commonwealth medals to date.

HS: What is it like competing at such a high level, almost the pinnacle of your sport?
RJ: Fantastic – such a feeling to know you are doing what you enjoy every day and always trying to be better at it. It’s a great feeling when so many people want to watch you because you are good at something.

HS: What is it like receiving proportionately less coverage than fellow competitors in athletics, swimming etc?
RJ: It’s life. Table tennis needs to be better in showcasing itself first. People have a wide choice on what they wish to watch so table tennis needs to try harder to get more viewers.

HS: What are your hopes for Welsh players at the 2012 Olympics and over the next decade? Are you hopeful regarding the potential legacy?
RJ: I hope we get a player at London. Naomi Owen (22 years old) is our best bet as she is in the squad, as is Charlotte Carey (15 years old). I want two to three players in the GB squad in four years’ time!!!

HS: Why do you think table tennis has not caught on here in the same way it has in the Far East?
RJ: In reverse we could ask the same about rugby. Some countries just like certain sports and that’s hard to change. It will take Wales to produce a world or Olympic champion – as what happens at Wimbledon with tennis – for everyone to know their best players and support them. In turn viewers will want to try their hand at it and then the sport starts getting popular and more sponsors get into the sport. It snowballs from there. Let’s hope our youngsters are inspired.

Olympic sports – which should be discontinued?

The Olympics are the greatest sporting event. But is their focus on certain sports correct? The inclusion of certain sports in the Games has always attracted controversy, and this led to the discontinuation of softball and baseball after Beijing 2008.

This blog promotes minority sports, and the Olympics are an ideal place to showcase them. But arguments continue. Which of these should play no further part in future Games, in your opinion?

There is also an ‘Other’ option for your suggestions.

Wales Rally GB: a non-elite perspective

Billed as the biggest rally event in the UK, the annual Wales Rally GB returned to Cardiff earlier this month amid a fervent atmosphere and lavish events on the city’s streets.

Seventy-four drivers began the 1,160-mile, four-day event – which makes up one round of the FIA World Rally Championship – in Llandudno, north Wales, on Thursday November 10.

Forty cars finished four days later in Cardiff, with Finn Jari-Matti Latvala triumphing. Among the retirees was Sebastien Loeb, winner of three of the previous editions of Wales Rally GB, who left the race after a minor crash with a spectator’s car.

Sébastien Loeb in last year's WRC Wales Rally GB. Photo: Flickr, bobaliciouslondon

But alongside the world-renowned teams were amateur drivers competing in the Wales Rally GB National B competition, who had the opportunity to race the same stretches the champion drivers tackle.

The National B competition, without the big sponsorship deals and huge investment of the WRC, this year took place on the Friday and Saturday. Scrutineering – when cars are checked over to ensure they comply with safety regulations – was on the Thursday afternoon.

Four race stages were held on Friday and a further three the following day. At the end of each day, the cars in the National B competition returned to Builth Wells, a quiet market town at the heart of the Powys countryside for servicing.

Among them was the one driven by 22-year-old Sara Williams, from Brecon, Powys.

This year’s event was Sara’s second, and she brought an impressive rallying CV to the muddy tracks of mid Wales.

Sara mid race. Photo: Rally Sport Media

She has triumphed in numerous races and awards since she won her class at the Welsh Tarmac Championships four years ago, and is probably the best young female driver in Wales.

Indeed, her 17th-place finish in the National event ensured she officially secured that exact prize, despite a puncture on the first day slowing her progress and preventing an improvement on her fourth place in 2010.

In many ways, her progress has been almost inevitable. “I started rallying when I was 16,” she says. “I navigated for my father for a while and then started driving when I was 17.”

Sara competing in the 2009 Severn Valley Clubmans' Rally. Photo: Flickr, kyn_chung

For many who enjoy Top Gear and the like, rallying – and motor racing more generally – seems like almost the ideal sport. But it is not just about thrill seeking, with attention to detail crucial – although for Sara this comprises much of the appeal.

“I enjoy the sport as you are always trying to improve on your last performance, trying to get those few more seconds from somewhere,” she says.

“It’s a great achievement when you get that.”

For Sara, along with co-drivers Patrick Walsh and Dai Roberts (who, depending on availability, take turns in sitting alongside her in the car) and the service team, the race day is much busier than many unfamiliar with motorsport might expect.

“Usually an event starts around 9am,” she explains. “We go out for a few stages then back into the service area to check the car and have lunch before heading back out for the afternoon stages.

“Then are usually about 6 or 8 stages in total.”

For the service crew, meanwhile, a typical rally day is just as busy.

“They have to check the car over before the start of the rally, change tyres if necessary, then they get in the chase vehicle – which meets the rally car at the end of each stage to make sure everything is fine.

“They then meet us back in the service area to refuel and check the car, water, tyres etc, then the same in the chase vehicle for the afternoon stages.”

Sara mid race. Photo: Rally Sport Media

The Wales Rally GB, with its fan parade in Cardiff, ceremonies in the Castle, events in the Millennium Stadium – not to mention the very presence of the world’s top drivers – is hardly a grassroots sport event.

But young drivers such as Sara show the event is not solely and narrowly focused on the elite level of performance – even if her success means she becomes increasingly close to achieving that.

For more information, check out Sara’s website. Also be sure to have a look at The Final Sector motorsport blog.

More information on handball

After yesterday’s article on the Cardiff handball club, I thought it would be helpful to provide a few links in a more accessible and less wordy piece.

For more information on Bangor University’s fledgling handball club, go to Facebook, either here or here.

The next major handball tournament will be the 2012 EHF European Men’s Championships. The 10th edition of this tournament will take place in Serbia from January 15-29. Sixteen nations will take part in the competition.

For more on the Olympics and their impact on South Wales, see Adam Care‘s blog Olympic Cardiff

The strange UK refusal to embrace handball – one of Europe’s most popular sports

Among this sport’s top club sides are Spanish rivals Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, while the Hamburg-based HSV are German Bundesliga men’s champions. Indeed, the game is one of the most widely played and watched on the continent.

But this is not football. Indeed, despite the popularity of handball elsewhere in Europe remarkably few people in this country have even heard of it – just nine months before London welcomes the world’s top players for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Germany’s Toyota Handball League – the Bundesliga – is among the most watched sporting events in Europe. Picture: Flickr, kaiser_t

There are only two Welsh handball teams, giving a clear indication of the level of knowledge the vast majority of people in this country have of the game. The men’s section of the Cardiff handball club, the first one set up in Wales, has even had to enter competitions jointly with Bath.

Similar in concept to football, handball is played on indoor courts by teams of seven, which includes a goalkeeper. Players throw a small ball between each other before attempting to score from outside the keeper’s D-shaped goal area.

It made its Olympic debut in 1936, but has never caught on over here. Only four of the 20 members of the Cardiff squad – both men and women – are British. Many are Erasmus students based in the city, the majority from France and Germany.

Marie-Laure Chevalier, President of the Cardiff Handball Club, is hopeful the exposure offered by the Olympics will open up the sport to a wider range of potential players. “One of the main problems at the moment is that many Britons do not know what handball is,” she reveals.

It has been a tough sell so far, but that is hardly surprising.

Apart from Eurosport, the exposure here is minimal, and it comes as a surprise to many to see just how widespread it is abroad. It has been estimated, for example, that it is the second most watched sport in France – behind football, but ahead of sports including rugby union.

Cardiff’s handball club in training

“Handball in the UK is definitely building up, although there are so many people who still don’t know what it is exactly,” says Benjamin Tsui Chun Man, a student at UWC Atlantic College in Llantwit Major. “I think the challenge would be to get people’s interest in the first place.

“I tried to introduce handball at my school but it just didn’t work out due to a limited amount of resources, like a suitable indoor court.”

As with a number of similarly low-profile sports, the impact of next year’s games is seen as crucial.

“The 2012 Olympics definitely bring huge exposure of handball to the UK audience,” he adds. “I hope the Olympics could make handball more popular and raise people’s interest.

“There is such a big opportunity here with the UK’s location next to all the countries that are good at handball, like France. The UK has a great potential to make this sport as popular as the Germans’ handball league – if it was organised well.”

But there has never been much of a handball infrastructure in this country.

The Great Britain men’s team was not formed until 2005 and since then has hardly had an illustrious record. Earlier this month, they were defeated 29-20 in Israel, making qualification for the 2013 European Championships almost impossible.

As is crucial for minority sports such as handball, an aggressive recruiting campaign is waged by the club.

“We try and attract new players by displaying posters in Cardiff and by posting messages on Gumtree,” explains Chevalier, referring to the widely used classifieds website.

An efficient Facebook page and website are also run, but there is a frequent struggle for numbers.

“We occasionally have a shortage of players for training – and for matches. We always need to recruit new players as most of our club members are only here for a short period of time as students or for a gap year,” says Chevalier.

Chevalier also bemoans the lack of opposition available. Cardiff’s senior men’s team – jointly with Bath – compete in a division within the South Development League alongside teams from Southampton, Bristol and Bournemouth (the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic). Fixtures take place every month in Wellington, Somerset with two matches played on each occasion.

But Cardiff’s women’s team does not even play competitively, due to an almost total lack of (relatively) local opposition. Handball is a long way from taking root in the UK – and the problem is in even more acute in Wales, although Bangor University is attempting to begin its own team this year.

Much hinges on the reaction of the British public to the Olympics and although there is little chance of a heroic medal for Team GB, the chance to watch the best in the business might help spark what has so far been the incredibly slow-burning development of handball in the UK.

“Most of the players in our club are from all over [mainland] Europe,” Chevalier emphasises. “We are very keen to see more British players joining our club.”

There can be no better advertisement for the likes of the Cardiff handball club than that fortnight in August 2012.

**More information on Bangor University’s fledgling handball club can be found on Facebook, either here or here.

**The next major handball tournament will be the 2012 EHF European Men’s Championships. The 10th edition of this tournament will take place in Serbia from January 15-29.

Deserved Recognition for Welsh Sport’s Unsung Heroes

People talk of their sporting heroes as stars such as Rob Howley, Ryan Giggs and Colin Jackson – admittedly with good reason.

But arguably those who are more worthy of being labelled heroes are the scores of coaches and other volunteers who enable grassroots sports to function and who are, because of their very nature, predictably ignored by all but the most local of media.

Without those who put in such an effort to coach, organise, cook for, and transport grassroots teams and clubs, the hundreds of thousands who take part in such activities would not be able to do so.

So it is events like the Sport Wales’ Coach of the Year Awards, held this afternoon at the Swalec Stadium at Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens, which provide deserved recognition to those who represent – without wishing to descend into hyperbole – the true lifeblood of Welsh sport.

Sport Wales is effectively the Welsh national sports body, overseeing all levels of sport and recreation in Wales. In its own words:

“We are the national organisation responsible for developing and promoting sport and physical activity in Wales.

We are the main adviser on sporting matters to the Welsh Government and are responsible for distributing National Lottery funds to both elite and grassroots sport in Wales.

We fully subscribe to the Welsh Government’s vision for a physically active and sporting nation, as outlined in their strategies Climbing Higher and Creating an Active Wales.

We aim to not only improve the level of sports participation at grassroots level but also provide our aspiring athletes with the support required to compete successfully on the world stage.”

The Coach of the Year Awards, which have been held since the 1970s, recognise achievement in a range of different aspects of sport.

Professor Laura McAllister, Chair of Sport Wales and former Welsh football captain, told guests the awards came at the end of an extremely good year for Welsh sport, pointing to the success of hurdler Dai Greene, the recent form of the football side as well as the Rugby World Cup exploits.

But Prof McAllister insisted that represented only the very tip of the Principality’s sporting iceberg, and she issued a rallying call to continue the work at grassroots level and to take advantage of this so-called golden decade of sport, with the UK hosting the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the 2015 Rugby World Cup and the 2017 World Athletics Championships among other events.

“There is more work to be done,” she said in opening the ceremony. “We all know that and we in this room know that more clearly than anyone.

“We have to continue to raise the bar even higher. We do not want to be left behind.”

It is those who do work like today’s nominees who are integral to the future sporting success of this country.

Each finalist had filmed a short clip explaining why they did what they did. Helen James, awarded the female community coach of the year gong for her work with the Cardiff Amateur Athletics Club, summed up the motivation of volunteers like her:

“I love athletics and I love Cardiff – and that is why I do it, really.”

That message was repeated over and over again. “I am eager to work with talented young athletes,” said long-serving athletics coach Malcolm Arnold, who has coached Greene and Jackson among hundreds of other athletes.

“It is not hard to come to work.”

Anthony Hughes, head coach and national programme manager for the Elite Disability Athletics Programme and who has helped turn Wales into one of the most successful disability sporting nations, pound-for-pound, picked up the coveted overall prize.

Huw Lewis AM, Sports Minister in the Welsh Assembly Government, presented Mr Hughes with his accolade, but paid tribute to all the finalists: “Those who inspire others are almost invariably very modest and unassuming – that is why it is very important for us as a community and as a country to recognise the work they do.”

Mr Hughes’ words reflected a theme running right through the ceremony – namely something resembling embarrassment that the service he and others provide should be deemed worthy of rewarding:

“I do this because I love what I do. The people who move me are the people who turn out week after week after week. I do it with a passion because I want people to achieve. I want to retire knowing I have achieved everything. I am very lucky because I get to do those things I love.”

The reluctance of Anthony Hughes and other prize-winners to acknowledge they are deserving of such tributes is perhaps a natural reaction to being recognised for work they do not think twice about carrying out.

But it is not people like Anthony who should be grateful – it is anyone and everyone who participates in sport at any level. Unsung heroes such as Anthony provide the platform for grassroots sport and also lay the foundations for elite success.

Gratitude and recognition is the least their efforts deserve.

 

Full list of winners:

Female Community Coach: Helen James, Cardiff Amateur Athletics Club

Male Community Coach: Tony Borg, St Joseph’s Amateur Boxing Club, Newport

Volunteer: Stuart Robson, Caerphilly Castle Ladies and Girls Football Club

Coach to Disabled People: Anthony Hughes, Elite Disability Athletics Programme

Contribution to Coach Development: Ryan Jenkins, Table Tennis Association of Wales

Young Coach/Volunteer: Steve Thomas, Olympic Young Ambassador, Flintshire

High Performance: Malcolm Arnold, UK Athletics

Special Achievement: Gwyndaf Hughes, Sailing, and Stuart Conner, Gymnastics

Coach of the Year: Anthony Hughes