A New Era Begins

Table Tennis Wales undergoes a fresh look from today as the coaching staff take new roles to reflect the decisions made by the Board on a recent coaching restructure.

Ryan Jenkins, who took the National Coaches position from Alan Griffiths in 2009, becomes Director of Coaching. It will now be Ryan’s responsibility to advise and appraise the coaching staff on the ground delivering whilst leading on Sport Wales reports, budgets, hall/accommodation bookings plus International and Domestic events and calendars. Ryan will also lead on the North Wales region and UKCC and BTTF selection matters. Ryan will represent Wales as delegate at the major Championships and help with coaching the National teams where necessary. Additionally, Ryan also has a volunteer position on the Commonwealth Federation Board to protect Welsh interests whilst promoting the Commonwealth movement.

Stephen Jenkins moves from a Regional coach into the National Performance & Talent Manager post. Stephen will lead on both Able & Para Elite players whilst engaging with Cardiff City TTC and Swansea University Elite programmes. Stephen will be reporting to the Director of Coaching on matters such as Talent Cymru funding, ITTF competitions, training camps and sparring partners. Stephen will also be responsible for teams at World, European & Commonwealth Games. The work with DSW plus British Para Table Tennis and Neil Robinson, will also stem from Stephen’s work.

Another former Regional coach, Simon Oyler, moves into the National Development Manager role from today. This position concentrates on schools and club activity. Simon will visit and interact with clubs in South Wales (outside of Swansea and Cardiff) to support and offer experience with coaching, funding opportunities, school links and other club development. Simon will lead of initiatives such as Gemau Cymru, 4Rackets, Insport and other development programmes with key partners. Simon will still head up the successful St John’s College academy in St Mellons each week to continue the work there. Simon will have to work with Table Tennis England on UKCC matters and tutoring courses when set in Wales. Simon will be very involved with the Welsh primary Schools and International Schools each year plus head to other International events should he be required with the coaching team.

There is also two other significant partnerships taking place from today. Firstly a more formal agreement with Cardiff City Community TTC to progress Table Tennis in the Capital and a joint venture with Swansea University to have a full-time coach based in the area. Both partnerships will bring a great deal of benefit to our two biggest cities.

Looking ahead, there are more talks ahead with other Universities such as Cardiff Met, Bangor, Aberystwyth and Glandwr in Wrexham all being approached for future partnerships. A North Wales Regional Centre in Deeside is something that’s being planned plus a Chinese Player/Coach living in cardiff to enhance the standard of training.

We are communicating far more than ever at present with social media, so stay tuned on Instagram, FaceBook, Twitter and our brand new website for up to date news. Look out for our new App (Apple and Android versions) very soon….

New Coaching structure, New Chair, New Website, New Kit, New App, New Logo…….

We Are Table Tennis Wales