Growing the pathways for coaches not just athletes

High performance coaches from across the country have been sitting down with National Coach - Performance Pathways (Able-Bodied) Eva Jeler to develop their strengths and learn new coaching skills to support the rising table tennis stars in Australia. 

Through a new TTA initiative, the TTA High Performance Coach Mentorship Program is underway with six coaches from around Australia taking part, namely: Hongbo Liang (NSW), George Logothetis (Queensland), Franck Roguiez (Queensland), Maggie Meng (Victoria), Peter Tretinik (Victoria) and Ajay Suwal (Western Australia).

Eva Jeler is a highly experienced coach who has spent the past 37 years coaching in Germany and developing athletes to be world class performers. She now hopes to be able to broaden Australian coaches horizons and give them new ideas on how to work.

“To pass on my knowledge and experience is in my nature. Without that, I would not be a coach, or at least not a successful coach,” Jeler said.

“As we try to achieve a higher quality of (young) Australian table tennis players, it is important that the coaches, and through them the players, understand what it takes to become a high level table tennis player and a professional athlete. Without coaches with high level skills and personality, this is impossible to achieve.” 

George Logothetis dubbed Jeler a table tennis coaching icon and said learning from her will be extremely beneficial for his career.

“The wealth of her knowledge is unbelievable. I will try to mainly focus on the mental aspects of the sport, which I think are a bit underrated. 

“It is a great honour to get mentored by a world class coach like Eva,” Logothetis said.

Franck Roguiez said as a table tennis lover, he would like to go in-depth on technical and tactical knowledge with Jeler, but he also expressed that it would be interesting to discover the ins and outs of the German High Performance pathway. 

“There is so much to learn from someone like Eva in all the areas of coaching. I want to walk into this mentorship program with an open mind and not close any doors. I believe that it is how I will be able to get the best out of it for myself and my daily [coaching] environment,” Roguiez said. 

Coaching is more than a job and it takes a dedicated person to take on the task. 

“Knowledge that is not shared has no lasting value. As I studied and was trained for natural science, I was also taught to share, to give, to discuss and accept a better argument,” Jeler said. 

West Australian Coach Ajay Suwal said there is an immense joy that being a coach brings you. Not always will the athletes come up and say thank you but it is written all over their faces.

“The feeling is priceless when you see them execute all of your teachings during competition and emerge victorious,” Suwal said. 

Peter Tretinik said his passion goes beyond coaching the sport. Although there are responsibilities and busy schedules that keep Tretinik on his toes, coaching doesn’t feel like working to him. 

“I love being around the sport, passing my love to the students. I love being around people and seeing their development. However, most of the time it goes beyond coaching the sport. We not only develop sport skills, we also have a big impact on character and we become mentors, counsellors and lifetime friends,” Tretinik said. 

“John and Eva are multi-cultural experienced coaches, I don’t think I would be able to get this great opportunity in any other place or program in the world. Coaches also need to update their knowledge frequently to make sure everything they coach is the most advanced it can be,” said Hongbo Liang. 

National Coach - Performance Pathway (Para) Maggie Meng said that to learn from someone who is very experienced and has a different background to her, motivated her to participate in the program.