Author Archives: TT NORTH

Mission accomplished for Table Tennis North and Richmond Olympic Oval

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Over a 12-week program, Table Tennis North and Richmond Olympic Oval offered fitness, nutrition and mental performance training sessions to youth, sports enthusiasts, athletes, and coaches in the North and across the country. Since March 2021, weekly fitness sessions were held virtually on Zoom every Saturday mornings, and mental performance & nutrition webinars were offered on a bi-weekly on Saturday at 11am, also via ZOOM.

“The Richmond Oval High Performance Team is excited about the dynamic evolution of this integrated service program with Table Tennis North. Accessibility to training services and facilities has been a challenge over the past year but also opened up the incredible opportunity to support athletes and teams in the Northern Regions of Canada virtually.

We want to thank Table Tennis North for the opportunity to be involved and are looking forward to seeing how we at the Richmond Olympic Oval can continue to support athletes as they pursue their goals regardless of their geographic location.” – Richmond Olympic Oval

Athletes from the Yukon, Northwest Territories and even Québec came together and participated in the weekly sessions. Being active in the fitness program and adapting this to the sport of Table Tennis as well as understanding the importance of Mental Performance and Nutrition in sports, but also day to day life.

The participants had a lot to say about this new webinar series:

Team NT athlete Nikhilesh: “It is a cool experience and I wanted to train with other athletes virtually. I enjoyed it like it was. It does not overwork us. It is the perfect fit and it challenges us to give our best. It was a little bit different to do it virtually, but still great to participate in.”

Canadian National Team Athlete Sophie: “My favourite part was learning new things. I never had classes like that, so I can apply it to my daily life even after this program. Doing it once a week does not overwork us, but still makes us work every week. Virtually was good as the teachers adopted to the classes. And it made me train, even for times when I did not want to train.”

Team Yukon Athlete Krish: “I enjoyed it like it was. It does not overwork us. It is the perfect fit and it challenges us to give our best. It was a little bit different to do it virtually, but still great to participate in.”

“It was amazing to work with the staff of the Richmond Olympic Oval,” said Thorsten Gohl, Executive Director of Table Tennis North. “From Ashley managing the program, Emily doing the weekly fitness classes, Scott and Evan alternating with the Mental Performance and Nutrition sessions. Everyone was very professional, well planed and made it easy for our participants to have the best experience possible.”

Table Tennis North will expand the program to open it up for more athletes to join in and prepare for upcoming multi-sport games like the 2023 Arctic Winter Games, the 2023 Canada Winter Games and the 2024 Arctic Winter Games. Including our athletes in taking part of our webinars and sharing their stories from a participant perspective is key to the success of our webinar series.

Team NT & Yukon continue with individual fitness program

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Table Tennis athletes will each be receiving a personalized training plan to work on through the summer that I will be monitoring and updating as we go. The idea is to keep them active and engaged, while still helping them to progress towards their multi-sport goals. The hope for these online programs is that our athletes can continue to see more strength and agility gains through the summer so that coming back in the fall isn’t such a shock to their bodies and they can start out at a higher level for the coming training season! 

We are very grateful working with Yukon Table Tennis and the Richmond Olympic Oval on these programs.

Upcoming training camps

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The Arctic Winter Games are around the corner and with that the upcoming trials, January 23-25, 2020, hosted in Fort Providence. We are starting a series of training camps in preparation for the trials:

November 10-11, 2019 in Fort Providence (Deh Gáh School)
November 23, 2019 in Yellowknife  (St. Patrick Gym)
November 30 – December 1, 2019 in Fort Providence (Deh Gáh School)
January 4-5, 2020 in Fort Providence (Deh Gáh School)

Schedule for Fort Providence: 10am-12pm, 1-3pm, 5-7pm
Schedule for Yellowknife: 4-8pm

You can sign up by sending an e-mail to [email protected] with your name, age, e-mail and phone number. If you are staying overnight, please let us know. 

2020 Registration for the Arctic Winter Games trials

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The registration is Open for the Team NT Arctic Winter Games trials. If you like to try out for the 2020 Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse, Yukon, make sure that you register before December 16, 2019.

https://www.sportnorth.com/arctic-winter-games/2020-arctic-winter-games

Instructional videos

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from Paul Devitt

A great way of learning some more about technique in Table Tennis is with watching videos. For beginners, I have recommended the following six Yang Yang Table Tennis videos found on YouTube. 

1.       Holding Racket and Basic Body Position 

2.       How to Play Forehand Drive 

3.       How to Play Backhand Drive

4.       How to Forehand Push

5.       How to Backhand Push

6.       How to Practice Table Tennis Alone

YK Open House

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We had a fantastic time this last Friday at Weledeh School with the open house. We had 18 people show up to try out Table Tennis and getting engaged with the sport in the future. The idea is now to start a club in the capital city.

“This is amazing, seeing so many come out and playing Table Tennis. The future for a Table Tennis Club in Yellowknife is bright!!!” – Thorsten Gohl, Volunteer Executive Director Table Tennis North

“Great to see such a turnout with a variety of skills. It will be nice to see the club running on a weekly basis.” – Steve Rowe, Aerobic Table Tennis

Ping Pong Literacy in Fort Providence

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“We are having a blast here in Fort Providence with Ping Pong Literacy. The kids are in love with the brain breaks, doing activities and keeping active” says Thorsten Gohl, Physical Literacy Coordinator Dehcho Divisional Education Council.

Table Tennis North works with Steve Rowe from Ping Pong Literacy in bringing the program into the communities. First stop was Fort Providence. Engaging the Grades 1-3 in their class room time on a daily basis. Showing some fun videos with PONG the rabbit and doing brain breaks like the up side down exercise.

Ping Pong Literacy

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We are excited to have Steve back in the Territories with his new program PING PONG Literacy. It will be great to engage our youth from 3-7 years of age in being Active for Life.

Working together with the Physical Literacy Coordinator Dehcho Divisional Education Council in bringing the programs into the Dehcho Region of the Northwest Territories.

“It will be great bringing Steve into the communities of our Region and introducing our kids to Ping Pong Literacy. Learning numerics and literacy in a fun way while having entertaining brain breaks to support being active for life. It cannot be better than that” says Physical Literacy Coordinator Thorsten Gohl

Steve Rowe adds to this “It’s always exciting to be back in the NWT. The children will learn academics, keep fit and table tennis. I am very much looking forward to delivering this amazing new programme to the children in the Deh Cho area. I can’t wait to see the reaction from the teachers and children.”

Yellowknife Open House

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Table Tennis North will be doing an Open House October 18, 2019 from 8-10pm at Weledeh School. We love to see you there.

For more information contact [email protected]

Aurora Ford

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We are excited to announce that the partnership with Aurora Ford & Table Tennis North will be continued.

“The partnership is helping us to support the smaller communities in the Mackenzie Region. Accessibility is key when it comes to support a sport like Table Tennis. It opens up so many possibilities for us and we are so very grateful” says Executive Director Thorsten Gohl. He continuous “Only good things will happen for Table Tennis in the North. Thank you Aurora Ford for joining us on the ride!”

You will see the Ford F150 driving along the highway a lot in the new future with clubs already established in Hay River, Fort Providence, Fort Smith, Fort Simpson and Yellowknife. Getting into an Arctic Winter Games year is always exciting and helps sports like Table Tennis to grow.

“Aurora Ford is always looking to support all of the communities in the North.  This partnership with Table Tennis North has provided us an excellent opportunity to get visibility in the smaller communities and help such a worthy organization be able to achieve its vision.” – Lee Cawson, VP Operations, Aurora Group

Are you interested in Table Tennis in the Northwest Territories?