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.