Beyond The Box With Aad Kwakkelstein (Interview Below)
- sammykaye15
- Feb 4
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 14
Are you a good coach?
Well according to Professional Table Tennis Coach Aad Kwakkelstein a good coach is...
Caring, Committed, Adaptable. You also need perspective, wisdom and a sense of humour!
These elements sound simple enough, but anyone who has coached for a good amount of time knows that these are challenging traits to understand and balance.
One can only achieve this balance with experience, learning and growth as a coach, over time.
Table Tennis is one of the hardest sports in the world. It's fast, dynamic, explosive, delicate, tactical and extremely technical. You have to deal with spins, speeds, variations and mental challenges.
Aad argues that whilst a coach needs to possess good knowledge of the sport this is less important compared to having good emotional, social, and psychological skills and knowledge.
Aad views coaching is a multi-faceted and interchanging role where one must be constantly aware of their role and be humble in their position in relation to the development of players. He goes so far as to assert that there are times when coaching can often just be facilitating. You are not the master of the hall or the players you just provide the opportunity for a community of learning to begin--- a community of practice--- a term which Aad writes about extensively in his master's thesis.
There are other coaches who may disagree with this and argue that a coach must be the top of the hierarchy, indeed, Aad recognises this. Whilst being firm in his viewpoint Aad is very adept at articulating, disecting and investigating the opinions of others to inform his own opinions and practices.
Always smiling, gleeful and passionate we discuss various other aspects including how we know one another, the talent debate, the state of English table tennis and Table Tennis England.... after the stream (off camera) we discussed the need for coaches particularly younger ones to professionally develop and proactively spend time with and learn from more experienced coaches who have decades of knowledge in the sport.
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