We caught up with Stephen Gertsen as he launches his new online coaching workshops – read his blog on how he’s remotely working with Table Tennis groups to upskill their knowledge during this time…
I’m Stephen Gertsen and I’m a professional Table Tennis coach, my background includes working for organisations such as TT Wales, TT England, Greenhouse Sports and I’m currently working as a self-employed coach, based in Scotland. One of my current roles includes working for TT Scotland heading up their National Squad Programme. In the past, as a player, I have represented Wales at major competitions such as Worlds, Euros and Commonwealth Games. I have a wealth of experience in developing players and coaches and more recently I have been appointed as a Level 3 Lead Tutor/Assessor (alongside Craig Bryant and Natalie Green) which I’m very much looking forward to.
Normally, I would be very active in terms of hands on coaching and coach education, I run weekly community clubs, one to one coaching sessions, coach education workshops and training days/camps on weekends, all over Britain, which includes working alongside my good friend, Craig Bryant, delivering our Top Edge & Gertsen TT Training Camps across England.
During these strange times we have all been learning to adapt and be flexible with the way we live. As a Sports Lecturer at the University of Highlands and Islands, I have been able to continue teaching by delivering my classes online and this has led me to also develop a remote approach to my Table Tennis Coaching. I am now in a position to offer online workshops to Table Tennis clubs, coaches and players, for anyone who is looking to expand their knowledge, support their club members or improve as a player or as a coach.
I recently delivered a workshop for East Kilbride TT Club and Peter Connolly, who runs the club, had this to say:
“Our club discussed with Stephen the possibility of doing a presentation on sports psychology live on Skype followed by a Q&A. He suggested two areas we could focus on including Concentration and Confidence, tailored towards TT. Anyone who has attended one of Stephen’s training sessions will know how varied and interesting they can be. Whether you are a beginner, senior player or coach there will be something of interest for you in this presentation. The feedback I’ve had from our club players and coaches was that they found the talk both useful and very enjoyable”
Each workshop is one hour long, and available from either a coach or player perspective. I tend to use Skype or Zoom to deliver the sessions, these are easy to access and with Skype you can even log in without an account. I would send out the link on the day of the workshop and then whoever is invited can be sent the link directly.
Workshops available include:
– Sports Psychology
– Concentration and Focus Techniques
– Being Confident
– Dealing with Anxiety
– The Importance of Motivation
– Imagery Training
– Tactical Awareness
– Cornering in matches
– Catering for All Levels of Abilities
– Club Development
– Coach Development
– One to One Mentoring For Players
For more information on Stephen’s background and experience, please visit his website and follow him on Twitter @GertsenTT for further updates.
If you are interested or would like to find out more about costings, please contact him at stephengertsen@hotmail.co.uk
You can also find Stephen in our Bribar Sponsored Coaches section.
Posted on 5th June 2020
