Samet POLAT launched first ETTU Web camp with great success

ETTU Web camp 2020 (May 11th – 23rd) gathered young players from all over Europe to train thanks to the Zoom programme online sessions. The project is designed by Samet POLAT from Turkish Table Tennis Federation. It attracted 57 players from 19 National Associations and 30 coaches.

The web-camp includes daily online sessions lead by different coaches from Europe. Each player & coach joins the online sessions at the same time. The coaches describe the exercises and guide the players.

“COVID-19 has changed the regular people life in many different ways in a serious way. As a result it affects the Olympic sports and table tennis has faced a serious change too. There are many players that have to stay at home during the quarantine. As a member of ETTU I thought that we must do something for our future-talents to keep them focused keep them fit and help them to continue their work ” explained POLAT.

The challenge was duly accepted.

“We have begun the project with 57 participants from 19 countries. We have made a framework with our project team our exercises include “aerobic – cardio warm-up exercises aerobic and anaerobic special endurance exercises fitness repetitive strength exercises shadow training situational footwork training schematic and semi-schematic situational agility exercises forward – backward lateral combined plyometric exercises stabilization exercises proprioception and table tennis stretching etc….”

International Relations committee chair in TTF and member of the ETTU Youth Committee POLAT praised the work of coaching team and ETTU Development Manager Neven CEGNAR.

“I have to state that it is a privilege work with Mr. CEGNAR our coaching team is also fantastic.”

This project will be used in future as well.

“The sessions will be uploaded to a cloud system so that everyone will be able to reach the sessions too. So the project aims to reach our talents in every corner of Europe and support them during the long-lockdown days.”

The reaction from the players was fantastic.

“It is very obvious that they miss the sport halls. However I see many positive feedbacks from them for the project; some has already shared a few pictures from their social media accounts. They are excited to have exercise and they are happy to see that ETTU cares future talents. “

 List of players

ETTU Development Manager Neven CEGNAR stated: “We have great atmosphere and response of young players and their coaches. I am also proud of our coaches Lara BROICH Omer GENDLER Marcus GUSTAFSON Babur USTUNDAG Afonso VILELA and Antonio RATO who responded to the invitation to participate in this project. The whole project is controlled by Samet POLAT while I am in charge of forming and controlling the implementation of the program.”