Students raise a racquet
Workshop teaches tennis and table tennis basics in Fort Providence
Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, October 30, 2014
LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Balls of two different sizes were bouncing off of racquets and rolling across the floor of Deh Gah School's gymnasium last weekend as students engaged in two sports.
Olivia Nadli, right, and Nikita Perron concentrate on balancing a ball on their racquets during the first day of a tennis and table tennis workshop in Fort Providence. - photo courtesy of Thorsten Gohl
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Tennis NWT sponsored a two-day workshop on Oct. 25 to 26 for both tennis and table tennis at the school in Fort Providence. Seventeen youth ages 14 and under, including seven from the Hay River Reserve, participated in the event.
It was the first time any of the students had played tennis and also the first time for table tennis for some of them.
"I think they have so much energy, they love doing this," said Thorsten Gohl, who instructed table tennis along with Bob Howard.
The participants also like the competitive nature of the sports even if it is just balancing a ball on a racquet for a bit longer than their friends, he said. The weekend focused on the basics.
The two sports have a lot of differences including ball size, racquet size and design, grip and ball hitting techniques, but they can both be the practiced using the same exercises. It was great, said Gohl, to work with people from Tennis NWT and discover those similarities.
All of the instructors kept the students focused throughout the weekend by using fun games.
"We keep them active," he said.
On Sunday morning, the participants were challenged to complete a circuit. At each of the seven stations they had to do something different with either a tennis ball and racquet or a table tennis ball and racquet including serving and hitting a target or hitting a ball against a wall.
The participants also had the chance to hit balls between themselves and the instructors, including high school students Nathaniel Minoza and Mikaela Vandell.
The workshop was very successful, said Jim Snider, the school's vice-principal. In addition to the weekend training that was also for coaches, Gohl and Howard also coached table tennis to students of all ages during their gym classes on Oct. 23, 24 and 27.
Table tennis was introduced at the school approximately a year ago. This was Gohl's fourth time in Fort Providence to promote the sport. It was great to see that some of the youth still remembered how to hold the racquets, he said.
During the gym classes the students started with the basics including how to grip a racquet, stand at the table and hit the ball. The difficulty level was increased with each successive class.
There is definitely a growing interest in table tennis among the students at Deh Gah, said Snider.
Gohl and Howard also ran an evening clinic for adults on Oct. 23 that 11 people participated in.
