Photo by: Sreng Meng Srun

Local tennis coaches and prospective officials attend the coaching course at the NOCC headquarters yesterday.

The National Olympic Committee of Cambodia in association with the Tennis Federation of Cambodia is organising an 11-day tennis coaching workshop with support from the International Tennis Federation and the International Olympic Solidarity movement. The NOCC held similar technical courses in wrestling and volleyball last month.

“The main thrust behind this initiative is to empower our coaches so that they can shape the future,” NOCC Secretary General Vath Chamroeun said yesterday at the inauguration of the course, which has attracted 22 participants including lone female representative Yi Sotheary from the National Institute of Physical Education and Health.

“It is a well-charted training programme devised by the ITF and being promoted all round the world,” said the NOCC official, adding that ITF instructors Kawaljeet Singh of India and Christopher Pillai from Sri Lanka, who had been appointed to attend the seminars in Phnom Penh, were vastly experienced tutors in this field.

The first three days of the programme will deal with grassroots tennis before shifting focus to Level 1 coaching involving kids and beginners.

At the behest of the ITF development officer for the region, Suresh Menon, Cambodia national team coach and TFC technical director Braen Aneiros had been drafted in as back-up so that he can assume the role of a tutor in the future.

One interesting aspect of the programme is that some of the current junior crop, such as Orn Sambath, are among the participants. “Some of our national players have been helping us in our coaching programmes, so this is an opportunity for them to learn a lot more about coaching methods that will help them along,” said Aneiros.