The Table Tennis Academy has concluded its Summer School with a Knock-Out Tournament and pre season competitive preparation. The Summer School kicked off in July with a visit by past coach Erik Nordlander from Sweden who was brought over to produce diagnostics over progress for the students, especially those that trained under Erik two years ago. This proved vital for producing a good program based on their present technical difficulties. Around 35% of the students registered a tremendous improvement and managed to come up a star rating with some almost managing two stars.

The Knock-Out Tournament three star event was won by William Camilleri who on the day proved his worth eliminating his opposition in a pretty easy fashion.

The two star was won by Nikolai Sammut who has progressed from beginners level to a higher two star level.

This year Malta is represented in the European Youth Championships with an ALL-ACADEMY contingent.

Our young stars Daniel Vella, Matthew Micallef and Stefan Grech have been chosen to represent Malta with Head Academy Coach Mario Genovese as National Youth Coach.

Simon Gerada, Andrzej Makovski, Johanna Grech and Wang Yu represented Malta in the Games.
Summary of the Results

Wang Yu is Malta's latest addition to the Female National Team that will be representing Malta in this year's Small States of Europe Games in Monaco. During her stay in Malta before the games, Wang Yu was invited to the Academy to perform a Table Tennis exhibition session for all students.

FINAL STANDINGS

Team	Pos	Played	Won	Lost	For	Agst	Pts
Table Tennis Academy	1	9	9	0	71	11	27
Malta University S.C.	2	9	7	2	56	25	23
Fleur De Lys	3	9	5	4	46	35	19
Maltacom KSSK	4	9	5	4	36	45	19
Bank of Valletta	5	9	4	5	35	46	17
Aloysians 'A'	6	9	3	6	35	46	15
Ping Pongers T.T.C.	7	9	3	6	22	59	13
HSBC	8	9	0	9	23	58	9

Date	Home	Away	Result	Reports compiled by Matthew Micallef
09.03.07	Fleur De Lys	Table Tennis Academy
02.03.07	Table Tennis Academy	Maltacom KSSK	7 - 2
16.02.07	Ping Pongers T.T.C.	Table Tennis Academy	0 - 9
02.02.07	Table Tennis Academy	HSBC	8 - 1
19.01.07	Bank Of Valletta S.S.C.	Table Tennis Academy	1 - 8
12.01.07	Table Tennis Academy	Aloysians 'A'	6 - 3	Beating Aloysians... The Academy team has been unbeaten in these last 21 games. The last team played was Aloysians with the score being 6-3. Matthew won all his games without even loosing a set. Daniel won his games as well. The other player, Thomas had a real difficulty to play which restulted in no wins.
05.01.07	Table Tennis Academy	Malta University S.C.	7 - 2	2nd Round starts on a good note... Table Tennis Academy started the year with a win over the team in second position, Malta University and now the Academy team is 4 points ahead, coming closer to the promotion to 1st division. The team, hormed by Stefan, Matthew and Daniel won this game at 7-2. Daniel had no problem at all and won all three games to give the team a huge boost. Both Matthew and Stefan lost to Paul Dawson
08.12.06	Table Tennis Academy	Fleur De Lys	7 - 2	End of 1st Chapter Though the opponents had game experience, TTA won this game 7-2. Matthew gave the Academy team a boost with the 1st win and Daniel completed on the right track after winning against Vincent Spiteri. Thomas had a had day loosing 2 of his games but improved in the last game and emerged as winner. After 1st round, TTA are on top!!
24.11.06	Maltacom KSSK	Table Tennis Academy	0 - 9	Still Positive.... This win was the second consecutive at 9-0 and the 4th overall for this season. Thomas, Daniel and Matthew won all 3 games each with Kevin Zammit, captain and best player for Maltacom giving the toughest game to Thomas who returned to play after an absence of two games.
17.11.06	Table Tennis Academy	Ping Pongers T.T.C.	9 - 0	Give me another 9! Having Harvey Wadge with Ping Pongers made no difference to 1st place TTA. Daniel won against Wadge 3-0. Stefan had a small difficulty but turned a 2-0 game onto his side and finally won 3-2. Harvey then lost his third game against Matthew 3-0 also. Ping Pongers returned back home as they arrived. No win!!
03.11.06	HSBC	Table Tennis Academy	1 - 8	make it 4... HSBC was the 4th team beaten by Table Tennis Academy this season with the final result being 8-1. Their best player, Paul Farrugia managed only to win a game against Stefan Grech. Both Matthew and Daniel won their games against Paul 3-1 and 3-2 respectively.
27.10.06	Table Tennis Academy	Bank Of Valletta S.S.C.	9 - 0	Another 9-0... The 3rd game ended as the 3rd win for the Table Tennis Academy. Thomas, Daniel and Stefan won all 3 games without giving their opponents a slight chance to recover and make a comeback. Stefan was the overall best player winning all 3 games without losing a single set.
20.10.06	Aloysians 'A'	Table Tennis Academy	0 - 9	14 in a row...! Table Tennis Academy had no real difficulty in winning their second league match against Aloysians A. With this win, the Academy team is still unbeaten in these last 14 matches. Thomas Vella returned to play and showed the very best of him winning all three games against Kurt Magri Gatt, Gary Magri Gatt and Matthew Grech. Both Stefan Grech and Matthew Micallef won their three games also, the final result being 9-0.
06.10.06	Malta University S.C.	Table Tennis Academy	3 - 6	A GOOD START! After being promoted in 2nd Division, Table Tennis Academy began this season with a win against Malta University. The team consisting of Daniel Vella, Stefan Grech, Thomas Vella and Matthew Micallef gave a good performance and finally emerged as winners. Daniel Vella who was the best overall player was fully concentrated being the one who won all his 3 games.

Once again the Academy has awarded those students who have excelled throughout the season and shown constant improvement. The full list of the award winners can be seen here.

Maltese youngster in Romania training camp

by di-ve.com

Saturday, 28 October, 2006

Table Tennis youngster Steve Bugeja participated in a juniors training camp better known as EuroKids organised annually by the European Table Tennis Union.

This is a Table Tennis Training Camp where promising young athletes from around Europe meet for a week to be guided by professional coaches in order to enhance their table tennis skills. Practice sessions ran daily and were based on physical and practical sessions.

For Steve this trip to Romania was an opportunity to experience and to learn the most up-to-date training methods for boys and girls of his age group, that is to say 13 years and under. Steve was accompanied by the MTTA Vice President Alex Anastasi.

Mr. Anastasi said that "the level of play was very high, practice sessions started early morning with running and moved on into late afternoon in the practice hall, the kids also watched tuition videos of top international players so as to visualize the best techniques. After this experience Steve should be in a better position to understand the path to international success which in our sport needs to be taken seriously already from their tender age. No less than 15 countries participated in this training camp."

eurokids06