Dwain Dick hopes for the best in table tennis going forward

…expects more of the NSC

By Timothy Jaikarran

The Titans Table Tennis Club like every other club in Guyana has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, under the leadership of Coach Dwain Dick, ways have been found to help the players of the club maintain their fitness. Dick sat down with Guyana Times Sport and answered a series of questions on how the club is coping and what it is aiming for when the pandemic ends.

Q: How is the club coping at this time?
We were forced to adapt; so, to ensure that the future of the club was safe from a financial perspective, we had to really focus on our academic arm, the Titans Virtual Learning Academy, which was launched and of which most of the present members are a part of. We have been providing tuition in Maths for members since 2011, but this just pushed us to fully launch out. We are offering subjects for those who are interested in pursuing STEM careers. Our target population are secondary students, student athletes and adults. We don’t want to expose the players to risk, so we advise most of them to just maintain their fitness at home, but mostly we watch videos posted by ITTF [International Table Tennis Federation].

Q: What are you guys doing at the moment?
The time for us is dedicated mostly to academics, an area that athletes has to valve with sport, so this is an opportune time for us to catch up and be ahead of the school curriculum for them when school reopens. In terms of fitness, they were advised not to do any strength and conditioning unsupervised, just general fitness – skipping, and some basic plyometrics and cardio.

Q: What are your future plans?
A Junior Pro Tour, which can be on the ITTF calendar, involving juniors from North America, Latin America, the Caribbean and around the world. It was intended for this year, but COVID (happened). Hopefully, we can now get the sports ministry involved, along with the necessary approval, as this would ultimately push the sport in a professional direction, by creating jobs, generating income in a few sectors, boost sports tourism and allow the world to see us in a positive light. We also hope to give out scholarships to student athletes writing the 2021 CSEC [Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate exams]. Our biggest objective is to, for the near future, … become elite in terms of TT performances. We wanted to cater mostly to elite athletes; that will be our main focus, to provide the environment and expertise, through more international training camps like the one involving Mr Christian Lillieroos. We will be going into equipment sales, to have everything readily available for the TT players.

Q: What is one thing you would like to see in sports?
There are many things that can be done to better not only TT but all sports. This time should be used by the sports min, NSC [National Sport Commission] and local associations to collaborate and come up with strategies to overhaul sports in the schools’ system; protect our associations, clubs, community clubs, etc. Something to consider would be relief funding for compliant associations as sponsorship wouldn’t come easily for them to carry out their activities. I haven’t seen one online fundraising active from our local associations, shows that there are no plans, just sitting like, “wuh come suh do”. That is not the way. Let us, as the sports associations, clubs, come up with ways to generate revenue for ourselves and our sponsors through activities that will promote sales for those companies’ products who have assisted in the past, and, by extension, generate income for ourselves so that we can run better programmes and come out better and stronger. I really would’ve like to see, since no sports going on locally, the NSC inviting the associations and leading the way on governance structure overhaul. Without improved governance we will keep operating in mediocrity. Moving forward out of this, for improved sports environment and development to take place, it must happen, if we’re serious. Sports will help play a serious role in our recovery from COVID, mentally and physically.

Q: Is there anything you would like to say to your players and sponsors?
To our players, sponsors and supporters, we cannot thank you enough for being there for us, through thick and thin. This is a rough time for us all, let’s continue to support each other in any way we can. Unfortunately, all our events were cancelled, but we are a resilient people – One People, One Nation, One Destiny.(G7)