Becoming a table tennis coaching assistant or coach is a rewarding way to share your passion for the sport, help players develop their skills and confidence, and make a positive impact in your local community. Whether you’re supporting beginners, inspiring young players or helping experienced competitors reach their potential, UKCC coaching qualifications provide the knowledge and practical skills to coach safely, effectively and with confidence.

Upcoming coaching courses as well as CPD opportunities, First Aid and CWPS courses are advertised on Table Tennis Scotland website as they become available.

This course aims to provide the skills to become a coaching assistant to help at coaching sessions usually where a Level 1 or 2 coach leads or to supervise e.g. lunchtime clubs in schools. There is also a version of this course specifically designed for teachers to take as part of their Continuing Professional Development. The course takes only a few hours during one day. if you are interested, please email development.city@adtta.co.uk

Coaching assistants are typically parents, senior pupils, teachers, sports centre staff. No great skill at table tennis is required.

This two-day course provides learners with the knowledge and practical skills needed to plan and deliver basic table tennis coaching sessions. Day one focuses on practical coaching, while day two is dedicated to assessment.

The course is ideal for club players who want to coach beginner groups. It covers fundamental table tennis techniques, fun games and activities, the coaching process, fitness-based exercises, and online theory modules.

Assessment consists of completing a workbook covering safety considerations and lesson planning, followed by delivering a 15-minute practical coaching session to a group of four beginner players.

This three-day course is designed for coaches who want to become club coaches working with intermediate-level players. It develops the knowledge and practical skills required to deliver more advanced coaching sessions and covers intermediate and advanced techniques, a variety of training practices, video analysis, coaching small groups, and one-to-one coaching.

Assessment includes completing a workbook covering player profiling, progressive lesson planning, and nutrition. Learners must also deliver a 40-minute coaching session to a group of four intermediate players, followed by a one-to-one coaching session incorporating video analysis.

The UKCC Level 3 Head Coach qualification is an advanced, year-long program delivered by Table Tennis England in partnership with the University of Gloucestershire. It targets coaches who want to expand their leadership, focusing on personalised development, interpersonal skills, and high-performance practices.

The TTS Licence to practise as a coach is a measure of currency of coaching practice that builds upon your qualifications. The Licence Scheme is designed to support the effective recruitment, employment and deployment of coaches and to ensure people have the right level of QUALIFICATION, INSURANCE, KNOWLEDGE and SKILLS to coach thereby safeguarding participants and coaches alike.

Supported by integrated Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programmes to help maintain higher standards of knowledge, skill and effectiveness, we believe this will lead to an overall improvement in coaching practice and a better experience for all players in Scotland.

In order to qualify for a Licence please note the following mandatory requirements:

1. First Aid Certificate (renewed every 3 years). Emergency First Aid is suitable and only requires 4 hours training and is not expensive. TTS, Local authorities as well as Red Cross and St John Ambulance and local colleges run regular courses.
2. CWPS Child Wellbeing & Protection in Sport Certificate (renewed every 3 years). This is a 6 hour course which again is held within each region, usually by the Sports Development Department but there are a number of online excellent courses that can be done at home e.g UK SPORTS.
3. CPD ( continual professional development). This is any form of updating you have done over the last year. A guideline in hours is around 3 which can be attending workshops on table tennis/ seminars/tournaments/reading articles or watching online videos.
4. UKCC or other National Awarding Body Certificate
5. TTS Affiliation. The only other stipulation is that YOU ARE AFFILIATED TO TABLE TENNIS SCOTLAND as a playing or non-playing member for the coming session.

For information and availability on any of the above courses please contact Table Tennis Scotland:

Tel: 0131 317 8077
Email: info@tabletennisscotland.co.uk

For any technical queries or general advice and information on coaching please contact Senga Thomson, Director of Coach Education

Tel: 07759 310043
Email: senga.thomson@tabletennisscotland.co.uk