British Primary Schools Report 2018 (Boys)

Primary Schools International 6^{thth -8April 2018}

Inverclyde National Centre

Scotland Boys Team Report

By Gordon Muir, NPC

The Scottish boys finished a creditable third in the team competition, behind strong English and Irish opposition. The team was Charlie McGowan & Haydn Jackson from Murrayfield TTC alongside Louis Loi & Daniel Tibbetts from Aberdeen Sports Village. It was a pleasure to coach the boys over the weekend, with all sharing a great team ethic and keeping commendably calm. The highlight of the team event was the 10-0 against Wales – where the boys all showed great determination.

In the singles on Sunday, Louis was unlucky not to make the semi-finals with a 5-set loss against Joe Dennison (ENG), Haydn and Charlie getting to the last 16 losing 3-2 to Matthew Mooney (IRE) and to eventual winner Jonathan Mooney (IRE) respectively. Daniel did well to beat Wales no 2 Evan Williams 3-1 to take the consolation title after being unfortunate to not make it through to the main draw. There were a good blend of skills in the team, with Daniel the around the net master and 11-0 expert; Louis ‘the Braveheart’ beating 2 strong English players over the weekend; Haydn was our service specialist and played very well against the overall boys singles winner; and Charlie our third ball attack and backhand specialist putting in a solid performance in the no1 spot. A big difference between the play from our boys and that of the top players was that our boys were often trying to play with too much energy in their shots – while at the same time often not using the correct weight transfer. This allowed the more experienced opposition and coaches to play passive strategies against us, and wait until we found ourselves out of position. It was interesting to watch the boys winner’s Jonathan Mooney (IRE) main attacking weapon, his forehand loop, which he played only at 10% of his maximum energy. This meant he had to be patient and intelligent to win points rather than using brute force. I think this is something that many players in Scotland could learn from. With some work on movement, weight transfer, consistency and exercises promoting table awareness, the team members could improve significantly.