The curled brackets aren't the part of command syntax

ALTER TABLE teco 
   ALTER COLUMN ped smalldatetime

>I am trying to modify a table within the Query Analizer but I get an error.
>Here is the sql :
>
>ALTER TABLE {
>teco ALTER COLUMN ped smalldatetime
>}
>GO
>
>
>Here is the error message:
>[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver]Syntax error or access violation
>
>
>Thanks,
>Sergio