Inside a High Performance Training center where Taiwan's Olympic table tennis stars are made!

[JackJohnson]

@Tony's Table Tennis

I’ve notice all the Chinese Taipei players are using their own coaches for the World Cup. Do the players have to pay the coaches themselves and pay their flights and hotel stays or does Chinese Taipei Team help pay for it.

I’m assuming the players themselves Chinese Taipei Team will pay for their flights and hotel stays as well for ITTF or WTT events they participate in.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

@Tony's Table Tennis

I’ve notice all the Chinese Taipei players are using their own coaches for the World Cup. Do the players have to pay the coaches themselves and pay their flights and hotel stays or does Chinese Taipei Team help pay for it.

I’m assuming the players themselves Chinese Taipei Team will pay for their flights and hotel stays as well for ITTF or WTT events they participate in.

Taiwan has few different kinds of gov backed funding.
the 6 players you see there are all based on the gold funding, where there is 6 levels.
Lin and Cheng is on the highest tier
Kao and Huang is 2nd
Chien I think is 4, and Feng 5th

Some other players not part of the gold funding would be based on Asian champ funding, or there are also other junior level funding available.

Lin/Cheng total funding is at USD 500k a year each.
of which there are many areas each with a cap on percentage to the total funding. So ie, if you spend over that value say for staff, then you need to self fund the rest.
Areas including training costs, tournament participation, traveling, coaches/staff, equipment, medical etc.

Level 5 doesn't have allowance to fund coaches, so Feng uses national coach - Chiang Peng-Lung, who is also the mens head coach.

For world cup/world champs, the national team does cover the costs, so WC trip won't need to touch the budget I mentioned above, but the funding does still apply too, ie LYJ hires his team (1 coach, 1 practice partner, 1 physio) based on said funding and they travel to the WC with national team funding, but the hiring is still his personal funding.

Taiwan, like Japan and many countries, each players acts independently - and so does the funding.

above funding, players can also have different sponsorships and that could invovle materials (ie airline providing free airplane ticket, or mobile company providing internet when abroad, and some times some funders provide cash).


The above is really a Pro exaplantation and I am sure majority of Taiwanese TT fans don't really even know of the above.

 

[JackJohnson]

Taiwan has few different kinds of gov backed funding.
the 6 players you see there are all based on the gold funding, where there is 6 levels.
Lin and Cheng is on the highest tier
Kao and Huang is 2nd
Chien I think is 4, and Feng 5th

Some other players not part of the gold funding would be based on Asian champ funding, or there are also other junior level funding available.

Lin/Cheng total funding is at USD 500k a year each.
of which there are many areas each with a cap on percentage to the total funding. So ie, if you spend over that value say for staff, then you need to self fund the rest.
Areas including training costs, tournament participation, traveling, coaches/staff, equipment, medical etc.

Level 5 doesn't have allowance to fund coaches, so Feng uses national coach - Chiang Peng-Lung, who is also the mens head coach.

For world cup/world champs, the national team does cover the costs, so WC trip won't need to touch the budget I mentioned above, but the funding does still apply too, ie LYJ hires his team (1 coach, 1 practice partner, 1 physio) based on said funding and they travel to the WC with national team funding, but the hiring is still his personal funding.

Taiwan, like Japan and many countries, each players acts independently - and so does the funding.

above funding, players can also have different sponsorships and that could invovle materials (ie airline providing free airplane ticket, or mobile company providing internet when abroad, and some times some funders provide cash).


The above is really a Pro exaplantation and I am sure majority of Taiwanese TT fans don't really even know of the above.

What happens if they don’t use up all the funding for the year? Does the funding increase for next year.

Income wise other than getting prize money from ITTF or WTT events and sponsorships I think it was you that mentioned that some of the players also have government jobs as well where the government gives them an income without actually working with them.

Would you say table tennis be the No 1 sport for getting the most government support funding wise. What about other sports like Badminton etc would that also receive similar funding support? What about some of the smaller sports would the funding support from the government be smaller compared to table tennis and badminton.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

What happens if they don’t use up all the funding for the year? Does the funding increase for next year.

like any gov budget in any country - unused money is returned to the treasury.

Income wise other than getting prize money from ITTF or WTT events and sponsorships I think it was you that mentioned that some of the players also have government jobs as well where the government gives them an income without actually working with them.

The 3 mens are employed full time by Taiwan Co-Op Bank
CIC and Huang is also employed by Taiwan Co-Op Bank
Chien is employed by Cathay Life Insurance.

all of them earn a full time salary, and has the primary role of "playing table tennis full time".
This is similar to some European countries where table tennis players are on the payroll of the army or police force

Would you say table tennis be the No 1 sport for getting the most government support funding wise. What about other sports like Badminton etc would that also receive similar funding support? What about some of the smaller sports would the funding support from the government be smaller compared to table tennis and badminton.

The same gold funding is available for all sports in Taiwan. So it is equal.
Tai in badminton is also level 1 for example.

I do not have too much information of other sports.
but Taiwan has professional leagues in Baseball and Basketball, and the players there are a lot more well off than individual sports like table tennis or badminton, and not to mention the number of players there.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]