Growing TT in the USA

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Surprised to hear about Germany Club participation decreasing so much. You would think TT would thrive during tough economic times since it is an inexpensive hobby. That is why it is also surprising that the USA has not had significant increases in membership the past 20 years. I have TT friends who play Golf once a week at $16 but won't join a local TT Club which has a monthly fee of $30. It seems to be the fellowship and environmental differences. They want to play with buddies and not someone else's kids.
 
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I'll be quite honest with you, i would'nt like to live in a country where it's difficult to play table tennis !

it's more interesting to play against a lot of players and so future of table tennis in USA is in growing, no doubt about this for me.

I am living in a french town with 80.000 people, about 400 players, ever many people at training, I couldn't imagine a town without table tennis.

I once lived in Lawton, OK, a city of well over 100,000 population... and Der_Echte was the ONLY registered player in that city.

That is what we are working with in many places and it takes work getting it to grow where there is a possible market and making it succeed there so we can have a chance to repeat and spread it.
 
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I hate to say this and it might anger some people, but there is a small part of me that doesn't want table tennis to grow beyond what it is currently as a niche sport.

That is because you have a place to play and people to play against on a regular basis. If im lucky, i will get only 2 days out of the week to sneak in two hours of tt time (NOT play time) because there is only one place close to my work that retrofits my schedule... provided i duck out early!

i want this sport to grow, so i have actual players to play against. heck (regarding an earlier post a while ago) even if u want to work on your footwork, hit me up, i would be more than happy to block for you.
 
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Also. I don't have the numbers, but in my impression there are much more men involved in this sport at amateur level, than women. Why?

That is an interesting question, although I find that many women like watching table tennis. When I play at the college campus, I noticed women watching. Perhaps, they need an invitation to play :) I seen couples play table tennis.
 
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According to your forum profile, you are living in Koree but it seems you are rather now living in usa ?

With all the running he has been doing and setting traps for the goon squad, and running the chicken and beer hustle, Der_Echte has been too busy to figure out how to change that detail. Or, it could be he wishes he was still there so keeping it that way makes him feel like he is there for a few moments.

But one thing is for sure, he loves speaking Korean to anyone who speaks it. Especially if they are a cute looking Korean woman who plays table tennis.

Say is that Seo Hyowon over there? Gotta go!


Sent from the Oracle of Delphi by the Pythia
 
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says Spin and more spin.
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ha ha ... second degree humour is still a bit difficult for me ... so I am improving it !

Second degree humor is good. Third degree humor too. But 10th degree black belt is better. And Der_Echte is who taught Bruce Lee how to be a 10th degree black belt in ping pong:

 
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I'm not sure if i got you right. But if i do, the rating system TTR (equivalent to USATT Rating) started around 2005/2006.

Before that the whole system was a little intransparent and not easy to comprehend.

The decreasing of memberships has got several reasons and also forced clubs to change and break up crusted structures.
The way the leagues are set up has been changed also a few times and still is going through changes.
At the moment the highest league TTBL plays with 3 players per team, all leagues below usually play with 6 players, except the lowest leagues. They can play with 4 players. There is an initiative that wants to get all leagues (except TTBL) play with 4 players, which makes a lot of sense in my humble opinion. You don't have different numbers of team players at soccer, basketball, volleyball and many other sports.

But i'm not sure if that's the answer to your question.
 
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I was listening to "Danny Seemiller" (5-time national champion in the US) on last year's Badger Open in the US. He made an interesting observation, one that is overlooked when talking about the growth of table tennis in America. And do you know what it is...? The answer is..."prize money"...I was watching the US Open 2015, first prize was 7,000 dollars. My local tournament, the Badger Open, gives 2,000 dollars for first place. It seems that the USATT which has a pretty sizable budget, doesn't consider prize money all that important. I would say table tennis players are highly underpaid and if you want more quality players, spark more interest, if you are serious in growing table tennis in the United States or elsewhere, then the prize money should be increased.

I would say prize money should be around at least if not more than 25,000 dollars for all the major tournaments in the United States. The nationals should be 50,000. That is just for starters. It would also attract better players from overseas to come and play rather than paying those players 5,000 to come here. So I agree with Danny, prize money should be increased.
 
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I would say prize money should be around at least if not more than 25,000 dollars for all the major tournaments in the United States. The nationals should be 50,000. That is just for starters. It would also attract better players from overseas to come and play rather than paying those players 5,000 to come here. So I agree with Danny, prize money should be increased.

Then expect massive landing of the 2nd/3rd tier level players from China competing for that money, hehe :) And that is probably not a bad thing.
 
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Uh-oh, I can hear Der_Echte saying that is a top down approach. Yikes. Better run.

I believe the children are our future.
Teach them well and let them lead the way.

Say, is that YANG Ha-eun? Gotta Go!

Hah, hide your cash prizes and hide your serves, Der_Echte iz comin' to town!

You gotta ask... where is the 50,000 smackeroos for the national winner gunna come from... Will it be the result of a national cereal box top redeeming drive? Part of the "Job" of a national organization is to market the sport and get sponsors. Ironically, when Dan Seemiller was President, he got some more money than many others for the titlist.

When there is a much larger participation base and reasons for a company to cough up that big bucks, then at least the existing players will be motivated and fight. New players will not have a shot at big bucks, unless there are big bucks for the newby division... but if that is the case, then you will have good players playing like newbies. If there is a huge prize for U1000, then there will be a lot of 2000 level 900 rated players.

None of that brings a lot of new players into the sport. We need to find ways to engage the basement and social crowds to play social / organized /competitive table tennis and LIKE it. As it is now, if we are lucky to get a new player in a "club" (usually only a place to wait an hour to play matches) then they are overwhelmed by difference in level and much unfriendliness by the better players who have no time for them. These new players never come back.

There are some things that existing clubs could to to negate this, AND yes, clubs who do new players right generate even more new players, but not in hundreds of thousands. Schools already have an infrastructure and are accessible, tables don't cost an arm and a leg and many have one or two already. Getting it going in schools and repeating it makes a much faster and wider base without over-running existing clubs, it even builds demand for new clubs.
 
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