Chinese Dominance Take 2!

PingPongPom said:

Yea that's true they seem to have a much stronger focus on sports and world domination than previously. They also have a rapidly growing economy which has struck massive economic growth since they started removing government controls and moving towards free market operations. Basically they have more money to throw around and have taken to dominating in sport. 10 years ago the idea of China winning gold medals in gymnastics would have been laughed at, along with many other codes. Look at them now.

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Yeah for better or for worse, China is definitely devoting a large amount of resource to sports. They put a lot of effort into the 2008 olympics. Both in terms of cleaning up Beijing, and China in general, into organizing the events and the ceremonies, into building the stadiums, and into training their athletes in order to meet their goal of medals count. I can honestly say, that the 2008 olympics were better organized and just overall the best olympics probably in history. Frankly, I doubt any other country can compete in the future in terms of the amount of fanfare and the amount of resources pored into the olympics.

And this is just the starting point. As the Chinese national sports system becomes more educated, more efficient, we will only continue to see the impressive level of performance that China exhibited in 2008.

Mr. RicharD said:

See there's your problem guys. You assume that by all joining up in Europe and staying at the WSA that that is your hope of getting better. You already know what the problem is. There are just more serious players in China than anywhere else in the world. You have to grow your numbers. Only then will enough clubs and then Schools like the WSA be successful. The WSA was a great step for Austria. Now it just needs more people to lead by example and create their own schools. It's the only way Europe can do well in the future.

As for other countries. No it just simply is not a matter of relocating. You have to go out and do it yourself guys. Make more clubs. Create more growth and then maybe in the next couple of years we'll start seeing more schools being built and more facilities being popularized.

You know the real problem with the World vs China issue is that they actually take it serious and are willing to risk whatever they have to keep their country at the top. The rest of the world is just too lazy to do anything about it. We play lazy, we train lazy, we advertise lazily, we do everything in a lazy manner and then when we see the Chinese go out and top the world with their new guys again and we're like "How are they doing it? What is their key to success?"

Come on. It's so very simple. I think the best analogy is that of Lance Armstrong. When asked how much he trains he said, "I will train longer and farther than anyone else that's how I win." I believe during his training he would bike 300+ Miles every week. The guys in second place were all amazed at how great he was, but when someone asks them how much they train they respond, "I try for 100-200 miles a week. Sometimes I just don't have the energy to do more." And then they wonder how come he's winning every race?

China puts more effort in this sport than the rest of the World Combined. That's saying something. Please please, if you truly love this sport then go out and grow it. Get a group of friends interested. Talk to strangers about it. Make a club wherever there is a table. If you have a basement and you have a table invite 10 people over and make a league or do some King of the Hill. Just Do something and it will grow. And then maybe in the next 5-10 years we don't have to hear "Why are the Chinese always at the top of the Sport."

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This is entirely off topic, but as a person in the US, an avid road biker, and a huge fan of Lance Armstrong, I hate to say it, but if I had to bet, I would say I am 95 percent certain that Lance used performance enhancing drugs. This is based on his attitude, the stuff he has said in the past, and just the overall picture and opinion I have garnered from witnessing him in the media throughout his career. The image he tries to breed of being sooooooo into the little details, going as far as choosing not to have his bike painted, which saves like god knows how little amount of weight off his bike, is ridiculous and most likely part of the whole image he tried to breed in order to provide an explanation for his domination. You see the same pattern with alot of baseball stars. Roger Clemens in particular was known for ages for creating the image that his prowess and longevity was a result of hard physical training, weight lifting etc. And that image does help to create a probable reason for his good performance, but in the end is only a tool to obscure his drug use.

Frankly, I wouldn't even blame Lance for using drugs, because its not even a statement on him anymore, but a sad statement on the condition of cycling. It is so prevalent, that just about everyone who is anyone does it. And if all your main competitors do it, you would be retarded for not doing it. Especially since in sports, and especially in cycling and in events like track and field, all the money and glory goes to the winner. You could either cheat, and make millions, or not cheat, and make like 40 thousand a year. The choice is pretty simple.

The problem with risk is that people aren't willing to do it. We have roughly 11000 players in the U.S. that fund our USATT organization every year. 3000 are international players so that's 8000 domestic players who play. Sure we spend money on products and tournament fees and we even have a few professional players that can make a living through coaching and tournament prize money. The average tournament to club ratio is usually 20-30 percent that attend tournaments so if we fluctuate the number for 8000 domestic t0 30-40000 players total around the country. That's 40000 players a little over 0.1 percent of our population that buy TT products and play at clubs generating some income.

If we grew that number to 1000000 that would be a phenomenal amount of growth of over 2500 % that would mean 2500 % more sales and economical growth for the sport in the U.S. That kind of growth would create new jobs, new companies, and most of all new players for the sport. Now imagine if we grew that number to 10,000,000. That's 25,000 % increase in income and resources to help the sport of TT in the U.S.

If people can't see the vision of where TT could go in the U.S. and in Europe then we'll never beat the Chinese. I'm tired of hearing people saying until this happens, and until that happens when the reality is that you need to make it happen. That 1 Million is never gonna happen until the 40,000 do something about it. So for Europe if you guys want the growth that you say you do. Just Do something. Bring 1 person to your club next week. Have them bring a friend the week after that. Get your club of 40 people to bring a person and double in a week. That'll be huge. Imagine in a few weeks you could have over 150 people in your club if you all agreed to bring someone new each week.

Here's some food for thought. The kind of vision that TT needs right now from the non Chinese is this. Would you rather have $10,000 a day for the next 30 days or would you rather have $0.01 doubled each day for the 30 days.

What do you think the difference would be? $10,000 x 30 days is $300,000 for one month. That's a bunch of money right? But guess how much you'd lose.
Over $20,000,000 difference between the $300,000 and the $0.01 doubled. That's the kind of vision we need. And if you don't believe me here's the math.

Day 1 - 0.02, 0.04, 0.08, 0.16, 0.32, 0.64, 1.28, 2.56, 5.12,
Day 10 - 10.24, 20.48, 40.96, 81.92, 163.84, 327.68, 655.36, 1310.72, 2621.44, 5242.88,
Day 20 - 10485.76, 20971.52, 41943.04, 83886.08, 167772.16, 335544.32, 671088.64, 1342177.28, 2684354.56, 5368709.12
Day 30 - 10737418.24

@ Scylla - I don't really think that it had anything to do with drugs. But however minimal the weight on his bike over a trek of 100 miles it does make a difference. I've hiked the Appalachian with 60 lb packs and when you're doing 30+ miles and you have to make certain headway to get to each shelter or campground every little bit of weight that can be spared is huge. We've consolidated weight to the point where we find the cheapest packaging for our ramen noodles or taking the inner tubes out of our TP rolls. Weight over a long distance does make a difference because you just don't understand it until you do it.

I'll give you an example hold your arms out parallel to the floor for 2 minutes one without a book/magazine in hand the other with. Then relax for 1 minute. Then hold your arms out again. This time switch the book/magazine. You should notice a huge difference in your arms when they switch. Now imagine doing that for 1 hour or more.

As for Lance, I would say his physiology and the fact that his body processes lactic acid so much faster than the normal person that has a huge factor on why he won, but I also have to say that no one else trained as much as him. So therefore I venture to say that no one should have beaten him if they didn't put the effort into it. I mean he was training twice as much as everyone else in the tour and I think him winning wasn't a stroke of luck or use of drugs I believe it more to be his work ethic. I've seen time and time again in sports where the person who puts the most amount of efficient work in is the guy who is standing on the podium/winners circle.