Hello from Wiesbaden, Germany!

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I have been living in the area for almost two years. Just started getting into table tennis again and currently playing at TuS Eintracht. Aiming to figure out the whole Hessen/Rheinland-Pfalz tischtennis scene but it can be difficult since mein Deutsch ist schlecht. If anyone is interested in playing or offering coaching services in the area please let me know. Thanks
 
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I have been playing table tennis for over two decades in South Germany and I have not met a single adult amateur player yet that gets personal coaching. I think this is a bit different to USA, at least from what I have read about that in this forum. It sounds like it is quite common to find a coach there and pay him for some lessons.

In South Germany it is quite easy to get good training and coaching as a decent kid. As an adult however, you are either lucky that there is a training partner in your club with coaching experience who you coudl ask for advice or you play on such a high level that your club provides a trainer for an adult group. It is quite uncommon to get professional coaching as an adult regularly at an amateur level. You have to be really lucky to find someone near your area who is willing to do that for a bit of money.
 
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The only coaches that I knew of back in Maryland were about an hour or so away in Gaithersburg. I managed to get over that way once and got a lesson from Jack Huang. Larry Hodges and Yinghua Cheng also gave lessons there. They charged about a dollar a minute for private coaching. I believe I need a little coaching to get over bad habits I picked up playing as a kid without any direction. Parents got me a table when I was around 9 and maybe i am guessing due to having small hands at the time grew up holding the paddle with my thumb supporting the back. I feel like this helps with the crazy amount of sidespin I can put on the ball but hinders everything else (maybe also have advantage on chop). I switch between that bad habit to at least bringing on my index finger (modified seemiller?) and that lets me do topsin. I have been able to hold my own to other Germans coming to the table I am at but maybe its just that the higher level players know not to waste their time :) Roland Tedjasukmana gives lessons near me but I believe the available hours don't work for me at the moment.
 
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Just for heck of it.
I am actually bit interested in this matter.
I will appreciate your honest thoughts.
As SOME might know, XIOM EUROPE is located nearby Frankfurt. (Somewhat fairly close to Wiesbaden)

In Korea and Japan, there are many coaches that offer great coaching.
Meanwhile In Germany it is very hard to find any coaches that can offer such service.
I've seen coaching service nearby Koln, but I think it is very very rare.

If XIOM is interested investing in table tennis sport hall, and invite coaches from Korea, Japan, or China to coach adults in Germany. Do you think people will be interested? IF so, how much do you guys feel is reasonable pay?
 
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The XIOM Europe location in Eschborn? If so it looks like its only 20 minutes away from me. I need to check it out. Is it just a store or can anyone go there to play as well? I also need to check out the Butterfly store in Giessen. Any other places I need to know about :) ? I was just in Dusseldorf for the asian grocery / Japanese Curry... just found out that is where Timo plays.

I know I would be interested in a few lessons but not sure what a fair rate would be... I suppose the max I would want to pay would be 40 Euro an hour.

Is there a certain level that is needed before league play is even worth pursuing? I would love to eventually compete.


 
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Is there a certain level that is needed before league play is even worth pursuing? I would love to eventually compete.
The lowest league is for beginners. As soon as you are able to keep a ball on the table for a few times and to serve legally you can give it a go, especially if you would love to do that. Maybe you will lose most of your matches but who cares? It is still fun and you will improve a lot :)

I assume you have already played a bit of table tennis in the past so maybe you don't even have to stay in the lowest league too long ;)

Just ask your club mates what they think about you participating in one of their teams. They know best where to put you in.
 
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I'm in a similar situation as you having played the last 3 years in the US and having just moved back to France. I joined a really good club and team here in France, my level is good enough that they placed me in team 4 to start off before I move up to team 3, and hopefully higher divisions after a few years. We practice 3-4 times a week, which mostly consists of rallying and games with players of all levels (no lessons like for the kids) and league games are on the weekend. I would also like to do more multiball and drills on top of that, like the lessons I would take when I first started in the US, so I'm going to ask some of the higher players who teach the kids, and maybe some of the team 1 players who play at the national level if they could give me lessons at the club on the side for money, or come over to my place once I get a table soon. I suggest you do the same at your club or at some of the nearby clubs. Like Xylit also said, I think joining one of the teams of your club is a great idea even if you start with the lowest division team, you'll get team practices where clubmates will help you out, gain experience, improve, meet lots of players around your area, visit lots of clubs and work you way up the team divisions and rating as you get better.
 
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Ok, this might become a longer post. Mightaswell get yourself a cup 'o tea first.
[Emoji2]

Just for heck of it.
I am actually bit interested in this matter.
I will appreciate your honest thoughts.
As SOME might know, XIOM EUROPE is located nearby Frankfurt. (Somewhat fairly close to Wiesbaden)

In Korea and Japan, there are many coaches that offer great coaching.
Meanwhile In Germany it is very hard to find any coaches that can offer such service.
I've seen coaching service nearby Koln, but I think it is very very rare.

If XIOM is interested investing in table tennis sport hall, and invite coaches from Korea, Japan, or China to coach adults in Germany. Do you think people will be interested? IF so, how much do you guys feel is reasonable pay?

Well there are already japanese and chinese coaches here.
Afaik Fulda's coach is Meng QingYu. His son Meng FanBo is also a promising talent.
Frickenhausen's coach is Qiu JianXin. His sons Qiu Dang and Qiu Liang are also pretty good.
In Braunfels (Oberliga Hessen) there is Gao Xiaojun.
In Bad Königshofen the headcoach is Itagaki Koji

So the market is there but it's no easy biz. To be honest some coaches are looking for employment too. Best thing would be to contact the club managers and/or TT'assosciations like HeTTV, BTTV and such.
Actually Xiom player and TTD member the TTR-Hunter Simon Sangals should be able to help Isaac on this. Victas/TSP and the japanese website "shakehands" raised their output and PR-campaigns too.
http://www.shands.jp
So no need for Xiom to hold themselves back here.
[EMOJI6]

I have been living in the area for almost two years. Just started getting into table tennis again and currently playing at TuS Eintracht. Aiming to figure out the whole Hessen/Rheinland-Pfalz tischtennis scene but it can be difficult since mein Deutsch ist schlecht. If anyone is interested in playing or offering coaching services in the area please let me know. Thanks

I have been playing table tennis for over two decades in South Germany and I have not met a single adult amateur player yet that gets personal coaching. I think this is a bit different to USA, at least from what I have read about that in this forum. It sounds like it is quite common to find a coach there and pay him for some lessons.

In South Germany it is quite easy to get good training and coaching as a decent kid. As an adult however, you are either lucky that there is a training partner in your club with coaching experience who you coudl ask for advice or you play on such a high level that your club provides a trainer for an adult group. It is quite uncommon to get professional coaching as an adult regularly at an amateur level. You have to be really lucky to find someone near your area who is willing to do that for a bit of money.

The situation isn't as dark and depressing as Xylit has described though he's close to reality.
However, because of this i've organised a coach who's a friend and used to be a former working mate who comes to our club once a month to coach us adults. If you like to i can send you the dates via pm.
Their website is: http://www.ck-tischtennis.de
He, his wife and his team also coach at other clubs like TTG Bingen/Münster-Sarmsheim from the Damen-Bundesliga (highest female league) and from my Information also more frequently than just once a month. Two of them are in your area. One is in Mainz Nieder-Olm the other in Wiesbaden-Dotzheim.
At some clubs you don't have to be a member to participate at the lessons, but you might have to pay a bit more than if you were a member.
But it's still affordable.
Club coaching is something around €10,- for 2h for external players. One on One coaching is around €30,-

Einzeltraining
Anzahl der Spieler Trainingdauer Preise pro Spieler
1 Spieler 60 Minuten 30 €
1 Spieler 90 Minuten 45 €
2 Spieler 60 Minuten 15 €
2 Spieler 90 Minuten 22,50 €
zzgl. Fahrtkosten 0,30 €/km
Not sure how good they speak english though, so in case you need translation mightaswell just join our club.
[Emoji6]

These are just a few options.

There are more coaches that come to clubs:
like https://www.loris-tischtennis.de
You can also book some pros/ former pros like Thomas Keinath.
Or you can visit TT-Schools https://qiutts.de (who's also coaching 2nd Bundesliga team Frickenhausen. The coach his son is German National team member Qiu Dang)
Or
https://www.topspin-sport.de in the very south of Germany.
The Butterfly TT-school in Grenzau
https://www.zugbruecke.de/de/Wellnesshotel-Zugbrücke-Grenzau/Butterfly-Tischtennis-Schule/4/
Or the Andro tt-school in Düsseldorf
https://www.borussia-duesseldorf.com/tt-schule/kurstermine-anmeldung/

Just to name a few. Certainly there are more.

Sorry for the novel...
 
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Sugar, next time you apologize for making a proper detailed post to help someone big time, ima gunna go bust u in da chops.

Pound the like button on Sugar post.

I used to live in Wiesbaden before I discovered tt. Heck, I was also likely in the DC Maryland area same time as OP might have run across him.

Sugar, the Dotzheim location looks good... that isn't too far east of the city gym.

I also told OP that the huge city gym on 2Ring has open tt for adults twice a week... VfR Wiesbaden there are a few 1900 to 2000+ USATT level players there who speak English. Their membership is real puny, only so many Teuros a year.

I think OP could get on one of the lower men's teams.

Even if OP is just hitting with whoever at the club during adult training time, then he could still pick up stuff and develop some.

MSS, I would strongly advise you to take the first two semesters of German on post at Univ of Maryland. Often, that is as far as it gets with minimum enrollment. Otherwise, take a night class at the Volkshochschule, it is in an ex us army camp right across the street from KFC chicken on Schiersteiner Str. A few months of that or the first few semesters of Univ of M will get you enough foundation to express a chunk of what you want to say and grow from there.

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I have also heard of the lehrgang tt road show, but that could be for kids.

Either way, OP has as good or better chances for growing his tt over there than FIGHTING through an hour of traffic in the DMV.

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MSS,

Don't worry too much about learning enough German to go on ZDF and make nation speeches, just try real hard to improve. People will see that effort and respect your willingness to try stuff their way, even if you fail. Often, that level of effort will get you a good ending.

American go to Germany and DEMAND stuff be done in English as most have English traing... but that attitude will get a person nowhere fast.

You try and struggle and not give up, that will open up a lot of good stuff for you.

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Thank you for all the information Suga D! I will have to visit your club sometime for sure but wouldn't be able to go there on a common basis due to the hour commute. I have four young kids at home and I need to be careful not to overextend myself :) As far as coaching it seems like my best bet would be to inquire about the coach you mentioned located in Dotzheim.
 
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Thanks for the advice Der_Echte. I'll see if I can make it to VfR Wiesbadens next open adult play. I also plan on seeing what activities I can get my oldest (8) involved in. I know I want him to learn to play table tennis but also need to get him involved in soccer or maybe gymnastics and maybe the same club will have something available.
 
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Thanks for the advice Der_Echte. I'll see if I can make it to VfR Wiesbadens next open adult play. I also plan on seeing what activities I can get my oldest (8) involved in. I know I want him to learn to play table tennis but also need to get him involved in soccer or maybe gymnastics and maybe the same club will have something available.

8 is a good age to start TT, most pros started at 7 or younger.
 
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I think Naurod also has a club... that is maybe 10 min. from where you live... You drive by it every day.

Yeah, they got a club... TG 1890 Naurod.

http://www.tg-naurod.de/cms/index.php/tischtennis/trainingszeiten-tt

Looks like the same Tues and Friday 8PM adult training times in the Kellerskopfhalle.

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Thanks for the advice Der_Echte. I'll see if I can make it to VfR Wiesbadens next open adult play. I also plan on seeing what activities I can get my oldest (8) involved in. I know I want him to learn to play table tennis but also need to get him involved in soccer or maybe gymnastics and maybe the same club will have something available.
VfR Wiesbaden has Soccer as part of its program. Membership is real cheap. I was wrong before... Rasensport is grass sports... so there it is.

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I have usually been able to find clubs to play at in Germany even without hosts taking care of me. There seem to be a bunch in every decent sized city. I have done this in Heidelberg and Cologne and Dusseldorff. I don't speak German. (I have not had similar success in France even though I speak French).

A lot of the ones I found play at school gyms in the evenings one or two days a week. The challenge is that some evenings they have league matches and activity slows down a lot in tne summer, whivh of late is the time when I travel to Germany. So I have had to be persistent with the internet and calling club organizers until I find a place. If I lived in Germany it would be easier.

It is intetesting that coaching for adults is so hard to come by, but given the way things are organized it doesn't surprise me.
 
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