Table Tennis Popularity Trends in your country?

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Here are some viewership reports of WTTTC 2018 in China. CCTV5 (sports channel) is the only ITTF authorized TV channel and Zhibo TV is the only ITTF authorized online streaming website/app with LGL commentary (CNT's quarterfinals, semifinals and finals). Young generation prefers Zhibo TV over CCTV5. On average LGL attracted 11 million viewers a day.
CCTV5 has viewers from broader age range. For women's final, CCTV5 had 16.72% market share and 2.09% average viewership ratings. For men's final CCTV5 had 17.55% market share and 2.47% average viewership ratings. What do the figures mean? 1 out of 6 TV viewers was watching WTTTC on Sat or Sun night. The most-watched match before WTTTC on CCTV5 is 2018 Winter Olympic Games men's 5000m speed skating rally, with 2.25% average viewership ratings. Considering the duration of a TT team match, 2.09% and 2.47% are very impressive.
 
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We had more players in the past, but i think sweden is coming. Or atleast from i can hear and see. On a board meeting in my club my sport director have heard from the Swedish federation that tabletennis was on of the most growing sports today in Sweden. Or was it in my city. We also have more beginners and kids that play tabletennis than we can have. And then we have 20 tables. And every training is almost full. We just have trouble keeping them when they get older.
 
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We just have trouble keeping them when they get older.

I think this problem is everywhere.
In fact I would not call it a problem as its caused by the logical and natural way life goes on.
The kids grow up and go to other place to study and/or work and/or make a family and so on.
Most of them would drop the sport, some will continue in other club near the place they are.
The best of them may just decide to develope in a club with a better offer/training.
 
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Not doing great in France, in the sense that number of players is declining and the overall age of players getting higher. Objectively the situation is still good on the whole, with very good and affordable infrastructure, a strong and healthy national league, and a relatively steady stream of (almost) top players on the international scene. What mostly needs improvement is the sport 's image if we are to get more new players in, and somehow more qualified coaches. It sure wouldn't hurt if a few matches could be broadcast on the sports channel that is part of the free nation-wide bouquet, or any other type of promotion, as for most people it is still the game you play at Club Med during your summer vacation in the Canary Islands. Also, more gender parity in terms of numbers would be nice, and I feel this may actually be the case as time goes on but I have no reliable data to back this up.
 
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We had more players in the past, but i think sweden is coming. Or atleast from i can hear and see. On a board meeting in my club my sport director have heard from the Swedish federation that tabletennis was on of the most growing sports today in Sweden. Or was it in my city. We also have more beginners and kids that play tabletennis than we can have. And then we have 20 tables. And every training is almost full. We just have trouble keeping them when they get older.

I spent few days recently with a former swedish junior national coach.
he said the registered numbers is sitting at 10k - a lot smaller when he was a player (former top 20 in Sweden in the peak of Swedish TT)

He said school TT is not as popular as before - his words was, the teacher don't know how to teach it
 
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I spent few days recently with a former swedish junior national coach.
he said the registered numbers is sitting at 10k - a lot smaller when he was a player (former top 20 in Sweden in the peak of Swedish TT)

He said school TT is not as popular as before - his words was, the teacher don't know how to teach it

Yes, of course it is not as much now. I think almost everyone can make that statement. Tabletennis was much more popular when we had all the stars, so much more proably played in school and at home. It is very noticeable only the latest 10 years when i was a teenager. It was much more kids that played then.

But from what i can see in my club we have no problem at all with recruiting beginners, or having children that have played 1-5 years but then for some reason many stop playing. Our problem is to keep them playing. I think it is important that you get a great group there everyone have fun together.

edit: forget to mention. I looked at a rather "small" tournament and how many that started every year. in the 1970 it was around 600-700 players, but this year they could not have the tournament because of to few participants. Say pretty much really.
 
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Yes, of course it is not as much now. I think almost everyone can make that statement. Tabletennis was much more popular when we had all the stars, so much more proably played in school and at home. It is very noticeable only the latest 10 years when i was a teenager. It was much more kids that played then.

But from what i can see in my club we have no problem at all with recruiting beginners, or having children that have played 1-5 years but then for some reason many stop playing. Our problem is to keep them playing. I think it is important that you get a great group there everyone have fun together.

edit: forget to mention. I looked at a rather "small" tournament and how many that started every year. in the 1970 it was around 600-700 players, but this year they could not have the tournament because of to few participants. Say pretty much really.

how is school's table tennis in Sweden now?

I have been to quite a few countries, and with Asian dominance, it doesn't just come with a top end structure, but pretty much a very strong primary school table tennis structure (China, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea etc)

take NBA for example, it is because school basketball is big
same with baseball etc

so I feel with TT to be strong/big, one requires to have a strong school sport environment for TT
 
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Here in Brazil is growing, normal sport store are now selling appropriate material for the sport, for exemple, before its was more difficult to find even ball with stars in normal stores lol, and another thing is that now some games have broadcast live in TV, of course, the Olympics had a lot of impact on this rise of popularity(myself included) but I think the determinant factor is Hugo continue to elevate the sport more and more, some kind of Gustavo Kuerten effect hahaha.
 
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how is school's table tennis in Sweden now?

I have been to quite a few countries, and with Asian dominance, it doesn't just come with a top end structure, but pretty much a very strong primary school table tennis structure (China, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea etc)

take NBA for example, it is because school basketball is big
same with baseball etc

so I feel with TT to be strong/big, one requires to have a strong school sport environment for TT

Do you mean the possibility to play tabletennis in school hours? Proably better than ever i think. Do not think they could do that during our glory days but i am not sure. When i was starting high school there were like maybe barely three places i think. Now there are much more cities where you can play tabletennis in your high school.

Think money is the biggest problem. Clubs do not have the money to have good full time coaches. Talked to a old chinese coach today that have owned a snack bar(gatukök is the swedish word) because it were proably more money in that than coaching. I have heard that he came at third place in the chinese national championships and have been a fulltime coach before so he is proably very good at coaching. To bad that he could not have been a coached instead of flipping burger. But he is looking for a coaching job now again he said. Maybe it is easier than i think to get a full time gig as a coach.

I will proably try to do some trainings with him since he use short pimple like me. And everyone played like him then, so he proably know alot about short pimples.
 
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Do you mean the possibility to play tabletennis in school hours? Proably better than ever i think. Do not think they could do that during our glory days but i am not sure. When i was starting high school there were like maybe barely three places i think. Now there are much more cities where you can play tabletennis in your high school.

Think money is the biggest problem. Clubs do not have the money to have good full time coaches. Talked to a old chinese coach today that have owned a snack bar(gatukök is the swedish word) because it were proably more money in that than coaching. I have heard that he came at third place in the chinese national championships and have been a fulltime coach before so he is proably very good at coaching. To bad that he could not have been a coached instead of flipping burger. But he is looking for a coaching job now again he said. Maybe it is easier than i think to get a full time gig as a coach.

I will proably try to do some trainings with him since he use short pimple like me. And everyone played like him then, so he proably know alot about short pimples.

One big difference today vs 1970-1990 is the competition from floor ball (innebandy). Both in terms of attracting kids as well as competition for training facilities (school gyms). Floor ball was so much smaller until about 1990 and has taken over as the main indoors sport from handball and table tennis. I believe that floor ball is the second largest sport in Sweden after football.

Some lucky clubs have their own facilities but most don't.
 
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Do you mean the possibility to play tabletennis in school hours? Proably better than ever i think. Do not think they could do that during our glory days but i am not sure. When i was starting high school there were like maybe barely three places i think. Now there are much more cities where you can play tabletennis in your high school.

Think money is the biggest problem. Clubs do not have the money to have good full time coaches. Talked to a old chinese coach today that have owned a snack bar(gatukök is the swedish word) because it were proably more money in that than coaching. I have heard that he came at third place in the chinese national championships and have been a fulltime coach before so he is proably very good at coaching. To bad that he could not have been a coached instead of flipping burger. But he is looking for a coaching job now again he said. Maybe it is easier than i think to get a full time gig as a coach.

I will proably try to do some trainings with him since he use short pimple like me. And everyone played like him then, so he proably know alot about short pimples.

more about school sport, and school league and school tournaments

ie in america, say basketball, you have your school leagues, then best team goes to the state championships, then national championships
 
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One big difference today vs 1970-1990 is the competition from floor ball (innebandy). Both in terms of attracting kids as well as competition for training facilities (school gyms). Floor ball was so much smaller until about 1990 and has taken over as the main indoors sport from handball and table tennis. I believe that floor ball is the second largest sport in Sweden after football.

Some lucky clubs have their own facilities but most don't.

So, basically floorball == floor hockey - I can see why it would be popular in Sweden. Surprised Canada does not have it (or may be does?).
 
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more about school sport, and school league and school tournaments

ie in america, say basketball, you have your school leagues, then best team goes to the state championships, then national championships

Okay, no. Do not think we have that.
 
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So, basically floorball == floor hockey - I can see why it would be popular in Sweden. Surprised Canada does not have it (or may be does?).

I think it's quite popular in Finland and the Czech Repulic (+ Sweden). I believe that Switzerland is a quite strong nation as well = your typical ice hockey countries minus Russia and Canada.
 
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Okay, no. Do not think we have that.

Yeah, thats what I heard from the former junior coach.
A bit sad that "almost all schools" will have a table or few tables (what he told me)
But then there is no structure to enhance school sports together and make it big.

IMO, for a sport to be big, you need school goers to play it as a school sport.
It is common where after school, then 90% of them will stop, but you have a fan base/viewership audience for life.

Recently I chatted with a top coach in Taiwan, he said something similar
A recent Taipei City primary school tournament had 6000 kids take part. And that is only 1 city.
I asked him how many active player is there in Taiwan, he reckons around 50000 (majority is school goers age)
then another 50k to 100k parttimer/socials

so this makes Taiwan a market of 100k~150k on a 23.5m population
much better with the 10k registered on a 10m population of Sweden.

I'm sure bulk of Japan's numbers is also related to School goers.
 
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It’s great that some cities in the US have a table tennis place for teens. In our town near Chicago there is nothing like this. We have our own table for foosball and table tennis. When I come to my family and we go out to play table tennis with my brothers, all the neighboring teens join us. We already thought that perhaps the best solution would be to buy new tables, rent a room and conduct lessons for teenagers in our town.
 
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After posting my last post on this thread, I seriously thought about my idea, talked to my parents about it, and started looking for reviews on table tennis tables and fusball tables. Found several reviews that give a good description of it so that I can choose a good quality and price. I want to share these reviews with you:
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https://www.bestpingpongtables.review/
https://recroompick.com/best-outdoor-foosball-table/

Maybe you will see something familiar in these reviews and say that some table is really good or some poor quality. I really got excited about this idea and need your help
 
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