Player salaries in clubs in EU

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A member of a Table Tennis Facebook Group I follow wrote a very interesting post with the info he was able to gather about men salaries in clubs in EU. So according to the author:


-players who are ~bellow ITTF250+ are playing for food, equipment and a butterfly suit. On a good day, they even may get 100eur for small expenses :(
-players around ITTF250 earn on average 12-15000 EUR per season +bonuses for results, so on average around 100eur per victory
-players around ITTF200-250 can expect 15-20000 EUR per season+some bonuses
-players around ITTF150-200 can expect 18-22000 EUR per season+some bonuses
-players around ITTF100-150 can earn up to 30000 per season, on average 25-27000 EUR per season
-Crossing ITTF-100 is an important threshold in Table tennis. Top 100 players salaries start from 30000 eur per season. But it depends upon how stable are you. Whether you are always in the top 100 or if your ranking varies from for example ITTF-120 to ITTF-80...
-players around ITTF-60 and up earn 40-50000 eur per season. Those who are stable above ITTF-50 earn not less then 60000EUR per season
-players around ITTF-20 earn from 60-90000eur per season. But it may vary wildly depending on the results
-top players get 150000-300000 eur per season or more. But, for example, stars like Timo Boll earn much more than that.
Also, players get bonuses for taking first places in various tournaments, so this money usually goes only to top players naturally.


Salaries in China are much bigger than in Europe.


So the takeaway is that you should get a normal job and stop dreaming about making your living from TT. Cause to be able to make a decent living you have to be one of let's say 100 top players in the whole world and have superpowers :)
 
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No wonder there are no newcomers in Europe.
 
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Don't discourage people man, especially since you're wrong :)
you can make great living if you're good! Most good players make a lot of money from teaching, don't worry about it. They can charge a LOT and there are people who will pay.
It's the same in most sports/arts.

Hell, you don't have to be top in the world, you can be like 10th best in your CLUB and still make very good money off of personal coaching.
 
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In my club a 2700 player charges $65-$75/hr. He normally has a table at home so doesn't pay club fee. He can have 2 or 3 students at the same time and only needs to personally coach players 30min per session. Assuming he does it every day, 6 hrs a day (8 hrs may be too physically tired), with 1 students per hour, that is roughly 6 students a dayX$70 = $420/day; =420X5 days/week/52weeks/year = ~110K/year. And remember this money is cash thus has no tax imposed on it which is equivalent to ~$150K/year. I'd say that is a very decent salary, right?
 
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In my club a 2700 player charges $65-$75/hr. He normally has a table at home so doesn't pay club fee. He can have 2 or 3 students at the same time and only needs to personally coach players 30min per session. Assuming he does it every day, 6 hrs a day (8 hrs may be too physically tired), with 1 students per hour, that is roughly 6 students a dayX$70 = $420/day; =420X5 days/week/52weeks/year = ~110K/year. And remember this money is cash thus has no tax imposed on it which is equivalent to ~$150K/year. I'd say that is a very decent salary, right?

Coaching is definitely a great option. You just need to be smart and have good contacts to make decent money if you are not the very best. I know some folks in Korea who were never famous in any way but set up their own clubs and living decently. They invite some famous players to hang out at their clubs once in a while ( using their playing days contacts) and thats enough to keep them going.
 
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Don't discourage people man, especially since you're wrong
you can make great living if you're good! Most good players make a lot of money from teaching, don't worry about it. They can charge a LOT and there are people who will pay.
It's the same in most sports/arts.


Hell, you don't have to be top in the world, you can be like 10th best in your CLUB and still make very good money off of personal coaching.


I asume that most players who are 20-30 year old and pro (let's say ITTF 350-150 and earn salaries from playing at TT clubs (being a little bit sarcastic...) ) are training to improve themselves and to get to top100, but don't train others...

But when you retire you can definitely earn some money from training the general public. But also if you are a really good coach then you should be training a pro club team and because of their low budgets, you shouldn't be earning a lot (not talking about j.rosskopf here). I think that a general rule of all sports is that players earn more than their coaches, so...


Also I am not sure that these low salaries are that much directly related to the general popularity of TT. For example, I started playing TT because there was a school TT club to which my parents signed me. I am sure that they didn't sign me with an intent to make my living from it 10 years later. Maybe low popularity is more related to the lack of school table tennis clubs, the lack of activity from TT federations in promoting TT for kids, lack of sexiness of the sport... I don't know.. :)
 
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if you guys recall, I once showed numbers on how players are making a loss when going to play in all these world tours (for the sake of ranking points). if you don't win the world tour (or end up in the top 4), you are making a loss (flights, hotel, coaches fee etc etc), unless it is being sponsored for.

TT as a player won't make you rich
Coaching is different to playing (as a living)
I know many top coaches who were former world top 100, 50, 20 etc, are making a good living as a coach now, but never made a good living as a player - in fact, they had a hard life as a player - including one that made world top 20 at one stage

today, only your TT celebrities are there
others, just get well okay... but not rich
the others who don't make a cut, becomes a coach and stop playing in they 20s
 
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wow, i almost forgot about these

i must add, I know a lot of up and coming juniors - all have rich background
take Lin Yinju of Taiwan, his father is a professor.
the parents can afford to hire a private coach from China at $5000 per month, excluding expenses (flights, accommodation for the coach)

guys like Harimoto has countless budget from JOC, JTTA

So in a way, if you have money - you can make it to the top
if you are poor, tough luck
if you are in tt to make money - wrong career
 
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In my club a 2700 player charges $65-$75/hr. He normally has a table at home so doesn't pay club fee. He can have 2 or 3 students at the same time and only needs to personally coach players 30min per session. Assuming he does it every day, 6 hrs a day (8 hrs may be too physically tired), with 1 students per hour, that is roughly 6 students a dayX$70 = $420/day; =420X5 days/week/52weeks/year = ~110K/year. And remember this money is cash thus has no tax imposed on it which is equivalent to ~$150K/year. I'd say that is a very decent salary, right?

I'm very intrigued by this calcilation.
Is this just an assumption of what is eventually possible, or a really existing practice in your club?
 
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I'm very intrigued by this calcilation.
Is this just an assumption of what is eventually possible, or a really existing practice in your club?

such income is possible, but that is "coaching", not "playing"
a player needs to earn money to play, not by coaching, so I think the example used by Tropical is not suitable for "what a player earns"

Quite a few US based coaches are earning that amount - but mostly in the more popular tt cities
 
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It is based on what I found out by talking to some insiders. But Tony is right, such salaries are only possible in big cities where many tt players are around. Some coaches are making a lot more and many making less. Timothy Wang (ex #1 US player) used to be a coach before he landed a good engineering job in electronics .
 
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