Can the USA grow the sport

Make table tennis great again!

Actually, tourneys in USA you get to do a lot of matches, more if you win more. You are getting at least 2 or 3 matches each event you sign up for.

The number of matches in a sanctioned tourney isn't our (USA) problem.

We always come up every now and then on this topic.

Our biggest issues are...

1) TT is not a sport in school. It isn't there.. it isn't taught... there are no teams, no school coaches, no job for a coach, no leagues in school... you get the idea.

2) The existing TT we have is so spread out (except for a few dense areas... and even those you need a car). Other sports, you can practically walk somewhere and do it at a moment's notice... like basketball, or football if you have 4 of more kids ready.

3. The image USA has of TT is a beer pong or low skill thing in the basement. We have big cultural issues with perception of the sport.

4. The existing TT clubs we have... 90%+ of them are not really clubs, but a rented out place at a school gym or church gym/hall to play some matches for a few hours and go away. Practically zero training going on. New players need structure.

5. The existing clubs, even if there is a full time facility, it is darned difficult for new players to get meaningful matches or semi training time with club regulars. The rented out places are winner stays on table 3 matches max... so why is a better player with limited time gunna play players 4 to 10 levels below them? Sure, I do it, a few others do, but we are under 10% overall.

6. If a new player gets excited about TT from a vid or news or whatever and makes his way to a club, he or she gets defeated so overwhelmingly by an average, unathletic fat 50 yr old dude wearing headband with gut hanging over table who doesn't move unless bulldozer or earthquake/fire moves him... you get the idea. Even if the average club player is nice and takes it real easy, the new player knows it and knows he just stepped into a world where reality biatch slaps him upside the face. Some guys take this as a challenge and stay with it to the end to improve. 90% plus go away dragging the azz of their ego whimping and disappear forever.

7. The club system or TT meetup system is not very appealing for young ladies or girls. Larger numbers of this demographic naturally attract the young male crowd (and older crowd with money) and you get the idea. What attractive looking female wants to hangout seated next to sweaty, smelly old guys who talk about stuff they don't like?

8- The frequent rent a gym play 2 hrs thing usually only gets the hardcore 50+ old guy crowd and or the better players, so a new player who is basically a social player is not attracted to it. The thing about showing up random to a TT hall on a FB or Social Media call for a TT MEETUP is not very well suited for this. Rented out TT operations are not reaching out to this crowd... and it is the largest pool of ready to go to the next level of players out there. If there is a pile of good looking, but not so skilled at TT, but still look good, have a job and a car kinda young guy crowd there, then you can get some of the young female crowd there.

It makes me sad.
A sincere teardrop.

OK, so that was 8 things that are wrong about amateur TT in USA... why gripe about what is wrong without offering solutions?

Immediately, there should be two strategic goals amateur TT should focus on...

1) Getting TT into schools as a sport.
2) Getting the social TT crowd into TT halls.

1) No brainer it is how soccer exploded in USA after a slow start. If you have it as a sport, then there are teams, then there must be a job for a coach, then MOM will want best for the kids, so the equipment and apparel outfits make out, so there must also be private lessons (and clubs)… Once this gets traction, then there is a reason for business to support/advertise... then there is more money in tourneys, then there is also a career path for a TT player (playing, coaching, owning a club, selling equipment, announcing, promoting, broadcasting, advertising) I have frequently posted on how we amateur players and USATT could grow this.

2) You can also get good traction with the young male/female crowd who simply wants to "Meetup" have a good time, hit the ball around, see new territory, meet other people, avoid being lonely/bored... look for something new. This is a ready made crowd for the next step, next level. Sure, just about everyone in this crowd is not a serious player, nor wants to be, but bet you me, a few of them will get the bug and get good.

There are MILLIONS and MILLIONS of this crowd. We in USA are doing a little (Smash TT in DC area is attracting this crowd and some have made next step), but we are not even at 0.001% of its potential. Once we get a few hundred thousand "Meetup" participants, it can also grow/evolve into potentially millions.

All this leads to the next goals:

1) Organizing teams/leagues better regional /national comps
2) TT in Universities
3) Developing a TT infrastructure - supporting new club owners
4) City/state/regional teams and comps
5) Medai exposure/support
6) Pro teams/leagues
7) TT Career opportunities

Aren't tournaments round robin to start in the US?

Here is the pdf of a typical sanctioned TT Tourney in USA...

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/sportfist-s3-prod/TournamentForms/343_ICCStateDecOpen2018.pdf

Note all singles events are round robin. (That club usually has one advance if not so many signed up) Most of the USA tourneys with doubles events are single elimination... not so many signed up to make it worth a RR group. A local rec center space rented TT club next weekend is hosting a doubles RR event.. so it sometimes happens.

Here is an extract from the pdf about singles events.

ICC TTC said:

Format: All singles event will start with a round robin followed by singles elimination playoff.

Click to expand...

The last local tourney I did had a 3 player team event with multiple divisions... it was RR with a loser's bracket. Our team finished 2nd in RR, dropped to losers backet, and played to team vs team matches to be the winning loser of our division.

My local tourney has single elimination in the doubles events, 3 of them.

What LPDP has identified is indeed an issue for many USA sanctioned tourney players, a lot of TDs over the years have listened and there are many more RR, Giant RR, and Super Tiered events at all levels.

Some local tourneys as a change of pace offer Giant RR tourneys, where there are 1 or more divisions depending on the number of entries and level... and sometimes more than one giant group in a division.

Often, a giant RR group is 6-8 players, which means guaranteed 5-7 matches... and usually top 2 advance to knockouts... sometimes a top player loses to a kid or a geezer crowd card carrying member (like meez)… so you never know what will happen if you fight to the end.

A big problem is USA is we don't have enough players, so when we get a large number of players together for a group, the levels are usually not so close together, that can be a drag, but at least you get matches and experience... that is why some players register for these.

Even the huge LA Open 4 star tourney I did, doubles was single elimination, not enough play these events. I was knocked out in first match... and somehow I made finals of the geezer fat/50 division... usually it is the other way around. I get a bad matchup in knockouts and crash out of singles and make finals in doubles.

Old dogs and new tricks.

Loopadoop said:

Some but not the majority.

Click to expand...

Disagree - can you share your data to back up this claim?

Here in the Northeast ALL tournaments have RR->SE structure. The only time I ran into pure SE events was at US Open some time ago for some of their age based and higher rated events, like U2400 etc. These do suck, but they are mostly exceptions, not a rule.

Is it alot of private training in the USA? I think that need to change if the tabletennis is going to become better in the USA. In Sweden and other countries you dont need to spend so much money to be part of organized training. Please correct me if im wrong

Yeah, often the Open is single elimination. No one but the best players have a shot, if is wasting their time with groups.

Sometimes, even in lower events, they move the top seeded players into the single elimination bracket.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Lula said:

Is it alot of private training in the USA? I think that need to change if the tabletennis is going to become better in the USA. In Sweden and other countries you dont need to spend so much money to be part of organized training. Please correct me if im wrong

Click to expand...

Yes and no. If there is no way for any structured training, then it is darned difficult to become better than average low level. Not impossible, but difficult.

If a club turns itself into a junior powerhouse pro style training center and devotes all the only match suitable tables for training, then there can be no real match play.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Once USA gets any sort of TT infrastructure established in USA...

One idea to get the rec crowd into TT clubs and serious play is to make a deal with TT table makers sending tables to USA to include a couple papers attached to the table that show where clubs are, explain our sanctioned tourney system, and include an application for USATT membership.

There are over 300,000 TT tables sold in USA every year.

Even if a very low 2 percent actually read it and become members, then you get 6000 members every year. Initial income to USATT is almost a half million usd.

We have maybe 8000 or so active members, so this would nearly double existing membership right away.

Within a decade, you get another 10,000 stagers assuming only 15 percent renew. Very conservative number.

It would cost usatt maybe a quarter million to do that right away... pays for itself first year.

Could be much cheaper cost wise if USATT arranges for the deal to be printed by maker and a reimbursable deal 10 bucks for every new member.

This kind of idea has been suggested by Barney Reed and perhaps others. Larry Hodges has been supportive of ideas that grow tt and pay the major players a portion of the growth.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk