Dan (TTD) and Matt (MHTT) Interview [VID]

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what can make TT more popular long term?

I've been thinking a lot about this. Our club has no issues in attracting kids to our beginner classes. We have something like 200-300 active kids which is a lot for a small club. Most classes are actually full and we've implemented a queuing system. The issue arrises when they start to become 11-12 and the groups start becoming thinner and thinner. Already at 13-14 you only have the kids let that's (way too) serious about the sport. At 15 you only have the players left that can play at national level. How can you keep players that never will become a new Ma Long in the sport?
 
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Dan

says editing a big TTD Team episode... stay tuned 👀

Dan

says editing a big TTD Team episode... stay tuned 👀
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Done, unless you want to do a best of 7 ;) haha have you got the stamina young man?

Haha Matt bring it on... best of 15 ill be there :D


I thought you guys raised some really good points here! Matt really agree with your views about marketing the sport more and trying to get more involvement from the crowd. Reminds me of our sports marketing classes days. ;) In regards to exhibitions would definitely be good to get spectators randomly selected to play and interact with players. These kinds of things would give better exposure to the sport. How would you guys say ping pong worlds is marketed and what are some of the differences?

Hey Ripper good points and Matt mentioned how the World Championship final you were so far away from the main table it was hard to watch. At the World Ping Pong Championship final you were close to the table so it was an amazing atmosphere. I think the problem the ITTF have at their big events is the logistics, initially they are catering for 300 tables with tons of participants, so its difficult to go down to 1 final table. The new Grand Smashers I think will try and do this where they have less participants competing which means they can set the venue up differently. The arena in T2 Diamond Malaysia was very cool and I think could be a good concept for Table Tennis going forward. Look how good the venue is at Wimbledon... 15,000 spectators in the center court all close to the action.


I've been thinking a lot about this. Our club has no issues in attracting kids to our beginner classes. We have something like 200-300 active kids which is a lot for a small club. Most classes are actually full and we've implemented a queuing system. The issue arrises when they start to become 11-12 and the groups start becoming thinner and thinner. Already at 13-14 you only have the kids let that's (way too) serious about the sport. At 15 you only have the players left that can play at national level. How can you keep players that never will become a new Ma Long in the sport?

That's a very good point. Football has the same problem in the UK but there are variations of the sport like 5 a side football that keeps teenagers/adults playing such as GOALS: https://www.goalsfootball.co.uk/

I think with table tennis the team element is really important. I think a lot more team competitions help kids take part not only for the table tennis but for the social side of things to. The more social table tennis becomes whilst maintaining the high level competitiveness I think it will help. There are many many factors and things, it's a tricky one... right
 
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