I shared this "goal" many years back.
As we can see, there is already a few chinese table tennis college in the world
There is pro team and pro team, province & province, city and city.
China is the ultimate"enemy" to beat, but then this enemy is helping you to become stronger
I wonder if today Japan is the king, or Korea, or Germany, or Sweden (sweden was the king before), if these countries will do as much as what China is "contributing for free"
I see your point to a degree, but I think China [the Tabletennis Association] has realized that helping others will also help themselves too, because the
lack of competition leads to stagnation, my dear friend.
Also the exchange isn't just for tabletennis. The famous german football (soccer) coach Felix Magath is now coach for Shandong Luneng's Football Team.
The whole article is quite an interesting read.
I haven't made a translation of the whole interview though, since it wasn't requested.
But here are some excerpts that might be interesting:
Mytischtennis.de: China profits from German Football Know-how and Germany profits from China's tabletennis knowledge. Whose idea was this cooperation between the Liebherr Masters College and the CTTSL club Shandong Luneng:
Ochsenhausen's Manager Kristijan Pejinovic: it was our idea after long debates that seeking for help from the leaders in the sports can only be helpful and since one of our coaches Fu Yong who is originally from Jinan which is one of Shandong Luneng's bases and still has good contacts to them and since not many get the chance to look behind the scenery of a chinese club we want to take advantage of this.
Mytischtennis.de: the reasons for the Liebherr's Masters College are quite obvious, but China could do well without you, so what do they hope to benefit from?
Pejinovic: well they're mainly interested at cultural exchange. But we can also be helpful in other areas. See the two top chinese leagues mainly have players from asia and to avoid monotony for the audience they seek for more contacts to european players, because this monotony is becoming problematic more and more and if players like Boll and Ovtcharov are playing in the CTTSL this helps prevent this.
So Shandong Luneng has asked us to send 2 or 3 players to them and they will send 2 or 3 players over here, because they develop so many talented players and there are just a few clubs, it is quite difficult to give more than just a few players regular competitive play. But that's exactly the problem. The chinese season is pretty short so most of them can only practice and lack competitive playing experience. To help these players to progress they need more competitive play. Hence Shandong will send talented players over here, and we'll try to organise that they can sign up with european top clubs. At the moment they feel a bit limited by their Tabletennis Association and we want to help break barriers.
Mytischtennis.de: so what will be your plans?
Pejinovic: we've already sent 3 of our students to China. It was interesting for our players to see how they practice over there and in february we're expecting a larger group from China who will stay 3 to 4 weeks to see how we're working over here and also might even talk about plans for the next season.
Mytischtennis.de: how will Ochsenhausen benefit from this?
Pejinovic: well not in terms of playing for our TTBL Team. At the moment this just doesn't fit our strategy. We're trying to develop the youth and are so far quite satisfied. But you should never say never.
Mytischtennis.de: where is China ahead?
Pejinovic: there are many points. What shall i start with? Europeans have made the same mistakes. No matter if Germany, Sweden or Hungary. After having a 'golden' Generation everyone of them forgot to build up the following generation and lead them to a that level. So the problem is selfmade. At the moment it's hard for coaches to find good jobs. But less good coaches will lead to less good players which will then lead to less media interest. And this might cause sponsors to not extend their sponsorship.
In europe there are so many 'under-construction' zones, and there is plenty to do - which is actually good, but these construction zones need to be spotted to be able to work them out. Do the children over here learn to play tabletennis at school?
Mytischtennis.de: well, i haven't...
Pejinovic: and that is exactly the problem. How shall the kids learn to play if they don't accidentally bump into a club? That's exactly the difference to countries like China. They get in touch with tabletennis from an early age on.
But i'm not expecting to change our society, but i can do what I'm capable of in my area.
(
Source: mytischtennis.de )
The last sentence sounds a bit like that car sticker: Think global - act local.
[Emoji12]