the real dusseldorf review (by the-don)

[the-don]

context: I only went there on saturday, didn't know anybody of the forum personally and arrived around 15 minutes late

the organization:

-this was an event they started organizing in february.
-there were people from all over the world coming.
-it was in the strategic center of european table tennis. the mythical borussia dusseldorf club
-it was a 3 day event
-it was organized by the ttdaily guys you see often playing with waldner, persson, timo boll, ovtcharov, etc.
-it costed 40 euro per person just to enter
-they sent you a form where they ask you what you would like to see, what you would like to train, how you would like to train, do you want to train more or see others playing more, what's your level, etc.
-in the form it also asked if you would like to be filmed
-they also asked sizes for a t-shirt

the expectance:

naturally I imagined this was going to be a big deal.
I imagined there was going to be a part that would be like a studio where they would film.
maybe we would all play against dan and they would film it.
maybe being borussia dusseldorf we would play againt dang qiu or dimi or sabine winter.
at the very least I was expecting liam pitchford from england.
ok liam had to go tour with oasis.
ok give me tom jarvis at least bro.
this is the pinacle of british table tennis that was coming to dusseldorf.
I was also expecting to just see pro players around just hanging out or training.
I wanted to see stars.
to feel like I was in a movie.
to play these stars, be trained by these stars, have them correct my technique.
maybe even have a lab where they would analyze my shots in slow motion.
then timo boll or dang qiu would say "this is your problem, now come with me we are going to fix it"

what really happened

I arrive on saturday.
nobody looks at me.
nobody asks me anything at all.
I go sit in the stands.
there's people training, many look british, but they are all amateurs.
no dang qiu, no timo boll, no liam pitchford, no paul drinkhall...
after 30 minutes of just sitting there someone comes with a tablet and says "ok guys this guy plays that guy, this guy with that, etc."
I'm like "ok this is a bit different of what I expected.... to have a red carpet and timo boll receive me and look at my arm see if I have the magic touch"
after this unknown guy to me says all the matches I go and introduce myself.
after paying 40 euros.....driving 220km.... waiting there for 30 minutes.... the guy says "oh no, you can't play because you are not in the whatsapp group"
I was losing my mind... this was horrible.
so I basically had to beg the organizer (nick) to let me play.
he thought and thought and made calculations and eventually said "ok you can stay and play starting the next round".
I play the rounds, win a few, loose many more.
eventually time's up and we are told to leave.

they didn't even make us play against dan or tom or the guys we see on youtube.
dan wasn't even there!
the most important day of his entire life and he stayed in the hotel?
tom was there but he was just another guy.
he would just talk to his friends and ignore the rest.
they are supposed to be stars, have a different personality.
be the boss.
I was expecting at the bare minimum to be filmed playing against dan in something that ligthly resembles a studio with good lights, etc.

there was no filming.
no professional filming crew.
no registered coaches correcting your moves.... if I show up to any club in europe tomorrow there's a coach and he will correct your technique... most of the times all for free.
there was no dan.
there were 0 yes zero pro payers that you could recognize....and we were in the middle of the borussia dusseldorf club!!!!

for anyone from europe... it was like going to a club near you and asking to play.
you play a few matches with other amateurs and you leave.
that was it.
"oh but the scenary...." -> bro you go to any club in europe and they have similar installations to the borussia dusseldorf club.
and in many places in europe you don't even have to pay to play.
you can go all year to train with a coach, you play national league.... and you practically pay nothing.

so was it like I imagined it?
it was the total opposite of what I imagined

was it worth it?
if you live 5 minutes from the club sure go and play
if you have to take an airplane to go.... probably not

also why even go to borussia dusseldorf?
timo boll wasn't there waiting for you.
jorg rosskopf wasn't there to correct your technique.
yet everyone had to pay 40 euros to go there

just go to any european club in the middle of nowhere, it's the same.

also if you sell this as the first worldwide meeting of the most important forum of table tennis...
and you charge 40 eur per person
and you do it in borussia dusseldorf... with all the contacts that dan supposedly has.
do something more professional.
at least give us a tom jarvis vs liam pitchford.
something!
bring truls moregard make him play a match against each of us with the cybershape and put it on youtube....
something, some effort.
these guys they are table tennis players... they have a lot of free time.
shouldn't be so difficult with the contacts of danny boy.
call kanak jha man... he probably lives 20 minutes from the club and spent the whole saturday watching a romantic movie while eating a kebab and listening to shania twain.
have nextlevel contact kanak and tell him to come.
if there was someone from argentina playing in borussia dusseldorf I would totally ask him to come to the meeting. I would even offer some form of monetary compensation.

also have someone in the reception.
have dan and tom there shake your hand and ask you where you are from, what's your level, etc.
this was literally like a ghost town.
you went in there and everybody was minding their own business

but to close in a positive fashion.
I had a decent car ride.
good scenary sponsored by the bundesrepublik.
now I can say I've been to the city of dusseldord.
and I played a few matches against other amateur players like me.
that was it.

 

[Haito]

Heck. If I want to see An Jae-hyun or Lebesson all I need to do is to drive to watch Superliga, Dusseldorf is the only occasion to see @NextLevel 🤷

 

[barusu]

Dan was sick, what can he do beside resting? He came on sunday to play and record video with us.

I am also disappointed that no stars was coming. But prob all of them are playing in WTT Macao or Panagyurishte.

And we did introduce ourselves on friday, which you missed. A friend of mine also came only for saturday but bcs she told Nick beforehand, she got a spot in the round robin game.

 

[Caravenav]

I didn't go to the TTD Düsseldorf event, so you know better than me what happened there. However, I think the main issue was your high expectations of the reunion.

From your description of what you expected from the reunion, it seems as though you were expecting a table tennis version of Comic-Con, with famous players and YouTubers creating content with all the players, and professional players watching you play.

Do you really think that a professional TT player would go to watch you play and give you advice for €40? I think €40 is the price to rent a table at the club for two hours.

Please don't take this post as an attack, but I think you were over-excited about meeting the TTD guys in one of Europe's most famous table tennis venues, where many pro players train.

I can tell you that what you are looking for is possible at that club and will meet your expectations. I was there in April, where I met some nice people, one of whom was at the TTD meeting (@barusu ). I stayed at the BD hotel for four days, which was right in front of Fan Zhendong's room. I had three meals a day, two training sessions and one free session daily. I also had a short video analysis, which helped me improve my backhand. We also watched Benyamin Faraji, Alberto Mino, Walter and Fang Bomeng train for a few minutes. You can also pay for a one-to-one training session with one of the coaches. On the day I checked in, I saw Dimitri Ovtcharov and Anton Kallberg there. Even though I asked the reception staff if I could watch a few minutes of their training, they said no. I saw them when they had finished.

The four training days cost €320 (including everything), and I think this option would be a really good experience.

 

[kindof99]

context: I only went there on saturday, didn't know anybody of the forum personally and arrived around 15 minutes late

the organization:

-this was an event they started organizing in february.
-there were people from all over the world coming.
-it was in the strategic center of european table tennis. the mythical borussia dusseldorf club
-it was a 3 day event
-it was organized by the ttdaily guys you see often playing with waldner, persson, timo boll, ovtcharov, etc.
-it costed 40 euro per person just to enter
-they sent you a form where they ask you what you would like to see, what you would like to train, how you would like to train, do you want to train more or see others playing more, what's your level, etc.
-in the form it also asked if you would like to be filmed
-they also asked sizes for a t-shirt

the expectance:

naturally I imagined this was going to be a big deal.
I imagined there was going to be a part that would be like a studio where they would film.
maybe we would all play against dan and they would film it.
maybe being borussia dusseldorf we would play againt dang qiu or dimi or sabine winter.
at the very least I was expecting liam pitchford from england.
ok liam had to go tour with oasis.
ok give me tom jarvis at least bro.
this is the pinacle of british table tennis that was coming to dusseldorf.
I was also expecting to just see pro players around just hanging out or training.
I wanted to see stars.
to feel like I was in a movie.
to play these stars, be trained by these stars, have them correct my technique.
maybe even have a lab where they would analyze my shots in slow motion.
then timo boll or dang qiu would say "this is your problem, now come with me we are going to fix it"

what really happened

I arrive on saturday.
nobody looks at me.
nobody asks me anything at all.
I go sit in the stands.
there's people training, many look british, but they are all amateurs.
no dang qiu, no timo boll, no liam pitchford, no paul drinkhall...
after 30 minutes of just sitting there someone comes with a tablet and says "ok guys this guy plays that guy, this guy with that, etc."
I'm like "ok this is a bit different of what I expected.... to have a red carpet and timo boll receive me and look at my arm see if I have the magic touch"
after this unknown guy to me says all the matches I go and introduce myself.
after paying 40 euros.....driving 220km.... waiting there for 30 minutes.... the guy says "oh no, you can't play because you are not in the whatsapp group"
I was losing my mind... this was horrible.
so I basically had to beg the organizer (nick) to let me play.
he thought and thought and made calculations and eventually said "ok you can stay and play starting the next round".
I play the rounds, win a few, loose many more.
eventually time's up and we are told to leave.

they didn't even make us play against dan or tom or the guys we see on youtube.
dan wasn't even there!
the most important day of his entire life and he stayed in the hotel?
tom was there but he was just another guy.
he would just talk to his friends and ignore the rest.
they are supposed to be stars, have a different personality.
be the boss.
I was expecting at the bare minimum to be filmed playing against dan in something that ligthly resembles a studio with good lights, etc.

there was no filming.
no professional filming crew.
no registered coaches correcting your moves.... if I show up to any club in europe tomorrow there's a coach and he will correct your technique... most of the times all for free.
there was no dan.
there were 0 yes zero pro payers that you could recognize....and we were in the middle of the borussia dusseldorf club!!!!

for anyone from europe... it was like going to a club near you and asking to play.
you play a few matches with other amateurs and you leave.
that was it.
"oh but the scenary...." -> bro you go to any club in europe and they have similar installations to the borussia dusseldorf club.
and in many places in europe you don't even have to pay to play.
you can go all year to train with a coach, you play national league.... and you practically pay nothing.

so was it like I imagined it?
it was the total opposite of what I imagined

was it worth it?
if you live 5 minutes from the club sure go and play
if you have to take an airplane to go.... probably not

also why even go to borussia dusseldorf?
timo boll wasn't there waiting for you.
jorg rosskopf wasn't there to correct your technique.
yet everyone had to pay 40 euros to go there

just go to any european club in the middle of nowhere, it's the same.

also if you sell this as the first worldwide meeting of the most important forum of table tennis...
and you charge 40 eur per person
and you do it in borussia dusseldorf... with all the contacts that dan supposedly has.
do something more professional.
at least give us a tom jarvis vs liam pitchford.
something!
bring truls moregard make him play a match against each of us with the cybershape and put it on youtube....
something, some effort.
these guys they are table tennis players... they have a lot of free time.
shouldn't be so difficult with the contacts of danny boy.
call kanak jha man... he probably lives 20 minutes from the club and spent the whole saturday watching a romantic movie while eating a kebab and listening to shania twain.
have nextlevel contact kanak and tell him to come.
if there was someone from argentina playing in borussia dusseldorf I would totally ask him to come to the meeting. I would even offer some form of monetary compensation.

also have someone in the reception.
have dan and tom there shake your hand and ask you where you are from, what's your level, etc.
this was literally like a ghost town.
you went in there and everybody was minding their own business

but to close in a positive fashion.
I had a decent car ride.
good scenary sponsored by the bundesrepublik.
now I can say I've been to the city of dusseldord.
and I played a few matches against other amateur players like me.
that was it.

I think for an event like this, you need to mix yourself in, not wait for being introduced or waited unless you were FZD or Dan himself. I did not follow the event from the beginning, but it appears that they did not mention/promise any famous players to come from the beginning. And trust me, your fellow amateurs can give you better tips to improve than most of those top players on TV unless you are already semi pro.

 

[the-don]

Heck. If I want to see An Jae-hyun or Lebesson all I need to do is to drive to watch Superliga, Dusseldorf is the only occasion to see @NextLevel 🤷

I wanted to see Timo Boll, Dang QIu, Kanak Jha, Truls Moregard, Liam Pitchford.....
all I got to see is @NextLevel
he's like the security bouncer of TTDaily.
just like USA is the bouncer of the world.
coincidence? I don't think so.

 

[the-don]

I think for an event like this, you need to mix yourself in, not wait for being introduced or waited unless you were FZD or Dan himself. I did not follow the event from the beginning, but it appears that they did not mention/promise any famous players to come from the beginning. And trust me, your fellow amateurs can give you better tips to improve than most of those top players on TV unless you are already semi pro.

you go to any club in europe you play for free and you have a registered coach.
I don't go to dusseldorf to be coached by fellow amateurs.
I go to see patrick franziska.
and not only to see, to play with him.
same goes for dan, tom, all the guys we see on youtube.

unique occassions ask for unique environments.
this was a unique occassion that felt like any regular monday in any city club.

 

[NDH]

Hey @the-don,

I wouldn’t usually comment on individual cases, but given you brought all of this up, I’ll do my best to expand and correct any misconceptions.

Firstly, whilst no Pro was promised, we had hoped to get one.

We had confirmations from 2 (I won‘t say their names), but due to the Macao event and the Bulgaria Open, this unfortunately fell through. However, as this was never part of the plan, nothing was “lost” so to speak.

As others have explained, Dan was ill (on the Friday and Saturday) and it was a great effort just to turn up - Had you been there from the start on Friday, you’d have known this (or in the WhatsApp group, that had been advertised numerous times as the place to receive updates).

The 40 Euros was to *partially* cover the cost of the hall for THREE days, including food on the Sunday afternoon and a 90 minute tour of the entire facility by the Managing Director himself.

To put that into perspective…. That’s about €2.50 PER HOUR to play in the leading facility in Europe.

Finally…. I had asked many times for final numbers, and you told me you’d make your mind up in the moment.

At no point did you confirm you were coming, when you were coming or give me any warning you’d turn up unannounced part way through the day.

You arrived on Day 2 (after everyone else had arrived), and made no effort to introduce yourself, even when I was doing the intros at the start of the session.

The Round Robin event was already underway, which is why it was not straight forward to “add you in”.

Fortunately, Tom and the Chair offered to drop out (alternating), so you could play their matches and participate.

If you turned up late to any other event and didn’t introduce yourself, you’d not be playing at all.

This was a TTD Community event - Not a Pro event.

There was no advertisement of coaching or Pro players or anything like that.

If you’d like to see Pro players, you should buy tickets to the matches.

However, thanks for making the effort to come out either way. It’s great to be able to put faces and ability to names.

If you’d like to help organise the next one, please reach out to me directly and we’ll see what we can do.

Gracias.

Nick

 

[the-don]

I didn't go to the TTD Düsseldorf event, so you know better than me what happened there. However, I think the main issue was your high expectations of the reunion.

From your description of what you expected from the reunion, it seems as though you were expecting a table tennis version of Comic-Con, with famous players and YouTubers creating content with all the players, and professional players watching you play.

Do you really think that a professional TT player would go to watch you play and give you advice for €40? I think €40 is the price to rent a table at the club for two hours.

Please don't take this post as an attack, but I think you were over-excited about meeting the TTD guys in one of Europe's most famous table tennis venues, where many pro players train.

I can tell you that what you are looking for is possible at that club and will meet your expectations. I was there in April, where I met some nice people, one of whom was at the TTD meeting (@barusu ). I stayed at the BD hotel for four days, which was right in front of Fan Zhendong's room. I had three meals a day, two training sessions and one free session daily. I also had a short video analysis, which helped me improve my backhand. We also watched Benyamin Faraji, Alberto Mino, Walter and Fang Bomeng train for a few minutes. You can also pay for a one-to-one training session with one of the coaches. On the day I checked in, I saw Dimitri Ovtcharov and Anton Kallberg there. Even though I asked the reception staff if I could watch a few minutes of their training, they said no. I saw them when they had finished.

The four training days cost €320 (including everything), and I think this option would be a really good experience.

in argentina you can get coached 1 hour by a bundesliga player for 10 euros.

so being this the biggest the most important meeting of table tennis in the planet with dan the close colleague of waldner and persson.....

yeah I was expecting a lot.
and I thought that it would not be so difficult for ttdaily to organize something really professional and entertaining.
but honestly I think they didn't want to.

maybe not waldner and persson but if you take a 2nd bundesliga guy you pay them the train ticket and 100 euros I'm sure they would consider it.
for example, just to throw a name, why not invite carlos muhlbach the guy with the anti?

but as I said it seemed a bit like they didn't want to put too much into this meeting.

 

[the-don]

Hey @the-don,

I wouldn’t usually comment on individual cases, but given you brought all of this up, I’ll do my best to expand and correct any misconceptions.

Firstly, whilst no Pro was promised, we had hoped to get one.

We had confirmations from 2 (I won‘t say their names), but due to the Macao event and the Bulgaria Open, this unfortunately fell through. However, as this was never part of the plan, nothing was “lost” so to speak.

As others have explained, Dan was ill (on the Friday and Saturday) and it was a great effort just to turn up - Had you been there from the start on Friday, you’d have known this (or in the WhatsApp group, that had been advertised numerous times as the place to receive updates).

The 40 Euros was to *partially* cover the cost of the hall for THREE days, including food on the Sunday afternoon and a 90 minute tour of the entire facility by the Managing Director himself.

To put that into perspective…. That’s about €2.50 PER HOUR to play in the leading facility in Europe.

Finally…. I had asked many times for final numbers, and you told me you’d make your mind up in the moment.

At no point did you confirm you were coming, when you were coming or give me any warning you’d turn up unannounced part way through the day.

You arrived on Day 2 (after everyone else had arrived), and made no effort to introduce yourself, even when I was doing the intros at the start of the session.

The Round Robin event was already underway, which is why it was not straight forward to “add you in”.

Fortunately, Tom and the Chair offered to drop out (alternating), so you could play their matches and participate.

If you turned up late to any other event and didn’t introduce yourself, you’d not be playing at all.

This was a TTD Community event - Not a Pro event.

There was no advertisement of coaching or Pro players or anything like that.

If you’d like to see Pro players, you should buy tickets to the matches.

However, thanks for making the effort to come out either way. It’s great to be able to put faces and ability to names.

If you’d like to help organise the next one, please reach out to me directly and we’ll see what we can do.

Gracias.

Nick

I did confirm.
here's a screenshot of the DM's

I didn't go to the morning session because the bed was just too comfortable.
but I did go to the afternoon session.

as for the pro players I have seen them.
but supposedly in this meeting you could also play.
now if you tell me you can't play timo boll I get it.
but a 2nd or 3rd bundesliga guy? there's a ton of those and I'm sure many would be willing to play if you offer some incentive.

for example what I would have done:
you have 3 fixed tables
-table 1 is dan
-table 2 is tom
-table 3 is carlos muhlbach the 2nd bundesliga pro

in each of these tables you put a cell phone film everything.
you make everybody rotate and pass at least once through all these 3 tables.
you have 9 hours total video? make a massive 9 hour post on youtube.
everybody can watch their matches.
everybody has a memory of the time they went to the meeting.

in the amateur leagues I play nobodys come with their cell phones and a tripod, they film their matches and then post them on youtube.
why is it so hard for the ttdaily guys to do the same? the experts of social media....
doesn't make much sense to me.

 

[NDH]

I did confirm.
here's a screenshot of the DM's
View attachment 43352
View attachment 43353

I didn't go to the morning session because the bed was just too comfortable.
but I did go to the afternoon session.

as for the pro players I have seen them.
but supposedly in this meeting you could also play.
now if you tell me you can't play timo boll I get it.
but a 2nd or 3rd bundesliga guy? there's a ton of those and I'm sure many would be willing to play if you offer some incentive.

for example what I would have done:
you have 3 fixed tables
-table 1 is dan
-table 2 is tom
-table 3 is carlos muhlbach the 2nd bundesliga pro

in each of these tables you put a cell phone film everything.
you make everybody rotate and pass at least once through all these 3 tables.
you have 9 hours total video? make a massive 9 hour post on youtube.
everybody can watch their matches.
everybody has a memory of the time they went to the meeting.

in the amateur leagues I play nobodys come with their cell phones and a tripod, they film their matches and then post them on youtube.
why is it so hard for the ttdaily guys to do the same? the experts of social media....
doesn't make much sense to me.

Yes, you sent that a few days before the event, and then didn’t turn up when you said you would.

Zero message. Zero warning.

Organisers won’t stop because of 1 person who didn’t turn up. The show must go on!

1 important distinction you are missing is that this started as a tour for MY team. Not TTD.

I organised it all as a social for the community.

It was incredibly generous of the TTD team to turn up at all - Let alone spend their time, energy and money on this for everyone’s benefit.

It sounds like your expectations were not aligned with the purpose of the event.

However, given your overall attitude, I’m not sure this type of event is the right thing for you.

 

[NextLevel]

I wanted to see Timo Boll, Dang QIu, Kanak Jha, Truls Moregard, Liam Pitchford.....
all I got to see is @NextLevel
he's like the security bouncer of TTDaily.
just like USA is the bouncer of the world.
coincidence? I don't think so.

Ha... ha... ha... ha.. - why is your "humor" always at someone else on the forum's expense?

Good to meet you sir, hoped you had a great time. But we are back to this... your form of "humor"...

You have few fans... that much I can tell...

 

[the-don]

Yes, you sent that a few days before the event, and then didn’t turn up when you said you would.

Zero message. Zero warning.

Organisers won’t stop because of 1 person who didn’t turn up. The show must go on!

1 important distinction you are missing is that this started as a tour for MY team. Not TTD.

I organised it all as a social for the community.

It was incredibly generous of the TTD team to turn up at all - Let alone spend their time, energy and money on this for everyone’s benefit.

It sounds like your expectations were not aligned with the purpose of the event.

However, given your overall attitude, I’m not sure this type of event is the right thing for you.

sorry but watching this it doesn't give me any impression of "your" team.
it gives me the impression of ttdaily and borussia dusseldorf

and also if I don't show up in the morning and I show up in the afternoon... what is the problem?
did you tell dan on sunday "no you can't play because I already have everything organized" ?
no because he's dan.
then why do that to me?

 

[kindof99]

you go to any club in europe you play for free and you have a registered coach.
I don't go to dusseldorf to be coached by fellow amateurs.
I go to see patrick franziska.
and not only to see, to play with him.
same goes for dan, tom, all the guys we see on youtube.

unique occassions ask for unique environments.
this was a unique occassion that felt like any regular monday in any city club.

My only curiosity is that you have two Z03 2.8mm? were they specially made?

 

[Caravenav]

in argentina you can get coached 1 hour by a bundesliga player for 10 euros.

so being this the biggest the most important meeting of table tennis in the planet with dan the close colleague of waldner and persson.....

yeah I was expecting a lot.
and I thought that it would not be so difficult for ttdaily to organize something really professional and entertaining.
but honestly I think they didn't want to.

maybe not waldner and persson but if you take a 2nd bundesliga guy you pay them the train ticket and 100 euros I'm sure they would consider it.
for example, just to throw a name, why not invite carlos muhlbach the guy with the anti?

but as I said it seemed a bit like they didn't want to put too much into this meeting.

Maybe next time you should go to Argentina to be coached for €10...

 

[NextLevel]

Ok guys, Okay @the-don, the thread has been "fun", but this is not the kind of fun I signed up to TTD for.