Training overseas / away from home: Has anyone done or thought about it?

[Emjay]

Im working with a team, including Dan from TTD to create better opportunities for practicing table tennis abroad, traveling the world & having a lot of fun while doing it. Dan from TableTennisDaily and I have talked about this a lot during our training sessions and we'd love to hear about other people's experiences.


Im currently doing some research and could really use your help I'd love to hear from anyone who would like to go / has been away on a holiday to practice.


- Where would / did you go?
- Why would / did you go there?
- How much would you / did you spend on the trip?
- How long did you go for?
- How did you find out about it?
- How old are you?
- What is your standard of table tennis? Are you serious about competing or more of someone who just plays for fun?


If you are interested in training overseas leave your email here so that we can keep you updated.

 

[Emjay]

Im working with a team, including Dan from TTD to create better opportunities for practicing table tennis abroad, traveling the world & having a lot of fun while doing it.


Im currently doing some research and could really use your help I'd love to hear from anyone who would like to go / has been away on a holiday to practice.


- Where would / did you go?
- Why would / did you go there?
- How much would you / did you spend on the trip?
- How long did you go for?
- How old are you?
- What is your standard of table tennis? Are you serious about competing or more of someone who just plays for fun?


If you are interested in training overseas leave your email here so that we can keep you updated.

Let me start off
- Where would / did you go? Beijing, China
- Why would / did you go there? On my way to New Zealand from the UK my flight was stopping over in Beijing, so I decided I would stay for 10 days to play some table tennis in China since it had always been a dream of mine. I also obviously wanted to improve as well. I got to have 1 on 1 coaching with a former world champion, Liang Geliang for 2 hours every day so I think I got quite a bit better.
- How much would you / did you spend on the trip? This one is hard to say since I was going there anyway on my way somewhere else I wouldn't count the flights (which were about £800). I think my 10 days in China cost me about £600 but I bought a bunch of TT equipment and did quite a bit of tourism etc and indulged in some insane Chinese massages to help with the pain of my broken body. The coaching itself was I think £50 for each 2 hour session and I did that for 5 days so about £250.
- How long did you go for? I went for a total of 7 days, 5 days playing TT and a couple of days of site seeing. I went to the great wall etc.
- How old are you? I'm 25 now, i think I was 21 when I went on this trip.
- How did you find out about it? I was lucky to have a friend called George Evans who's a Welsh guy who had been a pro player in Germany and had been on the same team as Liang Geliang. They were good friends and so he was able to make the introduction. Liang Geliang by the way did not speak English, only German and I don't speak German or Chinese so communication was tough.
- What is your standard of table tennis? Are you serious about competing or more of someone who just plays for fun? ​I just play for fun but I still compete, I play in tournaments and national league etc. As a junior I played nationals, so I guess I'm an amateur who can play quite well

l'm really looking forward to hearing some other peoples stories. I had such a great time in China, it was loads of fun. The table tennis was great, the sightseeing was amazing I would definitely do it again. So I really want to help more people be able to have opportunities like this.

 

[Sa1ko]

Im working with a team, including Dan from TTD to create better opportunities for practicing table tennis abroad, traveling the world & having a lot of fun while doing it. Dan and I have talked about this a lot during our training sessions and we'd love to hear about other people's experiences.


Im currently doing some research and could really use your help I'd love to hear from anyone who would like to go / has been away on a holiday to practice.


- Where would / did you go?
- Why would / did you go there?
- How much would you / did you spend on the trip?
- How long did you go for?
- How did you find out about it?
- How old are you?
- What is your standard of table tennis? Are you serious about competing or more of someone who just plays for fun?


If you are interested in training overseas leave your email here so that we can keep you updated.

-i went to Tischtennis Schule Zugbrücke (the academy of bundesliga club Grenzau)
-it's quite close to where i live, about 3 hour drive i think, so i thought why not
-if i recall correctly it's around €180 (seems much, but you get to live in a **** hotel (although not that luxurious if you're just there for training as it is seperate from the "normal" guests, the food and acomodation are absolutely top-notch and you get a t-shirt )
-from friday afternoon till sunday afternoon (4 group training sessions and the option to get private lessons)
-it was something the club i play for set up and i just went along
-it was last summer so i was about 21 then
-i compete, but in a very low provincial league here in Belgium, technicaly i can do al strokes, but in the matches it doesn't always work out, so to the standards of this comunity a good amateur

extra: the places i want to go to play table tennis are China (although i'm probably not good enough for the real academy's there) and the USA, just to check what some people estimate my level, that way i can finally get my head around that bloody usatt-ranking system

 

[agold]

I might go to china over the summer. It would be like $100 a day including food and sleep, but the plane ride is expensive, like $1000. I would go to Hebei or Tianjin or another city with a big center and good level

 

[Der_Echte]

A member of the Iceland Natl team decided to go to Korea to spend a long 6 months or so to enjoy a break from Uni and to train TT.

He ended up selecting Korea and luckily, there were a few American TT players in Seoul his level and they ended up being good buddies and shared living expenses together to lower their monthly rent. They all had a blast, the Iceland dude trained with a bunch of Korean juniors they had a ton of adventures over there. I got him onto our clubs team on the regional circuit with our KFTTC ringers and the TDs over north of Seoul got sick of them winning so they got banned, since they lived in Seoul haha fun story.

I agree, the plane ride is a very expensive part, but after that, things can be reasonable and it is certainly a huge adventure if you have the attitude for it.

 

[Emjay]

I might go to china over the summer. It would be like $100 a day including food and sleep, but the plane ride is expensive, like $1000. I would go to Hebei or Tianjin or another city with a big center and good level

Sounds awesome man! Go for it if you can afford it. How will you arrange the training? Do you know someone there or is it through your coach?

 

[Emjay]

-i went to Tischtennis Schule Zugbrücke (the academy of bundesliga club Grenzau)
-it's quite close to where i live, about 3 hour drive i think, so i thought why not
-if i recall correctly it's around €180 (seems much, but you get to live in a **** hotel (although not that luxurious if you're just there for training as it is seperate from the "normal" guests, the food and acomodation are absolutely top-notch and you get a t-shirt )
-from friday afternoon till sunday afternoon (4 group training sessions and the option to get private lessons)
-it was something the club i play for set up and i just went along
-it was last summer so i was about 21 then
-i compete, but in a very low provincial league here in Belgium, technicaly i can do al strokes, but in the matches it doesn't always work out, so to the standards of this comunity a good amateur

extra: the places i want to go to play table tennis are China (although i'm probably not good enough for the real academy's there) and the USA, just to check what some people estimate my level, that way i can finally get my head around that bloody usatt-ranking system

Sounds like fun! A couple of friends of mine here in the UK fly over to play for a club in the belgian league. I believe it's either the top or second highest that they play in.

You didn't actually say whether or not you enjoyed the trip. How was it? Did you have fun? Do you think you improved? Would you do it again?

So if the academies in china would accept someone of any standard you would want to go practice there? BTW I can't recommend it enough, china is incredible! Even just as a holiday it's great and when you include playing table tennis with amazing coaches etc it's just the best!

 

[Emjay]

A member of the Iceland Natl team decided to go to Korea to spend a long 6 months or so to enjoy a break from Uni and to train TT.

He ended up selecting Korea and luckily, there were a few American TT players in Seoul his level and they ended up being good buddies and shared living expenses together to lower their monthly rent. They all had a blast, the Iceland dude trained with a bunch of Korean juniors they had a ton of adventures over there. I got him onto our clubs team on the regional circuit with our KFTTC ringers and the TDs over north of Seoul got sick of them winning so they got banned, since they lived in Seoul haha fun story.

I agree, the plane ride is a very expensive part, but after that, things can be reasonable and it is certainly a huge adventure if you have the attitude for it.

So there are clubs in Korea that someone could come from overseas and pay to practice at intensively for a week or two?

Would you go on a trip to play OS for a week or two? Like to China or the states for example?

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

just out of curiosity, I would like to know more of this project.
I see the website as table tennis daily player table tennis abroad thing

 

[Emjay]

just out of curiosity, I would like to know more of this project.
I see the website as table tennis daily player table tennis abroad thing

When I wanted to go to China I really wanted to practice at an academy or something but I found it difficult to organise. So I thought it would be great if someone could make the connections with different clubs around the world and then make it easy for players to book a trip with accommodation etc online. I thought it was something I would use and I thought that maybe other players might find it useful too. So I'm trying to learn as much as I can from players who have done it or would like to do it and see if I could make something like that be really awesome and something people would actually use. I had such a good experience with my own trip that I want to make it possible for anyone to go around the world on a holiday to wherever and have lots of options to choose from and for it to be really easy to book and organise.

So I'm looking to speak with anyone who might like to use something like that or just people who have done it in the past. I'm also looking to speak with the people who are running training centres and clubs because they would be an important part of the project too. Or even just people who know people who might be useful to speak with

 

[Sa1ko]

Sounds like fun! A couple of friends of mine here in the UK fly over to play for a club in the belgian league. I believe it's either the top or second highest that they play in.

You didn't actually say whether or not you enjoyed the trip. How was it? Did you have fun? Do you think you improved? Would you do it again?

So if the academies in china would accept someone of any standard you would want to go practice there? BTW I can't recommend it enough, china is incredible! Even just as a holiday it's great and when you include playing table tennis with amazing coaches etc it's just the best!

i know only of a few english players (not in person) that play in Belgium and i think they play for smash aarschot (or smash dolfijn, they changed the name recently), even if you only know the names i should be able find them with the site of the VTTL and say how thery're doing here in Belgium

i loved my trip to Germany, i learned a lot and the trainers are fantastic, fluent in both german and english. the head trainer is a great man, can almost instantly say what's wrong. i had a lot of fun, i even did an extra training because the group after us was uneven and i wasn't really tired yet i would certainly do it again (and again, and again,...)

yeah i certainly want to go to China, one thing is sure about the chinese, they excell in table tennis. if even a little of their genius would rub of on me i'ld be more then pleased

 

[Der_Echte]

So there are clubs in Korea that someone could come from overseas and pay to practice at intensively for a week or two?

Would you go on a trip to play OS for a week or two? Like to China or the states for example?

Not in the amature clubs. You cant do a high standard full time training in a Korean club, they are not setup for that, only 20-30 minute lessons and matches, maybe some drill if there are not a lot of players in the club. Over time, you can raise your level considerable, but it isn't a substitute for full time training with a group in a dedicated facility.

What you have to do is have an underground contact of a high school team that is training, or a place where elite juniors get full time training after lunch. Most of these school teams hire ex pro coaches and have some really hardcore training going on. Since 75% of Korean Amature club coaches are ex-pros themselves, they have the contacts or know who knows. Once you get hooked up with some juniors training, a lot of it is fundamentals and at first look, it doesn't appear like much, but the results do not lie.

 

[Der_Echte]

You can live in a Koshitel for under $200 a month, heat and rice/ramen, wifi included, but the living space is much like a closet. Big deal. Who wants to hang out in a room even if it is a mansion when you can hang out in a Korean TT club and have after mission adventure after adventure. All you do at the room is sleep and shower, maybe eat a meal, so it doesn't have to be the Taj Mahal.

If you manage it well, you can live for well under $500 a month including meals, but no one really does that, there are so many shopping and restaurant and anything you can think of, you will spend some money no matter what your plan was.

If you have a good playing level, you make dinner bets and you will get fed that way too. A lot of Koreans would buy you after match dinner anyway, since that is the culture over there, many will go out together for some food and drinks. Veggie omlette folded with cheese (called Gyae-Lran-Ma-Ri) is a favorite of many and goes well with a beer.

Like our friend from Iceland, it was great to be able to meet quick friends and rely on each other over there. Luckily, we had a couple elite Amature players boots on ground when he got to Korea. I think he found us on Facebook, social media makes stuff happen where a couple decades ago, you had to be in charge of an international spy ring to be capable of those kind of connections.

 

[jonurkel]

I would like to go somewhere in Asia this summer, but I don't know how to do it... I mean, where to go, where to train... I need more info, so I'm looking forward to see how this project evolves!

 

[agold]

Sounds awesome man! Go for it if you can afford it. How will you arrange the training? Do you know someone there or is it through your coach?

I have a friend that goes.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

When I wanted to go to China I really wanted to practice at an academy or something but I found it difficult to organise. So I thought it would be great if someone could make the connections with different clubs around the world and then make it easy for players to book a trip with accommodation etc online. I thought it was something I would use and I thought that maybe other players might find it useful too. So I'm trying to learn as much as I can from players who have done it or would like to do it and see if I could make something like that be really awesome and something people would actually use. I had such a good experience with my own trip that I want to make it possible for anyone to go around the world on a holiday to wherever and have lots of options to choose from and for it to be really easy to book and organise.

So I'm looking to speak with anyone who might like to use something like that or just people who have done it in the past. I'm also looking to speak with the people who are running training centres and clubs because they would be an important part of the project too. Or even just people who know people who might be useful to speak with

I like your project, it is really nice!!

I may be able to assist from "knowing some training centers" perspective.

I agree it is really difficult to organise for Chinese speaking centers and some "agents" that advertise (spam) are charging double than what it should be.
I am travelling in Asia now, so may not have time to check the forum much, if you need anything from me, you can email me on [email protected] or just FB me.
I am more than happy to provide some info to you, to make this information centralised and available to all.

PS, I just like to add - not everyone is full time TT fanatic, and I see that some people like to do holiday + TT.
So many train 1 day, siteseeing 1 day and train 1 day and siteseeing another day etc.
I think something like this is better off - as not everyone is built for 40 hours training week.

 

[Emjay]

i know only of a few english players (not in person) that play in Belgium and i think they play for smash aarschot (or smash dolfijn, they changed the name recently), even if you only know the names i should be able find them with the site of the VTTL and say how thery're doing here in Belgium

i loved my trip to Germany, i learned a lot and the trainers are fantastic, fluent in both german and english. the head trainer is a great man, can almost instantly say what's wrong. i had a lot of fun, i even did an extra training because the group after us was uneven and i wasn't really tired yet i would certainly do it again (and again, and again,...)

yeah i certainly want to go to China, one thing is sure about the chinese, they excell in table tennis. if even a little of their genius would rub of on me i'ld be more then pleased

Their names are Garth Kinlock and Christoph Zickert, they both play here in Bristol.

That sounds pretty awesome, makes me want to practice there. Do they run sessions there that you can join in on all the time or was this like a special camp?

Yeah when I was there I lost to a 13 year old boy. They work you so hard, my body was aching all over the whole time and I would drink about 4 litres of water each session. The coach was so good that he would give you a correction on technique or footwork or whatever after every single ball you hit even if he was doing the exercise with you. It was like he didn't have to think about playing, it was so natural that he could focus totally on you. Any ideas where in China you would want to go?

 

[Emjay]

You can live in a Koshitel for under $200 a month, heat and rice/ramen, wifi included, but the living space is much like a closet. Big deal. Who wants to hang out in a room even if it is a mansion when you can hang out in a Korean TT club and have after mission adventure after adventure. All you do at the room is sleep and shower, maybe eat a meal, so it doesn't have to be the Taj Mahal.

If you manage it well, you can live for well under $500 a month including meals, but no one really does that, there are so many shopping and restaurant and anything you can think of, you will spend some money no matter what your plan was.

If you have a good playing level, you make dinner bets and you will get fed that way too. A lot of Koreans would buy you after match dinner anyway, since that is the culture over there, many will go out together for some food and drinks. Veggie omlette folded with cheese (called Gyae-Lran-Ma-Ri) is a favorite of many and goes well with a beer.

Like our friend from Iceland, it was great to be able to meet quick friends and rely on each other over there. Luckily, we had a couple elite Amature players boots on ground when he got to Korea. I think he found us on Facebook, social media makes stuff happen where a couple decades ago, you had to be in charge of an international spy ring to be capable of those kind of connections.

Korea sounds like fun! So what do you think this? Say a few amateur standard players, maybe they are quite good or maybe they are just casual players wanted to play in Korea for a week or so, maybe do some some seeing or maybe just table tennis the whole time. Do you think that might be possible in Korea that you know of?

 

[Emjay]

I would like to go somewhere in Asia this summer, but I don't know how to do it... I mean, where to go, where to train... I need more info, so I'm looking forward to see how this project evolves!

Great! What kind of trip would you want to do? What kind of training etc? If you follow the link and put in your email address I'll be able to keep you in the loop.

 

[Emjay]

I like your project, it is really nice!!

I may be able to assist from "knowing some training centers" perspective.

I agree it is really difficult to organise for Chinese speaking centers and some "agents" that advertise (spam) are charging double than what it should be.
I am travelling in Asia now, so may not have time to check the forum much, if you need anything from me, you can email me on [email protected] or just FB me.
I am more than happy to provide some info to you, to make this information centralised and available to all.

PS, I just like to add - not everyone is full time TT fanatic, and I see that some people like to do holiday + TT.
So many train 1 day, siteseeing 1 day and train 1 day and siteseeing another day etc.
I think something like this is better off - as not everyone is built for 40 hours training week.

Thank you very much Tony, that's very helpful. I definitely agree with you, it would need to cater for people who want a more casual trip as well as those hardcore players I'll definitely be in touch soon.