Where does the future of online table tennis content lie? 🏓

[blahness]

Yea, there are many great coaching videos online, but they might be too technical for beginners or the general public to enjoy. We might need some beginners with fun personality to share videos of their TT journeys along with their life, so people can relate.

Yeah not just that but create lots of funny memester content. This is also where a lot of successful channels operate. I feel it requires a bit of a certain personality to work unfortunately.

 

[Tyce]

From what I understand, the (current) view within TTD is to not be a second Pongfinity, so to focus on the game itself rather than trickshots and meme challenges. The identity of the channel has always been focused mainly on the sport.
So pure meme content is not what I think the channel is about.

(this is coming from conversation in Düsseldorf)

 

[Haito]

OK, and what would you LIKE to see more of? What would make you watch other TT content?

I really quite enjoyed the league they played. It was fun to watch.

From what I would like to see, a decent player has a challange of 100€ per season for gear. All new gear. What is going to be his specs. I would really love to see if the gear influences decent players and if yes, then in what way.

 

[victormanriquey]

I was thinking now that it would be very interesting to see old meta vs new meta, not only in the game but also in the technique, and this combined with the gear.

Example: get a looper from the past with H3 or sriver or mark v, and a looper from now, and see how the gear and their technique have changed to adapt to new ball and new way of playing (bh oriented instead of a lot of FH pivot and mostly attackers instead of a more mixed attack vs defense).

Another one would be technical improvements for amateurs, pros play a different game, but how to identify key issues in amateurs with good coaches and fix them.

Example: some amateurs send some videos and you and some coaches can give comments, keep it simple and focused on one side, FH to BH transition for example.

I will think of more!

 

[Lostboi]

I think online there's plenty of any aspect of the table tennis. Tutorial, reviews, WTT itself probably post more than necessary (quantity over quality).
If I have to think what is still lacking or at least is less exposed are the players off the court life. That kind of video like "a day in the life with xxx" that maybe Adam B made few times. And maybe it could be nice a pro shot series of local scene... Like "the table tennis scene in Dallas or in Verona or in Koln... And so on. I remember Roces made it for the aggressive skating scene, back in the 90s

 

[Helanren]

I can only speak from my point of view as a consumer of content. Preface: An adult beginner of table tennis who was mostly only interested in football (or soccer in freedomnese). I got interested in the sport after playing in the office and for most topics I generally use youtube to research how to get better at something. After a month or two I joined a club here in my hometown.

What content I watch as a beginner as described above:

- Tutorials:

1. 75% Coach Xiao Han --> Concise videos, shows the action while explaining, most of the time has a partner there to show how it works in practice. And a fun personality at that.
2. Remainder: Tom Lodziak, Seth Pech, Alois & Jeff, and "The why's of table tennis" (one of my favorite niche channels with positional analysis, angles, footage from pros analysed)

- Stories:

1. Muscle Pong --> Consistent, frequent uploads. Bit of a meme as an EJ but since I don't play competition yet I like the view behind the scenes.

I would definitely watch other storied content, but personality plays a big role in this. Muscle Pong is leaning into the EJ and having fun with it, the episodes also have lots of good footage of amateur matches.

- Matches:

1. Mostly WTT. Some live depending on time and interest. Upsets I'll always watch the highlights.
2. Local amateur footage (I just search for club names in the area on youtube and have found a few relatively regular uploaders) Unfortunately a lot of it is mostly top amateur level, so not as useful for gaging the different levels but interesting nonetheless. I only watch this sporadically.

As a beginner who is not too familiar with all the pros or interested in celebrity culture, I don't really care for the videos with professionals. Unless it goes deep about their routine, training methods, technique, etc. I don't really care what car they drive or which anime they find lowkey epic.

The idea that was mentioned earlier, two content creators having their own team and building them up with training sessions, and having them compete, is definitely something I would watch. It might just be a bit difficult from a content creators POV since that would be a long running series because training takes time.

I would like to see Ricky Gervais (or Dan?) send Waldner and Karl Pilkington around the world chasing tt stories. Visiting factories, training camps, sneaking on players on airports etc...like a mix of hidden camera and a travel show. Imagine Waldner shadowing Hitomi Sato trying to avoid getting notice while Karl Pilkington asks her stupid questions. I would love to send them to Nigeria trying to find Arunas father and mother, stuff like that.

Head like a f*cking table tennis ball.

 

[Haito]

Muscle pong has a cool series. He is an ej, he tells the audience that he wants to start improving, but he ends up ejing even more.

A series that shows a struggle but maybe going in the direction of actually improving and staying with one thing.

 

[d3nium]

The original TTD team series was, in my opinion, the best amateur table tennis content ever created on YouTube.

I could really relate to players like The German, The Ringer and The Captain. Sure, they were all better players than me, but they weren't professionals playing at an almost unattainable level. They were good amateur players, competing at a level that felt much closer to my own. That made it far more engaging to watch.

What really made the series special, though, was the camaraderie, banter and personalities within the team. It felt like watching a group of mates who genuinely enjoyed playing together, rather than just watching a group of elite players playing table tennis.

I find the newer content featuring professionals much less interesting, to be honest. The standard of play might be higher, but for me, it's lost some of that original charm and relatability that made the TTD team series so good.

 

[OvrChkn]

I'm working on a few vlogish videos on the tournaments I enter and just narrating what I see is happening on my end in retrospective. More like a diary, working on a story, and it keeps me accountable for understanding more of my flaws. Video editing is a pain though and I can see myself publishing videos very infrequently.

The path of pursing table tennis as a hobby is something that I think is underutilized.

We all have the passion to play, so just having an online support system/community could be a great outcome of this. If anything, table tennis is a hard sport to film, so it'll be a source of ragebait for the comment section lol.

 

[golden_son]

...


Another one would be technical improvements for amateurs, pros play a different game, but how to identify key issues in amateurs with good coaches and fix them.

Example: some amateurs send some videos and you and some coaches can give comments, keep it simple and focused on one side, FH to BH transition for example.

I will think of more!

looeelooee (YT) does this. "Better" coaches do it and charge money rather than giving free analysis on YouTube, lol.

One thing I'd like to see more of is pro match analyses, like this one.

...
Enough with the criticism though. Here's a few ideas from the top of my head:
- Team Tom vs Team Dan. Both recruit or get assigned a small team of beginner players and have X weeks to whip them into ball killing machines. Maybe a couple of matches/challenges along the way and of course a grand final showdown where the teams take each other on in a proper match. Donkeys included!
You could make this quite a useful series too if you cover the actual drills, tips, and other things that help these guys make progress.
...

Now this is a great idea for a series. Like those docuseries that follow a particular (American) football team throughout the season.

Following a single pro throughout their season, including training and the different tournaments, would be very interesting to me, as well.

That sort of content would require a massive time (and budget) commitment, though; it would consume, well, an entire season and largely preclude the ability to work on other content. It's something an ESPN would have resources for, but not an amateur channel. And sadly, with the huge disparity in popularity between TT and other "major" sports, amateur producers are all we have.

Yea, there are many great coaching videos online, but they might be too technical for beginners or the general public to enjoy. We might need some beginners with fun personality to share videos of their TT journeys along with their life, so people can relate.

My former training partner and I actually started a channel like this a while back. It ran for some months but didn't get much traction, although we did get some positive feedback here and there. Now I don't claim it was must-see content to begin with, but at least part of that lack of engagement was due to a lack of effort put into spreading the channel via social media, forums, etc. And that, frankly, was due to one thing: time. We're both working adults, and TT is "just" a hobby. The amount of time required to record and edit a single video of any decent quality is a strain not everybody can balance along with work and other commitments. Eventually my partner stopped wanting to film and ended up leaving TT for pickleball—traitor!—and the channel died.

All that to say, massive props to the folks like TTD, Pongfinity, Seth Pech, etc. who put in the overtime to build their channels into something that could eventually pay at least some of the bills, and still have fun with it. Those of use who went to Düsseldorf have seen firsthand how tough it can be on these guys 😅.

 

[latej]

People here like football, a lot of young kids play footbal. I see it 1st hand in our club, which is a kind of joint footbal+TT club. Incomparable more kids in footbal vs TT... There are less popular sports than footbal, but still more popular than TT. Going to gym is popular, altogether martial arts are rel. popular, and for kids, Judo is really good start, and there are other sports... I'm speaking about kids, like up to 17 years...

But somehow TT is not recognized even though it brings all to the table when taken correctly... It's a pitty... That's why I like the "intent" of @Kenspin post, I like the idea of slow-mo, and when combined with real-mo, to how to say, give an idea and draw nearer, that it provides all that you need and more... We know that, but majority (well, here, perhaps not in China) don't, they still have the 1930 idea of table tennis... It almost seems like we need better "marketing", LOL, as much as I hate that... I don't know how to change it, but as I say, ideas like Kens is the direction imo...

 

[takkyuunoyume]

I'm not sure if the following idea would be significant in growing the sport, but I'd love to see a show that's analogous to Match Of The Day in football, perhaps for each tournament from the Champion's level and upwards. At the end of each day, a host (say anyone of Adam, John, Fraser, Joe or perhaps even the very popular Charmian!) would introduce a clip of highlights from each match played, and then one or two pundits (players and or high level coaches would be awesome, current or retired) would pick out moments that stood out for them and offer their insights and observations, perhaps replaying a passage of play with gimmicky graphics to elucidate the analysis. I would 100% watch that! And I do think it would actually be helpful to draw people in. And imagine the potential for mayhem, ahem I mean vibrant and civilised discussion in the comment sections!
In a separate point, a significant thing that drew me into watching TT was Adam's 'Ask a Pro Anything' videos. It might not be the same for everyone, but a significant part of what I find engaging in watching TT is having a feel for what kind of person the player is.

 

[mamedium]

how about bringing Tony back?
his content is the closest to professional table tennis we could get

not the “TTD team challenging the pros” series where they play a silly game while promoting new products

my 2c

 

[Dr Evil]

We don't have a big enough audience. I'd like to see online content that encourages kids to get involved in inter-scholastic competition. That's the only sustainable way to grow the audience. But, as people have observed, it's so much work to turn video footage of amateur matches into watchable content that it likely won't happen. Unless maybe experienced content creators help the kids do it themselves.

 

[Tim Cudjoe]

This seems to relate to the professional game though, Ken?

I'm talking about outside of the professional game - Other sports have content creators (like TTD) who have huge followings and produce lots of different content. Table tennis seemingly has very few.


I've seen this in other sports more recently - Fringe players of whatever sport starting to build an online following (perhaps for a career after their professional career has finished).

I'd like to see more of that in table tennis - But that relies on the content creator also doing a lot of content creation outside of the professional sphere.


OK, and what would you LIKE to see more of? What would make you watch other TT content?


I found it strange, because I hadn't heard of @Tim Cudjoe or the CEO of PingPod - But Is that because there was no marketing of the event, lack of general awareness or because it was a local, niche thing?

Dan is partnered to a degree with PingPod, hence the commentary (done from the comfort of the UK by the way).

Tim - What do you think the event set out to achieve outside of a personal wager?

These responses and perspectives is nothing new to me. If you haven’t heard of PingPod, Me, or the CEO of PingPod (David Silberman), that’s fine. (I think the whole point of the content and EVERY piece is that eventually it’ll find someone new eventually. Just like that you now have heard of us. To say there was no marketing - I mean we are not putting marketing dollars behind a personal bet match between us to. It was an organic thing. I promoted it 7 days in a row leading up to it. On TikTok. Ig, and Yt. (If it still didn’t reach you, that just means it didn’t reach you yet). The event brought a level of fun, competition, rivalry, edge, excitement, creativity and something fresh that just hasn’t been done on our end. Did we set out to prove this just for the sake of it? Naw, we set out to do this because we both loved the sport, and are in a good enough position and have connections to make it shown to friends and fellow tt people. I think the hype, the livestream, the sold out bookings to pingpod in person says otherwise.

 

[NDH]

These responses and perspectives is nothing new to me. If you haven’t heard of PingPod, Me, or the CEO of PingPod (David Silberman), that’s fine. (I think the whole point of the content and EVERY piece is that eventually it’ll find someone new eventually. Just like that you now have heard of us. To say there was no marketing - I mean we are not putting marketing dollars behind a personal bet match between us to. It was an organic thing. I promoted it 7 days in a row leading up to it. On TikTok. Ig, and Yt. (If it still didn’t reach you, that just means it didn’t reach you yet). The event brought a level of fun, competition, rivalry, edge, excitement, creativity and something fresh that just hasn’t been done on our end. Did we set out to prove this just for the sake of it? Naw, we set out to do this because we both loved the sport, and are in a good enough position and have connections to make it shown to friends and fellow tt people. I think the hype, the livestream, the sold out bookings to pingpod in person says otherwise.

Always hard to interpret tone on the internet, but apologise if you took my previous comment as a dig in any way. Far from it!

I guess my question is….. Do you feel the effort of being a TT content creator is worth it? Because from the outside, it looks like a huge amount of effort, for little to no reward (which I imagine stops most people from even trying)?

And I guess I still don’t quite get the idea behind the $1000 video.

I appreciate you said it was organically marketed on your platforms, but (and I mean this with absolutely no disrespect at all), that’s a very small audience right now.

I’d have definitely been interested in what was going on, and now having looked through your past content, I think you do some really good stuff.

So, having TTD commentate, live-streaming it, selling tickets (if you did so) to locals….. and then just not actually marketing it outside of the PingPod community, makes me think it was literally just a hyper localised fun event for the people who are aware of you and David.

I’d LOVE it if there were more personalities that gained a following. Either from their own content, or then mixing it with the pros etc.

Which brings me back to the original question (and one you are perhaps better placed to answer as a content creator)….. how do you see the future of online content?

Ultimately, it has to work, gain WAY more views and visibility than most current online content gets, and just reach a wider audience.

 

[Tyce]

Hmm, I think I have mistaken @Tim Cudjoe with someone else in my head, though I can't for the life of me figure out who. I took the time to look you up and found you're actually a decent player, not a "random influencer" doing a quick TT bit.
That makes my earlier comments a bit too harsh. Apologies!