Which countries are considered strongest in TT at the club level?

[Michael Zhuang]

Which countries have the strongest club level (non-pro) players in the world? What would be the top 5 countries?

 

[piligrim]

China, Japan, Korea, Germany, Sweden

 

[PingBirdPong]

Which countries have the strongest club level (non-pro) players in the world? What would be the top 5 countries?

You would not be asking these questions if you saw the old people here in Chinese clubs. Our school team is good, but one of the weaker members got whacked by a history teacher.

 

[Lycanthrope]

China, Japan, Korea, Germany are surely top 4, not sure about No 5

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Its tough to say non pro.
You need to be eliminating the super/premier, 1st/2nd divisions etc.

Once you go lower down to say regional (european) or jia c (China) etc. Then its difficult to say, because you may still have semi pros playing in there (players who play full time).

I honestly don't understand the purpose or motive for such question or can't make out how the answer would make any meaning.
The definition of "pro" first need to be establish before any answer with merit can be provided
Then would retired pro be considered etc.

I think just like any sport, you can have a world club championships. No one makes a world club 5th division championships lol.
I would say China Jia C for example, which can be mixed with a lot of provincial players/juniors/dropped out (these are still pro system trained, so does it make it ineligible?), would still be higher than a regional level club of your German / French for example.
Sweden is actually not that strong, the playing numbers has maybe neared half of what it used to be (of the heights in era of Waldner)

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Its tough to say non pro.You need to be eliminating the super/premier, 1st/2nd divisions etc.Once you go lower down to say regional (european) or jia c (China) etc. Then its difficult to say, because you may still have semi pros playing in there (players who play full time).I honestly don't understand the purpose or motive for such question or can't make out how the answer would make any meaning.The definition of "pro" first need to be establish before any answer with merit can be providedThen would retired pro be considered etc.I think just like any sport, you can have a world club championships. No one makes a world club 5th division championships lol.I would say China Jia C for example, which can be mixed with a lot of provincial players/juniors/dropped out (these are still pro system trained, so does it make it ineligible?), would still be higher than a regional level club of your German / French for example.Sweden is actually not that strong, the playing numbers has maybe neared half of what it used to be (of the heights in era of Waldner)

Let me hazard a guess, the OP's intention is more of coffee-shop talk or bar-talk in the US context. Such a general question, should ideally be posted in the Daily TT Chit-chat thread rather than a thread on its own.He has no intention to engage it in serious talk on this matter and is just asking per casual conversation i.e., coffee-shop / bar talk ( which is nothing wrong in my opinion ).

So, in the spirit of casual conversation, I would say my answer is:
1. Kingdom of Wakanda
2. Republic of Sokovia
3. Nation of Kun-Lun
4. Kingdom of Latveria
5. Nation of Markovia

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

I just had a look at an old players list.
Jia D of China had your Chinese para champs (world para champs), many national players from "tier 2" countries.
provincial team of weaker provinces etc

Then like Yi A league, you still have junior provincial teams.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Let me hazard a guess, the OP's intention is more of coffee-shop talk or bar-talk in the US context. Such a general question, should ideally be posted in the Daily TT Chit-chat thread rather than a thread on its own. He has no intention to engage it in serious talk on this matter and is just asking per casual conversation i.e., coffee-shop / bar talk.

Then I won't waste any more of my serious time for non serious matter

 

[Lycanthrope]

In Asian countries there are a large number of players who have been training since very young until they go to a college and don't choose table tennis as their career. They are indeed professionally trained but non-pro players. That makes the condition of 'non-pro' useless.

Even exclude those professionally trained non-pro players, because of the environment, being able to play with high level players all the days allows those pure amateur players be better. Not to mention it is easier for them to access to good qualified coaches.

So don't expect that a country is strong at professional level but is week at non-pro level.

 

[igorponger]

Germany and France offering best lucrative salary. Sweden and Japanese native players strive for German leagues as gnuts for a honey drop.

Be happy.

 

[Michael Zhuang]

Well i was watching TTD reviews and league matches. Ive actually never seen players so good live before. Definitely the best players in my city are not that good I don't think. Someone said Dan was a top 50 UK player before. But even now, he seems extremely good to me. But I never even thought of UK as a major table tennis nation. Also sometimes i see rubber reviews from TT11 or TTmaximum, and these eastern European clubs seem really good as well.

Is UK stronger than US in TT club level?

It just got me thinking, what countries are strong in the club level.

 

[Shifu]

Is UK stronger than US in TT club level?

It just got me thinking, what countries are strong in the club level.

there are many countries where the average player is stronger than in the US.

For sure in China, Japan and many European countries like Germany, Sweden, France etc.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Just to digress a little.

I have a player who comes once a year. He emigrated to the US but comes back once a year during winter for holiday. He lives in Chinatown, NY. He said the TT scene in Chinatown is pretty much dominated by people of East Asian origin, specifically Chinese ( no brainer here ). Their standard are pretty diverse, from very good to pretty low level. His level is pretty above average when compared to my club average but his level is pretty low skill when he meets those academic trained player from China ( e.g. students )

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Germany and France offering best lucrative salary. Sweden and Japanese native players strive for German leagues as gnuts for a honey drop.

Be happy.

Don't really think you understood OPs question.
Anyways, Japanese in German leagues?
they only just starting....however, Germany money is peanuts compared to what they get in Japan
Japanese going to German or foreign league is a new strategy they are implementing, due to "not enough" match practice with "other styles of play" and to train "leaving comfort zone"

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Just to digress a little.

I have a player who comes once a year. He emigrated to the US but comes back once a year during winter for holiday. He lives in Chinatown, NY. He said the TT scene in Chinatown is pretty much dominated by people of East Asian origin, specifically Chinese ( no brainer here ). Their standard are pretty diverse, from very good to pretty low level. His level is pretty above average when compared to my club average but his level is pretty low skill when he meets those academic trained player from China ( e.g. students )

It is no brainier of the 10s of thousands of kids that learn TT "professional" from elementary school level in China.

Then you have 31 provincials/regions in China, say each of them has 5 sports school that feeds into the provincial team for U11 level.
Each school has 30 boys and 30 girls. That is near 10000 kids that are now "upgraded" from normal school tt, to sport school tt.
And then only 20 to 30 per gender goes into the provincial team - that is say another 2000 kids per age group.

By the time they stay in sport school / provincial junior team till age 16 and are in the 1st half of ranking, they are good enough to become national ranked in many tierd 2 or 3 TT countries.
however, only 20 per gender will end up going into the national team (cnt b team aka national junior team).
So what do you do with the other 1900 kids per age year?
Some will stay on and play full time, some will end up coaching later on, some will leave China and seek opportunities overseas in TT and some will leave the sport and 10 or 20 years later, be that uncle on the street that can beat any one.

The amount of sport school trained kids up till age 16 is plenty. Up to 18, then they are really good.

I have a friend, she left China age 16, was in the Chongqing junior girls team and moved to South Africa.
She only restarted playing at university. (3 years of no TT). So she got a bat, put SP on her BH (she is a 2 wing inverted), and her first year, she made SA womens champion, and QF in Africa. This is with no training, and literately just started 1 month before the tournament, amid a busy university schedule.

She stopped playing again at post grad, to focus on studies. There was no money for her in TT and olympics wasn't a real target for her, otherwise, she would easily have gone to 2 olympics or more.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Well i was watching TTD reviews and league matches. Ive actually never seen players so good live before. Definitely the best players in my city are not that good I don't think. Someone said Dan was a top 50 UK player before. But even now, he seems extremely good to me. But I never even thought of UK as a major table tennis nation. Also sometimes i see rubber reviews from TT11 or TTmaximum, and these eastern European clubs seem really good as well.

Is UK stronger than US in TT club level?

It just got me thinking, what countries are strong in the club level.

Basically majority of US and UK players are not professionals.
They don't earn money (or much money) as players from within they own countries.

So definition of professional needs to be determined.

Based on playing level, USA has a huge influx of Chinese champions, national players, provincial players. As well as former champs from Europe.
So USA has a really high level of coaches/training partners, so that is why in 10 to 20 years, they made it from no where to Championship division.
There is no league in USA, only tournaments.

For UK, they really on its close proximity to Europe and with European clubs.
UK is quite highly ranked in TT - just look at the amount of players they have in the top 100. The wins in world champs/CG etc.
Funny enough, TT started from UK, just like where 90% of the sports are from too.
But they are not really seen as the world leaders, but are still in the front.

Which city are you from?

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

I just had a look at an old players list.
Jia D of China had your Chinese para champs (world para champs), many national players from "tier 2" countries.
provincial team of weaker provinces etc

Then like Yi A league, you still have junior provincial teams.

While going through the old list, I saw 2 players I know (know they coach very well), in Yi A league.
at they pinnacle, they were top 100 players in the world.

What are they doing in a Chinese 5th division league.... lol
They are good enough to be in Jia A (one down from super league) at that time.

 

[Ghostzen]

Let me hazard a guess, the OP's intention is more of coffee-shop talk or bar-talk in the US context. Such a general question, should ideally be posted in the Daily TT Chit-chat thread rather than a thread on its own.He has no intention to engage it in serious talk on this matter and is just asking per casual conversation i.e., coffee-shop / bar talk ( which is nothing wrong in my opinion ).

So, in the spirit of casual conversation, I would say my answer is:
1. Kingdom of Wakanda
2. Republic of Sokovia
3. Nation of Kun-Lun
4. Kingdom of Latveria
5. Nation of Markovia

I know Attilan has been making alot of noise recently on the circuit. Before that they were really very quiet. A good but unconventional set of players....

 

[Dan]

Tricky one this. Club level hmm, from my experience I'd go:

1) China
2) Korea/Japan
3) Germany
4) France
5) Sweden

Korea and Japan I'm not sure who has the most but I know both are very strong in numbers.

 

[Dominikk85]

Club level is also a wide range. In Germany for example there are high level leagues with very good players and there are basically "beer leagues" where mostly older players without a lot of motivation meet, play some training matches and then drink a couple beers together without ever doing real drill work and training, it's just warm up, then training matches and then beer