October 25, 2012

USATT Site Map

Here's the new site map for the USATT home page. It's a good way to quickly see just what's on the site without having to explore every major link on the menu. I was co-webmaster for eight years (1999-2007), and have fond memories of many of these pages. (Sean O'Neill is now the webmaster.) Personally I still liked the old stone-aged version, but perhaps that's because I was so used to it, and knew exactly where everything was without even thinking about it. Alas, out with the old, in with the new. The website contains ten major headings. Let's take a tour. (Let me know if you have any questions about any of these pages. I have to leave for a rare middle-of-the-week morning coaching session, and so didn't write as much as I might otherwise.)

  • News. You can see the news either as "Most Recent" (the new USATT site map) or "Most Viewed" (2013 Cadet and Junior Team Selection, of great interest to me since I'll be coaching two players in them). If USA players don't check this at least once a week, you are not a serious player.
  • Ratings. You can get the Traditional View or the "Comparison by TTSpin" version. From the latter, I now know I have a lifetime 3-4 record against 2011 Men's Singles Finalist Han Xiao.
  • Rules. Here you can get the ITTF or USATT Rules (almost the same thing), the page for Umpires and Referees (and verify I'm a USATT Certified Club Umpire), the page for Tournament Directors (which has everything a tournament director needs) and Officials (which takes you to the Umpires and Referees page), and the USATT Tournament Guide.
  • Coaching. This is my favorite page (of course!). It takes you to the Coach of the Year Program (guess who was Developmental Coach of the Year in 2002?), the Coaching List (that's where you'll find local coaches), the Coaching Advisory Committee (I'm on it), the Coaching Certification Program, the upcoming Coaches Courses, the Coaching Newsletter (including back issues), and Coaching Tips.
  • Clubs/Leagues. This is where you go to find a club, to see the listings for National and Regional Centers of Excellence (my club, MDTTC, is one of the seven National ones), the USA Club Championships, links to the USATT Club Application, Club Programs, and the Club Handbook; the USATT League (a way for clubs to run rated club leagues - I founded it about ten years ago), the college home page, and the kids page that features the American Youth Table Tennis Organization.
  • Events/Tournaments. This takes you to the pages for "Camps, Clinics, Meetings, & Tournaments," and to the actual USATT Tournament page.
  • Magazine. This takes you to the Print Schedule, the Submissions page, the Features page, the Advertising page, and the Subscribers Page. Somewhere in there are links for the magazine covers, from 2007-present and 1998-2007.
  • Para. This has five parts, but all seem to take you to the USA Paralympic Team page.
  • Team USA. This is where all the USA National Teams are listed. The first two links are the Recent Results (I'm getting a "page not found" there) and Critical Team News pages. Then come the listings for the Olympic, Paralympic, Junior, Cadet, and Mini-Cadet National Teams.
  • USATT. This is the biggest page, and sort of has everything involving USATT - which is just about everything, since this is the USATT website! There are 17 links here. They include the Sitemap (what we're discussing here); Membership (all you want to know about joining USATT); Contact Us; Staff (i.e. the nine paid staff members); the 17 Committees and Task Forces (I'm on three); Directors and Officials (for tournaments); Approved USATT Equipment (what you can use in USATT tournaments); the USATT Board of Directors (the nine who make policy decisions for USATT); the USATT Bylaws; Board Minutes (going back to 1999, when I began putting them online); the USATT Code of Conduct; USATT Financial Reports; History of USA Table Tennis (care of Tim Boggan); the USATT Hall of Fame (hey, I'm in it!); the Champions page (showing USA National and U.S. Open Men's and Women's Singles, Doubles, and Mixed Doubles Champions); Partners (i.e. organizations we work with); and Sponsors. 

Pink Pong

Here's a new video (90 seconds) from Pink Pong, the table tennis cancer charity. "Pink Pong was established in September 2010 after one of our members was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. The aim and objective of Pink Pong is to firstly increase awareness of Cancer for everyone, and secondly, to raise money for different Cancer Charities and Foundations, and even Communities, to help people in this terrible situation. In conjunction with this, Pink Pong also hopes to increase the participation of our Sport, Table Tennis."

Rory McIlroy Plays Table Tennis

Here's a picture of Northern Ireland golfer Rory McIlroy playing table tennis in a promotional event before the BMW Masters 2012 golf tournament in Shanghai, China.

Tiny Tennis Titans Try Table Tennis

Hobbits and Smurfs and Danny Devitos, Oh My! Or are these just tiny versions of Federer and Djokovic?

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