January 15, 2016
Help Wanted: USA Table Tennis High Performance Director Position
Here's the USATT info page for this – if you think you're qualified and would do a great job, why not apply? This could be a groundbreaking thing for table tennis in the U.S., if we get the right person. As I've blogged before, the U.S. is now a world power at the cadet level, and if we play our cards right, that could lead to the U.S. being a world power. We have the potential to challenge any country in the world outside China, and of course challenging China, something few could dream of doing, is exactly what we should be dreaming of doing. If countries like Sweden and Hungary can develop teams that played even or better than the Chinese for over a decade at a time, why can't we?
The whole idea is not for USATT to take over training our elite up-and-coming juniors, the best of whom are already getting great training. The point is to have someone to oversee all this training, including some group training, but emphasizing the resources we already have at clubs. He'd be working with the actual coaches who are doing the actual coaching, but the coaches at training centers and clubs all over the country would be completely in charge of whoever they are coaching. But as I note below in #3, the High Performance Director would have valuable input on how to maximize our players' potential, as well as running group training. The specific plan would be created by the High Performance Director himself. (Jeez, I'm tempted to apply, but I'm already on the Board of Directors – conflict of interest – plus they are probably looking for more international experience. Alas.)
Here's a key sentence from the info page: "Successful candidates must demonstrate a willingness to design and execute a '52 week' philosophy by integrating and leveraging local, regional, and national resources to provide our athletes and coaches with the best opportunity to compete and succeed internationally."
Here is my email to the USATT Board of Directors on this. I've added a few notes in brackets. I do suggest you read the USATT info page first.
Hi Everyone,
I’m a strong supporter of this plan. A few notes, some of which Gordon [USATT CEO Gordon Kaye] has already emphasized:
- Just as the USATT board of directors has mostly allowed the CEO a free hand in most of his actions, we need to allow the HPD [High Performance Director] a relatively free hand in his job. The only way this won’t work is if we hire the wrong person. So the key to everything is hiring the right person. To some of us, that’s equates to “duh!” But it’s very easy to hire the wrong person – flashy credentials don’t always mean flashy results.
- A key is to rely on the resources of clubs, including the parents who are paying for their kid’s training. USATT may be able to budget one or two hundred thousand dollars to this; many millions are already being spent at clubs. [Here I added a note about how my club and many others have many kids whose parents pay over $20,000/year for their training, but I'd rather not list the specifics here.] The HPD needs to find ways to best utilize the resources we already have.
- The HPD needs to emphasize the development of general weaknesses among U.S. players. For example, many of our top juniors don’t do enough physical training – and while there are several reasons for this (coaches get paid mostly for table time, not physical training; lack of time in general due to school and other activities; no one taking the initiative to start physical training programs), a HPD could approach the clubs with strong junior programs and work to get physical training more emphasized. (You only need one coach at each club to run the physical training sessions, which would be group sessions.) There are other general weaknesses among U.S. players, such as receive, so the HPD could also ask that training centers put more emphasis into that, or whatever aspects he believes are needed.
- Because we need training centers all over the country to buy into this national concept, we need three things: a) reasons why they should buy into it; b) a HPD who can sell them on it; and c) a few top training centers to join in early on, so others would follow.
- In general, we need to change the culture from the current situation, where most up-and-coming players focus almost exclusively on winning national events and making national teams, to focusing on beating other countries and becoming the best in the world. At the cadet level (both boys and girls), we can challenge any team in the world outside China, and might even give them a run for it. This is the perfect backbone of a future world-conquering team. Now is the perfect time to start moving in that direction.
- We also need to remember why we suddenly have so many promising cadet players – the dramatic increase in the number of full-time training centers in the country, from 8-10 just eight years ago to over 80 now. This is the source of our future elite players, and if we keep increasing the number of such training centers with top coaches and training programs, our situation will continue to improve. So we need to focus on that aspect as well. The depth of play now compared to just a few years ago is mind-boggling – at the cadet level we now have dozens of players who likely would have dominated their age group ten years ago, while players who used to make the semifinals or even finals couldn’t make the final 16 or even 32 these days. I remember one year the final of Under 14 Boys was won by the top seed, rated just over 2100, over a 1950 player who had upset a 2000 player in the semifinals! [This was often the norm back in those days – can you imagine why USA was often so weak in international play?] Those players wouldn’t make the final 32 these days.
History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17, Day 10
Yesterday we had a monster session. I got up at 5:30AM – Tim had already been up for hours – and we worked almost non-stop from 6AM to 2:30PM. We did a record 55 pages and 203 graphics as we did the second half of chapter 22, and chapters 23-25. All that's left are chapters 26-27, which we'll do tomorrow – and then we spend Saturday inputting edits Tim's been making in those wee hours of the morning where he has nothing better to do than check out every photo ("Take out that person in the background, Larry – he's distracting"); every sentence ("Move that comma over here – and it looks crooked, could you straighten it?"), and I now believe every pixel. (I should never have gotten him a magnifying glass to check out the printouts I do after each chapter.) Lots and lots of tournament coverage, including the 1990 U.S. Open/World Veterans Championships/International Junior Open, all held together in Baltimore.
Here are the current stats:
Day 1: Tue, Jan. 5: Pages 1-20 (plus covers, so 22 pages total), 42 graphics
Day 2: Wed, Jan. 6: Pages 21-45, 25 pages, 131 graphics
Day 3: Pages 46-85, 40 pages, 126 graphics
Day 4: Pages 86-132, 47 pages, 138 graphics
Day 5: Pages 133-175, 43 pages, 141 graphics
Day 6: Pages 176-216, 41 pages, 149 graphics
Day 7: Pages 217-274, 58 pages, 137 graphics
Day 8: Pages 275-331, 57 pages, 200 graphics
Day 9: Pages 332-354, 23 pages, 89 graphics
Day 10: Pages 355-409, 55 pages, 203 graphics
TOTALS: 411 pages (including covers), 1356 graphics, 3.30 graphics per page
The Ramblin’ Wreck of College Table Tennis
Here's the article from Coach Jon.
MHTT World Champs Buildup Diary: Day 4
Here's the Day Four Diary of Matt Herrington as he prepares for the upcoming World Championships. Why not follow his daily training as he prepares to take on the best in the world? He's on the New Zealand Team, but currently training at the Lily Yip TTC. (I'm not sure if I'll link to his diary every day, but we'll see.)
Follow Your Ping Pong Dreams
Here's the article.
Teen Pingpong Star Aces Nike Ad
Here's the article on Amanda Malek, daughter of coach and 1979 U.S. Men's Champion Attila Malek.
Table Tennis School - Backhand Topspin
Here's the video (3:31).
Joo Se Hyuk – the Best Defender
Here's the video (5:11) – some really great points with Chuang Chih-Yuan at the start!
The Rules of Table Tennis (Ping Pong) - EXPLAINED!
Here's the video (3:42).
International Table Tennis
Here's my periodic note (usually every Friday) that you can great international coverage at TableTennista (which especially covers the elite players well) and at the ITTF home page (which does great regional coverage). Butterfly also has a great news page.
Ping Pong and Fairy Tales
Ping-pong pictures.
Seahawk Players Become Rivals in Ping Pong Grudge Match
Here's the article and video (1:45).
Jabba Plays Ping-Pong
Here's the meme.
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