August 17, 2016

The Ten “Etiquettes” for the High Level Athlete
These are from page 15 of the ITTF Advanced Coaching Manual, which make them at least semi-official. Like the “Ten Commandments” I blogged about yesterday, these have also always irritated me. Also, some of them just don’t make sense due to the poor translations. (As I wrote yesterday, the manual was originally in French and somewhat poorly translated into English.) Here they are, with my comments afterwards.

The Ten “Etiquettes” for the High Level Athlete
(From page 15 of the ITTF Advanced Coaching Manual.)
A self respecting sports teacher has the duty to transmit to the athlete that guiding principles without which the sport would not be what it is today are part of his teaching. The Champion is a sports phenomenon and must therefore set an example for ALL athletes!

  1. The first step towards success: good judgment.
  2. Any progress goes through trial and error.
  3. Losing and Winning belong to any training.
  4. Learning lessons from the past means imposing rules for yourself.
  5. These rules cannot be built without a philosophical global vision.
  6. Competitive sport means pushing your limits further and enjoying your conquest.
  7. Nothing is for free: fatigue and efforts are the price to pay to reach that point.
  8. Pleasure, self respect and personal satisfaction gained from this conquest are priceless.
  9. To reach that point, some traps need to be avoided: challenging profit, uncontrolled aggressiveness, provoked opposition.
  10. Sport is a real school of Life.

Let’s look at these one by one.

Intro paragraph: Can someone please edit this so it sounds like it was written by someone who actually speaks English?

Regarding the ten items below, I’m a bit confused as they seem more about how a player develops his game to the highest levels, not about etiquettes. (Definition of etiquettes: “The customary code of polite behavior in society or among members of a particular profession or group.”)

  1. The first step towards success: good judgment.
    Agreed, though it needs some elaboration. What’s needed is good judgment on how to develop one’s game to the highest level. Both here and with the following items there should be some elaboration over what it specifically means. For example, for this first one it should be pointed out that judgment is needed in choosing a playing style, equipment, a coach, how to train, what drills to do, what players to copy, how much and what types of physical training to do, what serves to develop, what types of receive, etc., etc. These are all things that players need good judgment on – and a systematic listing of these items might be helpful, in addition to the generic slogan.
  2. Any progress goes through trial and error.
    Agreed, no comments here. It should emphasize that players should try out new things, usually with the guidance of a coach.
  3. Losing and Winning belong to any training.
    Agreed, though it would be stronger if it finished with, “You learn from both.” Emphasis should be on the idea that players shouldn’t shy away from events that they might lose in (or worse, lose rating points in!) because it is exactly those situations where a player learns the weaknesses in his game that need to be worked on.
  4. Learning lessons from the past means imposing rules for yourself.
    As worded, this doesn’t really make sense. What I think they mean is simply, “Learn from the past.” The emphasis should be on learning something every time you play. I don’t know about “imposing rules for yourself.” I think they mean apply what you learn.
  5. These rules cannot be built without a philosophical global vision.
    What does this mean? I have no clue. What is a “philosophical global vision,” and how does that relate to a top player?
  6. Competitive sport means pushing your limits further and enjoying your conquest.
    Agreed, though they should cut the word “further,” which doesn’t add anything.
  7. Nothing is for free: fatigue and efforts are the price to pay to reach that point.
    Agreed. I’d change the ending to, “to reach the highest levels.” At the same time I’d like it to emphasize that you should enjoy the effort you put in, as you have a better chance of reaching the highest levels if you enjoy and cherish the journey as well.
  8. Pleasure, self respect and personal satisfaction gained from this conquest are priceless.
    Okay, I can agree with this one. Hopefully one doesn’t go overboard on the self respect thing – otherwise no one will have self respect except the champion! If you truly gave it 100% you should have just as much self respect as anyone else – as long as you truly gave it 100%, and are not kidding yourself about it.
  9. To reach that point, some traps need to be avoided: challenging profit, uncontrolled aggressiveness, provoked opposition.
    I have no clue what this means. I understand you can’t have uncontrolled aggressiveness, but what is “challenging profit” and “provoked opposition”??? If it’s in the Advanced Coaching Manual, it needs to make sense. There is no explanation, just these meaningless words.
  10. Sport is a real school of Life.
    This could use some elaboration. How is it a school for life? Basically because you learn that hard work pays off (with improvement; not everyone can be the #1 champion); you learn self-discipline; you learn to set goals (instead of just sailing through life without any goals or purpose); and you learn to face adversity.

Olympic Coverage

Serve Return: Five Helpful Tips
Here’s the new coaching article by Samson Dubina.

China Dominates Table Tennis Like No Country in Any Other Olympic Sport
Here’s the article. (I had a short article in Sports Illustrated in 1999 titled “The Chinese TT Dynasty,” where I also argued that no sport was dominated by one country as much as table tennis by the Chinese. And since then they have only increased their domination.)

Rookie Olympics: JR Cardenas Tries Table Tennis
Here’s the article and video (2:47). That’s Jay Turberville at the Phoenix club being interviewed during the segment. (Not Turberbille, as it says on the screen!)

University of Oregon Table Tennis Player Shows the Sport's Competitive Edge
Here’s the article and video (57 sec), featuring Aron Zhang.

China's National Team Showing Off
Here’s the video (75 sec).

LEAKED: Chinese Team Whatsapp Group React to Ma Long's Olympic Gold!
Here it is. (Okay, someone’s just having some fun.)

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