Five-Part Plan for USATT
Below is a five-part Plan for USATT. I've blogged about these issues in the past, but now that USATT is under new leadership, here's a good time to consolidate them together again. I could write a small book about each of these issues, but I'll keep them short here.
A key issue that affects all of these: Separate progressive and fairness issues. Both are important, but fairness issues take up all the time and energy and so we never get to progressive issues like the five issues above. Leaders need to focus on progressive issues, and send fairness issues to the appropriate committee. I'm guessing that the new USATT CEO, Gordon Kaye, is going to get dragged into fairness issues, and if he's not careful he'll spend his time acting as a judge and negotiator rather than progressively developing the sport, which is a recipe for more status quo.
I previously blogged about Fairness Versus Progressive Issues. The short version:
Fairness issues are those that involve the ongoing governance of the sport. They include setting up procedures for selecting teams; most membership issues; the running of the U.S. Open and Nationals and other similar events (including site selection, dates, choosing personnel, etc.); disciplinary actions; the magazine and website (which can be used to promote progressive issues, but are not progressive issues themselves); and many more. These issues take up the great majority of the time for USATT leaders. Look over the agenda or minutes for any USATT board meeting, and it's dominated by such issues.
Progressive issues are those that grow the sport. There are many different opinions on how this should be done, such as junior development programs (both elite and grass roots), leagues, schools, TV, growing the U.S. Open and Nationals, professional circuits, etc. It also includes raising money for the sport, if the money is used in progressive ways.
Another important issue is use of volunteers. One of the most promising things USATT has done recently is create the USATT National Volunteer Coordinator position. I blogged about this and the use of volunteers on August 22, 2014. (It also discusses Fairness Versus Progressive Issues again, and the use of committees.)
I am toying with running for the at-large position in the upcoming USATT election, and perhaps trying to convince the leadership of the importance of taking action on these issues rather than the usual wait and see attitude that permeates our sport. However, I have no interest in running if it's going to be the same old thing. The current situation is that if you suggest a "new" idea (and I put that in quotes because they are only new to those who haven't been paying attention), you get one of three responses:
Successful organizations do not operate in this fashion. They make goals, create plans to reach those goals, and the organization's leadership gets behind those plans and goals. But that's not how USATT currently or historically works. Right now if someone were to go to USATT with the five ideas above, it would likely get one of the responses listed above. I've been down that cycle multiple times - especially #3 - and do not plan to fall into that trap again. These issues have to be organizational issues, where the CEO and Board of Directors get behind these plans and make it their goal for these plans to succeed.
And tomorrow I plan to go back to blogging about coaching issues! But directly or indirectly, the above dramatically affects all of us in the table tennis community.
Pushing Short
Here's the coaching video (4:50) by Pierre-Luc Hinse, North American table tennis champion and Canadian Olympian.
Techniques of Long Pimples
Here's the coaching video (6:56) by Tao Li
Xu Xin in Table Tennis World
Here's the feature article in Chinese, and here's an English translation at the Mytabletennis.com forum.
Michael Maze on the Operating Table Again
Here's the article and picture.
$10,000 Butterfly Badger Open
Here's are two more articles by Barbara Wei on the tournament this past weekend.
Newgy Akron Open
Here's the USATT article about the tournament this upcoming weekend.
Table Tennis is Art at its Best Level
Here's the highlights video (8:48).
Former Bloomingdale Mayor is Tops in Table Tennis
Ryu Seung Min and the Cup of Water
Here's some sort of game show video (2:26) where the Korean star attempts to bounce a ball across the table and into a cup of water.
***
Send us your own coaching news!
Re: September 23, 2014
Larry,
Could you post (or link to) some ideas about recruiting junior players in order to start up a junior program? Our club has had a few junior players come through the club but none has stayed around very long or come consistently. Right now we have no junior players. We do not have a real coach (not even a part time one) so that might be a deal breaker for getting a junior program going.
Mark
Re: September 23, 2014
Hi Mark,
It's unlikely you can have a successful junior program without a real coach. Without a coach, you'll just get a few kids who treat it like a game, no more than Parcheesi. If the club is serious, it will find a coach. You don't have to pay the coach a penny; he'd charge for his lessons, including group junior sessions. I suggest getting a copy of the Professional Table Tennis Coaches Handbook, which has ten pages in two chapters on recruiting and training juniors and running junior programs. Or if you see me at the Teams or the Nationals, I'll likely just give you a copy. (It only costs about $5.)