Table Tennis with a Heart

alright, good to hear that. i think we can set up sort of a trust fund for zap's cause and send him either money to buy the equipment or the actual needs. can you post some of the pics of your students with you teaching?

Here we go:
http://imageshack.us/g/1/9759401/

Some of the players I coach either individual or during team training:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/651/dsc07262o.jpg/ Left
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/689/dsc07258d.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/138/dsc07252.jpg/ 2 of the right
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/222/dsc07216e.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/594/dsc07212z.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/825/dsc07236y.jpg/

I took some photos of their equipment.
Most of the juniors get second hand equipment from the seniors (who either buy or get sponsored). Some of these juniors have been using these equipment for more than a year.
Butterfly was kind enough to sponsor one of the clubs 50 shirts, and the club just had their club name printed on too. You can see some Dunlop and Lion bats, as well as no name brands with old but proper rubbers

yogi_bear wrote: wow those are crappy bats! anyway, ill send you some come november. would dawei rubbers be good enough?

Thank you Yogi_bear .
Btw, my practice on Sunday was canceled, I will take more photos again on Monday evening.

Yes, those bats are crappy, or have so many damages.... But I don't think I saw the worse yet.
In Oct or Nov, I am invited by one of the club owners to travel to a town 100km away, at a school for the deaf and have few deaf players (there were dress in red tshirt in this tournament).

When we are there (township area), I believe I will see a lot worse equipment than what I have seen in the city.
Of course you still have some wealthy ones in the city, ie a player's dad ordered her a TBS spirit with T05 on both sides recently, but I will say that is very very rare - even for the top players in South Africa that are not sponsored.

Regarding Dawei - Yes PLEASE. I am sure it is 10 times or 100 times better than some of what those players are using.

One thing I did noticed is, all of these kids are using soft sponge to medium sponge rubbers. I am not sure how they will adapt to Chinese rubbers.

I think the past 5 to 10 years there was a lot of 729FX, I think super soft. I was the only DHS user here, and now I don't think there is any Chinese rubbers used in South Africa. I think it can be either 1 of 2 reasons - either no one bought them in, so no users. Or maybe they don't know how to use Chinese rubbers.

I gave 4 sheets of H3 away (each about 3 months usage) a month or 2 ago. I actually want to check on the feedback there.

Regarding the cost for value, I think Chinese rubbers is critical here.



Edited by ZApenholder - 09/16/2012 at 8:41pm

popperlocker wrote: Had no idea you were from South Africa Zapenholder. How is the playing situation there? How are the clubs?

Well, I've been all over the show. So more like I am in South Africa now

I think there was some sponsorship (compared to 5 years ago when I was last on the scene) for tables. All the clubs (affliated to the national tt board) here got sponsored/loan Stag DX2000 tables.
There has been a lot more juniors/cadet than before. A lot of previous natational junior players are now adults and also doing coaching. And certainly a lot new clubs forms since 5 years ago.

I think in general the game is getting bigger.
But I think still lacking enough hours of training and higher quality coaching (too little coaches too) to really get the guys to the top. A lot of juniors don't focus on footwork, and this is something that I have been trying to implement with extreme difficult (footwork wise) multiball drills. I have seem problems with footwork for top 5 ranked juniros in different age group.

Even though there is more funding than before (ie High performance center for the top players, but limited to the chosen ones, overseas trips for the national team etc), but on the ground level the juniors rely on coaches to pick them up and drive them around to matches as well as assist with equipment. In some cases, the coaches will even sponsor trips for the kid to tournaments (the coaches gets donations on behalf of the kids). The local provincial TT guys is making it as affordable as possible, but there is still some that can't do it alone.

One of the clubs I am coaching at, the owner is funding a lot of things out of his pocket. IE all the balls used was purchase by himself, and I hear beggining of the year he bought a gross of them, and now there is less than half...and he is getting worried lol. One thing I like about him and his club is that he is getting Para guys involved in TT, and the Deaf team also plays with him. He is the one invited me to the Deaf school to do a full day of Table Tennis training there.

The clubs fees is very cheap - compared to what I hear on the forum.
I pay something like USD45, for the club for the year, which includes the league fees (which I hardly play and act more like a reserve player nowadays). The league fee is about half of that. Our club is one of the more expensive ones here.

The club I am at is apparently the biggest in the country with just under 60 players with 8 teams in the league (of between 3 to 5 players). Can put up max 12 tables.
The league structure I think is decent and challenging, but the only disadvantage is they play 10 GAMES, 3 x 3 singles with 1 doubles, all best of 5s. Thus it finish quite late, normally on Wednesday from 7pm (but you know things never start on time), so budget 7:30pm to 11pm.... One reason why I don't play anymore.

popperlocker wrote: Wow sounds interesting, thanks for the insight on South Africa! The coaching problem you talk about seems difficult, since the coaches/clubs have to pay for many expenses. Are most of the top players imported or home bred? How would you rate the level of the players in the league? 1500-2200?

I forgot to mention that the coaches are clost to offering FOC services if not FOC like me.
The ones that are getting paid - I think is just breaking even.

There haven't been much imported players. Only 2 was both from China (imigrated to SA for other reasons). Both of them female ended up being South African womens champion with ease. One of them was still young (unveristy age) and a formal provincial junior player in China. The other was a 50yrs old+ former top player in China and Heilongjiang provincial junior coach.

Level of play, this is the tough one as I am not familar with US rating, but my guess from comparison in the past (using Sweden and Belgium ratings). The top SA players should be about 2300~2500 - assuming 2500 is the highest when peak - during full time training.

The league has - Premier league (all 10 teams)
1st league, 2nd league all the way to 5th league or 6th league.

The lowest league level is really "beginners", but above your "basement" type of play. I dont' know how to guess those players rating.

There is also the junior league - where my photos was taken from.
there is 4 divisions in the junior league, with the youngest competing is around 10 to 12 year old, with about 1 to 2 years of play.


Edited by ZApenholder - 09/17/2012 at 6:22am

Yeah, this is where I found my passion of giving more than gaining from others.
I asked one of the coahces why he is doing it, he told me, because when he was small, other guys did it for him and now it is his turn to give back.

Also, a lot of children are from community that have drugs and gangs. Sports take these children off the street and teach the children to work hard to achieve something (and not the easy way).

Of course there is also some ugly side like politics etc, but overall, as long as every body is doing somethings for the childrens, it is a good thing.

In the photos, that young girl (12 yrs old) with a dunlop bat (new), the bat was donated by a guy that was 17 years old. He saved up some money to purchase it and "donate" to the club. The bat is about USD16 retail price, but it means a lot to the little girl.

ZApenholder wrote: As promise, some photos from training this evening http://imageshack.us/g/1/9764557/

Popperlocker
Lol, officially I am the only penholder in South Africa. These kids do try to copy me during fun play, but I think SH is easier to master. Maybe in the future I can find the ones that want to become a penholder. Also, you have to see the faces when they saw my "cpen" short handle. They just couldnt' understand it and thought I trim it short myself

Yogi_bear,
Yeah, that is me.
I don't normally like to be in photos.....

zap, try contacting ittf about your project. they sent me dhs rubbers and rackets twice in 2 yrs. ill give you the email address.

Any worthwhile places to send in the U.S.? Have a little bit that can go but the last round cost too much to ship

i think its about 20 USD if by regular postal mail consists of 2-3 blades and maybe 4-6 rubbers

i think it's time to resurrect this thread. someone pm'd me asking for equipment. i forgot what country he was from. anybody got spare used rubbers or blades?