Jha Signed to 1st Div Bundesliga

I thought Tio was already living at Grenzau the city (very confusing... :) ), but was competing for different club - from May 2018 USATT article:

the granzau club is where they train and live 

BTW, Kanak's team is mostly very young:

mentortt wrote: I heard in some other cases, USATT just gave invitation. Eventually parents need to pay huge money to support their kids. Hope what benefit or what support for national players is clear to public. If there is support and player don't want to go, can they go to Japan or China to train in league?

Players I know well who went that route have told me that they felt that they got better training in Europe (Germany and Sweden) than in China because the coaches actually spent more time with them.  An advantage of China is (or used to be) that living expenses are a lot lower but once you are there, you may well be ignored.  This information is several years old, though.  I don't know anyone who has gone to China to train more recently.  Maybe some places there are better now, although I would tend to doubt it.  I actually haven't heard of Americans going to Japan to train. 

At the end of the day, what Jha is doing will yield largest TT benefits because he is forced to compete every week for real money against players mostly better than he is.  He will have to get better.  And he will.  But maybe not many US prospects are as good as he is or as motivated to be great in TT (as opposed to using TT excellence as a venue for entry to top universities, which will set them up for life -- a strategy I find perfectly reasonable).

First I want to apologise for mistakes in this post, I'm not a native speaker so it might get a little tough to read for you. 

I am from Germany and have played for SV Union Velbert for some years and can share some information with you.

In general players are paid to join a club and play in the league. The amount of money depends on your skill at the table and how good you sell yourself. Some get paid more of they win more games 

In the 1. Bundesliga there are mostly professional athletes, some of them have a second job in the coaching staff or at the club. You can make a living from it, but you need supporters.you won't get rich by playing table tennis. 

If you are Top 5 of your league like Timo Bill or Matthias Falck you will make a decent living from your payment. 

From second Bundesliga to thrid bundesliga there are some players who can live just from playing, but most of players need a part time Job or some other stuff to earn money. 

News about the payment of players aren't available and won't be published - that's a German thing. You don't take alot about money 

But of course the club's will find a way to get you a nice place to sleep, cover your Meals and Equipment. If you have to fly in for games, this will  normally be paid by the club.

If you have any more questions, I'll try to answer them as good as I can. 

Ochsenhausen beat Grenzau 3-1.

In the first match, Kanak Jha lost to Hugo Calderano (10, 9, 9).

Video: