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Graham B. Steenhoven "I suspect that [the SDTTA] is the largest in the United States." Si Wasserman: "No question you've been doing a magnificent job organizing TT in San Diego, possibly the best job in the country." On July 30, 1962, then USTTA President Norman Kilpatrick, in response to my 6-page "National Uniform Classification System" proposal, wrote: "A special sub-committee of the Internal Promotion Committee has been set up to work out a point system for table tennis, and I have strongly suggested that you be put in charge of this committee..., its [point system] adoption will change the entire USTTA set-up...Secondly, I am appointing you to the Advisory Committee of the USTTA President..." (Major family problems did not allow me to accept). On August 17, 1961, George Koehnke wrote me that my then proposal was "the best analysis I have ever seen of the sport in this country."
During the intervening years, I gained additional insights into the needs of the sport from my education (B.A., U. of Pgh, Phi Beta Kappa; M.S.W, U.C.L.A); business experience (R.C.A, 3-M, E.L.A.S), professional career, (L.C.S.W., M.F.C.C), affiliation with and speaker at Mensa meetings, and material obtained from the ETTA (English TTA), including its 120 pp Handbook, and the NTTF (Dutch TTA) and its 39 pp Handbook. Note that in a country half the size of Maine, the NTTF boasts over twice as many members as the USATT. As stated above, I am not in table tennis for political reasons. Only because I love the game and want to see as many people enjoy it as I have. The proposal identifies major problems which have bedeviled the sport in the U.S. for over 60 years. It offers practical solutions which, if implemented, will make table tennis a major sport in the U.S.
The requirements for the cure of certain illnesses (alcoholism, depression, etc.) is for the patient to acknowledge that he severely ill, that the pain of the illness is greater than its rewards, and that change must come from within. The more honest the acknowledgment of the illness, the deeper the pain, the greater the effort and better prognosis for recovery.
Table tennis in 1959 was a blip on the U.S. sports scene. Rip Van Winkle returned to the sport in 1993, and found little changed. In over a third of a century, dues increased from $2.00 to $25.00 per year, prize money went up to $4,000 for the Men's U.S. Open Champion in 1995, a caddie tip for professional golfers such as Fred Couples who won $270,000 with a ten-foot put in a Skins Game on Nov 26, 1995. Tennis player Andre Agassi's 1995 income was $18 million; 18 times the entire 1994 $877.000 income of the USATT.
Membership grew from 2,000 to a little around 6,000 (1959), the increase attributable to normal population growth and the fortuitous influx in the 50s and 60s of many Hungarian and other Eastern European table tennis stars such as Bob Varadi, Dr. Andreas Gal, Tibor Back, Daniel Vegh. Our growth to 7,354 in 1994 may be attributed to the equally lucky influx of a large contingent of dedicated and superb Asian players.
In July, 1996, the 7 top USATT women were Feng, Yip, Wang, Sung, Zakharyan, Chui, and Li. The top 8 men included: Cheng, Zhuang, Huang, and Nguyen. More recently the USATT has had the fortunate influx of excellent additional Eastern European and former Soviet Union players, such as the Malek and Livshit families, to name but two.
Our 1996 Women's Olympic Team consisted of Amy Feng, Lily Yip and Wei Wang, fine athletes all, but no thanks to the USATT. Our Men's team comprised David Yong-Xiang Zhuang, Jim Butler and Todd Sweeris, the last two US-born but foreign-honed. Without these large foreign enrollments, the USATT might still be stuck at 2,000 after 35 years.
Terry Timmins, current USATT President, writes that "USATT is a business and must operate as one to achieve its goals" (USATT Magazine, July, 1996). The USATT claims that 19.8 million play table tennis in the U.S. With less than 7,500 USATT members, this means that the USATT has captured 1 out of every 2,667 players in the United States. Any business (especially a monopoly such as the USTTA/USATT), unable to capture a larger share of its market after 63 years must question its commitment and competence. These unaffiliated 19,792,500 players not only have no interest in joining the USATT, most don't even know it exists. In bus or plane, the probability of sitting next to a murderer is 6 times greater than that of sitting next to a USATT member. Are we elitist or what?
In a nation of 265,000,000, a membership of 7,354 indicates that this wonderful sport is comatose, and that the USTTA/USATT has failed in its mission "To promote table tennis in America and to provide all participants with the best possible experience by advancing and administering the sport."
If the USATT Board remains in denial after all these years, no major improvements, such as this plan proposes, will be given consideration, no matter how practical, functional and effective. Terry Timmins, ever the realist, told me that it will take a miracle to turn the sport around. But I believe in miracles, and think that the present members of the Board are open to new ideas. This proposal is for them, and for all others who love the sport.
A common way to avoid facing one's illness is not to let the outside world intrude - comparing our current situation with yesterday's (speaking as a psychotherapist, retired). Such tunnel vision lets a patient look good and feel good. Examples: Walter Keim wrote in the TTT, 10-60 that "Good progress is being made in our [youth development] program. In his 1994 report, President Dan Seamiller rejoiced that "1994 was an excellent one for USA Table Tennis. Membership was up to 7,354, the highest in more than 20 years...The future looks good..." Paul Montville wrote that "1994 was a watershed year for USA Table Tennis...for tournament, with 249 sanctioned events in 1994, compared to 230 in 1993. Membership also saw a healthy increase during the year, from 6699 in 1993 to 7354 in 1994,...a rise of 10%." In the meantime, the USATT lost 10% of its clubs, from 240 to 215.
The USTTA/USATT must expand its vista and compare table tennis to other sports: Golf: 24.6 million; tennis: 20 million; soccer: 16 million; bowling: 79 million; in-line skaters: 25 million; darts: 17.8 million; snowboarders: 2 million; snowshoeing: 500,000. The list is endless: including skiing, badminton, martial arts, curling, sky-diving, roller-blading.
Compared to all other sports, table tennis is the bottom fisher of them all. There are more POG players and American Match Book Cover Assn devotees than USATT members.
What about the 19.8 million table tennis players? They are not part of the organized sport, and table tennis is therefore not considered their primary recreational outlet. They are dismissed by commercial sponsors and TV networks and independents as unreliable audiences and do not currently help promote the sport, the focus of this proposal.
All 24.6 million golfers, for example, do not belong to the USGA. But their expenditures in equipment and green fees reveal that golf is their primary sport, and they therefore draw the serious attention of the media and sponsors. The 19.8 million table tennis players play sporadically, in obscurity, and with minimal expenditures. If they can be persuaded to come out of their backyards and basements into USTTA/USATT clubs, table tennis will be well on its way to becoming a premier sport in the United States.
Many in table tennis say no. How can we ever be as big as tennis, golf, basketball, bowling, beach volleyball, etc.?
But how big were they when we first started in 1933. Golf and tennis did not come onto the scene full-grown, with champions making in the millions. In the 1930s, golf and tennis were elite sports, played behind high walls, by a few wealthy patrons. Professional golf and tennis did not exist. Skiing was enjoyed in the Alps by the rich and famous. The top NBA players of the 1940s played for less than $10,000 per year, with no pension. Bowling and billiards were disreputable sports, played by pot-bellied, cigar-chomping gamblers. Roller-blading, wind-surfing, and beach volleyball had not yet been invented. When, "in April 1930, S.F.Perry wrote to Fred's employer, asking for a week's leave without wages for his son [then defending Wimbledon Champion!] so that he could play in the British Hardcourt Championships at Bournemouth...his request was refused" (Illustrated Encyclopedia of World Tennis, 1989). Whitney Reed's prize for winning the first US Tennis Pro Indoor Championship in the late 1960s was a tape recorder. Stan Smith earned $15,000 winning the first ever Tennis Masters in 1970. In that year, Lee Trevino, the leading PGA money winner for the year, earned $157,037. In 1996, this same Lee Trevino, now playing in the Senior Circuit, earned $992,536 in 6 months. The Senior PGA money leader for the entire year was Jim Colbert, with $1,627,890, closely followed by Hale Irwin, with $1,615,769.
Financial World, 2-14-95, reports that in 1992, [Greg] Norman endorsed Cobra Golf products for almost $10 million. Greg recalls, "I won a tournament in Australia in 1980 or '81 and won 69 pounds (about $105). Today, you get $1.6 million" (LAT, 11-14-96).
In 1996, before 20-year old Tiger Woods hit his first ball as a pro, he signed a $40 million 5-year contract with Nike. In his first 7 tournaments, he earned almost $735,000. First place at the Newsweek Championship Tennis Cup in March, 1996 was worth $350,000. A long ways up from a tape recorder.
Why did we stay rooted at the starting gate of 1933 while everyone else passed us by? Put all the pieces of the puzzle below together, and you will have your answer.
In November, 1996, 16 year-old Martina Hingis became the youngest tennis player, male or female, to reach $1,000,000 in career earnings. Would some of our table tennis players like to belly up to the same bar? The money's there. The United States is the most media-hyping, fitness-obsessed, recreation-crazy, sponsor deep-pocketed nation on earth. TV networks have lots of dead air-time on their hands. They put on bungy-jumping, arm-wrestling, log-rolling contests to save the screen from going dark. Where is table tennis?
TV moguls are currently featuring 47 off-season "shoot-out" golf events, to keep people glued to their TV sets. To lure professionals back on the links from well-earned rests on the circuit, they offer prizes of $1 million and more to play "fun golf," using alternative shots, best ball and scramble formats. Table tennis could easily fill the gaps.
The television media, the vehicle which connects the largest audiences to the sponsors' products with the greatest frequency in the shortest period of time is eager to feature sports coverage. The United States is uniquely positioned. Its sports audience is the largest homogeneous one in the world - 265,000,000 people, speaking the same language and enjoying the same sports regardless of race, sex or religion. Its thousands of television stations dwarf the two to five of many countries, and it features the largest print coverage of any nation.
"TV networks, independents and cable outlets are eager to meet the sponsors' objectives by providing programs appealing to the largest audiences, since their advertising billings are based on audience size." (FW, 2-14-95).
The excuses I hear today for the deplorable state of table tennis in the U.S. are identical to those I heard 37 years ago: too many other sports, too foreign, too fast for media coverage, not exciting enough, not bloody enough, and so forth. Let's separate fact from fiction.
Myth #1: The sports field in the U.S. is too crowded to accommodate another sport. Beach volleyball did not buy such an excuse starting in the 1960's and 1970's, "when players were barely earning enough to cover their travel expenses...[to the present day when], crowds of 20,000 attend many tournaments which are backed by large sponsors such as Coors, Reebok and Chevrolet...Once a summer sport and confined largely to California, the men's and women's pro beach tour is now year-round and stops all over the world. The game will be an Olympic event in Atlanta in 1996. CBS, NBC and Prime Ticket, a regional sports channel, regularly televise events, expanding the sport's popularity. Numerous televised interviews at court side allow players to develop distinct public personalities....Women stars, such as Elaine Roque earn annual incomes of nearly six figures." (LAT, 11-7-94).
The same mushrooming growth has occurred in numerous sports, hobbies and fads. In-line skating increased fourfold since 1990, from 3.6 million to 25 million. "Annual sales of roller skates were expected to reach $325 million by the end of 1994" (LAT, 8-20-94). "Roller hockey is taking the nation by storm. According to the National Sporting Goods Assn., participation in the rough-and-tumble sport nearly doubled last year, to 2.2 million players" (U.S. News and World Report, 10-30-95).
In comparison, table tennis took 35 years to grow from 2,000 to 7354! At that rate it will take millenniums for the sport to reach 2.2 million. Anyone willing to wait?
Myth #2. Table tennis is too foreign for American participants or audiences. Skiing, soccer, badminton, fencing, squash, field hockey, martial arts are all hugely successful "foreign-born" sports, most starting far more recently than table tennis and all far more popular and successful. How come?
Myth #3: Table tennis is not attractive enough or too fast to be captured on camera, to thrill spectators. The attractiveness, speed, action, or lack thereof of a sport is IRRELEVANT to sponsors and media when programming sporting events. What counts is that a large loyal audience wants to see it on TV. John Feinstein titles his book on golf, A Good Walk Spoiled. A Wiley cartoon in the LAT (3-2-96) shows two golfers in heaven, looking toward a hole leading to hell. One says to the other: "It's a symbiotic relationship...Up here we get to play golf for eternity, and down there they have to watch golf for eternity."
In an hour of TV bowling, players spend more time toweling off bowling balls than throwing them. Fox Sports President David Hill told USA Today that "The most wasteful shot in sports is a golf ball up in the air." I suspect sports directors took one shot of a ball against a blue sky background, and dubbed it in for all subsequent air balls in all later tournaments. Who's to know, and what's the difference? Take fishing - please.
Table tennis is one of the most electrifying sports, with fabulous and photogenic athletes performing incredible feats. But only devotees of the sport appreciate the superb hand-eye coordination, the ballet-type footwork, the feather touch of bat on ball, the speed, power, lightning reactions of champions. But sponsors and the media say: "Quality is irrelevant. Give us lots of eyeballs, and we'll put cow-chip throwing contests on the tube." And they have! If we give them the numbers of spectators they require, we'll have all the air time we want. Until then, we'll get the crumbs, fill-in time, charity.
Myth # 4: We don't have the champions to bring people into the sport. This is the trickle-down theory. Won't work for two reasons. World champions haven't emerged (facts shown below), and even if they had, people wouldn't have taken up the sport up because of them. Champions don't create the audience. I see bull-dogging? No interest. Parachute jumping? No way. Skiing? Forget it. Table tennis? All right!! Table tennis players: How many of you took up ballroom dancing after seeing champions of the sport on TV?
Lesson: People already in a sport create the demand to see champions perform. Audience first, champions on TV second. When we get on TV now, it is as a curiosity, like bungy jumping, or as an act of charity.
Myth # 5: Table tennis is too genteel. Americans like blood sports, like hockey, football, boxing. They do, but they also like golf, tennis, bowling. Ballroom dancing, an upcoming Olympic sport, has far more U.S. participants than table tennis. Consumer Report, 7-96 related that "Nearly 25 million Americans in-line skate at least once a year. That makes skating more popular that tennis and nearly as popular as golf. The Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association expects skating to be the 'hottest' recreational activity in 1996 - 'hottest,' that is, in terms of image and rate of growth." Can table tennis match in-line skating in "image" and rate of growth? If not, why not?
Myth # 6: Distances to travel too great in the United States. Then how come table tennis is practically the national sport of China? What about the former Soviet Union? People I have talked to immediately refer to distances between towns and states. They talk of running before walking. Table tennis should first be fostered intraclub. A membership of 50 or more is sufficient to create an exciting and fulfilling year-round in-house program. Later, inter-city, inter-county, inter-state and national leagues become viable.
Over the years, many "solutions" to popularize the sport have been made. None were implementable. Let us explore some of the most common.
One of the most common refrains is for more media exposure, more sponsors, more prize money. Splendid ideas, but they fail basic market principles. As stated above, audience size and interest generate sponsor and media attention, not the other way around. Until there is audience size, sponsor and media attention are not available. Bob Greenberg, writing for the 1994 edition of the Compton's Encyclopedia, points out:
"The influence of television on sports cannot be overestimated...based on the insatiable appetite of the public for sporting events...Its power over sports is based on money. The money comes from commercial sponsors, who buy broadcast time from the television companies [who in turn] must pay the professional leagues or other organizations for the right to broadcast the events...
The NBC successfully bid $401 million for the American rights to broadcast the summer Olympics of 1992. For [baseball rights] CBS guaranteed a billion dollars...
Through various rating systems, television companies know their markets. They know how large a percentage of the potential audience there is in a given area for a specific sports event [dividing the U.S. into ADI's and DMA's] according to the size and wealth of their television markets...
By 1989 more than 400 corporations had established budgets for sports marketing...General Motors, for example, was spending $581,000 a day. Another aspect of corporate marketing involves obtaining the services of well-known athletes to do commercials."
Since then prices have gone up. Television rights under current contracts:
Olympics:
Is table tennis in the loop. No, it is not. Why not? Its 7,253 USATT members are invisible in the Areas of Dominant Influence and the Designated Market Areas. As stated above, the 19.8 million non-affiliated players don't count to advertisers or media. Not belonging to a national organization, or playing in affiliated clubs, they are deemed casual table tennis players, whose primary form of recreation is another sport. They are not a reliable table tennis audience.
They may be compared to casual readers of magazines, who buy off the rack. Magazines' advertising rates are determined only by subscriptions, representing loyal and regular readership, during the subscription period. Casual readers, even numbering in the millions, are ignored when publications set advertising rates. Not dependable. One week Time, the next, Sports Illustrated.
What about the millions of non-affiliated golf and tennis players? As indicated above, they are counted as serious players because they must leave their homes to play, spend considerable capital in initial outlay for equipment and clothing on the sport, and then spend substantial funds to play. Golf green fees in my area run from $75.00 to $175.00 per 4-1/2 hour round. With that much money and time invested, these are the primary sports of such players. To these players, golf and tennis are not casual sports.
If the USTTA/USATT were to recruit 10 million of the 19.8 million casual table tennis players currently playing at home or in unaffiliated clubs, table tennis would immediately become a major sport, wooed by sponsors and media. Table tennis would be on T.V. weekly. This proposal shows how. Sponsors are not altruists, masochists, or dumb. The horse goes before the cart: Audiences - sponsors - money. No audience, no sponsors, no money.
Sponsors expect profits from their advertising moneys, and T.V. programmers calculate which event will gain the highest sponsor fee.
"After all," says CBS's De Luca, "the goals of a programmer are to put on an event that has the most total reach, is advertiser-friendly, will produce good ratings, and has good demographics" (Financial World), 2-14-95, p 102). Programmers do not create audiences, They locate them.
"$3,841,968,170. That's how much Michael Jordan's return to the N.B.A. has been worth to companies whose products he endorses. From March 7 to 20 [1995], amid talk of the comeback, the stock of General Mills (Wheaties) went up 2.5%; GM (Chevy Blazer) 3.2%; McDonald's, 6.5%; Nike, 3.4%; Quaker Oats (Gatorade) 2.3%; Sara Lee (Hanes underwear) 7.4% (Time, 4-3-95).
Sponsors got their money's worth from a proven drawing card.
During the PGA Seniors Championship, which Raymond Floyd won, the two hours and 43 minutes that the camera was trained on him and his visor, which featured Southwestern Bell's logo, was worth $244,500 in equivalent advertising time to that company. (FW, ibid). How much money could sponsors expect to make sinking advertising funds into table tennis tournaments?
Table tennis received billions of dollars of free world media coverage on several occasions. When the U.S. table tennis team breached China's bamboo curtain in 1971, Newsweek, April 26, 1971 devoted its front page (a cartoon of Chou En-Lai and Richard Nixon playing table tennis) and an in-depth 7-page spread on the subject:
"Last week's tour of China by an American table-tennis team marked a major watershed in postwar history: a thaw in relations between the U.S. and China. After two decades of implacable hostility, the two nations were back on speaking terms - and that development had immense significance for the rest of the world."
The publicity for table tennis was worth billions. Numerous articles and cartoons featuring table tennis followed, and momentarily table tennis benefitted. Dwight Chapin, Times Staff Writer wrote: "'Our sales have steadily increased,' says C.D.Smith, manager of United Sporting Goods' downtown store. 'The first four months of this year were the best we've ever had,' adds Julius Hillson, president of Harvard Table Tennis Corp...
"Some others are less optimistic, such as Al Burton of Youth Marketing, Inc. which hoped to cash in on a table tennis bonanza he says didn't happen after the China visit," Chapin continues. "The doors were open for awhile after our team's Chinese tour. There was a spurt of interest for maybe six weeks. Then it was the same old disinterest. Ping pong apathy. Table tennis on leave." (LAT 4-17-72)
Remember Forrest Gump. Great publicity. Then back to table tennis apathy. The Olympics: Atlanta, 1996! Great expectations by the USATT. Long term benefits predicted for the sport in the U.S.? Benefits? None. Why not?
You must sow before you reap. All pieces must be in place before you can expect rewards. The above events were superb opportunities to introduce millions to organized table tennis. But there were no places for them to play. The interest went elsewhere. Now we have a piece of the puzzle.
The USTTA/USATT has for over 63 years, spent about one quarter of its income on "Athlete support" (mostly elite youth development) in its efforts to create world champions. Why? To bask in the prestige of having created Olympic and World Champions? To popularize the sport through trickle-down strategy (Item VI, Myth #4 above)? The USATT should specify its purpose and goals. But trickle-down has failed for 63 years, and will never succeed. Why? Efforts to create Olympic and World Champions. In 63 years, the USTTA produced one singles world champion - R. H. Aarons, 60 years ago (1936), one Swaythling Cup (59 years ago), and one Corbillon Cup (49 years ago). In return for the millions of dollars expended out of the USTTA/USATT treasury, our teams traveling the world over brought a winning ratio of 3.6 percent. Lovely trips to Europe, Asia, South America for participants and coaches, yes. Success in promoting table tennis in America (the USATT mission): No. The United States has developed champions in virtually all sports except table tennis. Why not?
A. All other sports have pools of millions of youths of all skill levels from which future champions emerge naturally. The dozen "elite" youths the USATT grooms for Olympic stardom is too shallow and artificially created to produce champions. They bear the added disadvantage of not having the competitive variety and numbers to practice and compete against to achieve world level of play. Their real hands-on training takes place in Sweden, Germany, and elsewhere. The USATT's culling process excludes millions of youths who would play if provided the opportunity. From this vast pool, U.S. Olympic and World champions would emerge naturally.
Lee Trevino, Gary Player, Tiger Woods, Darryl Strawberry, Michael Chang, Pete Sampras, Hideo Nomo did not become champions through special selection and training by national Olympic associations. They came up through the amateur ranks, college sports programs, family encouragement and support. Some top golfers started as caddies. Like cream from milk, they rose to the top, naturally. Bubble up, not trickle down. There are farm teams in hockey and baseball and "in effect, the colleges and universities with good football and basketball teams serve as farm systems for the professional teams," Bob Greenberg tells us. The farm system for tennis are the Challenger and Satellite events. The stars and professionals rise from pools of millions. The USATT draws from a puddle, not deep enough to get your socks wet.
B. Youth development through the training of children by their high-level player parents won't develop champions or bring in the general population either. Many are exceptional young players, but the flaws mentioned above apply equally to them: not enough practice and competition against variety and numbers of higher level young players. Pool too shallow. Unfortunately, under present conditions, these devoted parents are doing their children a disfavor, training them in a dead-end sport.
C. The USATT cannot attract top young athletes to the sport, to groom into Olympic and World champions. They want fame and fortune as they become adults. Other sports offer it. Table tennis currently does not.
The "USATT Plan for Competitive Success" declares that "The sport of table tennis requires at least 10 years of full-time training for an athlete to become a contender at a world class level." Sean O'Neil exhorts: "To become a champion takes countless hours of dedication and devotion, there are no shortcuts. For those who are willing to stick it out for the long haul the rewards will be immeasurable..."
What immeasurable rewards? Sean lists: "Being able to list table tennis on college applications; travel around the world to State Games, Junior Olympics, Special Olympics, U.S. Olympic Festivals, Pan Am Games and Olympic Games; and USOC assistance with college tuition, health insurance, job opportunities!" (TTT 7-94)." Impressive?
What impresses youths is Andre Agassi's four-engine Lockheed JetStar 731 which takes him to tennis matches around the world, piloted by Steve Purwin, his private pilot (Tennis, 6-95); the $55-million five-year contract Albert Belle signed with the Chicago White Sox in November, 1996; right-hander Alex Fernandez's five-year, $35-million contract with the Florida Marlins (12-96), Tiger Woods' $40 million endorsement fee. How does health insurance and assistance with college tuition stack up against those inducements?
D. Focusing on youth recruitment in vacuo won't work. Children do not come into a sport on their own. Their parents bring them. If the parents aren't interested in the sport, the children won't be.
Dr. Azmy Ibrahim observed at a training center for juniors in Okinawa that the matches consisted of mothers playing their children. Azmy noted: "They are hitting two birds with one stone. They are recruiting juniors and female players for the sport at the same time.
I hope we can borrow some of the different approaches which are used in other countries...let us use our creativity and innovations to make this work." Hooray for Dr. Ibrahim.
Past USTTA President Norman Kilpatrick wrote in TTT, March, 1962: "We must, I feel, be concerned with first improving our own poor table tennis situation, before spending time and energy helping international table tennis..."
The USTTA/USATT may believe that by generating large numbers of elite or championship players, sponsors and the media will become interested. If this is its concept, it is fatally flawed. Elite and championship players will never generate the numbers of interest to sponsors or the media. They require millions and such numbers can only come from the grass-roots, average, recreational players. Another piece of the puzzle.
The LAT, 8-13-96 notes that "Those earning a living from the sport represent a minute percentage of surfers."
A Reader's Digest article of June, 1994 reports:
"There are some 5,000 players in the 22 minor leagues that cover the United States and reach into Canada, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. Each player has fine skills, and all are aching to make the big leagues.
But only one in ten ever will. Half will be out of baseball within three years. The others will hang on, playing for teams like the Carolina Mudcats and the Jamestown (N.Y.) Jamers, earning as little as $850 a month, convinced to the end that their big chance is still to come."
Brian Cleary, staff writer for Tennis (Nov. 93), quotes Jim Jackson, father of a top 20 junior in the world, advising the father of a 3-year old: "Hey, it would be a hell of a lot easier for you to make him into a brain surgeon than a pro tennis player." Cleary reports that "Every aspiring pro - national junior and NCAA champions included - spends at least a couple of years playing satellite and Challenger events before they break into the world's top 100 and start playing the big money Grand Prix tournaments...In minor league terms, satellites are double-A ball compared to a Challenger's triple-A status...Michael Joyce, the '91 boys' 18s national champion, points out that when he won the Hawaiian satellite segment in November '92, he won 21 matches, but earned only 35 ATP points and less than $4,000."
We will never popularize our sport by expecting to saturate it with professional or semi-professional players. They can't generate the numbers.
We now come to the crux of the problem, and its solution. There are four basic categories of table tennis players (overlap recognized), with different personalities, motivations, goals, and program needs. During its entire history, the USTTA/USATT has served the elite/championship player constituency, thereby suppressing any nascent recreational player base. Another piece of the puzzle. While a recreational program would be quite suitable for elite players, the reverse is not the case. Explanation follows. A. Casual players: The 19.8 million players the USATT identifies as participants in our sport are "casual players." Typically, they have warped tables and non-descript balls and sandpaper paddles stashed in basements or garages, used every six months or so during family picnics. After the mayonnaise and mustard have been wiped off the ping-pong/picnic table, people take part in a lively game of giggle ping pong. Then the table goes back against the wall for another six months. The primary sport of these participants may be tennis, golf, fishing, but not table tennis. They know not of the USATT, nor of table tennis clubs in their community. B. Recreational players: Virtually non-existent in the US [approximately 7,200 of the USATT members fit this category], they are the multi-million player base of national table tennis organizations in the rest of the world. Recreational players also form the foundation of every other sport the world over, including tennis, golf, bowling, surfing, etc. To recreational table tennis players the world over, it is their primary sport. These players have no illusions about becoming champions. They go regularly to their table tennis clubs as family affairs, and participate in weekly low-intensity competition for fun, exercise and camaraderie. They form the 7 of the 8 divisions in English county leagues, the 11 of the 12 divisions in Swedish leagues, the 6 of the 7 divisions in Holland, and so forth. In the U.S., since recreational table tennis is not known to USATT players or officers, it may be compared to our bowling leagues - children, seniors, women, church, business and factory leagues, etc. There is even midnight bowling (up to 130 turn up each night at the Gable House Bowl in Torrance, CA.). Lanes are reserved for league play, with open lanes only available when lanes are unoccupied by leagues. The invention of automatic pin-setters, offering a family-friendly environment, and the introduction of league play, provide participants fun, camaraderie and exercise, while producing the lanes a steady and dependable clientele. In 1993, almost 80 million people bowled at least once (LAT 1-5-95). Reno, Nevada drew 91,000 bowlers to its annual amateur tournament in 1995. Bowling started in September 1894, but professional bowling was not established until 64 years later: "More people in the U.S. go bowling than go to baseball games... The [ABC] promoted bowling as a wholesome form of recreation and competition. (Encyclopedia, 1995). Reno, Nevada is creating a $45 million, 80-lane National Bowling Stadium (LAT 2-4-95). The AC-Delco PBA tournament in Lakewood, CA. had a pot of $240,000, with a first prize of $45,000 (LAT 1-13-95). In US table tennis terms, recreational players' ratings are 1,000-1,600. Currently, the approximate 7,200 USATT members who are recreational players are ignored in focus and program. Finding little value in their membership, their drop-out rate is enormous. They are replaced by naive new recreational player members, who soon become disenchanted, and leave, through a perpetual revolving door. Yet, even now, their memberships and tournament entry fees keep the USTTA/USATT alive. This group could provide the broad base, the freshness, the energy, the enthusiasm, the numbers, the financial resources, the political clout, the future quality players, and the administration to invigorate the sport and make it grow large and healthy. A major piece of the puzzle. C. Elite players: These are players who thrive on and esteem the technical aspects of the game. They having both competitive and recreational tendencies. Some in the top echelon have professional and coaching ambitions and potentials. Ratings: from about 1,600 to 2,400. They, and the "professionals" have held leadership in the organization from its inception in 1933 to today. I place their numbers in the USATT at about 300. USATT "clubs" are essentially exclusive practice facilities, monopolized by these players preparing for upcoming tournaments. Most such "clubs" operate out of multi-function facilities, open for table tennis on certain days and hours. Most operate without a constitution, officers are self-appointed, regulations ad-hoc, ladders and leagues virtually non-existent, no social activities. This does not imply reprobation. It only indicates that these venues are elite-player practice facilities, not recreational clubs. Rules - such as winner-stays-up - discriminate even among elites. In a 3-hour session, it provides the top elites 3 hours of practice, and lower-ranked elites 30-45 minutes. Casual and recreational players are strongly discouraged from attending, taking up what they consider restricted elite table space and practice time. Such players usually appear but once. Elite players are fine players, who put in thousands of hours of intense training, for which they receive no commensurate rewards: prize moneys in most cases do not cover expense money, and they accumulate hundreds of dust-gathering trophies. Some elite players may resist opening the sport to millions of recreational players. They may enjoy the exclusivity of the sport because it makes them big fish in a small pond, and it keeps new and bright stars from emerging, who might take the limelight away from them. But most elite players have stronger egos than that, and believe that they will prevail against newcomers, and that they will reap the rewards they so richly deserve. D. Professional players: Currently, the United States has no bona fide professional cadre, i.e. players who earn their livelihood from prize money and endorsements alone. Would-be professionals are highly proficient, dedicated athletes, who receive neither prestige nor reward to match their prodigious efforts, unless they emigrate (Butler, et al). Rating: from 2,400 up. I will call these players professionals-in-waiting or quasi-professionals (Q-P players).
The above categories conceal the USATT's problem and solution. The personalities, goals, programs for casual and recreational players are antithetical to those of elite and professional players. The first are type "B" personalities, who use sport for recreation, meaning fun, camaraderie and exercise, while the second are "A" personality types, who use sports for fame and fortune. Nothing wrong with either. They are different, and must be recognized as such in sports development. Let us compare the two types: A. Recreational players: In Sports for the Fun of It, John R. Tunis wrote:
"My philosophy is simple. I believe that exercise in moderation is essential for us all, old and young...The benefits of sport are twofold. First, the health-giving reaction which results from exercise in moderation. Second, the relaxation which for a few minutes or a few hours enables us completely to forget this outside world of today. It is certainly fun to play games well, but as a nation I believe we are apt to overlook the fact that it is far more important to play badly than not at all.
Now as a result of the increased skill of a few individuals in sport in recent years, a kind of vested interest in athletics has unfortunately arisen in the United States. These vested interests are persons who have a financial interest in athletics. They do not care at all for sport but only for victory, because that's where the money is...
The vested interests have not merely corrupted our games, worse still, they have corrupted and confused our thinking on sports...
Games are not made for the development of champions, but for the fun of the millions of participants who make the game."
B. Elite and professional players: Many books have been written about "A" type athletes, including 'The Competitive Race Driver," "Psychological Consistencies within the Personality of High Competitors," "Problem Athletes and How to Handle Them," etc. Traits ascribed to these athletes by Ogilvie and Tutko, experts on the subject, include a great need for achievement, great psychological endurance, low-resting levels of anxiety, slightly greater ability to express aggression, low interest in receiving support and concern from others, low need to take care of others, and low need for affiliation. "Such a personality seems necessary to achieve victory over others," note the authors.
In an interview by Bob Oates, and reported in the LAT of 2-25-73, Dr. Turko, co-consultant for 27 professional teams, bluntly responded to questions relating to sports for kids:
"...in a nation with millions of amateur athletes the thing that's missing today is an awareness that professional athletes are different from the rest of us. Professional sports is a business and the pro athlete is essentially a businessman. His product, he thinks is winning games. The more games he wins, the more money he makes.
Q: What is it you specifically object to in the model presented by professional athletes and coaches?
A: They project a win-or-else attitude that kids copy. I have no doubt that their language reflects their attitude: 'Kill em! Zap 'em!' The coach who loses the Super Bowl says: 'Losing is like dying.' The winner says: 'Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing.' All this may be true on the pro level. But it's destructive to children and other young athletes...It's a world with one winner and everybody else loses.
One NFL champion and 25 losers. That champion is glorified...The losers can't be tolerated. But this isn't the way life is. This is a grotesque distortion, and it adversely affects the youngsters who are continuously exposed to such a philosophy. How? If they try their best in a sports event and lose, they feel they're no good. They're made to feel rejected ...Very often a boy's reaction is to want to drop out, and as soon as he can he does. Why hang around and buck those 25-to-one odds?"
What Dr. Turko maintains for children is as valid for adults. What is good for the professionals is not good for the recreational player. If you want to attract recreational players, do not offer him professional incentives. The fact is that in all sports, there are 999 recreational players for every professional athlete.
I have drawn a very rough diagram of the four major categories of players, their interests and motivations. Enter your own figures.
| Players Motivation | Casual | Recreational | Elite | Professional |
| Fun: | 50% | 30% | 5% | 0% |
| Sociability: | 45% | 30% | 5% | 5% |
| Exercise: | 3% | 30% | 5% | 5% |
| Competition: | 2% | 10% | 65% | 25% |
| Fame and Fortune: | 0% | 0% | 20% | 65% |
| In USATT: | 0 | 7,200 | 300 | 5 |
| Out of USATT: | 19.8 million | 800,000 | 1.000 | 0 |
| Potential: | 10 million | 40 million | 1 million | 50,000 |
Table tennis in all nations throughout the world, with the exception of the United States, developed from the ground up, as did sandlot baseball, for example. Clubs formed, which then associated into county organization, and finally into national and international bodies, in building block, or bubble-up fashion. Result: the creation of table tennis as an organized sport.
Clubs were founded by recreational players to provide themselves stable and permanent playing facilities. Programs were focused on fun, exercise and camaraderie. The league format, the main club program, provided the light, competitive environment for organized, frequent, and continuing activity, retained interest, and team bonding.
Soon, the increasing levels of skill necessitated the creation of a number of proficiency levels. This allowed people to enjoy the game the most, playing with others of like skill, both at the home club and at other clubs, and it offered some guideposts to progress.
Some nations developed 7 divisions, others 12, etc. In England, each division consists of a number of city or county leagues. For instance, the County Championships in 1992 were made up of 1 Premier Division with 8 lower divisions - 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 3A and 3B; 1 Junior Premier Division with 6 lower divisions - 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 2C and 2D; 1 Veterans Premier Division with 9 lower divisions - 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 3A, 3B and 3C. Total county leagues: 193. This does not include the numerous non-championship leagues operating at lower than county and intra-club levels. One major problem which currently baffles even long-established national organizations such as the ETTA is the way to classify and rate players. This subject will be covered shortly.
The larger the recreational base of a country, the more service it provides the general population, the larger the audience for the professional players, and the greater their financial rewards, enough to draw our top players to Sweden, Germany, etc.
For reasons unbeknown to me - and the USATT's extraordinary historian, Tim Boggan might enlighten us - table tennis in the United States started out in reverse. At its inception, elite players created a national organization, and ran it for their benefit, with clubs, programs and activities tailored to their needs, as recreational players served themselves in other nations.
Nothing wrong with that had it not suppressed recreational table tennis development. Unfortunately, it did. While elite fish thrive in recreational waters, recreational fish go belly up in elite waters. An ETTA News article (Dec. 92, p. 19) analyzed the reason for the decline of a local league in one area of England:
"it was likely that the main problem was of tournament standard young players disrupting the league...Well, perhaps the needs of counties and the country for excellence may not always be helpful to the local leagues. Of course, league disruption by high-fliers may not happen in larger, stronger leagues."
Now imagine an entire national organization controlled by and run for tournament standard players. They would disrupt and frustrate any and all recreational development. Their small numbers require small, earnest, quiet facilities for their intense exertions. Number of tables determines number of players. Elite players abhor the recreational environment, with its high-fives, boisterous atmosphere, laughter, shouting, etc. More tables only means inviting this foreign, undesirable and annoying element into their midst.
Absorbed in their own skill development, and with their "A" personality, 95 percent had no interest in developing table tennis facilities for recreational players. The 5 percent who did, found their efforts thoroughly blocked by this majority. The evolution of an organized recreational base in this country was effectively thwarted. What recreational clubs did develop were turned off by the paperwork and large fees extracted from their own tournaments by the elite players, with trophies won by outside "high-flyers." Currently clubs joining pay a $15.00 club affiliation, and then send 85% of their members' dues to the USATT, keeping 15% for themselves. In return they receive one free subscriptions to TTT, free USTTA Handbook, Tournament Guide and Club Handbook, some of which have good material. Instructor's Guides and Tournament Guides are not included in the free packet. A 50-member club would thus send the USATT $1250, plus $15.00, get back $187.50 of its own money, and about $10 worth of publications in return. Why join? The national organization never paid more than lip service to organized recreational table tennis. Organized play refers to leagues, not pick-up games, practice before tournaments, or even tournaments. The USTTA never studied well-run recreational clubs, to find out the reason for their success, so as to be able to pass on this information to other clubs.
Leagues, the mainstay of recreational programs the world over, were never promoted, intra-club or inter-club.
Recreational clubs found insufficient value to belonging to the USTTA/USATT, and dropped out or never joined. The preemptive use of the term USTTA by the elite players suppressed any nascent thoughts by recreational players of developing the sport from the ground up. Many thought that this was what the organization was doing all along. Organized recreational table tennis thus never got started in the United States, never became available to the general public, never became a major sport to be enjoyed by the millions, never attained national prestige, status, political clout.
The rating system selected by the USTTA, after much prompting from me and others, unfortunately was one utterly devastating to recreational players and the vast majority of elite players. It is only suitable for the very pinnacle of professional players (see below).
You cannot bake a cake by making icing, spreading on the dough, and then placing both in the oven. The icing will crush the dough and stop it from ever rising. That is the story of table tennis cake in the U.S.
A large body of casual players did develop - the famous "19.8 million" -because the sport is so much fun, with or without an organization. These players never bothered with the USTTA, and the USTTA never bothered them.
The tangled development of table tennis in the U.S. has harmed everyone. It deprives millions the pleasure of playing this fascinating sport.
It deprives the elite players the audience of club players before which to show-case their considerable talents, to bask in the their adulation, to enjoy the publicity, to win the major trophies and prizes.
It deprives the quasi-professionals of their just rewards in wealth and fame. The elite/professional players have suffered grievously for over 60 years because a recreational base has been missing. Fine athletes spent and are currently spending their entire lives laboring in obscurity. Top players must emigrate, or find full-time work outside of table tennis, or die paupers, the hat needing to be passed around for burial expenses (I was a mourner at one). Such a situation is tragic, unnecessary, inexcusable.
The current situation harms all table tennis participants. All ships rise on a good tide, run aground on a low one.
Am I alone in this assessment?
"I love the sport called table tennis but unfortunately it has not reached the stature of a sport in this country and for the very first time in my life I believe it never will in this country..." (Bill Cross, Pres. New Jersey TTA, TTT, 3-63). "Table tennis as a sport has made great forward progress internationally in the last ten years, and has left the U.S.A. in its wake (Bill Dean, Dorchester, Mass, TTT, 6-67). "We must admit that most people are interested in nothing more than their weekly game at the club - which they want to win, so they don't really want new blood around to steal the glory - and they have no interest in doing anything else." (J. R. Harrison, Newark, Del. TTT, 6-67). "Today, when one attends a tournament, a close look around the audience will reveal the sad fact that most of the spectators are the very same players who had entered the tournament. There are no crowds." (Lionel Ovelton, TTT, 4-62). Unfortunately, he then falls into the trickle down hypothesis: "A healthy professional organization operating successfully, a goodly portion of the success would rub off on the amateur branch - which is good."
"It appears that in America table tennis occupies a place little below that of tiddly-winks, and table tennis players are considered to be either 'nuts' or people who could not make good in any other sport." (Chris Faye, TTT, 3-62). Then onto the cart before the horse theory: "[the reason is] due to the lack of promotion."
"Table tennis should receive more widespread recognition and acceptance in this country, not only as a sport, but as an activity of pleasure, health, and sportsmanlike competition," (Milt Forrest, TTT, 3-62). "I think that we need many more affiliated clubs and leagues in order to expand table tennis. At the same time we need more clubs that are real active, conducting well organized leagues...." (Richard Feuerstein, TTT, 3-62).
"It's a disappointing thing to see how few people are presently serious Table Tennis players in the United States. We read in TABLE TENNIS TOPICS about hundreds of thousands of players who participate in China, Japan, England, etc. and check our U.S. listing to find only 1 or 2 thousand members. There is NO immediate hope for improvement...A final difficulty with the national organization involves the continuous lack of common sense in coping with the administrative problems...from my experience have refused local club help...Also, our national committee must be willing to study other very well administered groups in the U.S., to see how they get the membership, financial, and printing problems solved. We must copy wherever possible, and invent wherever necessary...All tournaments should cater to the AVERAGE player, and disregard the champ! Both pay the same entry fee, and are entitled to the same consideration, but there are lots more average players in each tournament paying fees (Fred Danner, Long Island TTC, TTT, 2-62). "The main point is that this sport is not run for prima donnas." TTT, 2-62.
A final quote from Pauline Somael, past V-P of the USTTA:
"Table tennis is a basement, poolroom game, NOT a sport, and will remain so. I see these hopeful articles popping up periodically in Topics suggesting this, that and the other for "improving the game"...None of these suggestions will ever work because none of them can ever be backed up. No one CARES. No one wants to get-in-there-and-make-something-out-of-the-game. They only want to play TT themselves personally and couldn't care less WHERE they play and who fixes it up so that they CAN play. Do you know how many well-intentioned people have tried to do something for and about the game only to retire from the fray with bruised and bleeding feelings?
Well, this is how it IS, a game, NOT a SPORT...No members, no clubs, no leagues, no spectators and no MONEY. When most players grow up a little they realize that there is no future, nor fame and glory, and certainly no cash in table tennis.
To sum up - table tennis is moribund and having been around for twenty years seeing it happen, I am sad. If any of you know me then you also know that I have been active in many ways during these years and so know whereof I speak.
Is there any hope for table tennis? I think not. We can, of course, and no doubt will, continue just as we are, indefinitely, UNLESS?" TTT, 5-67.
Has there been an "unless" since Pauline Somael wrote her poignant critique, 29 years ago. NO! Does the USATT have a responsibility to change? Emphatically: YES!
Those in table tennis in the United States today have many different reasons for their involvement in the game. What they all have in common is a love for the sport. Another thing they have in common is that all will benefit if table tennis becomes a major sport in this country.
What represents the achievement of major sport status for table tennis? NUMBERS, NUMBERS, NUMBERS. These numbers cannot come from the elite or the professional players. They can only come from one source: RECREATIONAL PLAYERS.
How will everyone benefit from major sport status for table tennis?
A. Millions of citizens will benefit from the emergence of table tennis, as a major and valuable recreational activity. A primary function of local government is to provide public recreational services - and what better service than table tennis activities.
B. The nation's economy will benefit from the greatly increased demand for table tennis supplies, equipment, clothing, publications, etc.
Manufacturing, distribution and sales of billions of dollars of new table tennis products and services will bring employment to tens of thousands, and enormous profits to a myriad of commercial enterprises.
Financial World recognizing that sports economics is very big business, devoted its entire Feb 14, 1995 issue to the subject:
"Retail sales of licensed merchandise for pro baseball, basketball, football and hockey: $8.7 billion. U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, 2-26-96 noted that "The snowshoe market has nearly tripled in the past six years, and it's estimated that half a million people participate...Snowboarders now number 2 million." U.S. N. & W.R. 12-11-95, relates that 47 million people played [basketball] last year, and consumers bought nearly $2 billion worth of basketball shoes in 1994. With over $1 billion in gross revenues, the NBA has seen sales of its licensed retail products quadruple in the past five years to $3 billion." The magazine reports on "Spaulding, the $850 million equipment maker.." FW, 2-14-95 reports:
"Television offers a link among the country's nearly 25 million golfers and the hundreds of golf product manufacturers anxious to satisfy those duffers' desire to become better players. And they do want to improve. The National Golf Foundation, the research arm for the golf industry, recently conducted a consumer survey that showed the average golfer had a desired score of 84 for 18 holes, far better than his actual score of 100. This bodes well for U.S. manufacturers, whose wholesale shipments of golf equipment totalled $1.4 billion in 1993, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce...
The Golf Channel, which teed off Jan. 17, will provide golfers with plenty of advice on how to better their game. With Arnold Palmer as its backer, the channel will broadcast 24 hours a day, featuring tournaments, instruction and classic footage, among other things...
The industry is bulging at the seams with willing corporate participants. According to Golf Pro magazine, there were 59 club manufacturers, with combined sales of $1 billion in 1993. Chip in makers of shoes, gloves, clothing, balls and bags and you have a multibillion-dollar business."
C. Vacation resorts will benefit from featuring Table Tennis, as hundreds currently feature tennis and golf. Example: Smugglers' Notch Resort, in Vermont, featured in Tennis, July, 1995, offers:
"four levels of children's [tennis] programs, from age 3 [?] to teenagers (and a child-care center for those as young as six weeks)...among the country's foremost family destinations...tennis...on 12 hard and clay courts (two indoors beneath a bubble)...Beginners and low-intermediates outnumber stronger players in the 90-minute morning clinics. Those are supplemented by conditioning sessions and almost daily round robins."
Such resorts saw a lucrative tennis market and proactively set about meeting the need. Tennis numbers warranted the investment. Generate similar table tennis numbers, at a far lesser investment than tennis, Table Tennis Resorts will mushroom all over the nation and the world. Count on me to be among the first to patronize them, if I'm not too old by then.
D. Youths. Millions of youths need accessibility to quality recreational outlets, as represented by table tennis. They need us, and we need them.
Mrs. Richard J. Ross asks in Sports Illustrated "Why does such a large percentage of our youth enjoy sports only from the grandstands? I believe I have a partial answer. We make room for the 'average' individual in any other field, but we cannot abide this in sports...Let's give sports back to the ill-coordinated and the imperfect."
E. Youths at risk will be well served by table tennis as a diversionary activity. A LAT article of 3-19-95 relates how, after 3 years, a Little League for boys and girls from 5 to 15 will start in South-Central L.A., with a $200,000 stadium,
"as part of efforts to expand into inner cities nationwide...The hope, said Tom Boyle, a special projects consultant with Little League International, was to offer at-risk youths an alternative to crime and gang violence and help foster a sense of self-esteem and community respect."
Listen to Robin Roberts, big league pitcher for 14 years for the Philadelphia Phillies on Little Leagues:
"At least 25,000 teams, in about 5,000 leagues, compete for a chance to go to the Little League World Series in Williamsport each summer...It would appear that Little League has been a tremendous success. More that 600,000 boys from 8 to 12 are involved. But I say Little League is wrong - and I'll try to explain why...
Youngsters eligible for Little League are of the age when their concentration lasts, at most, for five seconds - and without sustained concentration, organized athletic programs are a farce.
Most instructors will never understand this. As a result there is a lot of pressure on these young people to do something that is unnatural for their age - so there will always be hollering and tremendous disappointment for most of these players.. For acting their age, they are made to feel incompetent. This is the basic fault of Little League." Newsweek or Time, 7-21-75.
Table tennis can serve youths in this nation better than any other sport. But the national organization must attend to all players, not just champions.
F. Communities throughout the nation will benefit from these diversionary programs in lessened crime, drugs, violence, a safer America. The Kips Bay Spartans Table Tennis Team, featured in TTT, 7-96, is a fine example of a long-term program, whose goal "is to keep kids off the streets, drugs, and out of trouble. We also want to provide leadership, sportsmanship, and a safe haven to develop our future stars and leaders." My hat is off to Mr. E. Roll.
G. Casual players will benefit from organized table tennis clubs, to secure benefits they cannot obtain at home. This includes spacious, well-lighted, air-conditioned, attractive, reasonably priced facilities, open seven days a week, morning to night. Such clubs provides them the opportunity to play numerous opponents of like skill, make new friends, and participate in safe and dynamic exercise. League play provides enjoyable low-level competition on an on-going, regular, weekly basis. A national supportive, motivational classification and rating system (not our current one) provides continuous goals to strive for, making table tennis a life-long, primary avocation for millions of players at all levels.
H. As mentioned above, elite players will benefit from large club audiences in front of which to show-case their considerable talents, to bask in the their adulation, to enjoy the local publicity, to win the major trophies and prizes. Many will choose to become coaches and instructors, with incomes in the six figures, or prefer to open lucrative table tennis retail stores. A substantial number will qualify as professionals, and with an enormous pie to share, their earnings will be in the five and six figures.
I. The would-be professionals at the top of the game will finally have the backing of a huge base of registered players which will bring them the attention of sponsors and media. Tournament prize money, endorsement contracts and appearance fees will provide them with earnings in the millions. These superb athletes will become affluent professionals. Fame will become part of their lives, recognized wherever they go, their pictures on magazine covers, featured in TV ads. Some will diversify into other fields such as movies (John Weissmuller, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Jordan) or invest earnings into restaurants, sports franchises (Wayne Gretsky, Jerry West, Jack Kramer), etc. The top PGA money leader up to the end of October, 1996 was Phil Mickelson with $1.62 million. We can expect tournaments to regularly draw top players from around the world. Soon thereafter, I predict leagues to develop in various cities, competing against each other.
J. Senior skilled elite and would-be professionals currently have no place to go but down. If they and the national organization develop millions of recreational players eager to see them perform, sponsors and media will just as eagerly respond, and these high-level seniors will become wealthy from Senior tournaments, Senior circuits, endorsements, advertising, etc.
Until 1978, senior golfers "practically disappeared. Some fell on hard times," writes Dan Hafner (LAT, 4-18-95). Then came the Senior Tour. By 1985, there were 27 events for the 50-and-older set. By 1994, Hafner writes, "six seniors earned $1 million and [in 1995] there were 44 tournaments and purses of $33 million. Senior PGA leader (Oct. 1996) was Jim Colbert: $1.49 million.
K. Skilled elite and would-be professional women players currently derive negligible economic benefits from their efforts. Some spend enormous time and energy traveling great distances to teach small classes of players. They need the huge media audience to assure their financial success.
If either Karrie Webb or Laura Davies wins the ITT LPGA Tour Championship and the $150,000 prize in Nov. 1996, she would become the first woman golfer to pass the $1,000,000 in one year on the LPGA tour.
Do only a handful of professional golfers make this kind of money? Through October, 1994: 50th on the PGA list: Nick Price, $402,467; 50th Sr PGA: Butch Baird, $269,913; 50th LPGA: Trish Johnson, $120,832.
Poor John Daly had a dreadful year in 1996, finishing last in driving accuracy, had only one top-10 finish, missed 9 cuts in 23 tournaments, and finished 121st on the money list. He only earned $173,557!
The All-Time PGA Tour Money Leader through Feb 18, 1996 was Greg Norman at $9,612,829, Tim Simpson was 50th on the list at $3,351,476 (LAT 2-21-96).
In October, 1996, Gabriela Sabatini announced her retirement from tennis, having won but one Grand Slam, but having earned $8,785,850, in prize money alone, and millions more in endorsements and other revenues. Stefan Edberg retired in November, 1996, having earned $20.6 million in prize money.
L. Thousands of table tennis enthusiasts, mostly
recreational players, but also about 5 percent of elite players, devoted to promoting the sport for the nation will finally see their dreams come true. Having spent years and huge amounts of energy and often considerable funds of their own trying to advance the sport without noticeable results, this practical, effective, and clear plan will see their visions realized. Seeing millions of players enjoying organized table tennis will bring them a deep sense of personal accomplishment and satisfaction.
M. Whatever national body develops the recreational component of the sport will benefit from the prestige and status of being one of the primary sports in the United States, its voice heard around the world.
N. The USOC and the USATT will benefit by fielding the finest table tennis players in the world, drafted from the ranks of professional and elite players who came up the ranks from the huge pool of recreational players. Various national Olympic Committees simply picked up the phone and asked Magic Johnson (1992 Olympic basketball star, and his team-mates), Marc Rosset (1992 Summer Olympics tennis champion), Boris Becker and Michael Stich, (1992 Olympic Dbls tennis champions), Jan Waldner (1992 Olympic table tennis champion): "Would you like to play in the Olympics for us?" The answer was "Yes." No years of sweat and tears. The USATT will be able to do the same!
THE BALANCE OF THIS PROPOSAL WILL CONCENTRATE SOLELY ON THE DEVELOPMENT, MAINTENANCE AND GROWTH OF A HUGE RECREATIONAL TABLE TENNIS CONSTITUENCY.
We must construct a table tennis skyscraper, with all but the top two floors designed solely for recreational players. The next to the top floor is reserved for the top elite players, and the penthouse is for professional players. As long as such a building does not exist, the penthouse will be in the basement, giving professionals and top elite players a look at the parade passing them by only if they stand on tiptoe. The building must not be just recreational-player friendly. It must be entirely recreational player functional, in every aspect, from the material of construction, to the size of the rooms, the carpets, drapes, the color scheme, down to the food in the refrigerators. Recreational players are the landlords, they pay everyone's bills, they are the boss. Get the picture?
What's in a name? Answer: Everything. Companies spend millions creating user-friendly names and logos. They motivate and communicate positive messages. When wrong, they impart a negative message. To generate millions of players, our name and logo must carry a warm, welcoming message.
A. USATT: In correspondence, I was advised that "Effective January 1, 1994, U.S. Table Tennis Association (USTTA) changed its name to USA Table Tennis (USATT). This change was made to more accurately reflect our association with the Olympics and the United States Olympic Committee." The inside cover of the 1994 Annual Report reads: "USATT is responsible for organizing and training teams for national and international events including national and world championships, U.S.Olympic Festivals, Pan American Games and the Olympics. It is based at the U.S.Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO."
The above title and mission are forbidding to recreational players, interested in fun, exercise and camaraderie. The only role they see in such an organization is as contributors, to fund it. And they are right.
The 1994 Annual Report's inside cover does state that the USATT's goal "is to promote table tennis, the world's most popular racquet sport, in America and to provide all participants with the best possible experience by advancing and administering the sport." As a former trainer in Behavioral Objectives, I would like the USATT's Board to specify exactly how it will "promote table tennis...in America;" how will it determine that it "provides participants the best possible experience;" by what means will it "advance and administer the sport," and by what benchmarks will it determine if it has achieved its objectives. Absent such information, the above are empty buzz words, similar to those used for years by the former USTTA.
B. USTTA: Dan Seemiller's President's Report in the 1994 USTTA Annual Report lists the following achievements, starting with: "The year 1994 was an excellent one for USA Table Tennis." Subjects covered were:
The U.S. Open, the U.S. Closed, the U.S. Open Team Championships, the All-Star events, sanctioned tournaments, our top man and woman's performances at the World Cup and World Team Cup, the change in Executive Directors, the National Training Center available full time for National Team Training, with its two national coaches, which "will help our athletes close the gap on the Europeans and Asians....USATT will also utilize this center for junior training, certification of coaches, and other regional and national projects."
The report concludes: "The future looks good for the growth of the United States in the sport of table tennis and in international competitiveness."
The report is an excellent one, written by a Championship President to his Championship constituency. Ignored however, are goals, needs, aspirations and services for the 7,200 recreational players in the organization and the needs of millions of would-be recreational table tennis players waiting in the wings. We must face the fact that neither the USATT or USTTA are organizations committed to serving recreational players. Such an organization has been the missing link in the United States for over 60 years.
How can such an organization come into being, and what should be its title?
A. The USATT could convert its Clubs Committee into a separate USTTA affiliate, dedicated to the development of recreational table tennis in the United States. It would have its own Recreational Membership Committee. The title USTTA, meaning what it says, would be user-friendly.
The USTTA would serve all table tennis recreational players in the United States, providing vital services in this area for millions of citizens - adults, youths, seniors, the handicapped, in anti-gang and anti-drug diversionary programs.
The USATT would serve its current constituency, the up and coming world champions and Olympic champions. The USTTA's program would funnel many such prospects into the USATT from its vast pool of recreational youths.
The two organizations would become major players in the sports firmament, working closely with other major recreational and sports organizations.
The two organizations would thus be complementary and non-competitive, and could work well together. The larger the USTTA would grow, the more world class players would emerge from its ranks, which the USATT could tap for World and Olympic competition, garnering prestige and honor with each medal. Using this option, the USTTA NGB would need to include a significant number of recreational players in the USTTA affiliate (there goes the neighborhood) until elections were held, to assure recreational focus. Some members of the USATT NGB, with greater interest in recreational player development than Olympic prospect development might wish to become full-time members of the USTTA NGB.
B. The USATT could relinquish the USTTA title and logo to a separate organization made up of individuals committed to serving a recreational constituency.
C. If the current USATT NGB was uninterested in changes "A" or "B," a group of dedicated individuals could create its own organization with a new title. Several come to mind.
What I cannot visualize is the USATT, an affiliate of the USOC, developing Olympic prospects and a 20-million recreational membership base simultaneously. It cannot be done. The development of a major new sports organization in the United States cannot be achieved as a side-line or addendum to the development of two dozen Olympic prospects.
As an aside, Paul Montville, Executive Director of the USATT writes that "our name change put us alongside USA Hockey, USA Gymnastics, USA Baseball, etc." The NBA, the NHL, the USTA, and numerous other sports organizations did not change their names because they fielded Olympic teams. Nor did the English, French, German, Swedish and other national table tennis organizations change their titles.
Furthermore, we are not only the black sheep of all sports, we are even black sheep of the USOC. The LAT of August 6, 1996 had a big spread about "The California State Games, a nonprofit sports festival under the auspices of the U.S. Olympic Committee...Forty six states hold similar events...The games...will feature approximately 5,500 athletes ranging from age 5 to 69 competing in 17 Olympic and Pan American Games events." Included were Judo, Badminton, Fencing, Field Hockey, Roller Hockey, Soccer, Weightlifting and Wrestling, Synchronized Swimming, Taekwondo, Water Polo. NO TABLE TENNIS!
I will from this point on use the name USTTA for the organization of recreational players, regardless of ultimate name selected.
Terry Timmins, in his "President's View" column in TTT, July, 1996, calls the USATT a business. It is both that and a recreational pursuit or sport. As "a business," I recall from my own sales background years ago, the truisms that "you can't sell a product if you don't know it, don't know who your customers are, or don't believe in your product."
Those in table tennis who don't believe that table tennis is good enough to ever become a major sport in the United States; who don't think it is superior to such endeavors as badminton, billiards, bobsledding, darts, shuffleboard, horseshoe pitching, lacrosse or POG; and who declare that there is nothing anyone can do about it, are part of the problem, not part of the solution. Table tennis players and officials should follow the advise taken from the title of Jim Lundy's book: Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way.
Let us enumerate some sports benefits, and measure table tennis against other sports, using a scale of 1-to-10. The ratings are subjective, and the reader is free to assign his/her own numbers.
| 1. | Aerobic Benefits - exercise. | Table tennis: | 9. | Comparison: golf, bowling, archery, pool players | 2. |
| 2: | Fun. | Table tennis: | 10. | Comparison: martial arts, exercise clubs, etc. | 2. |
| 3. | Camaraderie. | Table tennis: | 10. | Comparison: skiing, golf, martial arts, etc. | 3. |
| 4. | Safety. | Table tennis: | 9. | Comparison: Surfing, skateboarding, football, hockey. | 1. |
| 5. | Family Activity. | Table tennis: | 10. | Comparison: tennis, football, basketball, etc. | 2. |
| 6. | All-season, all-weather Sport. | Table tennis: | 10. | Comparison: golf, swimming, skiing, etc. | 0. |
| 7. | All-regions, portability. | Table tennis: | 10. | Comparison: scuba diving, skiing. | 0. |
| 8. | Low cost, not equipment intensive. | Table tennis: | 10. | Comparison: hockey, golf, horseback riding, etc. | 1. |
| 9. | Transition sport: youth to adult, to senior. | Table tennis: | 10. | Comparison: football, basketball, soccer | 0. |
| 10. | No special age requirements. | Table tennis: | 10. | Comparison:girl gymnasts peak at 12. | 0. |
| 11. | Easy to learn - Quick learning curve. | Table tennis: | 10. | Comparison: golf, bowling, tennis, etc. | 2. |
| 12. | No special body type requirements. | Table tennis: | 10. | Comparison: football, basketball, etc. | 0. |
| 13. | Non-Sex-specific: enjoyable to m. and w. | Table tennis: | 10. | Comparison: boxing, football, etc. | 0. |
| 14. | No time constraint (short or long). | Table tennis: | 10. | Comparison: golf (1/2 day), surfing, etc. | 0. |
| 15. | Convenient - distance: (once many clubs created): | T.T.: | 10. | Comparison: golf, horseback riding, skiing, etc. | 2. |
| 16. | Level of activity variable (from sedentary to vigorous): | 10. | Comparison: tennis, football, surfing, etc. | 0. |
The list is almost endless. I suggest that the reader make his/her own additions, and changes in rating as he/she sees fit. As a seminal proposal, the above material is valuable for purposes of discussion and debate.
Where are millions of players going to come from and what must be their qualifications? Such numbers can only come from recreational players. They must become members of the national organization for the sport to receive national status and prestige, and for the sport to become relevant to sponsors and media.
1. Casual players: Adults must be the USTTA's first target population. They form the majority of virtually all sports organizations, such as tennis, golf, bowling. Sports do need children inductees, for the future, but they come into sports through their parents, who encourage their children to take up "their" sport. Golf and tennis have adult established bases. We do not.
So we must first develop this foundation, which will take 3-5 years. Fortunately, we have 19.8 million casual players available as a ready-made foundation. Soccer achieved quick success because it had millions of foreign-born parents eager to induct their children into their sport. We can do the same with the 19.8 million casual players, if we offer them the right incentives.
Table tennis has major advantages over virtually all other sports in that we can provide hands-on training to our children. Soccer, golf, tennis do not provide such easy opportunities. Once we establish the recreational infrastructure, with recreational clubs in which to play, I project that 10 million of the 19.8 million casual players will affiliate. And with them will come their children. Target: 10 million.
2. Disenchanted adults from other sports: Exercise clubs experience millions of lapsed memberships each year. "Bowling's popularity is waning. ABC membership stood at just under 2.5 million men in 1994, down from 3.8 million 10 years ago. The ranks of the WIBC fell from 3.9 million to 2.2 million in the same period..."
Tennis ranks have thinned over the past several years. Millions more recreational players in other sports are cross-over prospects for various reasons: boredom (running, exercise clubs), lack of exercise (bowling, archery, etc), too strenuous, safety hazards. In 1995, 12 in-line skaters died, and an estimated 99,400 reported to hospital emergency rooms (Consumer Report, 7-96). Enter safe, fun table tennis. Target: 20 million.
3. Children: Pee wee football, softball, skiing and many other sports participated in by children cause numerous injuries, and even deaths. Dr. Thomas Tutko, San Jose Psychology Professor, believes that:
"The prime concern of the average youngster just starting out in the Little League is not to get hurt by the ball...As for winning, the boy is usually ambivalent, but he finds out in a hurry that his parents want to win. He may not realize that they're trying to live through him - [and] he doesn't want to displease them. But if he loses he can't help displeasing them. He feels they don't accept him then, and a boy must feel accepted to do his best..."
Scott Harris calls Little League "a pressure cooker for tiny egos." In a 6-8-95 LAT article, he quotes little Kathy, a 10-year old retiring from the game: "I didn't really like baseball at all. I didn't like being in the outfield, alone and bored. I didn't like batting in case I got hit [by a pitch]." Pitching has been shown to cause permanent injury to the arm of many children. "The U.S. Consumer Product Safely Commission reports that the number of baseball-related deaths is rising, with children from 5 to 14 years old accounting for about one-third the 254 deaths reported since 1973." (LAT Editorial, 5-14-95). Would table tennis not suit these children far better?
An editorial in the LAT, 9-25-96 revealed that 9 high school football players died and about 400,000 suffered injuries in 1995, even with inflatable padded helmets. Dr. Stephen E. Reid told the National Safety Congress that "A football player crashing into an opponent subjects his helmet to blows of more than 5,000 time the force of gravity." A Time article of 12-12-94 headlines that "Doctors warn that relentless blows to the head may be giving football players lasting brain damage." And yet, this is a national sport we induct our children into as young as five and six. Atlanta pediatrician Sanford Matthews reports on a common ailment for such children which he calls "Little League Tummy," brought on by the pressure to perform. "It produces a kind of tension or stress that's inappropriate for an 8-year-old and obscene for a 5-year-old" he says. Matthews also worries about the physical punishment to a young body. "in a child the knee ligaments are loose, and a violent push can tear them," he explains. "If that happens, the child is destroyed as an athlete." Yet, the article quotes Coach Norman Woods exhorting his team of 5 and 6-year-olds: "You're not hitting 'em. I don't hear anything popping out there! Those guys think you're a bunch of pansies..." When the ball landed at Charlie's feet, the coach's son, "He looked at it questioningly, then left it and trotted aimlessly back and forth looking for someone to block. 'Charlie's tired, look at him,' muttered his father on the sidelines. 'He ain't even moving. And Jamie, with that dislocated finger, he's afraid to hit anybody. And Jason's got strep throat'...After the next play, two Eagles lay writhing on the field, much to coach Wood's dismay. 'We've got five out there crying,' he said. 'They don't want to play anymore.'" (Newsweek, 12-4-78).
As a former Staff Development Specialist for L.A. County training social workers to recognize child abuse and child neglect incidents, I would have cited the above scenario an appropriate case for investigation.
Does table tennis not have far more to offer the 955,000 high schoolers, and the thousands more playing grade school and Pee Wee football? Target: 20 million.
4. Youths at risk would find table tennis an excellent outlet. Cities would financially support such a diversionary program: Target: 2 million.
5. Seniors: Table tennis, next to swimming is an ideal sport, with the added benefits of fun, camaraderie, and low-intensity competition.
Dr. Olga Feingold, who has made an in-depth study of the relationship between gerontology and sports, considers table tennis to be an excellent sports outlet for seniors. As President of the 415-member Laguna Hills Leisure World Table Tennis Club, with its 12-table, 7-days a week facility (soon to be modernized), Dr. Feingold is putting theory into practice, with a full monthly organized activities program, including leagues, tournaments, ladders, coaching for all levels of players, and many social events.
Seniors are the fastest growing population segment in the U.S. USTTA membership potential is enormous. Target: 40 million.
6. Women: this segment of the population is becoming a major power in sports, both as participants and spectators. Yet table tennis in the United States has few women players.
FW asks "Today's pop quiz: It's a winter Sunday. More people watching: a) Football, b) golf, c) figure skating, d) college basketball. The answer is "c"...Unbelievable. Not really. Figure skating is the most popular sport among American woman and their teenage daughters and during the 1994 Winter Olympics, the ladies' technical program was watched by an estimated 127 million Americans and received a 48.5 share...Where this kind of audience - read younger women - goes, advertisers, marketers and broadcast executives follow. What is drawing women to televised sports? First, there are more women participating in sports than ever before."
In table tennis? Most table tennis facilities have not one women player. Many women's draws are small and often canceled. The club I frequent has 30-50 men players, and one women, whom I introduced to the club. In the 1995 U.S. Nationals, 3 women entered their -1900 event (vs 103 men in Men's -1900 ); 12 Sr. Women, 7 50+ Esquire Women (vs 61 50+ Esquire Men) and 4 Sr. Mxd Dbls participated.
U.S. N & W.R., 12-11-95 reports that "Last year's NCAA championship final, featuring the victorious University of Connecticut [women] Huskies, pulled a 5.7 TV rating, which surpassed the 4 rating generated by an NBA game that same day. During the season, nearly 4 million people attended women's basketball games, up from 1.5 million a decade ago...Rutgers University's women's basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer now earns a base salary of $150,000 a year, more than her male counterpart...Companies are especially attracted to women's basketball because the sport appeals to crucial segments of the market: young professional women and young families." Is table tennis tapping this "crucial segment?" Not yet. Target: 40 Million.
Based on the above inventory of target populations, the above analysis of the exceptional quality of our sport, and the support of numerous individuals and organizations, including informed elite and professional players - once they become fully aware that their destiny, prosperity and prominence are inextricably entwined with the development of a huge recreational player foundation - the following projections of numbers of new USTTA members and time frames for their affiliating with the USTTA should be considered very moderate:
Can a sport grow this fast? In his introduction to "Squash!" in 1979, Adrian Goddard wrote:
"Squash has suddenly gone public. Since 1973, the number of squash courts in the United States has doubled. Over five hundred thousand Americans now play the game regularly. Tournaments involving United States players appear on network television. Squash has left its elitist closet and become a truly popular sport." Goddard goes head to head with tennis, something unthinkable to the USATT.
"The game has all the possibilities of tennis, but consumes less time and space...Increasing numbers of tennis players are moving to squash during the winter. When May comes round a lot of them don't want to stop, and for them squash becomes a year-round game. They are usually attracted by the sheer practical convenience of the game in comparison to tennis, particularly in cities. Half an hour during lunchtime or after work can get you as much exercise as an hour or so of singles tennis and God knows how much doubles. And you'll wind up spending much less money."
Goddard notes that squash is more popular in Australia than tennis. He reports that "Ten years ago...there were scarcely any women playing squash in America. Since that time, with the opening of commercial metropolitan clubs, the situation has been transformed. To the enormous number of working women and housewives, the release of a quick squash game at lunchtime or after work has proved convenient and useful...the USWRA continues to organize and the tournament circuit grows..."
Goddard lists some new publications, such as Squash News, Squash Monthly, The Squash Players International, and Racquet, and lists 999 clubs in the U.S., almost five times the number of table tennis clubs.
I quote Goddard at some length because squash is a far more exotic, "foreign" sport in the U.S. than table tennis. Millions of Americans have tried their hand at table tennis, but know squash only as a vegetable.
Goddard fails to mention in his hype that squash requires the construction of very expensive, large, single use (except for handball) facilities; that the game is physically demanding, and expensive to play.
If squash can make it big-time in the U.S., only our own obdurate sticking to failed strategies, and resistance to change holds table tennis back from becoming a premier sport in the United States.
Del Sweeris, upon returning from the World Championships in 1965, wrote an article in TTT, 8-65, focusing on ways to develop champions, an emphasis with which I disagree. However, he made some very good points:
"...the most significant thing that I saw was the vast difference between world-class table tennis and table tennis in the United States. There is an entirely different emphasis placed on table tennis in Europe and Asia...
There are many reasons why the United States doesn't have good players. The biggest reason is that we do not have a powerful and working association....Everyone is out for himself, and a few select others and that is all. United States table tennis will die with this type of attitude...
A good excuse to use is that we do not have a large number of players...The members and officers of the USTTA should have a definite plan for the improvement of table tennis. It is evident that they do not have one now.
One of the biggest needs in organized table tennis is for good local clubs for young, inexperienced players...
Much needs to be done if table tennis is to survive. However, with everyone working together with a definite plan or program, we could put table tennis where it ought to be in the U.S. Will this change ever come?"
The USATT mentions creating a "High Performance Plan" (TTT, 7-96). What is it? What are its projected goals?
As suggested in Section XXVIII, the USTTA could a) be an affiliate of the USATT, its NGB consisting of recreational and elite members originally selected by the USATT NGB, later to be elected; or b) USATT NGB members opting to become USTTA NGB members, or c) recreational members at large creating their own organization. If the later, these individuals need to contact other like-minded individuals throughout the country to create their national body. An E-mail group could expedite such formation.
The mission and goals of the NGB of the USTTA must coalesce with its constituency. It must develop and provide programs, activities, incentives and rewards specifically designed to meet the personality traits of recreational players, serve their needs and aspirations, keep them interested and involved in the sport life-time.
Millions must be made aware of the existence of the sport and of its outstanding benefits. Simultaneously the USTTA must assist grassroots organizers develop tens of thousands of suitable venues in which this enormous new membership can play the game.
The USTTA must develop a symbiotic relationship with its members, so that millions will quickly join. Ideally, the Governing National Body of the USTTA must consist of RECREATIONAL and committed elite players, who understand their own needs.
In general, a program for recreational players will work equally well for elite players, and almost as well for professional players. After about five years, the recreational base will be sufficiently large for professional organizations to emerge (USPTTA, USLPTTA and SeniorPTTAs) to meet the requirements of media and sponsors eager to feature table tennis programs. Their NGB's will consist of elite and professional players, elected by their own membership. Table tennis will then be a full-fledged sport in the U.S.
The sport requires permanence, stability and continuity. Organizations the world over, from Boy Scouts to the Army are constructed on the building block theory of groups, not individuals. Organization based on individuals are impermanent. I cannot locate the current construct of the USATT, but the USTTA of the 60's was based on individuals: 15 members = a City Organization; 25 = a District Assoc.; 50 = a State Organization!
As I wrote Norman Kilpatrick in 1962: "WHOEVER DREAMT THAT ONE UP!!! Thus, the 450 member SDTTA was dominated, and assessed "state" fees by 50 players, calling themselves the CA. State Organization. I rebelled, and the club left the USTTA. To this day, state organizations and state/regional coordinators are appointed by the USATT. Clubs have no standing in the USATT.
a. CLUBS must form the strong and durable foundation of the USTTA. They must work closely with the national body, and assume major duties previously performed by HQ. In turn, the USTTA must serve the clubs first, individuals second. This establishes a symbiotic, cooperative and egalitarian alliance, with neither ruling over the other. Both need, serve and support each other equally. Those with big egos and ruler complexes need not apply.
Club growth and membership growth go hand in hand. Currently we lose more clubs than we add (from 240 in 1993 to 215 in 1994, a 10 percent loss). Projected increase in number of clubs, based on developing recreational clubs per this plan:
A. Organizational criteria includes name, logo, a constitution, by-laws, full range of officers, regular election of officers, regularly scheduled meetings of officers and membership. Officers ideally include: President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Membership, Greeters, Competition (which may be separated into Leagues, Ladders, Tournaments, Intra and Inter-Club), Coaching, Publicity, Media Services, Posters, Social, Exhibitions, Newsletter, Equipment, Rosters, Historian.
B. Program range, variety and depth should include as many of the following as possible, as well as others: Leagues, ladders, tournaments, intra and inter-club matches, coaching, exhibitions, movies, newsletter, social activities.
C. Clubs issue membership cards to new members, and send the appropriate portion of dues to the USTTA. This provides a direct link between the two, adding prestige to the clubs, an added incentive for the clubs to affiliate with the USTTA, to induct members, and to grow.
D. Clubs dispense rating points (see XXXV below) and forward this information to the USTTA. This is similar to the procedure of the ACBL (American Contract Bridge League), a highly successful operation with almost a quarter of a million members, 4,200 permanent affiliated clubs, an attractive 4-story Headquarters in Memphis, TN, running 3 major 10-days tournaments a year, with an average participation of 7,000 players.
E. The building blocks of the above clubs would be: single clubs, county or state associations, possibly regional or state, and national. To quote a clause of County Administration from the ETTA Handbook:
"21. (a) (i) Where a majority of affiliated local leagues in any County agree, a body shall be set up for the purpose of administration in the County." Those USTTA clubs who declined membership in the association could do so without penalty. The larger bodies could not refuse entry in USTTA tournaments to unaffiliated USTTA members.
This would require that larger units prove value for clubs to join. Punishment cannot be a leverage. Benefits to joining would include technical support for new clubs; assistance in running large tournaments, avoiding scheduling conflicts of tournaments, setting up inter-club competitions and social events, county, regional or state newsletters.
F. Boards of such affiliations would consist of representatives of the affiliating clubs. Proportional representation (no. of votes) might be based on number of members of clubs. Example: Club A with 200 members would have two votes; Club B, with 100 members, would have 1 vote. Clubs with greater star status might have additional votes (see below).
The clubs and their members must receive meaningful and tangible benefits and rewards from their affiliation with the USTTA.
A. USTTA provides clubs with supportive material for success. This includes: Sample constitutions, with lists of officers and their duties, league development material, etc.
B. USTTA grades clubs from No-star to 5-Stars or 7-Stars, based on objective criteria, meaningful to recreational play. Included: name, logo, constitution, range of officers, size of membership, size and quality of playing facility, no of hours and days of play (with eventual goal of 7 days a week, morning to night), number and quality of tables, league play, range, variety, depth and quality of other program activities, social program, and service to newcomers.
J. Rufford Harrison, past-President of the USTTA, suggested means to bring new workers into clubs in TTT, April, 1963. His remarks on how to treat newcomers are relevant:
"Perhaps one a week, or one a month, or several a week; whatever the number, they [newcomers] do come.
When you see someone new, drop everything and introduce yourself. Find out who he is, and get his name, address and telephone number. He can't escape once you have those. Now play him a game. Perhaps he trounces you, or maybe you lick the pants off him. At least you know his standard; then you can introduce him to someone else of like standard and make sure that he gets another game. If he is poorer than everyone else there, talk the others into playing him anyway...Whatever you do, make him welcome..."
How does this compare to the way most USATT clubs currently treat newcomers. These visitors usually stand expectantly, paddle in hand, at the door. After a short while, they slink away, totally ignored, never to return. Good riddance, say the elite players. Another lost Goose that lays Golden Eggs, say I.
The star ratings awarded to clubs are very significant (see Item F below).
C. Some club programs or activities are mandatory, others optional. For example, a club must have a constitution, officers, elections, and league play to qualify for 2-Star Rating.
D. Clubs directories would be provided free to the clubs by the USTTA, sold to the public at large, and listed in TTT (until the numbers become too unwieldy). Included: club names, addresses, phone numbers, days and hours of play (in time 7-days a week, as are most ACBL clubs and bowling venues), star ratings, activities and fee schedules. They would be updated regularly.
E. USTTA fees graduated, as incentive to upgrade and grow. The higher the Star Rating of the club, the lower the club fee to the USTTA. This needs careful handling, for large clubs should not absorb small ones.
F. The USTTA awards Star Tournaments according to the Star Rating of the clubs. Such awards become highly prized, for rating reasons (see XXXIII-H).
G. Seniors - lower USTTA fees. Seniors are the fastest growing segment of our population, and with greater leisure time, business background, and political acumen, they can greatly benefit clubs. Disclosure: I am a senior.
H. Women: lower USTTA fees advisable. Women have become a significant economic and political force in sports, as related above. The sport is very deficient in women players. Table tennis needs an enormous influx of women.
I. Children: lower fees advisable.
J. Families: lower fees, encouraging parent-children participation. The family that plays together stays together. Enroll the family, and parents and children will come together. I well recall the Martinez family first coming into the San Diego TTA from up north. Mother watched, father and children played. In time, Patty became National Women's Champion twice, and Jessie a highly rated junior. Every club can provide similar examples.
A. The national newsletter must be geared to recreational/elite players. Materials should provide lessons for beginners, introductory equipment advice, player profiles of general interest, success stories of clubs in various parts of the country, with bios of officers. Check Tennis magazines for examples. This makes for interesting travel plans, knowing where exciting clubs are located, a little background about their officers, etc. Glossy, 8-1/2 x 11 size (easier to read, cost less to print, use half the filing space) similar to Golf, Bicycle, Golf for Women (approx. 140pp).
No local tournament results included. These should be published in local newsletters. Until the number of clubs become too numerous to list, a roster of USTTA clubs would be published in the official TTT magazine.
Books and brochures should be published, geared specifically to beginning table tennis players, similar to books on other sports such as: 18 Holes, by Jack Nicklaus, Arthur Ashe on Tennis, Ladies, Improve your Bowling, How To Play Bridge with Your Spouse, by Roselyn Teukolsky, Practical Bridge, by Alan Prescott, Instant Tennis, by Dick Bradlee, Tennis for Travelers, by Gilbert Richards, Improving Your Chess, by Fred Reinfeld, Easy Guide to Duplicate Bridge, Adventures in Duplicate Bridge, and the brochure, Join the Fun, Join the Club, the last three by the ACBL. Except for the comprehensive Table Tennis, by Larry Hodges, I believe it has been decades since a table tennis book for beginners has been published such as Table Tennis, A Teach Yourself Book, by Geoffrey Harrower, Modern Table Tennis, by Chester Barnes, How to Win at Table Tennis, by Victor Barna, Table Tennis, by Coleman Clark and Know the Game, Table Tennis, by the ETTA.
The American Contract Bridge League's introductory brochure, "The Exciting World of Bridge, Join the Fun" starts out:
"Welcome to Duplicate Bridge. So you've decided to try duplicate bridge and want to know what to expect? Well, come on! We've been having parties and tournaments, making partnerships and meeting new friends, playing as much fascinating bridge as we want each week, all without having to clean the house, bake or look for a fourth! There are 200,000 of us, all ages and conditions, and we welcome new duplicate players every session. Here's what to expect!
Where Can You Start?
Duplicate games are held daily (often both afternoons and evenings) in every big city in the U.S. and Canada..."
Note the direct approach to recreational players.
If a USTTA emerges which promotes and provides organized table tennis in the United States as a wholesome and enjoyable form of physical and social recreation, for players at all levels of the game, I foresee:
A. A major organization to serve this multi-million constituency, working out of a multi-story structure, with a hundred or more employees.
B. A USPTTA will emerge within 3-5 years. The current body of USATT officers would be the most qualified to run this organization, leaving the administration of the USTTA to recreational players entirely.
C. A USLPTTA will emerge. I predict great success for this organization. D. A SR.USPTTA will emerge, providing some late and deserved rewards for the highly skilled players who have labored in obscurity their entire lives.
The sooner a meaningful recreational base has been developed, the sooner these professional organizations become viable. With the active support of the elite and would-be professionals, this time period should be within 2 - 5 years. The Asian component of our professionals may be very supportive in this endeavor.
The larger the recreational base, the bigger the pot of gold to be divided among the professionals and top elite table tennis players. A rule of thumb in forecasting incomes:
A. Hundreds if not thousands of non-affiliated table tennis clubs presently exist, serving recreational players. Offer these clubs value from USTTA affiliation, and they will join.
B. Elite and professional players-in-waiting currently using the 215 USATT practice facilities must be made aware of the value of a huge recreational base to their future. The higher the skyscraper, the finer the appointments of the upper floors and penthouse. Caviar and champagne, superior to that served professionals in other sports. No more outside work, no need to emigrate. Fame and fortune right at home. How can they speed up the process?
1. Least desirable is to offer the use of some tables to recreational players, in their own venues on their own nights.
2. Another choice is to assist recreational players obtain the same venues on other days, exclusively for their own use.
3. With their established contact with local government officials, they can help recreational players obtain other venues, to be used exclusively by them. Note: you do not encounter professional golfers on public links, or professional tennis players taking up public court time.
4. Elite, professional players and coaches should provide free lessons to novice and other entry-level recreational players. The better they get, the more they will enjoy the sport, and the more loyal and committed they will become, making table tennis their primary sport.
Coaches will not lose business through these means. Their clientele will come from players who become elites, a clientele which will in time reach tens of thousands. Introductory exposure will be invaluable in the future.
C. Club quarters: Recreational clubs should constantly strive to increase the size of their facilities and numbers of tables. Rule: Table numbers determine club size. The more tables, the larger the club can grow. Daily registers should be kept and signed by members to document high level of activity. This translates into political clout when competing for scarce space against other activities. Officers should become acquainted with Park & Recreational officials, and work with them to obtain the best facilities possible and, as membership increases, negotiate to move to larger playing quarters. These officials' performance is measured by city fathers according to how much recreational services they provide. Club officers can help themselves and the P & R officers by constantly increasing the popularity of table tennis.
D. Tables: I recommend that except possibly for the first one or two tables, clubs should petition for space only, the tables to be supplied by the club. Such offer receives warm approval by Park & Recreation Depts., which often have available space but are strapped for cash.
Clubs can purchase tables by various means. Leagues: sponsors at $50 to $100 per team, provide enough money for the purchase of trophies with money left over toward the purchase of a table. Tournament sponsors should be obtained. Such funds, with the addition of entry fees, covers trophies and money towards the purchase of part or all of a table. By these means, the SDTTA, starting with 2 wooden horses and 1 plywood table top, acquired 21 tournament tables in under 5 years.
Tables at reduced prices are often available after major tournaments. Starting clubs should keep their eyes open for used tables which become available as more established clubs replace equipment. Established clubs should do their share in offering such used tables at reasonable prices to new clubs. The more clubs, the quicker table tennis becomes a major sport in the U.S. A good tide raises all ships. Barriers can be obtained the same way, or made by skilled club members from cloth or plywood (with wheels).
Table manufacturers should offer special prices for the first table or two of fledgling clubs. Such stimulus will pay off when these clubs purchase 10, 20 or 30 tables down the line, or buy replacement tables as original tables wear out.
Thomas Fox, in TTT, March, 1995, offers additional fine suggestions, as can many others. The USA Club Handbook also provides some useful material.
There must be a very good reason why virtually every successful sport uses the league format, from pee-wee through high school, college and professional sports. Why? The answer is of utmost importance to table tennis. In its simplest form, leagues organize a sport, making it a regularly scheduled activity, played on certain days of the week, week-in and week-out, month-in and month-out, throughout a season. Recreational leagues, such as bowling leagues bring out a large number of people on certain nights during the entire season. Professional leagues depend on the regular attendance of a very large and loyal spectator constituency throughout the season. Leagues are the lifeblood of all sports, recreational and professional. For 63 years, the USTTA/USATT has resisted this simple truth. If all sports, including table tennis throughout the world, thrive on the league format, and table tennis in the United States is a dismal failure without it, does this not make it obvious that our failure to adopt the league format as our main form of activity is a major reason for our lack of success?
Table tennis without leagues is an unorganized sport, having little more to offer than play in backyards and basements. Another piece of the puzzle.
What makes leagues so uniquely critical to the success of a sport? All sports require loyal, dependable, regular attendance and/or participation by large numbers of people. The only vehicle which can meet these requirements is the league format. In table tennis, no other activity can match or substitute for leagues. Ladder play won't do it. Tournaments won't do it. Pick-up games won't do it. Why not? Because only league play develops in the membership a regimen of regular, frequent, loyal, dependable attendance by a large portion of a club's membership, week-in and week-out, month-in and month-out; enjoyable weekly play against a constantly changing range of opponents, the camaraderie of fellow team-members, cheering each other on. Something to look forward to. "Clubs" without leagues are cold places. People come, play, and leave. They are clubs in name only. They are practice gyms, not clubs. I repeat, NOT CLUBS.
Bowling became a recreational activity able to accommodate large numbers of people when automatic pin-setters were invented. But it took leagues to fill the bowling emporiums. Go watch them play. Compare the atmosphere between these venues and our practice halls. Theirs are full of shouting and high-fives. Ours are cold and sober. That is the difference between venues for recreational players and those for elite/professional players.
All major spectator sports (the NFL, The NBA, Baseball, the NHL, etc.) are established on the league format. All children's, high school, and college sports programs are organized according to leagues: football, baseball, basketball, cross-country, field hockey, tennis, volleyball, water polo, boys' and girls' basketball, boys' and girls' soccer.
Don't our tournaments take the place of the leagues in other countries? J. Rufford Harrison, then-President of the USTTA, responding to a letter of mine relating to program emphasis and funding, wrote me on August 12, 1961: "The ETTA gets 90% of its money from leagues. So what? We haven't any leagues, and so get money from tournaments..."
Let me explain the "So What?" by placing tournaments in their proper perspective vis-a-vis leagues. Leagues are the sports CAKE. Tournaments are the icing. Cake and icing are not interchangeable. The NHL, the NBA, the AL and the NL, etc. base their programs on their league seasons. Their attendance figures, their income, their profits, the salaries they pay their players (including the $5 million plus earned by 38 baseball players in 1996) are all based on the league cake. The Stanley Cup Playoffs, the NBA Playoffs, the baseball World Series, the Super Bowl at the end of these sport league seasons represent the ICING on the cake, the fireworks, the extra sweets the bonuses represent to the players in these finals. None of these sports could exist without league play, depending on play-offs alone.
Yet this is exactly what the USTTA/USATT has done for 63 years. Our main activity consists of tournaments. Unfortunately, Mr. Harrison and many others have not recognized the difference between cake and icing. We barely survive on icing alone, a starvation diet, and nauseous besides.
The USATT Club Handbook devotes 85 pages to "coaching kids." The USATT's "Tournament Guide" consists of 106 pp. An old USTTA Referee and Umpire's Manual is 17 pp long. Leagues take up 6 lines on 1 of 29 pp of the USATT Club Handbook, and then not even under the title "Leagues." At least, the 1956 "USTTA Welcomes You" brochure contained a "League" section of its own, with 10 pages of good information.
The ETTA's Official Handbook starts out: Constitution: "3. The Association shall consist of President...Local Leagues..."; Qualification for Membership: 4. "Any Local League, Club or Individual player..."; Election: 5. Every applicant for membership of the Association...shall sign same on his behalf or on behalf of the Local League or Club..."; Subscription: 6. "The Annual Subscription shall be as follows: 6(a) Local Leagues..."
The section on COUNTY ADMINISTRATION reads:
"21. (a) (i) Where a majority of affiliated local leagues in any County agree, a body shall be set up for the purpose of administration in the County." Leagues establish the County administration, and in turn the ETTA!
The U.S. has over 4 times the population of England, yet the ETTA's membership is over 25 times ours, making their promotion of the sport 100 times more effective than ours. At their ratio, our USATT membership would be 750,000, instead of 7,354. In 1962, the ETTA had held steady for 8 years at a membership of 170,000. As will be explained below, if their rating system were more effective, their membership would be far larger yet.
League play is the primary activity of all European Table Tennis Associations, as well as of table tennis in China, played in schools, factories, and so forth. Divisions in the ETTA contain numerous league teams. From an old ETTA handbook in my files, I cite the list of table tennis leagues from the County of Hampshire: Aldershot, Hanover, Basingstoke, Bournemouth, Gosport, Isle of Wight, Petersfield, Portsmouth, Southampton, South East Hampshire, Winchester. Only 12 leagues. Other counties conduct more leagues. Kent: 17; Middlesex: 15; Lancashire: 30. Yet I believe that thousands of intraclub leagues exist within clubs in England, unreported in the ETTA Handbook.
When our officials and players go overseas, they spend all their time meeting with officials and players from the Premier or Elite Divisions. They would learn far more about developing table tennis in the U.S. by talking to officials and players from the lower divisions, who represent 99 percent of the players and who fund 99% of table tennis activities in these countries.
Size of club determines team sizes and length of league season. In the SDTTA, I ran 4 leagues per year, consisting of ten 6-person teams. The San Diego Junior Table Tennis League consisted of ten 4-children teams. Other formats might work, but round-robin leagues consisting of 4- to 6-person teams appear to me the most manageable, provide the most games and closest team spirit.
Funds: Obtaining league sponsors releases entry fees for other club purposes. All 10 teams of the SDTTA's 4 leagues (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter), were sponsored by businesses in the community, at $50 each, providing funds for individual trophies to all 1st and 2nd team members and sponsors, with money left over toward purchase of new tables.
Sponsors should receive value for their money. Club publicity chairpersons should become acquainted with sports editors of their local newspapers, learn their requirements for reporting results of weekly events, and then get these results printed in the sports sections, using the names of the various sponsored teams. In the most recent league I directed, results were reported in the local paper on the following teams: the SCAN Health Plan, Country Harvest Buffet, 1st Interstate Bank [no more], Stevenson Construction, L.W. Financial Group, Seal Beach Market, Cass & Johansing Insurance and Warren Travel. At end of season, 1st and 2nd place team members and sponsors received individual trophies.
Tournaments can be similarly sponsored, with newspaper publicity for the sponsors. Receipts can help purchase additional tables.
Distances: I have often heard the argument that leagues are not suitable to the U.S., because of greater distances. What about the popularity of league play in the former Soviet Union and China. League play should be conducted in-house primarily, played among the club members. All recreational bowling leagues are conducted "in-house" among cohorts (company, women's, children's, etc.) These are not traveling leagues. This answers the argument about "traveling and distances" (see Section VI, Myth # 6 above). LAT ad, Dec. 13, 1996: "Looking for a dart or pool league? Star Service has two full-time league coordinators and can also help with pool or dart lessons."
The USTTA/USATT's exclusive focus on tournaments forces players to travel far greater distances than even inter-league play will require, when table tennis reaches that stage (for elite and professionals primarily). Barney James Reed marveled in a 1994 article in TTT how [in Stockholm] "they have so many clubs, all within 20 to 40 minutes of each other."
Most clubs only offer tournaments once a year. To play in more tournaments, competitors must travel to other cities, counties and states, often distances of hundreds or thousands of miles, at great expense. Few recreational players are so inclined, and under our present single-elimination format and match-rating system, it is astounding that any participate at all. Stubbornness, not brains, makes me do it.
Recreational players participate in tournaments to have fun, play lots of table tennis against opponents of near-equal skill, and to be modestly rewarded if they improved over their last outing. They are not interested in becoming champions. Their incentives are "recreational," not professional.
Often they must drive or fly great distances to attend them, and spend considerable money in transportation, lodging, food, and entry fees. If tournaments don't deliver the above, they drop out. Sure they are replaced by others not yet sophisticated, who drop out in turn. A perpetual treadmill. Not good for table tennis growth.
What will it take to get recreational players to patronize tournaments regularly and loyally? Head-to-head, single-elimination combat, with equal portions of rewards and punishments meted out won't do it. It is not a recreational player's idea of fun.
He/she will respond to the following:
1) Round Robin formats (USATT is to be commended for using 4-person R.R.'s in the first round, prior to the knockout portions of rated events in the U.S. Nationals and U.S. Open, although 6- or 8-person R.R.'s would be even more appreciated). In the ETTA's Table Tennis News of Dec. 1992, Adrian Hall reported that the Thake Transport Kent Junior 2 Star Open -with 14 Junior Events - "proved a big success. The new concept of larger groups giving players five games prior to the knockout stages certainly proved popular and is a format that will certainly be used again next year..." Discovered after 74 years in existence! At first, players may play in their own category and possibly one above. In time, they can play in their own class only. This will encourage players to play in mixed and men's or women's doubles. Playing in three round-robin events will still provide players with far more competition than playing in 5 or 6 single elimination events, particularly since playing in events far above their class, as they currently do, usually eliminates them in the first round.
2) A supportive Classification System which will offer players competition with others of like skill (see Section XXXIII below).
3) A Rating System which offers the potential of modest reward and recognition without punishment (See Section XXIII below). How many would play Blackjack in Las Vegas if they made money when they won, but had their knuckles rapped when they lost? Now imagine that 50% had their knuckles rapped each time they played. Las Vegas would go back to cactus and tumbleweed. Yet this is the win-loss ratio of our current tournament rating system in the U.S., since half the contestants in single elimination events lose in the first round.
Table tennis in the U.S. cannot grow with a) tournaments as the main course, and b) where half the contestants are punished in all events. To put the nail in the coffin, half lose points, no matter if their opponents are stronger or weaker.
Any sport which saddles itself with such handicaps must fail. That table tennis survives in the United States indicates that the sport is so great, so much fun, such a kick, that it keeps limping along no matter how much the national organization mishandles it. It's like a dog that keeps coming back, tail wagging, no matter how often its master beats it. Rather pathetic.
The classification and rating systems of a sport determine if it is to be a ranch-style house or skyscraper. The selection of the appropriate system is critical, leading to success or failure. Another piece of the puzzle.
A. Labels: Classification systems with attractive labels are more meaningful to players and public alike, drawing members to our sport.
Tradition, statistics and records play important roles in sports, such as baseball with its records of home runs, triples, stolen bases, etc. Table tennis has none. Significant labels can be a start, meaningful to professionals and recreational players alike. Chess GM's (Grand Masters), IM's and Sr. Masters are justifiably proud of their descriptive titles. Many professionals in various sports continue playing just to enter their names in the permanent record books. I recommend that we create instantaneous tradition and records by retroactively awarding Master Points to our Premier players (see below). This should be fun!
Consider the various colors of belts of martial arts devotees. Even non-adherents know that the "Black Belt" is the highest level. Food companies spend millions designing appealing labels for their various products. So do companies of every description. It would cost us nothing to develop skill bands, give them meaningful titles, and place them on our current number bands, such as shown below.
Non-labeled numbers such as 1276, 1695, 2107, etc. are fine for an elite organization wanting to keep its activities secret; Inept for an organization wanting to grow and become a major sport.
Baseball has its various skill levels in its Minor Leagues (Triple A, Double A, etc.) and then there are the Major Leagues. Sports without skill level labels are missing an inexpensive and valuable tool. The ETTA uses rather dull symbols, such as Premier Division, and Divisions 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 3A, B and C. The Dutch Table Tennis Assn (N.T.T.B.) is a little more imaginative: Honor Class, Head Class, Transfer Class, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Class. Titles should be descriptive. Saying, I am a "Black Belt" is better than saying, I play "in the 2nd Class," or saying "I am a Second Class Player!"
B. I recommend a Classification System, made up of 11 classes or skill levels, as shown, with each band identified by a meaningful title, such as:
| Novice: | 0 - 99 Master Points |
| Advanced Novice | 100 - 399 Master Points |
| Intermediate | 400 - 699 Master Points |
| Advanced Intermediate | 700 - 999 Master Points |
| A | 1,000 - 1299 Master Points |
| Expert | 1,300 - 1599 Master Points |
| Elite | 1,600 - 1999 Master Points |
| Master | 2,000 - 2299 Master Points |
| Bronze Master | 2,300 - 2599 Master Points |
| Silver Master | 2,600 - 2999 Master Points |
| Gold Master | 3,000 up Master Points |
C. Players advance to the next class upon gaining the appropriate number of Master Points, and 1st and 2nd. place wins (see XXXV-C).
D. To advance past the Elite class, a mix of regular Master Points and additional value points (Bronze, Silver and Gold) must be acquired:
a. To attain Master Class: 250 Master Pts. and 50 Bronze Pts.
b. To attain Silver Class: 250 Master Pts. and 50 Silver Points.
c. To attain Gold Class: 250 Master Pts. and 50 Gold Points.
E. Master Points are issued at all sanctioned Club and Open tournaments.
F. Bronze Points are only awarded in 3-Star Tournaments.
G. Silver Points are only awarded in 4-Star Tournaments.
H. Gold Points are only awarded in 5-Star Tournaments.
The 3-, 4-, and 5-Star Tournaments are held under the auspices of clubs holding those Star Ratings. This provides clubs a powerful incentive to meet the objective requirements to gain such ratings. The USTTA gains stature in conferring the appropriate Star Ratings to clubs; clubs upgrade their facilities and services to attain a higher Star Rating. Clubs throughout the country standardize their facilities and services, improving the conditions of play for all recreational players, as well as upgrading the status and prestige of the USTTA. Go to any bowling emporium. It may have more or less lanes than another, but all lanes have an approach in front of the foul line of 15', lighting is appropriate, the facility is well-kept, etc. Of course, a major difference is that their facilities are their own.
Note that with the exception of the Novice class, which contains 99 Master Points, all others have a spread of 300 Master Points. The Rating System below deals with the method of receiving Master Points.
Children should have their own classification system. The may enter adult events when they reach a certain age, similar to tennis regulations. They should then be assigned a corresponding adult ratings, rather than starting at the bottom, and running rough-shot through the adult recreational ranks, decimating the ratings of those adults.
Seniors should also have their own classification system. They would then have a choice of playing either or both events, using the appropriate system. This answers the complaint that seniors should drop down in classification and rating due to their age.
The Rating System is a critical component of our sport. It is a tool. A good one supports players' interests and normal activities. A bad one controls them, influencing and modifying their behavior, inducing them to enter events out of their class, shun their own events, or to stop playing tournaments altogether.
Such detrimental manipulations should not occur. There are basically two rating systems, the match-rating system (M.R.S) and the event-rating system (E.R.S). Each has its own unique function intended to achieve a specific purpose toward a definite goal for a specific constituency. The theory behind each system is far more complex than meets the eye. In recent years, even the ETTA, in business for 69 years, has been struggling with its rating system (see XXXIX). One thing is certain. The two systems are not interchangeable, any more than two disparate tools such as a tiny brush and a hammer are interchangeable. Try to restore a fine piece of antique furniture, and not finding a delicate brush, use a hammer. What will be the results?
Before selecting a rating system, we must decide whom we want to serve and how. As stated before recreational players' reasons for competing are vastly different from those of professionals. For the recreational player, tournaments and league play may be characterized as both physical and mental stimulation and relaxation; a gauge by which to test improvement in proficiency and skill; obtaining some tangible rewards and recognition for efforts in gaining additional proficiency. In effect, he/she wants to have fun, improve, and get some prestige.
The professional's involvement in competition is to obtain fame and fortune, achieved through fierce and solemn combat, with winner-take-all.
The National Physical Achievement Standards book states:
"Point systems are tests of achievement... as a stimulus to participation and as a record of proficiency...and serve as an incentive for an individual to progress...
Any contribution [to uniformity of standards will be of value] in conferring merited rewards upon those players who show zeal and abilities in athletic sports...
Tests of achievements, point systems, and other methods of scoring progress have since antiquity been a part of sports. No sport is without it which can claim major status. Statistics, records, comparisons; these feed the flame of popularity, and have been the major reason for the present success of bowling and other sports."
A. An appropriate rating system for recreational players must accomplish four tasks: a) it accurately identifies players' current levels of skill, b) in concurrence with a compatible classification component, the system matches players of near-equal skill in competition, providing the greatest degree of enjoyment, c) it rewards their progress if and when they advance in skill, and d) it confers corresponding prestige. The rating system must be objective, uncomplicated, motivational, not discouraging.
A rating system must also meet organizational goals. An organization dedicated to serving millions of recreational players must utilize a rating system which will attract such numbers of new players, and accommodate them when they come, encourage them to fully participate in tournaments, and motivate them to continue to do so as a lifetime pursuit. Points must therefore not be rationed, but be infinite in availability, there can be no log-jam anywhere along the pipeline by cherry-pickers or gatekeepers.
B. An appropriate rating system for professional players, must accomplish five very different tasks from the above: a) it evaluates players' performance vis-a-vis others in the select group whereas the recreational players' level of skill is measured vis-a-vis his own potential. The professional has already attained his skill limit, the recreational player has this limit perpetually ahead of him. b) it indicates the difference between the ratings of such players. In a championship group, this is important. It indicates who is currently #1, as they endlessly play against the same opponents, transferring points back and forth. Example: The December, 1996 chess tournament in the Canary Islands pitted the world's six best players, with an average rating of 2757. The tournament featured a double round robin of 10 rounds. Players included Kasparov, Anand and Karpov who play each other constantly. Recreational players are interested in their own progress, not in how they do versus specific individuals and they desire to play many different opponents, not the same ones over and over again. c) it "is a guide to predicting the performance of those players," [USCF Rating System], a sophisticated goal of no relevance to recreational players, d) it provides "A" type competition suitable to their personality, with winners seizing points from losers.
From an organizations viewpoint, the number of players must be fixed and small. The transfer of a finite number of points among competitors requires that these competitors also be finite. Calculating and endlessly and continually transferring these points among the group is a very complex, time-consuming and never-ending task, not suitable when dealing with large numbers of competitors, including the influx of newcomers.
Which rating system is most suitable for the recreational table tennis population?
The Event Rating System awards points at the end of an event to the winner, the runner-up, and winners of later rounds depending on the depth and strength of field. Up to half the players in an event win points. All losing players' scores remain unchanged. The system rewards winners without penalizing losers, encouraging participation. The number of Master Points is infinite, allowing for an unlimited number of new players to enter the system. If the top level becomes too crowded, the system accommodates new categories without effort (The ACBL increased theirs from 6 to 12).
The system is easy to administer and update. Points are awarded, based on a chart as shown below, and not computed from individual matches. Your fingers do the walking. Number of Master Points to be awarded in any event are posted on the draw sheets, before a ball has been played! Players eagerly read this information, adding great excitement to the tournament. Directors award these points immediately upon the conclusion of the event, upgrade the players' new Match Point totals, and send this information to Headquarters at the conclusion of the tournament.
It in turn, only needs to revise totals. No computations are necessary. The ERS is capable of serving millions of members, which the M.R.S. cannot.
Here is a suggested ERS chart for the USTTA:
| No. players | winner | 2nd | 3 & 4 | 5- 8 | 9 - 16 |
| 1 to 7 | 0 pts | 0 pts | 0 pts | 0 pts | 0 pts |
| 8 to 15 | 20 pts | 15 pts | 10 pts | 0 pts | 0 pts |
| 16 to 23 | 40 pts | 30 pts | 20 pts | 10 pts | 0 pts |
| 24 to 31 | 50 pts | 40 pts | 30 pts | 15 pts | 0 pts |
| 32 to 47 | 60 pts | 50 pts | 40 pts | 20 pts | 10 pts |
| 48 up | 70 pts | 60 pts | 50 pts | 40 pts | 20 pts |
A. The number of players in column one represent the minimum number of "bona fide" participants of that Classification entered in the event. Lower class players entered in the event are not included in this computation, so as not to dilute the value of the Master Points awarded.
Example: 38 players are entered in an A event (1,000 to 1,299). However, 8 Advanced Intermediate players (700-999) have entered this event. Thus, only 30 players are bona fide A players. Master points are awarded from the line listing 24-31 players (Winner: 50 Pts, 2nd, 40 Pts, etc.).
B. Players may only enter events of their own Classification, and events of the one Classification directly above theirs.
Since all events are Round Robin, at least for the first round, this represents a minimum of at least 6 matches in Singles alone, if they enter the two classes permitted. This represents more matches than many recreational players now play. When they enter 4 or 5 events, far above their class so that they will not lose too many points (a very negative situation produced by our Match Point Rating System), most lose in the first round. In all single-elimination Events, this means that they play but 4 or 5 matches. Entering two round-robin Classes provides more play, more fun, and at less cost to the players.
C. Players who win Master Points in the event above their class require special handling. Basically, Master Points awarded are doubled.
1) If such doubled Master Points do not promote the player into the next class, the procedure is straight forward. Example: An Advanced Intermediate with a rating of 800 Master Points enters an A event and gains 40 points. The 40 Points are doubled, giving him a new rating of 880 Master Points.
2. If such doubled Master Points advance him into the next Class, only sufficient Master Points are doubled to promote him. The balance of the Master Points won are awarded at face value.
Example: An A player with a rating of 1250 enters the Expert Event and wins 50 Master Points in that event. He needs 50 points to advance to Expert (1300 Points). Twenty five A points doubled will provide him the 50 points needed for promotion. The balance of 25 points (25 of 50 used) is awarded to him undoubled. New rating: 1325.
D. Novice Class winners and runner-ups. The Rating Chart is not used for these players. Winners are awarded 100 Master Points and immediately promote into the Advanced Novice Class. Second place winners receive 50 Master Points.
E. Advancement to the next level is permanent. No regression. As players advance in age, they can at their option, also join the classification system for their age group (see below).
Since there is no punishment for losing, the player feels safe playing in as many tournaments as desired. He can boast of his current ranking, and with tough opponents moving up and out, his chances for future success are increased.
F. Seniors need their own rating system, and their own awards. This does not preclude them from playing in the adult events. Some professional golfers play in both adult and senior events. But it resolves the debate that seniors should be permitted to come down in class because they can no longer compete in their own class. A system must be designed to offer the greatest incentive to the most players. When a system permits a senior to win his 20th or 50th trophy because the powers-that-be feel sorry for him, they are distressing hundreds of players trying to move up the ladder. The well-being of the sport comes first. Making an old-timer happy one more time at the cost of driving 100 newcomers out is irresponsible. He has won his share of trophies. Now comes the time for others. Will the old-timer leave out of pique? Not if he loves the game, and wants to help the sport succeed.
The Match Rating System is a transfer system, in which points are deducted from loser and awarded the winner at the conclusion of each match of every event. Every match is thus a mini-tournament, the stress and pressure of winning and losing unremitting throughout the tournament.
The points within the system are finite, requiring a finite number of players within a closed system. It does not accommodate newcomers, which would depress the rating of all current players. The only competitors whose profile satisfies this requirement are championship players.
The rating system furthermore severely limits the number of competitors, due to the complexity of computing the transfer of points of each match, "the specific formula...worked out according to statistical and probability theory" (USCF Rating System, from which the USATT rating system derives). The official rules of USCF state: "For players with established ratings (based on 20 games or more) the equation is: Equation II: Rn = Ro + K(W-We) where Rn is the new rating, Ro the old (pre-event) rating, K a constant...W the score in the event, and We the expected score, either from the chart or the following formula...(see Attachment B, for details I could not print on my computer). The ETTA's M.R.S. system involves points exchange tables, event weightings, audit trails, "dummy ratings," etc.
The M.R.S. system dictates that after each individual match, the ratings of two individuals must be recalculated. The ETTA which uses the M.R.S must activate its computer for 20 hours straight, at a calculation rate of several thousand per second, to compute the results of a "playing period" of several weeks, and transfer the correct number of points among its tournament players (Table Tennis News, 12-92).
The point spread between players in a point-transfer system must be small, and the upward or downward movement of ratings must be restricted. The USCF permits no rating difference to exceed 400 points between competitors, and no movement up or down over 200 points within a three year period, as well as a floating ratings floor which "prevents a player's rating falling more than 100 points below his highest rating. Whenever a player's rating reaches a new high, his floor goes up accordingly, but it does not go down if his rating does" (USCF Rating System). The ETTA system does not recognize matches with spreads over 200 points and questions any change of over 130 points in a single playing period.
The M.R.S. is a static system, with little movement among players, once more indicating that the system is formulated for championship players. Geoff Twiss, a member of the ETTA's Ranking panel explains that "A player's rating should remain fairly static once it has been confirmed, moving only to reflect a change in playing standard. If a set of results in a single playing period would produce a change of over 130 points...the computer begins to doubt its judgement of the player and starts the re-rating routine (Table Tennis News, 12-92).
The system is effective when a small coterie of champions of near equal skill play each other frequently. In chess, these conditions are met when world-class players compete, often in best-of-twelve, or best-of-20 matches (see XXXIV-B above re Canary Island tournament).
Psychologically, the MRS suits the "A" type personalities (see Section XII above) found at the zenith of sports. Dan Harrington, a retired lawyer and chess expert, switched to high competition poker because, according to an article in the LAT, 5-21-95, "It [chess - based on the M.R.S.] was too intense and brutal on me. There's a lot of mental strain and anguish playing in tournaments. I just didn't want to subject myself to it anymore." Apparently poker suited him better and brought him more money. In the 40-hour World Series of Poker competition in Las Vegas, he "parlayed $250 into $1.3 million in winnings."
"The psychosomatic fallout is universal [in chess] - a favorite grandmaster joke is that no one ever wins a game from a healthy opponent" (Newsweek, 10-18-71).
Publicity-wise, the M.R.S is most useful in sports which require years or decades to develop champions. This creates recognizable, established personalities, whose repeated clashes in match-play adds another dimension to the game, drawing interest to the contests even from non-fans of the game. Examples were the Conners-McEnroe tennis matches and the Kasparov-Karpov and Spassky-Fisher chess matches.
Chess masters, who usually develop over years, and then remain at the top of their form for decades, work well with Match Rating Systems, battling their peers like old-time gladiators, with money often secondary to narcissism, arrogance, and fame. A youthful Bobby Fischer once boasted that he liked to "see'em squirm." Chess champions are an elitist clique. Non-champions need not apply. This is explanation, not condemnation.
Recreational table tennis under the Match Rating System makes it impossible for the sport to grow and prosper for numerous reasons.
A. The M.R.S. is inhospitable to growth. A finite point system cannot accommodate an infinite number of players, as represented by newcomers. Their wins must depress the ratings of players already in the system. As the ETTA Table Tennis News of Dec. 1992 notes, "Unrated players begin the process of gaining a rating by winning a match against a player who already has a rating." Demotions lead to defections, a natural exodus of old players as new players enter. This stabilizes the number of players, part of the design of the M.R.S., but not the intent of the USTTA, aspiring to become a major player in the sports world. A system inviting an infinite number of players to compete for a finite number of points leads to failure. Another piece of the puzzle.
Top players are unaffected, as recreational players do not attain Ratings to bring them into the sacrosanct arena of these players, additional evidence that this system is most suitable for these players.
B. The M.R.S causes thousands of established players to stop playing tournaments, as a means to avoid going down in rating, which the M.R.S guarantees over time. An informal survey confirmed this premise. Once they stop playing, it is but a small step to drop their membership.
C. The M.R.S. affects the choice of events recreational players enter. Many avoid entering their own class events and enter events several classes above their rating, because if they lose, the M.R.S. maximizes rating losses to equal opponents, and minimizes losses to higher rated opponents. This causes a large number of entrants to shift to higher events, negating the whole scheme. Far worse, the M.R.S. destroys the very mission of tournament play for recreational players, which is to provide them the opportunity to compete against others of near-equal skill, the most fun aspect of tournament play for them.
A review of some entries in some events of the 1995 U.S. Nationals shows how many players played in and/or above their classification:
Events:-1100: 12 1000+; 18 900+; 13 800+; 24 below 800 (12 vs 55). -1200: 22 1100+; 11 1000+; 15 900+; 8 800+; 11 below 800 (22 vs 45). -1300: 14 1200+; 15 1100+; 10 from 300 to 1000. (14 vs 25). -1400: 31 1300+; 26 1200+; 13 1100+; 6 below 1100 (31 vs 45). Almost half the 1200+ skipped their event entirely and entered this one (26 - 14 = 12) and 3 entered the -15 but not their event (17 - 14 + 3). -1500: 20 1400+; 22 1300+; 17 1200+; 15 below 1200 (20 vs 54).
More 1200-1299 players entered the -1500 event than entered their own - 1300 event (17 vs 14)!
-1600: 49 1500+; 31 1400+; 30 1300+; 14 1200+; 14 below 1300 (49 vs 89). -1900: 34 1800+; 32 1700+; 34 1600+; 21 1500+; 16 below 1500. (34 vs 103). More 1500+ played this event than their own (21 vs 20). -2000: 36 1900+; 37 1800+; 40 1700+; 23 1600+; 20 1500+: 15 below 1500. (36 vs 135). Three -2000 RR's had no 1900+ entrants! -2100: 32 2000+; 39 1900+; 36 1800+; 31 1700+; 21 1600+; 13 below 1600 (32 vs 140). More 1900+ played this event than their own (39 vs 36). -2200: 20 2100+; 31 2000+; 30 1900+; 43 below 1900 (20 vs 104). -2300: 17 2200+; 25 2100+; 29 2000+; 20 1900+; 13 1800+; Others: 24. (17 vs 111). 16 of the -2300 R. R.'s had no 2200+ contestants. -2400: 7 2300+; 19 2200+; 16 2100+; 23 2000+; 14 1900+; Others 22 (7 vs 94).
C. The M.R.S. rationale for point exchanges does not apply to recreational players and dispenses inappropriate rewards and punishment to them.
Under the M.R.S., champions win and lose points calibrated according to their norm vs. the identified norms of other players. Point transfers occur based on superior-inferior play between two established ultimate norms. Winning indicates playing above norm, losing below nor. The small number spread between champions, the knowledge that they will soon meet each other again, and the realization that results may be reversed the next time, makes the momentary transfer of points insignificant. The focus is on the contest, and battle of wits among equals. They play musical chairs in a ranch house.
Recreational players are evolving, learning, improving, having fun. They are far from having reached their potential. They have no "norm" to play above or below. Ratings are dynamic, meaningful as evidence of their current skill level, not static, and momentary evidence of standing vs other champions.
For recreational players, wins indicate progress, losses regression. Under such conditions, a win over a lower-rated opponent proves nothing to winner or loser. It simply shows that the current ratings of each is accurate. The winner showed no progress, and deserves no reward. The loser showed no decreased skill and deserved no punishment (no matter how small the actual numbers). The M.R.S., designed for championship play, does not recognize this inconsistency in its mechanism for the recreational player.
In actual practice, this process is devastating to recreational players. Example: Don Tillotson, a very congenial and gracious player with an initial assigned rating of 647, deferred playing tournaments for several years while taking intensive training. Re-entering competition in the 1995 U.S. Nationals, he won the -1500 Round-Robin 3-0, with easy wins over a 1274, a 1336 and a 1471 player (12, 15), going on to beat the winner of another Round Robin (in effect winning over 7 -1500 players). Don demonstrated that he had improved vastly in the intervening years. What his wins did not prove was that his opponents were playing worse than before. Yet, under the Point Transfer component of the Match Rating System, Don decimated the ratings of these players, signifying that their skill was now 50 points lower than before. A major flaw. Another piece of the puzzle.
D. Gatekeepers. The M.R.S. is not intended to function under a Multiple Classification system. It is a one-class system consisting of Champions, playing in a closed, stationary system. Its intent is not to promote upward striving, skill improvement, and the influx of large numbers of new participants. Converting the M.R.S. into a multiple Classification system does not disturb the champions, since none of the recreational players enters their sacrosanct domain. What it does do is create a number of static, self-contained, imitation Championship enclaves at each classification junction, with players competing against the same opponents endlessly, as do Champions. The point-transfer feature of the M.R.S. causes the players to move up and down in small increments, creating Gatekeepers naturally, or Cherry-pickers when done deliberately, elements lethal to table tennis growth.
What happens is that a small number of players at the junction of two classifications (-1200, -1500, -1900, for example) win virtually all the trophies and awards, moving up and down like yo-yo's. Example: 1485, win to 1515, loss back down to 1490, win to 1525, back down, etc. A handful of such players, winning all the trophies and awards, effectively blocks the upward movement of thousands of players (young, upcoming players excepted).
This up and down movement generated by the M.R.S., is necessary to championship players, but devastates the sport for recreational players, effectively blocking their upward movement and award striving, a major cause in their leaving. Some become Gatekeepers naturally, others are Cherry-pickers by design. To quote Tom Carter in Tennis, 3-82, in an article titled "Where Even Beginners Can Play Sanctioned Tournaments!"
"Players who join a circuit at a lower skill level, and then steadily progress to become one of its dominant performers, are not allowed to stay there long. Neither are 'sandbaggers' - superior players who infiltrate a weaker class in search of a few trophies for their mantels.
'We're fairly ruthless about bumping them up to the next level of play,' says Joan Don, the leader of the NCTA's [Northern California Tennis Association] class committee. 'We'll occasionally make mistakes, but surprisingly few.'"
The ACBL found they were losing a lot of entry-level players, and did some research. They found that a substantial number of players who had gained sufficient number of Match Points to move out of the novice class were not forwarding their newly won match point slips to Headquarters. Their promotion out of the Novice class was therefore not officially recorded, and they kept playing and winning the novice events endlessly. They were Gate-keepers, winning at the expense of hundreds of real novices, who were held back from winning and moving up, converting the ACBL's Event Rating System into a Match Rating System. The ACBL solved this serious blockage in the pipeline by directing the Tournament Directors of the local clubs to mail the winners' Rating Points directly to Memphis, rather than handing them to the winners. The M.R.S.'s static component deliberately creates Gatekeepers in a multi-classification system such as the USATT, flattening the potential skyscraper into a static ranch house. The only way to clear the blockage is to replace the M.R.S. with the E.R.S. This would immediately open the floodgates from below. Another piece of the puzzle.
E. The win-lose format of Match Rating System tournaments imposes severe stress on competitors (see reference to Dan Harrington, in Section XXXVI above). Type "B" Recreational players flee Type "A" competition. If we want to attract millions of loyal, long-time devotees, we must not impose on them a form of competition which will chase them out as fast as they come in. They want a fun format. The M.R.S. is not it.
F. The M.R.S.'s static point-transfer component places players in a permanent holding pattern. This means that players will meet the same opponents, tournament after tournament, for the rest of their lives, a very unappealing prospect for recreational players, whose very reason for entering tournaments is to play new opponents. After encountering the same opponents again and again, most quit.
G. The M.R.S. as shown above (XXXVI-B) is complex, time-consuming, and expensive to administer. Passing on the cost to players, with a small profit for the USATT ($52,000) may provide short-term benefits to the organization, at the expense of the players, who could use the $3.00 or $4.00 towards entering an additional event.
H. The M.R.S. is too unwieldy to service a projected membership of millions. Unless the USTTA changes this format, table tennis in the United States will forever be relegated to minor sports status.
I. The M.R.S. as used by the USATT, is an adulterated form of the Rating System, using certain components and discarding others. Matches between players with spreads over 200 points are common, as are changes of over 130 points in a playing period, to name but two examples. No matter how the M.R.S. system is manipulated, it cannot be converted from a Rating System for Championship players to a Rating System for millions of recreational players.
The USCF (United States Chess Federation), from which we borrowed our current system uses the Match Rating System. The ACBL (American Contract Bridge League) uses the Event Rating System. Both are cerebral games, and one might safely say that the profile of both show similarities in higher than average levels of intelligence. 1991 Statistics indicated that 89% of ACBL members were College graduates, the average income $53,400, with 24% averaging $75,000.
Some minor differences: chess takes longer to play, bridge requires four players rather than two, etc. The most significant difference between the two is that the ACBL uses the E.R.S., whereas the USCF uses the M.R.S. The end results are startling.
The ACBL has over 200,000 members, the USCF claims 82,430 members (up from 25,000 in 25 years) although I believe that most are children.
I am unaware of any national Headquarters for the USCF. The ABL's headquarters is a large, attractive 4-story building in Memphis, TN, with 96 employees, processing 17,000 membership per month, using 2,000 computer programs.
The USCF members are gypsies like us, playing wherever they are allowed to hang their hat. In Southern California (an area covering over 20 million people), just 49 chess clubs operate a few hours per week in such venues as a public library, Sr. Recreation Bldg., Jewish Community Center, Barnes & Noble Bookstore, Lions Club, Ramona Bowling Lanes, VFW Post, Starbucks. You get the picture.
The ACBL runs 4,200 affiliated clubs, with 57 affiliated clubs overseas, and 26 clubs on cruise ships. Most ACBL clubs are permanent facilities, open 7 days a week, from morning to night, running numerous events throughout each day. The ACBL runs 3 major tournaments per year, each lasting 10 days, with an average participation of 7,000 at 17,000 tables. They don't charge rating fees!
In an extensive article in Sports Illustrated, (10-9-61), Ray Cave explains the reason for the skyrocketing success of the ACBL:
"the ACBL admits that it is the master point that changed tournament bridge from the avocation of the few into the passion of the many..."
Originally given to the winners of national championship in the early 30's, "it was decided to give winners of a few lesser tournaments something called Master Points...This system for conferring a title and Prestige excited the country's top bridge players, and the ACBL soon realized it might increase interest at all levels of the game if the gimmick were simply expanded. More and more tournaments were recognized, and higher and higher went the number of points needed to qualify as a Master.
By the late 30s the ACBL knew it was holding a promotional grand slam, and it began to give away points or fractions of points, at all of its tournaments....It also founded a superior point called a Red Point, which could only be won in regional or national events...[since then, gold and silver points were added - see Attachment A].
With its grading system in order, the ACBL set its awards, eventually establishing six classifications for players" [since then increased to 12!].
Ray Cave makes the point that the players are not trying to keep up with Goren [old time champ] but with the Joneses.
"Second, the duplicate player has the constant opportunity to improve his status...He zealously attempts to achieve this...the contestants in this national karate - with cards - are obviously having a wonderful time and wouldn't want it any other way, for they are competing now as they never have before.
The ACBL has 10 times as many registered players as it did only 15 years ago. The number of sanctioned clubs has increased 25% in the last year.
ACBL tournaments now draw 1,000 competitors weekly in Washington, D.C., 1,000 in Houston, 1,200 in Milwaukee, 800 in San Francisco and as many as 7,000 in Los Angeles, where a bridge extravaganza last June at the Ambassador Hotel was deluged with 30,000 entries in various events."
'Every player is striving to advance himself into the next category, which not only impels him to play more often but increases his enthusiasm and enjoyment in the game' says the league in its handbook for clubs.'...He will now buy a five-foot shelf of the 1,000-odd books available, read some of the six syndicated newspaper bridge columns and take lessons for $20 an hour [this was 35 years ago!]...
In the course of doing all of these things he will have become a very good bridge player - the quality of tournament play has risen immeasurably since World War II, a fact bemoaned by some oldtimers who find points coming harder than ever."
In an article titled "Cause for Concern," Alan Ransome, ETTA Chairman, wrote in Table Tennis News, April, 1993, that "Another reason given for the shortage of entries is the current ranking scheme which includes losses... At present, so far as we know, the software does not exist that could cope with the number of players currently in the programme for a 'wins only' system...
Others think that the introduction of 'bonus points' for wins could achieve the best of both worlds...These 'bonus points' would be based on wins and on reaching certain rounds in tournaments and would be added to the player's rating points in the category in which the match was played, i.e., wins in a cadet event would be added for the cadet list so as not to distort other lists. This could prove to be the answer to keeping on the one hand an accurate list as well as encouraging participation in matches and tournaments.
The three computer systems that are in use at the moment all include losses. These are the ITTF system for the world ranking list, the VETTS system for their own closed ranking list and the Canadian system from which our scheme was adapted...Ideas and suggestions are welcome...
Another key to encourage players back into the tournament scene is to give them a better days table tennis. The traditional knock out system which means that many of the matches are between players of widely varying standards does not provide as enjoyable or good table tennis as matches between two players who are of a similar standard.
The current ranking scheme provides the opportunity to create events similar to but more accurate than the Class 2 and 3 singles. This system, known as "Rating" events, operates successfully abroad. This would mean more matches at an even competitive standard for the players."
In the same vein, John Prean, ETTA Chairman from 1986 to 1991, writes an article titled, "Death Wish," in Table Tennis News, March, 1993:
"There never was much of a case for having ranking lists at all, unless these added fun to the game and generally advanced the sport.
The opposite is now the case...The previous scheme was far from perfect. Its main feature was that defeats did not count and only wins were recorded. The current scheme punishes loses quite severely, especially the so-called 'unexpected' ones and players have a great chance of returning from long, expensive trips with fewer points than they set out with and probably lower ranking.
It should have been obvious long ago that the present scheme is enormously discouraging and ultimately damaging. As the ghastly implications sank in, more and more players decided not to go to tournaments. Others decided to be more selective and to go only where the draw seemed beneficial. Match-dodging has reached epidemic proportions...
In one single issue T.T. News reported that a number of famous tournaments will not be taking place this season, and tournament organisers have told me that they have been hundreds of pounds down in their entry fees and have made losses, which hardly encourages them to try again next year. I read of a 3 Star Tournament where the finalists of the ladies' doubles had only to win one match to reach the Final! That is a crisis.
A positive incentive exists NOT to play...The English ranking scheme is now a disaster area...
What seems to exist is a positive encouragement NOT to play, certainly at elite levels, at a time of shrinking membership. It is a double whammy of quite desperate implications. The death wish of the sport seems to know few limits."
In the same ETTA issue is a notice that the "South of England 3 Star scheduled to be staged on 13/14th March, has been canceled due to lack of entries.
Disappointed Organiser Terry Vance said, 'I just don't understand it! The main reason appears to be dislike of the Ranking System, plus, to a lesser degree, a mixture of the recession and fixture congestion."
In Part Four of the Ranking Scheme series in Table Tennis News, March, 1993, Geoff Twiss claims that "We now have a system which will place at the top of the lists those players who consistently perform the best. It is dynamic, following changes in form, and can cope with the vast amount of data we generate from our crowded calendar. We have come a long way from the days when a player could in effect 'buy' an inflated position on a Ranking List by going to more tournaments than anyone else."
What can be gleaned from the above ETTA material?
1. Their ranking scheme which like ours, includes losses, is extremely unpopular, discouraging people from playing, and causing shrinking memberships.
2. The ETTA did not know how to develop software to cope with a "wins only" system. They would only need to go to the ACBL, which processes more than 1,000 tournaments a year, using a "wins only" system. The Event Rating System is without a doubt a far simpler system to manage than the Match Rating System (see attachments A & B).
3. The concept of "buying" an inflated position is without merit. It is a typical "envy argument:" "I don't want you to go to more tournaments than I do." Is the ETTA suggesting limiting all players to the lowest common denominator of tournaments permitted to be entered, to achieve parity. This would limit players to entering one tournament per year! In a democracy, all players are free to enter as many tournaments as they desire. And once there, players must still perform to receive the rewards. The players don't "buy" them, they earn them. If this argument convinced the Rating Committee to discard the "winner only" system, it threw out the baby with the bathwater.
What the ACBL has done through its Event Rating System, is create a dynamic, highly motivational system which offers continuous challenge and rewards to its recreational players. Fully 40% of ACBL players at any competition receive rewards, and no one loses. The USTTA can do equally as well.
The Event Rating System is ideal for recreational and elite players, providing fun, progress and prestige in a non-threatening atmosphere. Its potential for developing tradition, statistics and records can make the E.R.S. a fine vehicle for future table tennis professionals as well.
The infinite rating numbers provided by the E.R.S. makes it easy for millions of new players to join the USTTA. The E.R.S. thrives on numbers. The more the merrier. The M.R.S. is created to limit membership.
The Event Rating System eliminated the demotional aspect of the M.R.S. Players are encouraged to play in tournaments at their own skill level, providing them the enjoyment they desire. They have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Tournaments provide loads of fun, playing with people of like class.
It has been a long time since players felt comfortable playing in their own class. A review of the enormous benefits of doing so can be noted, from analyzing a similar situation in tennis in California.
In the above referenced article, Tom Carter writes: "The 'Class System,' the brainchild of NCTA director Peter Herb, rescues intermediate-level players from a kind of competitive limbo. They realize they're not good enough to compete in the intensity of advanced-level-age-group events, yet they're bored with the predictability of poorly run club tournaments...
So in 1968, the NCTA sanctioned six new tournaments (labeled 'Class B' for intermediate players. They responded eagerly, and the tournament class system was born...[evolving] to its present five-class format. It starts with absolute beginners classified as 'D-level' events. Similarly, C, B, A and Open-level players can compete against opponents of nearly identical ability in their respective circuits. Juniors are not admitted to class tournaments.
The impact of this simple system can be seen in its growth pattern. Ten years ago, there were about as many adults (1,890) playing NCTA events as players under 21 years of age (1,840). Today, the numbers have jumped dramatically. The adult figure has more than tripled to 6,540, while the under-21 figure has more than doubled to 4,880.
Herb and many experts are convinced that his class system is responsible for the fact that the NCTA membership outnumbers (by 700 players) that of the southern California division, which doesn't offer such a tournament program, yet has a population base to draw from that's three times greater...
Such enthusiasm is not uncommon among the intermediate-level players, who thrive on the competition found in their own class. It has the potential to change lifestyles too, as Don Henriquez, a 50-year old player can attest: 'Class tennis is a life and world all its own and I've got an emotional attachment to it. Addiction, I guess, is the word. We take our tennis very seriously in the "C's.""
In an interview with Billie Jean King in Los Angeles Tennis Magazine, Jan. 1995, she "made a promise that if I ever got good enough, I would take tennis back to the people...She knows how important the parks and recreation programs are to tennis...Even at an early age she felt that tennis was too elitist and too individual. There was a definite lack of teamwork. 'Tennis as a sport needs to be more hospitable.' Billy Jean tries to have everyone included within the format, no matter what level of play. She says 'The reality is we haven't walked what we've talked. The talk has always been 'let's get the game to grow, we're wonderful,' but the reality is there is always this control issue, people protecting territories, not embracing new ideas....Each teaching pro is a salesperson, a promoter, and should ask themselves every morning, 'what can I do today to get more people to play tennis and have fun?..Billy Jean envisions a co-ed team tennis with gender equity, making it fun and having equal contributions from both genders...When Billy Jean King and Larry, her former husband came up with the idea for World TEAMTENNIS, they wanted to have 2 distinct parts -professional level and recreational level. The philosophy of WTT is to get people on the court. A WTT league consists of at least 4 teams, with a minimum of 2 men and 2 women per team...The recreational league has had over 365,000 players since WTT started in 1985. This league is a co-ed program for people of all ages and skill level."
Under the Event Rating System, large draws are assured. Players know that the larger the draw, the more Master Points the winners will receive, and the faster these winners move up to the next class, providing room for new winners of trophies and recognition at the next tournament. Players study the draw sheets with increased interest.
The E.R.S. permanently removes Gatekeepers and Cherry-pickers, the bane of recreational players. Players receive their rewards and move up, from one classification to another, accumulating points without end - a huge elevator, with everyone on their way up. Players are pulled out of the holding pattern of the M.R.S. No more yo-yoing, moving up and down. The quest for upward progress and more points becomes a lifetime adventure as it is for ACBL players.
No one wins at the expense of another, a very important psychological and social factor for recreational players. The E.R.S. provides a far healthier environment than one in which winning means causing loss to someone else. A win-win situation leads to friendlier competition, with the loser sincerely congratulating the winner. Compare this to our players' perfunctorily hand-shake at the end of a match, often without so much as looking at each other.
Using the Event Rating System, the USTTA takes a giant step toward creating a major sport out of table tennis, equalling and surpassing golf, tennis, and other sports in stature and prestige. The Match Rating System, on the other hand, makes success for table tennis in the U.S. unachievable.
The Event Rating System promotes a close, meaningful and healthy association between the national body and the clubs. At national events, the USTTA awards Rating Points. Clubs award rating points at the local level in numerous tournaments and events qualifying for such prizes (as ACBL Clubs do). The clubs forward updated lists of winners and the number of points won to the USTTA immediately upon the conclusion of events, for immediate updating. No calculations by headquarters necessary.
Club Directors, upon closing a tournament draw, send the list of participants to the USTTA, which immediately returns the list with current ratings of participants. E-mail and Fax capabilities make such dispatches simple and instantaneous. Compare this to current practices, where ratings several months old allow players to play below their current rating.
Social events such as year-end banquets will become major events, with players moving up in classification publicly recognized and awarded plaques, certificates, or other forms of recognition. No such events can take place under a static rating system in which players are permanently confined at various classification levels. Players will strive to move up rather than tanking to move down as some currently do. Promotion will be meaningful and status-intensive, as are Master rankings in Bridge. Table tennis will become an exciting sport.
Converting to the Event Rating System, the USTTA will no longer need to assess a Rating Fee. This will reduce its income slightly, but this will be made up a thousand-fold in goodwill, improved public relations, increased participation in tournaments, and increased membership fees.
A. Senior services. With seniors becoming a larger and larger portion of the population, efforts must be made to accommodate their lesser mobility and speed. Tennis offers such an accommodation. Seniors switch more and more from singles to doubles as they grow older, needing to cover but half a court.
Doubles in table tennis requires even more active footwork than singles, each player having to move from the center of the table after every shot.
A. One innovation would be to create a new doubles format, eliminating the requirement that players hit the ball in sequence. This would be similar to tennis doubles. Players serve once from the deuce side (right side), the next serve takes place from the add (left side). An additional benefit is that it makes the game more equal for left-handed players. I tested this format in my club and found it to work remarkably well after only 15-minutes of trying. This format has the same advantages and disadvantages of tennis doubles, or duplicate bridge pairs, etc. The stronger players will attempt to play to the weakest opposing partner, tendencies to poach, etc. Yet, the weak partner still has to serve his or her turn, the weaker partner improves with practice, etc. In current doubles, strong players also play to the weak opponent's vulnerability. The objective to be kept in mind is that this format is easier and safer for seniors than our current form of doubles, in which loss of mobility may cause collisions and falls.
B. A further refinement would be to have equipment manufacturers develop wider tables (6' x 9') to accommodate this type of doubles.
If this type of doubles is found to be more enjoyable than current doubles, and more fun to watch by spectators, it could become the standard for all doubles play. It would eliminate some of the footwork of current doubles, and increase the length of rallies. Endless dribbling in basketball was eliminated for spectator benefit. Virtually all sports, including football, soccer and tennis have innovated over the past few years, to benefit the sport and the spectators. We should not stand still.
C. Service in doubles should alternate from right to left, regardless of adopting or not adopting the suggestion in item A above. It is patently unfair to benefit right-handers at the expense of left-handers. What is the rationale for serving from the right side only in doubles?
D. Another alternative would be for servers in doubles to play under the same rules as singles. It would make the game more challenging. The doubles line would then no longer be necessary and could be eliminated
E. Children Services. Children's tables should be manufactured, lower, shorter and less wide than adult tables. This would allow children from very young ages (4 and up) to start enjoying this wonderful game. Graduated tables could be made available, suitable for various ages. Paddles should also be constructed for children.
F. The USATT might be wise to send non-renewing individual members and clubs exit questionnaires (with S.A.S.E.'s) to find out why they left. These questionnaires would need to be carefully designed for maximum value.
Attachment A: American Contract Bridge League Match Point Outline.
Attachment B: USCF Rating System, page 1.
Addendum: In all sports but table tennis, ethics, fair play, and standards of play and equipment are the norm. Tennis racket strings, golf ball materials are rigidly controlled. Players win, not their equipment. In table tennis, "funny rubber," which at times follows the laws of physics, and at other times, reverses these laws, added with flipping paddles during play, changes the sport to one of trickery, with the paddle often winning matches.
Governing bodies need to regain control of the sport, with paddles and rubber surfaces kept to close tolerances, with no physics surprises.
