My rant about table tennis

This is a great sport, but it doesn't feel like most clubs and the USATT have a clue about marketing.

I'll start with my pet peeve regarding TT shirts.  The purpose of a giveaway shirts is to promote the product (table tennis), the event (tournament) and the sponsor/host (club name or organization)

When we wear our shirts around town people would see that we are table tennis players and where we play.  When they ask about the shirt, we can recruit new players.  I once got a shirt that only said

"Pong City TTC", nothing about the sport (TTC isn't a sport) or where the sport is played.  The shirt should say Fargo Table Tennis Club.  People will know the city and the sport.  If we want to promote our sport we need to drop TTC and go with Table Tennis Club.  The shirt I was given at the Open this year is a good example of poor marketing.  The front had Butterfly in big letters across the front (no mention of table tennis).  On the back in big colorful letters was Ontario, below that was U.S. Open.  Next was 2023.  Under that in very small letters were the words table tennis.  When you give the design job to a graphic designer Their goal is to dazzle you with artwork and color, the message is unimportant.  I tell the USATT this every year and their answer is always "we'll let the designer know".  The next year the shirt is the same.

Many clubs are very bad at welcoming visitors.  I've visited clubs where no one has greeted me or introduced me to players or told me how the club works. If you visit my club, within a minute someone will greet you and find someone to hit with you.  I also tell visitors that if they see someone sitting to ask them to hit with you.  Almost all of our members will say yes.

Clubs also need to work with (not against) other clubs to promote the sport.  I've seen where a small club will announce a tournament date and the following week a big club in the same town will announce a tournament on the same date.  The small club moved the date back a week and the big club then moved their date back a week again.  

Club/tournament players are valuable assets.  Treat them like they are.  Last year I was thinking about traveling to a big club for their tournament.  I called the manager and asked him how many players in the RR's.  He told me 4 or 5.  When I got there all the RR's were 3 person.  

We need to dress like we're professionals.  When I go to major tournaments and I see players old worn out clothes I feel bad.  

At a Open in Las Vegas a few years ago I noticed signs all over the hotel that said "Welcome U.S. Open"  I told the USATT CEO that they need to better job with the signage.  I was taken outside and on the front of the building there was a huge banner saying "Welcome U.S. Open"  I asked why they didn't say table tennis on the sign or the signs in the hotel.  They didn't even think about it.

There's more, but I'll quit for now.

Same here, I spent a couple weeks in Nanchang in September 2007 and I visited a club hosted by a school gym where a lot of middle age bare-chested people were just practicing in long rallies even thogh some were playing games. The longer the point lasted in practice, the more important it was to not screw up and those points were always ending in laughters, talk about  some universal language! it was very convivial unlike that other fancy club where the level was going from mine all the way to semi pro.

Besides  inflating the ball diameter, raising the net, slowing tables and limiting the bounce of a ball on the bare paddle from a given height, I am not sure how we can force longer rallies. Tennis resolved with heavier balls and slower courts to kill Mac's service volley dominant game that Edberg, Becker etc... perfected and we got today all round lumberjacks hitting hard from the baseline but the development and mastery of the dropshot along with finding crazy angles with less contact and lots of spin compensated the boredom, they got a great, exciting game today with the new generation taking over. Let's hope we can find a way to do the same without pickleballing ourselves.