Coaching & Tips - The Lion King Club in Taipei

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Topic: The Lion King Club in Taipei

Posted By: TwiddleDee
Subject: The Lion King Club in Taipei
Date Posted: 06/17/2023 at 8:44am

I was fortunate to spend a few weeks in Taipei recently. There are many table tennis clubs there that offer coaching. I found one such club that is located by just a 5 minute walk from the Taipei Arena, called The Lion King. It's on the fourth floor of a business building. After my first coaching lesson, I looked no further for another club. The 2 coaches that I had, Jack Lin and Nemo, were Class B certified coaches. I'm not really sure what that meant, but I was very impressed with both of them. Their English level was good enough for me to understand. It costs about $30.00 per hour, and was worth every penny. I never experienced such attentiveness to everything that I didn't do correctly. They immediately provided feedback from everything from where I was contacting the ball on my paddle, to noticing that my forearm was too tense on some shots. Both of these coaches could replicate just about any serve you asked of them, as well as their placement. They then coached on the different ways to return them. They also improved my serves and their placements. Their feeling for the ball and ability to anticipate where I was directing my shots was amazing. Both of them can play at a very high level. I would guess at somewhere around 2300 or higher. I have been playing since the late 70's, and played and practiced with some very high rated players, but Jack Lin's forehand loop was the fastest I have ever tried to block. Both of these coaches were very humble and pleasant to work with. I also had the opportunity to watch the other coaches there, as they trained all ages and levels of players. I asked about Class A level coaches, and was told that there are fewer of them, and can usually be found at the National training academy.

When I left there, I most definitely felt more confident in how to improve my game, and understanding the errors that I was making. What a great club.

Replies:

Posted By: Skyline
Date Posted: 06/17/2023 at 10:34am

Cool I am interested to visit this club. I send you a PM.

Posted By: zeio
Date Posted: 06/17/2023 at 11:03am

http://www.lionking-tt.com/auto_page.aspx?id=qu7d5jklze284" rel="nofollow - http://www.lionking-tt.com/auto_page.aspx?id=qu7d5jklze284

-------------
Viscaria FL - 91g
+ Neo H3 2.15 Blk - 44.5g(55.3g uncut bare)
+ Hexer HD 2.1 Red - 49.3g(68.5g 〃〃)
= 184.8g

Posted By: ZApenholder
Date Posted: 06/20/2023 at 8:09am

It is one of many TT "schools" in Taiwan (It isn't a club, you can't just go there to play, you go there to take lessons)

Lion King is pretty big (many branches) in Taipei city and I know the owner.

Very established and have a good reputation.

The coaches are mostly former players themselves and are pretty young (so they are still fit and fast). Not necessary the highest level, as the target audience of these students are more elementary school kids, and are very busy after school and weekends. During school holidays, the program is full of kids too.

But adults classes are also available.

In Taiwan, you get sport school teams (from junior high to senior high, and then university), you get 1st division and then you get 2nd.
I'm guessing those you had was maybe 1st or 2nd division players during their school years.

The 1st divisions will normally go and coach at schools and do 1 on 1s there.

The national players will be "better 1st division" players. The level between a top 1st division and lower 1st division is pretty big, say USATT 2300 v 2700.
You do get some stronger 2nd division that can maybe get to 2400 or higher, and at times could surprise some national players.

The division is based on if your school team finished in the top division Top 8 in the year. So it isn't so much of an individual accolade, but rather, where your school is placed.

I can comfortably say, no Lion king coach is at the national academy coaching.

The highest rated one is a friend of mine and coaching at a senior high school team. But his photo is still being used by Lion King's coaching roster (with his permission). He cost the most too, and seldom will get calls to go and coach on his off days.

I just had a look at the website, and he is the only national graded coach there.
The rest are A, B and C. A being the highest and C is the basic level.

The As will never be at national team, as your need to be national graded.

The friend of mine, isn't "high" enough to coach at the national team, despite him being graded national level. You will need really top notch to be there, and the coaches there are either the top players personal coach (Lin and Cheng's own coach) or team coaches in Wu Wen Jia, Chiang Peng Lung etc. All former top players, Olympians, themselves.

Never the less, for amateur or semi pro, Lion King is good enough.

For top US players like Sally Moyland or Darryl Tsao, Ryan Lin, they won't go to these "extra lesson clubs", but rather go to top notch sport schools and train with the team there (that trains 30+ hours a week)