Table Tennis Debate

[MickM]

Table tennis is going through a bit of a renaissance.

At the bottom end, more and more people - especially in the inner-cities - are picking up bats and playing the sport.

And at the top end, the GB team has two of the world's most promising juniors in Darius Knight and Paul Drinkhall dreaming of medals at London 2012.

The table tennis bosses seem to be passionate about promoting the sport and see the benefits of investing in talent and helping to provide facilities so more people can actually play.

What do you think of table tennis? Do you think there are enough facilities to play sport where you live? Are they too expensive? Is it easy to find somewhere to play?

And should other stars be following Darius Knight's example and promote their own sport, wether it be Table Tennis or some other sport.

The bottom line is we who play need to be a little more pro-active in promoting the sport rather than just picking up the bat and playing. There are many who run teams but are usually never recognised or given enough if indeed any praise for their involvment and time given up for the cause.

[Xeriod]

Hi

there may be more playing T T but there never seems to be enough players wanting to get involved in helping out at a local level with all the other things that need to be done . A lot of players just like to turn up once a week play their game and go home. we do need a bigger proportion of players to get involved with helping out or the game will not go forward for lack of help in running the sport.

xeriod

[DaveR]

Actually i created the Administration area for that reason, i believe you are correct. Having said that i am as guilty as maybe most "players" around, prepared to turn up and play rather than put something back into the sport with a positive contribution, either administration, coaching or some other aspect of the game.

Most players including myself until a later point in their playing career fail to realise how much goes on "behind" the scenes, carrying players to venues, organising matches and so on. The whole sport needs more people involved in the Pheripherals and not just the "hitting of the ball", having said that we must also remember that playing is the purpose and the administration etc is the thing we need as a partnership.

Thats my rant !

ps welcome XERIOD!

[MickM]

Hands up on this one, i have participated in many many matches and various tournaments with little if anything but playing in mind. The genral players in most areas are fairly typical and probably if honest would say the same as myself, strangely enough getting involved at a later stage in playing Table Tennis does appeal more than when you are a young "wannabe" so yes Admin here we go, at some stage.

[JKC]

I am a little concerned what will happen to many of the local leagues over the next 15 to 20 years. There does seem a lack of people willing to take on roles within the leagues locally as well as a lack of youngsters coming through in the area. At 34 I am one of the younger players in the 3 leagues I play in.

[SteveJ]

Your concern is echoed along the whole country with most leagues having the same difficulty, older are not being replaced by young. The local leagues seem to have recognized this and yes most are correcting this, but as we all know this will take time.

I agree with JKC