r vs c
Rcereational vs Competitive Players at Plano Rec. Centers
Less than 10% to 15% players can be considered recreational players. Rest are compettive players ranging from intermediate level (USATT rating over 1300) to advanced level (USATT rating over 1700) with few players expert level (USATT rating over 1900).
The facilities at Liberty Recrtaional & Tom Muehlenbeck are quite good for competitive players with 6 days to play plus also the Carpenter Park & Oak Point. However due to seemingly confusing & conflicting obejctives & priorities of Plano. Rec. Department, Plano rec. is still underachieving .
It seems that Plano Rec. wants to treat tabletennis as an activity of recreational 'game" of basement "ping pong" though 80% to 85% are competitive players.
PlanoTable tennis club did a very good job of staring and organizing the club for 6 days & also running 2 tournaments an year for comeptitive players. I do not know the hostory of Plano TTC from more than before 3 years , so I do not know the full story.
But looking into the future there are lots of opportuinities for competitive players to get better as well turn more recrational players (especially children) into competitive players using the infrastructure that exists with very little changes.
There are tons of chiildren who play basketball who may also want to play tabletennis. if proper guidance & time slots & mentoring are provided. All you would need an additional hour between 5 & 6 PM on 4 weekdays (Tuesdays & Fridays at Liberty & Mondays & Wednesdays at TMRC).
This time slot would be made availabel to coaches who want to provide a combination of free group coaching sessions as well as paid one or one coaching sessions mostly for children first & then for interested adults as well.. The free coaching group sessions would be to attract & identify potential talent. This could also include interested regular competitive players (who play after 6 PM) who are willing to play doubles matches with these chidren as a way of introducing them to teh sport.
Currently there is an issue with recerational players showing up during when competitive player play and most comeptitive players are not comofortable with this. In some ways it is justified because table tennis as a sport is extremely complicated even at the low beginner levels & recreational players have no clue (though most of them are probably very good athletes & can easily make good table table tennis players). On the other hand, there should be some way to accomodate this recreational players if they are willing to play in some organized fashion for at least for 1 hour (5 PM to 6 PM) before competitive players start arriving.
As far as competitive players goes, simply playing practice matches is only a small part of training needed for improvement. Three other items are needed
1. Coaching :- I have discussed this in other pages on this blog as to how it can be done at all 5 places ( TMRC, Liberty, Carpenter & Oak Point & Sam Johnson SC) . The infrastrcuture is already available & very little changes are required & no other administrative over head on the part of Plano Rec. is needed but the only thing that is preventing this from happening is Plano Rec. not treating tabletennis as a formal (Olympic) sport same as other formal competitive sport like swimming, gymnastics & whole host of classes offered by Plano Rec. Teh current one coach model is not very useful (not at all the the fault of the coach) .
2. Multi-ball drills & multi-ball serve training individually or with a partner or with a coach. Infrastructure already is there and very little changes are needed such as some minor rearranging of tables & barriers & other activities, with zero negative imapct on other activities. This could easily happen but again, only if Plano rec. is willing to look at tabletennis as a formal (Olympic) sport. .
3. Weekly league against players mostly cloes to your level. But this is lot of work & i should know as the creator of one of the largest weekly leagues in USA at North Carolina. I would no longer would be interested in doing this but if there is someone else , it is something that can be looked into but this is of lowest priority
3. Doubles is already played a lot at Carpenter Park but under unsafe conditions & is defintely an issue. . Doubles is not possible at other Plano Rec.Centers as well. due to table not being barriered but this is not the biggest issue at
I wrote this blog more than 3 months ago.
After I wrote this, I noticed that the number of recreational players has increased significantly at TMRC, Carpenter & Oak Point & I suspect it will be the same if permanent tables wee available in Liberty (I heard they used to have a permanent table but has been removed since).
One thing I can say about all this is that having
1. Poor setups of tables mixed with other "games"
2. Handing out plastic rackets to recreational players
only confirms my opinion that Plano Rec does not want recreational players turn into competitive players & would like to continue viewing tabletennis as not an Olympic sport but as a silly basemnet "game"
IMO if Plano Rec wants to treat table tennis as a serious sport somewhat similar if not at teh level of swimming etc they would
1. Allow paid one on one training with avaialble coaches in the area being able to regisater with Plano rec. and split the revenue using tables not in the gym area at Oak Point, Carpenter & TMRC & possibly at Liberty & Sam Johnson
2. Create some sort of process where beginners & recrational players can get lessons on one or two of 12 tables at TMRC on Wed or Mon & at liberty on Tuesday & Friday bewteen 5 & 6 PM . I know competitive players will get upset if this suggested but Plano rec should make every effort to manufacture more competitive players from young school children & not the same older players doing the same old same old somewhat mindlessly
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