Hello from ITTF President

[TJRemington]

Hello Adham,

would you like to tell us readers how high your playing level is, what kind of "career" you followed as an active player, and how you - as a
canadian :-) - achieved to become president?
Btw, my canadian friends always smile when they hear about this fact.
I think they find it funny bc tt probably plays no role at all in Canada and only like Ice hockey.
How would you assess the future potential of tt in North America?

Thx
Cheers, Till

[adham]

Zitat von TJRemington

Hello Adham,

would you like to tell us readers how high your playing level is, what kind of "career" you followed as an active player, and how you - as a
canadian :-) - achieved to become president?
Btw, my canadian friends always smile when they hear about this fact.
I think they find it funny bc tt probably plays no role at all in Canada and only like Ice hockey.
How would you assess the future potential of tt in North America?

Thx
Cheers, Till

I was Canadian Junior Champion (U-17), then a member of the Canadian National team briefly (1973-75), I was ranked in the top 10 in Canada for about 8 years or so. I was coached by Sido (Hungary), Cordas (Croatia) and a couple of Canadian Coaches. But I myself was very interested in coaching and started coaching when I was 16 years old. At 20 I was the women's national team coach to the World Championships in Sarajevo (1973). I attended every World Championships since then as a national coach, team leader or ITTF official. Internationally, I did not play at a high level. I played in US Open many times, US Open Team Matches (my team won in 1978 circa), French Open, Japan, and Commonwealth Championships.

I was elected as the ITTF Vice President for North America in 1989. This was my first official introduction to the ITTF structure. I served for 4 years. I was out of ITTF in 1993 for 2 years (disagreement with President about reversal of Glue Ban and change of Eligibility rule which was made retroactive). I came back in 1995 and ran for President, but I decided not to run against Mr. Lollo Hammurlund because of my great respect for him. Instead, I was elected as Vice President. in 1997 I was elected as Deputy president, and in 1999 I was elected president of the ITTF. Why a Canadian? I do not think that nationality mattered, by then I was well known inside the ITTF, I can speak several languages, and I have good diplomatic skills. But most of all, I am a table tennis enthusiast: player, coach, club president, umpire, official and lover of the game. I also understand cultures and believe in democracy. Perhaps the Europeans did not want to elect an Asian, and perhaps the Asians did not want to elect a European. So, I was a good alternative. I was re-elected in 2001, 2003 and 2005 (new 4-year term). The next election is in 2009 (Japan).
recently a voting poll was run on another Forum and I got 20% of the votes in favour and 80% against me. I am glad that the Forum election does not count.

Your Canadian friends smile, because all Canadians smile. We are a polite and shy people. But you are right, in Canada there is only one sport: Ice Hockey. Table Tennis in Canada is more of a recreation sport, but the Canadian TTA works hard to develop the sport the best they can.

Adham

[TJRemington]

Hi Adham,

thanks for posting your impressive cv!
I didn't know that you already went through so many career stages
as an active player as well as at the ITTF. Good to know that we have
a very experienced boss, you'll get my vote for sure.

Is there any American or Canadian player you really think could make it to the top in the coming years? Zhang Mo perhaps?

Till

[Noppenkünstler]

Very detailled cv
By the way what is about the changes the ITTF is actually thinking about? I heard of a 42mm ball and a higher net. Does the ITTF also plan any new changes about rubbers after you have forbidden to reglue rubbers or to use frictionless pimples? Some people say that there might be changes about "Tensor" rubbers or long pimples and antitopspin-rubbers. Is that true?

With best regards,

Christian

P.S. Sorry for my bad english

[adham]

Zitat von TJRemington

Hi Adham,

thanks for posting your impressive cv!
I didn't know that you already went through so many career stages
as an active player as well as at the ITTF. Good to know that we have
a very experienced boss, you'll get my vote for sure.

Is there any American or Canadian player you really think could make it to the top in the coming years? Zhang Mo perhaps?

Till

Yes Zhang Mo is very good. She is laying in a club in Europe now. TT in North America is not well developed as a top sport, as you may know, here the professional sports dominate, like American Football, Baseball and Basketball in the USA; and Ice Hockey in Canada. However, there is a well organized, but small, TT activity with tournaments all over the USA and Canada. The problem is that most coaches are volunteers or amateurs giving their own time or very low paid. Almost all players are not professional and do not have the time (students or workers) to dedicate their efforts full-time to TT. However, there are a few good players that came along, some born in North America and others were immigrants from China or other countries. The home-grown: Danny Seemiller, Eric Boggan, Sean O'Neil, Joe Ng, Mariann Domonkos, etc. And those that came from other countries are many: Johnny Huang, Lijuan Geng, Gao Jun, etc. For the future there are a few good young players like you mentioned Zhang Mo from Canada and Ariel Hsing from USA.

Adham

[adham]

Zitat von Noppenkünstler

Very detailled cv
By the way what is about the changes the ITTF is actually thinking about? I heard of a 42mm ball and a higher net. Does the ITTF also plan any new changes about rubbers after you have forbidden to reglue rubbers or to use frictionless pimples? Some people say that there might be changes about "Tensor" rubbers or long pimples and antitopspin-rubbers. Is that true?

With best regards,

Christian

P.S. Sorry for my bad english

42mm ball: No plan at the moment. However, if a proposal is made and if accepted, then we must have some research, then some experiments, then some results analyzed and then put to the vote at the Annual general meeting of the ITTF. So this process may take 2-3 years. To change from 38 to 40 mm took 5 years.

Higher Net: The chairman of the ITTF Athletes Commission, Zoran Primorac, favours a higher net. Also the Swiss TTA may make such a proposal. Again, we would need research, analysis, experiments, etc., and then a vote. For the moment we have not received a proposal yet.

Rubbers, Tensor, anti-spin, etc: No plans at the moment.

Adham

[jimih1981]

the problem is that young player expect other things than old players. i like the game because its so various and fast. other player would like to see much rallys and i like it too. i like too a use also high ball defense to make a point but i prefer to make the point so fast i can. maybe its a problem of the short sets set you need to make the point and you have not so much time to start in the match, but i like this the short sets. coz you have more chance to bet a player who is little bit better and it's more exiting coz you have more decision points.

maybe the rallys are longer when we get a higher net, but i think the game is than more difficult for both for offense and defense players. maybe we see more faults i don't know it could be. i think we have not to change any other things i think it was enough. the problem to get more public interest is that table tennis is very complicate for the people which don't play tt. the see so much "easy fault" but they don't know why, they have no idea of various spins. we have to explain some things in television before the television stations show a tournament like wm, em or olympia. i think i wouldn't take any effect when we change any other things in our sport.

[The albatross]

Hi Adham,

I follow the news on the ITTF website concerning development events especially in Central America. As it is communicated it seems to me rather like individual support and incentives. I wonder if the national federations are prepared to really get the best benefit out of it.

Based on feedback from players and coaches across Latin America I know that the available ressources, both human and financial, are generally not abundant, but very different from one country to another.
What is the ITTF doing to support the countries, especially small ones, in creating sustainable development for TT in their country and exploring ways to obtain a better political presence for their national federation?
Maybe you could give some background about the broader concept and strategy of the development programme.

Most of the people think that popular sports are more or less defined forever at least on country level.
Just to give one example, this year Panama won the first Olympic gold medal in its history through Irving Saladino in long jump. A few years back almost nobody in Panama was aware that this sports exists, today Saladino is probably better known than the president of the republic and the day he returned from Beijing was declared national holiday.
This just to underline the potential in smaller countries.

Rene

[adham]

Zitat von The albatross

Hi Adham,

I follow the news on the ITTF website concerning development events especially in Central America. As it is communicated it seems to me rather like individual support and incentives. I wonder if the national federations are prepared to really get the best benefit out of it.

Based on feedback from players and coaches across Latin America I know that the available ressources, both human and financial, are generally not abundant, but very different from one country to another.
What is the ITTF doing to support the countries, especially small ones, in creating sustainable development for TT in their country and exploring ways to obtain a better political presence for their national federation?
Maybe you could give some background about the broader concept and strategy of the development programme.

Most of the people think that popular sports are more or less defined forever at least on country level.
Just to give one example, this year Panama won the first Olympic gold medal in its history through Irving Saladino in long jump. A few years back almost nobody in Panama was aware that this sports exists, today Saladino is probably better known than the president of the republic and the day he returned from Beijing was declared national holiday.
This just to underline the potential in smaller countries.

Rene

This is a very good example. Also at the World Junior Championships which just finished yesterday there were big surprises from players from Iran and Egypt. In November a player from Latin America did great at the World Cadet Challenge. So all is possible.

We help TT developing associations by providing the following in terms of both financial and human resources assistance:
- Equipment assistance
- Teaching coaches (Coaching education courses)
- Coaching Course Conductors courses
- Umpire Courses
- Olympic Solidarity courses
- Women in sport courses
- Training camps for top juniors
- scholarships to top and promising juniors.

We also have a programme that addresses your concern. Together with Olympic Solidarity (IOC) there is a special project called "Developing a National Sport Structure". ITTF has been lucky to receive funds to implement this project (usually from 3 to 6 months) in several developing associations.

For the benefit of other readers: You can see all the details of the ITTF's development programme on our website (www.ittf.com) under the section "Development"

[adham]

Service:

By the way, if you are faulted for a bad service, always ask the Umpire "why", so that you can adjust. I see so many players being faulted, they do not ask why (they assume), and they get faullted again and lose their temper. Most umpires after they fault a player for a bad service will make some kind of a gesture to show why the player was faulted, or if they speak the same language they will offer an explanation. But many umpires don't say anything (they are not obliged to offer any explanation) in fear of starting a debate or an argument. In these cases, the player should ask very politely and calmly "What did I do wrong?". The umpire for sure will provide the reason for the faulty service and then the player can adjust and not lose any more valuable points on service faults.

It really irritates me to see sometimes top players repeatedly being faulted, rightly so, and never asking what is wrong with their service !

Just a tip. Hope it is helpful.