PowerPong: 
Attila Malek's Professional Junior Training Center

By Alan Williams
Photo copyright 2000 by John Oros

PowerPong is a ground-breaking new concept on the USATT club scene. Coach Attila Malek has a vision of a nation-wide network of Professional Training Centers, leading to college scholarships for Junior players.

Located in Newport Beach, CA, PowerPong has eight new Butterfly tables in 3000 square feet, a video camcorder, three Newgy Robots and a TTMatic machine. More importantly, Attila has enrolled 33 Juniors in the program. The average training fee is $100 per month. "Kids, and especially parents, need to see that there is a future in this sport," Malek asserts. So this program gives the youngster a way to say ‘Look! This could lead to scholarship money, and even a National Championship.’"

Attila sees a day when regional Junior tournament winners can be awarded $20,000 scholarships, and if others in the country follow his lead, a National $100,000 scholarship prize. His goal is to have 80 students enrolled in PowerPong by summer of 2001. "That’s at least $100,000 a year," Malek points out. "When parents know that we are providing benefits to kids, they are more willing to invest the attention and money it requires to fund Junior Development."

Malek recruits his students through in-school fliers and classes he teaches at local colleges in the Orange County area. Once the program started, in March 2000, referrals began to pour in. More importantly, his methods work, with his students consistently winning trophies, 13 of them at the recent Lake Havasu event.

Attila’s program includes free weights and jumping rope for conditioning, and a camcorder to record practice sessions. "Drills are extremely important," Coach Malek states. No one is more qualified to make that statement.

Attila was born in Gyongyos, Hungary and began playing recreationally at age five. "We used to push tables together in the cafeteria at school to make a table," he remembers. But at the relatively late age of 15 he encountered group training and coaching at the hands of Coach Poprocsi. "I did not think that it was helping much," he recalls, "but when my friends and I played at a tournament, it was obvious that we had improved … a lot!"

In 1978 Attila came to the U.S., appearing in Michigan where he met Dell Sweeris. By 1979, he was the U.S. National Champion. "In 23 years, I have seen little progress in Elite Development in the U.S. This is a program that works! It is nearly impossible to do development properly from the top of the organization down. If other coaches will emulate and join me in staging Regional and National tournaments, and in raising these scholarships, we can make it work!"

Attila encourages Coaches and Club Directors to contact him at 949-548-0929 (PowerPong) or by e-mail at attm777@yahoo.com, and to view his website at www.powerpong.org. "Together, we can do this!"