President's Report

By Sheri Soderberg Pittman

USA Table Tennis is pleased to announce many new USOC and ITTF developments in this month’s association primer series.  Both the USOC and the ITTF are in dynamic phases.  Because of USATT’s level of interaction with our parent bodies, we are gaining more insight into what expectations will be placed on us and ways that we can successfully partner with the USOC and ITTF to accomplish goals that are mutual to all of us.

USOC CEO & “Head Coach” Lloyd Ward

Lloyd Ward made his debut as new CEO a week before he formally assumed his new position when he was introduced at the USOC Board meeting the last weekend in October in Salt Lake City.  I took the opportunity to introduce myself to him and to invite him to attend our upcoming events.  USATT was pleased to welcome him not only to our Board meeting the following weekend, but also to welcome both him and his family to our Nationals.  Before we appeared at the tournament, we spent several hours discussing the game plan of the USOC’s new “Head Coach,” as he likes to be called. 

Lloyd had arrived in Las Vegas fresh off of a week packed with an intense “top-40” staff retreat and a visit to Pompano Beach, Florida to meet with developers interested in creating an Olympic Training Center for 6 sports, including table tennis.  The momentum of the week was an obvious source of inspiration for him and he candidly shared recent developments with us as he began to articulate a new vision for the USOC’s involvement with USATT.

He showed the flip side of the expression he had uttered in Salt Lake City, “You’ve got to believe it to see it,” by beginning to reveal his vision.  He’s clearly a strategist and it’s a relief to know that the USOC will now be teaming with us with more of a stakeholder disposition.  Although the Winter Olympics will take up the first part of 2002, beginning in the second quarter, he’ll start to work his plan with each national governing body (NGB).

In essence, as the head coach of each NGB, he will meet with each of us for a 2-day period to begin transforming each NGB’s strategic plan by following a 5-step process: 1) target setting, 2) fact finding, 3) brainstorming, 4) solution finding and 5) action planning. 

The USOC has five targets: 1) winning medals, 2) developing coaches, 3) enhancing community involvement in the Olympic Movement, 4) adhering to “best practices,” and 5) increasing revenues.  He noted that those five goals parallel very closely the six goals USATT developed in 1999.  The USOC is looking to win the hearts and minds of Americans and its own NGBs.  As Lloyd pointed out, in the past certain NGBs that were not perceived as potential medal winners were sometimes given what amounted to “lip-service” by the USOC.  Complimenting us on our international relations progress, especially with China, and the fact that our sport is a truly lifetime and family-oriented activity, he said that our NGB had other attributes that command his personal attention.  After the Nationals, he sent out letters to the ITTF, the Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA) and the Chinese Olympic Committee in support of our upcoming trip to China for the ITTF Executive Board meeting and CTTA meetings.

ITTF Developments

In China, I met extensively with the ITTF’s Development Officer Glenn Tepper.  He was instrumental in helping to formulate the first-ever North American Continental Agreement.  North America is the only ITTF-recognized continent without a formal organizational structure.  As a result, North America has not received development support enjoyed by the other continents until now.  The plan for 2002 will cover five components: 1) a junior/cadet training camp and selection tournament in Canada for the ITTF Continental Cadet Challenge, 2) a junior training camp prior to the Pan American Youth Championships/U.S. Open, 3) a cadet training camp for qualified players of the World Cadet Challenge in Hungary, 4) a junior training camp prior to the North American Team Championships, and 5) development visits to Bermuda and Greenland.  The agreement also stipulates that the four countries (USA, Canada, Bermuda & Greenland) work together to form a continental federation within the time frame of the 2002-2003 agreement.

I attended the formal ITTF Executive Board and Olympic Commission meetings that were scheduled there as well as met with most other meeting attendees and many of the players to discuss USATT matters.  It’s wonderful to hear that so many of the world’s best players look forward to attending this year’s U.S. Open. 

The ITTF selected the U.S. Open to serve as one of the four legs of a newly-established Junior Pro Tour circuit, which will feature eight male and female participants in the ITTF Pro Tour Finals in 2002.  ITTF President Adham Sharara who, but for icy weather conditions along his itinerary, would have also joined us in Las Vegas at our Nationals, indicated that the ITTF continues to be interested in USATT as a host of the Pro Tour Finals in 2003 or 2004 in conjunction with our Nationals.  The ITTF also announced that it would supplement prize money by $20,000 for the U.S. Open, the Brazil Open and the Egypt Open in 2002, raising the total prize money to $110,000.  Internal USATT tournament strategists are also working on a plan to attract international players to our U.S. Open at all playing levels.

Pan-American Youth Championships

In Tianjin, Miguel Delgado, the Continental Vice President from Latin America, and I continued our discussions about running the first-ever Pan American Youth Championships just prior to this year’s U.S. Open.  Doru Gheorghe and Miguel had already worked out most of the technical logistics related to the competitive format.  Tentatively, the four age groups will be U-13, U-15, U-18 and U-22.  It is now primarily up to our headquarters to secure the final details as relates to economical per diem costs.

Meetings with the Chinese TTA

At the conclusion of the ITTF Pro Tour Finals, USATT’s delegation was excited to start the second phase of our trip in Beijing. 

Aly Salam, who had taken part in an excellent presentation to the ITTF Executive Board regarding a strategic plan to boost the standard and numbers of umpires and referees, was again co-presenting a seminar to Chinese umpires and administering an examination to them. 

Christian and Rong Li Lillieroos and I met with CTTA Vice President Yu Bin to discuss a proposed USATT-CTTA association-to-association plan to promote collegiate programs in the U.S. based on the Texas Wesleyan University template that Christian is developing.  Christian is also chairman of the International Table Tennis Committee for the Disabled, so he also met with Chinese Paralympic Table Tennis representatives to begin discussing the 2008 Paralympic Games, which will be held just after the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.  They were equally impressed with Rong, who has been a Paralympic coach for our team for 10 years.  They requested that she serve as their honorary coach and advisor.

Meanwhile Pam Gerig and Sheila Walker met with several other Chinese NGBs to begin a familiarization process.  Those sports included baseball, field hockey, canoe/kayaking and other water sports as well as roller sports.

Later in the week I met extensively with Yu Bin to discuss other proposed USATT-CTTA activities, including CTTA’s training of selected youth athletes.  Over the past year, our coaches began to identify elite youth players interested in intensive training in China.  We agreed on details to go forward with that plan.  Aly Salam and Sheila Walker, who had also participated in the December meetings with Lloyd Ward, joined the meeting for a discussion of a USATT/CTTA tour concept.  Sheila, who as an 18-year veteran with the USOC had also planned all of the USOC’s Sports Festivals, brought a professional structure to the joint marketing proposal.  Yu Bin stated that the plan had the full backing of the CTTA and suggested that we move forward quickly to consolidate the next level of details. 

The comprehensive plan calls for an estimated eight-city tour of the U.S.  The CTTA will contact former world champions to assist with special exhibitions and coaching seminars.  Current Chinese and American athletes will play matches.  The CTTA will invite business and government officials to participate.   CTTA will also contact Chinese broadcasters; airing of the tour in China would be a major marketing opportunity for U.S. sponsors.  Finally, organizers of the 2008 Olympic Games would also be invited to give a preview of the plans for Beijing.

Now that USATT and CTTA have worked out the preliminary details, Sheila Walker is amending the proposal to reflect CTTA’s input and is working with USATT to move us into the implementation phase.  The next phases involve attracting sponsors and determining which cities to visit.    

USATT’s motives in this joint marketing plan are to secure more sponsorship money and media attention.  Additionally, the tour will enable USATT to focus on developing legacy programs in the participating communities.  Depending on the level of current table tennis activity in the communities, the promotional activities could focus on school programs, coaching development or league and tournament initiatives.  Our featured athletes will benefit from participating in the tour through expanded training and competitive opportunities.

CTTA’s issues and priorities in assisting USATT are to maintain the popularity of table tennis in China, to promote table tennis through friendship and to share revenues realized through joint ventures. 

CTTA and USATT agreed to share other “best practices” methodologies.  Interestingly, a topic that came up both at the ITTF Executive Board meeting and in the CTTA meetings was the issue of English language training opportunities in the U.S. since the ITTF has taken a strong stance on using English as the sport’s designated language. 

I want to thank the CTTA for the special care, including complimentary hospitality in Beijing, that they took of Aly Salam and me and for the outstanding hosts that they are.  The CTTA is truly a world-class national association and we are privileged to work so closely with them.

USATT Committee News

I have recommended and the Board has approved some changes of our committee chairs.  Congratulations to incoming chairs David Roberts (Elite Athletes), Bob Kaminsky (Grassroots/Seniors) and Allen Watson (Tournaments).