Interview with USA National Team Coaches on Developing the USA National Team

By Larry Hodges
Coaches Interviewed: Dan Seemiller, Doru Gheorghe, Masaaki Tajima, Lily Yip, Sean O’Neill and Emilia Gheorghe

Dan Seemiller: U.S. Men’s Coach, U.S. Men’s Olympic Coach (Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004), South Bend Junior Coach, 5-time U.S. Men’s Singles Champion., 11-time U.S. Men’s Doubles Champion, 7-time U.S. Mixed Doubles Champion. 

What, in your opinion, is needed for the USA Team to someday compete with the best teams in the world?

USATT is doing a good job by funding the Cadet and Junior teams and making their progress a priority. The Cadet and Junior trials at Las Vegas have been a big step forward. The training, coaching and travel support that USATT provides has put us on the right track.

We need a National Training Center where all of the USATT’s camps can be held. This center should also be available year round for training for any U.S. Team Member. Every top country has a NTC – we need one as soon as possible.

Secondly, there needs to be more prize money in our tournaments and opportunities to make a living for the U.S.’s best. Players in Europe and Asia are full-time players who make a good income from the sport. In the U.S. we only have Gao Jun and Jasna Reed on the Women’s side and Mark Hazinski and Barney Reed on the Men’s. Some countries have 15-20 full-time professional players participating in leagues and the Pro Tour. It is almost impossible for part-time players to compete at the international level against these professionals.

Third, we need to focus on a tour for U.S. residents only. This is controversial as many believe that we need to invite these foreign players to our tourneys to help improve our level. The bottom line is our top players need to earn a respectable income so they can concentrate fully on training.

Given USATT’s limited resources, what do you think the priorities should be at this time so that the USA Team can someday become among the best in the world?

Traveling overseas to train in Europe or Asia is extremely expensive and considering our limited funds just won’t work. We need to put our time and resources into a National Training Center. Not just any center, but one of the world’s best. Let’s concentrate on domestic training opportunities for all national teams, especially youth teams. A sponsor(s) needs to be found and plenty of groundwork would have to be done. But without a well utilized National Center we can’t even discuss the next step.

For USA players, how would you compare overseas training in Asia (generally more intense training) versus Europe (generally more competitions such as leagues)?

They are both excellent options. If a player can find a team to play for then I would say Europe is better. Training hard and playing many tournaments or league matches is essential to improve your game. In Asia the training is more intense and there are many high-level practice partners. During my career I played in the German Bundesliga and also trained in Japan and both were beneficial in different ways.

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