Our annual youth tournament is now over and it was a great to see the enthusiasm in our table tennis community's youth. Many thanks to our participants, their families, and our volunteers for putting on another great event. More details are coming soon but for now here are the main results:

Doubles-
1) Neo Wang/Ajitesh Parthasarathy
2) Sidd Vadlamani/Maxim Gao
3) Albert Chen/Nicholas Wong
4) Richard Liu/Owen Graves
Girls Singles-
1) Emily Mu
2) Mit Vaughan
3) Weiran Jiang
4) Kathryn Pua
Co-Ed Singles Division A-
1) Ajitesh Parthasarathy 
2) Albert Chen
3) Sidd Vadlamani 
4) Neo Wang
Co-Ed Singles Division B-
1) Arjun Bellamkonnda 
2) Jimmy DiSorbo
3) Maxim Gao
4) Brandon Hicks
Co-Ed Singles Division C-
1) Jason Wang
2) Joseph Asfouri
3) Cael Dye
4) Aadhithya Kannan

Another Austin Table Tennis Tournament has come and gone. Congratulations to our winners and many thanks to all our participants and volunteers! We had 79 singles entries, the most of any Austin tournament, and as a result this was our most profitable tournament ever! Our mostly Texas players were joined by players from as far as New Mexico, Arkansas, Mississippi, and California. Winners took home $1,425 in total prizes.

2014 Austin Summer Open Tournament Results:
1) Under 16 Junior Event
Winner: Tianming Xie Runner up: Anna Subonj
2) Over 55 Senior Event
Winner: Kym Stasinowsky Runner up: Manny Velazquez
3) Under 1150 Event
Winner: Ajitesh Parthasarathy Runner up: Ryan Marchese
4) Under 1400 Event
Winner: Rusty Carter Runner up: Dan Stack
5) Under 1650 Event
Winner: Allen Kurapati ($60) Runner up: Shelby Barone ($40)
6) Under 1900 Event
Winner: Don Jackson ($80) Runner up: Justin Chen ($60)
7) Under 2150 Event
Winner: Sina Asadallahi ($100) Runner up: Kenny Bui ($80)
8) Open Singles Event
Winner: Cheng Li ($300) Runner up: Jim Butler ($225)
Third Place: Victor Subonj ($175) Fourth Place: Mark Hazinski ($125)
9) Under 3700 Doubles Event
Winners: Jeff Xiao & Rony Joy ($100)
Runners up: Victor and Christina Subonj ($80)


A note to the volunteers by Marguerite:

Thanks to all club members who helped to make this one of the most profitable tournaments in the history of this club. Thank you to Chihiro Legris, Cynthia Roberts, Terri Rose, and Jun Hua Lu for helping me clean and sweep the whole facility; Chihiro for cleaning the playing tables and upstairs area; Ross Bee for making the hallway transition pieces under the carpet for the handicapped access; Kil Yim for taking the tournament photos all day long; Dwight Bawcom, Jim Story, and XiaoYan Dai for taking care of the sign in desk; Brian Doherty for the award certificates desinging and printing; Kip Iwakiri, Ash Idnani, and Mike Lauro from Little Rock, Arkansas for the parking patrol; Brandon Gardner and Mike Lauro for the after tournament cleaning; Rick Mueller, Ash and Kip for the facility general duty; and of course a huge thank you to Conrad Song who barely arrived the night before for doing a fabulous job again on the tournament draws and running the tournament...

We saw a great many big name players this time at our facility which made the playing even more exciting to watch. Our new floor certainly got lots of positive compliments from all out of town players also.
Hope they will keep coming back to play in our tournaments in the future...

Congratulations to our Austin Coaches Yang Yu and Marguerite Cheung who just became ITTF Level 1 Coaching Course Instructors! Austin can now train new ITTF certified coaches with our local coaching talent instead of importing a coaching instructor from somewhere else. This adds to the already impressive Table Tennis credentials for these two individuals and is an investment in the level and popularity of Table Tennis we enjoy here in Austin.

Click here to see the ITTF article. n.

As we begin our second week of "new" league. I think we can say that the first week went fairly well. The club was fairly full Tuesday/Wed/Thursday but not to the point of the overcrowding we were seeing before the changes.

We had approximately these numbers last week:
Tuesday: 21 players
Wednesday: 16 players
Thursday: 24 players

The feedback I got was largely positive but I think we learned a few lessons:

1. You can lead a player to Google Groups, but you can't make them drink: Our new League Google Group that replaces our email list has been a mixed success in its first week. The old email list is now abandoned and all prior list members all received an invitation to join the new group which now features discussion forums and self-management options to control the email flow. Roughly 60% of the old list has accepted their invitation and the rest have one day left before the invitation expires. After that, users will have to request to join but I'll readily accept if you are a league player. Adoption rates among gmail users has been fairly high but those who were not using google before are clearly reluctant to get involved. I hope those of you that HAVE made the switch can help talk it up to your fellow players. I am also willing to help if there are any difficulties in getting adjusted to the new system. You CAN keep using your old non-google email, it's just a little trickier to make it work.
   
2. Two consecutive league nights can be hard on the body: I have heard a few times already from those that play two league nights that it can be pretty tough to be physically recovered for two league nights now that Wednesday is their "second" league night. To this I say, I hear you but there's not much we can do unless we get a Monday or weekend league session off the ground. It may also be time to take a page out of Phil's book and do some cross training to improve your general level of fitness.
3. Most people really can follow the rules: Almost all of you called in or arrived by 7pm for league and I applaud you. We had a few late entries, those folks were educated, and I think we can afford to let it slide just once for those that really didn't know. Also, it IS still possible to join league late, but you have to wait until someone from the starting line-up stops for the day. When in doubt, call in your entry! If you sign-up in person, please do so at the roster pages on the white tables.
   
4. Draws are easier when people are on the roster: As I took over much of the league draw sheet duty from Rick for the first time this week, I noticed how it can be really easy sometimes and really hard at other times. Thursday was rather hard as many of the players did not have ratings and were not on our Roster. This has made my overall league roster philosophy change toward allowing anyone that plays in league to get a rating. Very few of our non-roster players were true first-timers. It was just that we did not have enough information on them to know for sure if they would come back or not. I have decided we will now add EVERYONE to the roster and I think that will actually make things easier for everyone involved. Click HERE to see how the new roster looks. We added about 10 new people, mostly in the 1100 and below demographic. Hopefully this helps encourage our new players to stick with it and see their rise through the ranks.

The Austin Table Tennis Annual General Meeting was held on 5/29/2014 at 7pm with approximately 25 people in attendance. Below is a summary of meeting discussion as recorded by Marguerite (and paraphrased by Roderick).

1) Rick announced that all current officers are continuing with their current posts. There were no candidates to run against them so they continued without an election.

2) Dwight gave a financial overview of the club. In summary, the club's is making a net income from month to month that has been increasing over the past year. This increase is driven largely by increases in monthly dues as well as other programs throughout the club. The club spent about 1/3 of its cash reserves on the new floor and there was some debate about adding a further epoxy coat to the floor at a later date.

3) Yang spoke about the various coaching programs at the club. We have a Junior program that is bringing Table Tennis to some local school districts, youth camps, annual youth tournament, many adult level training options, and free coaching. 

Yang is very passionate about promoting table tennis and it is bringing a lot more members to the club. His Monday night free coaching has been showing results by bringing in many new people and helping folks who otherwise would not be able to afford to try out quality coaching. 

Yang will hold table-tennis-related lectures and clinics in the future on various topics of interest to public.
High level youth development preparations are being made for when a very talented student is found. He is looking for business partnership to help sponsor talented youth. Support from the board and Marguerite is great so far.

4)  The floor improvement project went very well and is a vast improvement. Lots of volunteer helped get it done rather quickly. It was agreed that the club will likely want to add more epoxy to the floor but it was decided to wait at least a few weeks before doing this. There was a lot of spirited debate regarding using red colored epoxy for the additional layers versus more clear coats. There will likely be a vote in the near future where all qualified voting members of the club will be invited to help decide on this issue.

5) Roderick and Rick are working on a revamped league program with Roderick taking over for Rick as the new league director. Full details on league page of club website. USATT Railstation changes in coming months might affect league in the future.

6) Joel H talks about players playing with better players often so lower players can improve and was willing to help organize this. Club will publicize Joel's idea once he has a solution to present.

7) Tuan brought up three man team league and possibility of a rotating special program such as that which brings more excitement. We still need a volunteer to spearhead this. Roderick may set up the next team league once current one ends.

8) League related feedback form is available on our website. It goes straight to league director (Roderick) and is important for keeping the league relevant to its members.

9) There was a reminder that our bylaws allow members to petition the board to make some change in the club.

10) The beginning of the league night should allow some time for members to voice their concerns

11) Some sort of blog/forum for members to talk about feedback and suggestions and whatnot is desired.

12) Phil is working on a Google group that should help with the desire to have a forum.

13) Thursday night is more for beginners and there was a desire for a more just-for-fun sociable event at the club versus competitive league.

14) Challenge system could use improvement. For now members encouraged to make friends and find practice partners with their own efforts...

15) South Austin club expansion location is a future possibility

The 2014 Austin Spring Classic Giant Round Robin Tournament brought 73 players from all over Texas, as well as Oklahoma, Michigan, Mexico, and Finland! Participants battled to take home cash prizes totaling $1420. Our very own head coach Yang Yu represented us in the Division A Finals but was overcome by 2014 US National Team member Jim Butler who is no stranger to Austin tournaments. 

Result Details:

Division A: 1) Jim Butler ($350)              2) Yang Yu ($250)
                  3) Roberto Byles ($175)       4) Sina Asadallahi ($125)

Division B: 1) Tom Fleshman ($100)       2) Danya Budiman ($90)
                  3) Gustovo Martinez ($80)    4) Lipeng Zhang ($70)

Division C: 1) Isai Melendez ($60)          2) Nosh Mody ($50)
                  3) Rony a Joy ($40)              4) Nicolae Tomescu ($30)

Division D: 1) Dean Ginther                   2) Yi Zhou
                  3) Manny Velasquez            4) Roderick Medina

Division E: 1) Edward Banner               2) Lewis Pierce
                  3) David Gradinaru             4) Percy Wang

Division F: 1) Christian Barrera            2) Vaibhav Gupta
                  3) Ajitesh Parthasarathy    4) Jesse Riedel
*Division D through F top four finishers are rewarded with trophy plaques

Overall we had a great tournament which would not have been possible without our club's healthy volunteer community that worked tirelessly to ensure a successful event. 

We experimented with catered lunch service and will be exploring that option more in the future. I myself suffered a bit due to the lack of food but not because I was hungry. A nameless Rodent of Unusual Size appropriated a bag of cookies that I had brought to the tournament and left next to my TT bag. I later spotted the (now empty) bag upstairs by the TV. I suppose that should serve as a reminder to always carry extra snacks and not leave them in plain sight. All in all, I hope some hunger was averted through my loss!

Below are some photos from the event (thanks Cesar!) and a video of the Division A Finals. Coach Yang had quite a crowd of supporters including many of his students. Though it was ultimately his loss, he still put up a level of play unequaled in Austin, and certainly remained more than qualified to be our head coach.

Congratulations to all the winners and many thanks to everyone involved!

- Roderick

ATTC is partnering with the UT Informal Classes program to offer a Table Tennis class. The course is targeted toward beginner and intermediate players and we are confident that students will increase their TT skills and have fun doing it!

Click here for Course Description

The club is excited to reach out to the UT Informal Classes community and look forward to helping promote our sport to a new group of people.

Click here for coach profiles

The class will meet from 10:00 AM-11:30 AM on Saturday mornings from May 3 to June 14  (skipping 5/24) for a total of 6 sessions. If you know anyone who could use a little more table tennis in their life, please encourage them to sign up!

ATTC is supporting coach Yang's effort to help raise funds for UT Table Tennis Teams in their quest to attend the National Collegiate Championship coming up next month.Please register for the following one-time only special training sessions that coach Yang is offering.Please contact coach Yang through email or call ATTC office at 512-491-7664 during club hours.

Playing Level: Intermediate or advanced
Fee: $25 for monthly members/$30 for non members per person
Training Hours : 10 - 12pm
Date: Sunday, March 23rd, 2014
Limit to first 8 players to register
    10-10:45am               How to develop a good serve and receiving side-spin serve;
    10:45-11:30am          How to play agaist pips;
    11:30-12:00am          Questions Time
 
Playing Level: Beginners
Fee: $25 for monthly members/$30 for non members per person
Training Hours : 10 - 12pm
Date: Sunday, March 30, 2014
Limit to first 8 players to register
    10-10:45am               Basic Techniques including forehand&backhand drive, push;
    10:45-11:30am          Judging spin of opponent's serve and receiving
    11:30-12:00am          Questions Time 
 
In addition, ATTC will waive the $10 facility admission fee for this program and all proceeds will be donated to UT Table Tennis Teams fund raise efforts.
 
Marguerite Cheung
ATTC


Dear Marguerite and ATTC Board Members,

As some of you already know, the Texas Table Tennis Coed team and Women's team, along with two singles players (Cole Ryberg and Judy Chen) have all made it to the NCTTA nationals!!! This is quite an accomplishment since only about 25 teams from universities across the nation are selected each year to participate in this event. While all of us are extremely excited about this advancement, the cost of the event rains on our joy. Due to our limited funding and financial support from UT RecSports as well as a dramatic increase in cost of the tournament hotel and registration fees, the financial burden of the club is falling on out members.

At the beginning of the school year, we received $1050 from the university as funding for our club. Over the course of the semester, we have raised over $2000 by ourselves, whether it was through fundraising activities or membership dues. However, in spite of these initiatives, we can barely cover the hotel and tournament registration fees. The cost of travel, hotels, and tournament fees from previous events (Fall and Spring Divisionals and Atlanta Regionals) have left us with a meagre amount of funds for our biggest tournament of the year. As part of NCTTA's new policy this year, they are requiring us to stay at the tournament hotel (Doubletree - Monroeville-Pittsburg) which costs $109/night, if we don't,  there is a penalty of $75/person. The registration fee have also increased significantly from the past, rising from $350 to $635 for both teams and both singles. All of these costs are extra weight that the club cannot carry.

Currently, each member of the team needs to pay around $410 for this trip. That is over $3000 in total. I ask you to think back to the days of when you were in college and the difficulties you encountered when trying to pay for college tuition and other additional costs. As college students, this is a tremendous amount of money that is coming straight out of our pocket if not from loans. It is my wish to have all of the Texas Table Tennis team members to experience  table tennis tournaments at the national level. This is a chance for them to watch professional matches in person and to expand their knowledge of the sport. This is part of the college experience that is hard to come by once you enter the real world. For someone who has been to nationals for the first two years of my college career,  I understand just how important tournaments such as this are to developing players. I don't want anyone to miss out on this event, and especially not due to financial reasons. Therefore, I and the entire Texas Table Tennis team ask you for any amount of donation that you can afford. Our goal is to raise $2000 by the end of the school year to reimburse the team members. No amount is too little and no amount is too much. We thank you for your generosity and the time it took for you to read through this e-mail.

I have attached a detailed copy of our financial report. For more information about how to donate online, please see the attached documents.

Sincerely,
Judy Chen & Cole Ryberg
Co-Presidents
Texas Table Tennis

 ITTF level 2 Course will be held in Austin Table Tennis Club on August 2014. For more detail information, please down the brochure.

Brochure of Level 2 Course (.DOC file )