Pickleball & Tennis Comparison
Please read the disclaimer page first if you can.
Here we are talking about only in the context of Plano Rec. only though the issue applies to most Recreation Centers worldwide but applies to all Rec. Centers in North America
Also some information on this page may seem redundant but I wanted to explain this differently for emphasis.
One has to also look at this issue of ping pong vs table tennis in the context of other racket spots such as pickleball , tennis etc. & other sports like basketball at Plano Rec Centers
I personally have played basketball for both high school & college. And l came to table tennis after many years in tennis & never reached a level in table tennis that I did in tennis , both in my playing prime. And I think swimming is the best full body exercise though I never fully learned it. I have to say this just to make everyone aware that I have no biases towards one sport over another .
Take a look at the two pictures at the bottom of this page from Plano Parks & Rec. Website. Both pages have only pickleball and tennis. I completely understand these 2 sports have the maximum participants. But table tennis has a large participant population at various Rec Centers.
I could easily make a case for Carpenter Park Rec Center having 3 sessions of table tennis in one of the 2 main gyms or at least many of its larger rooms. Carpenter Park is the most centrally located & this is the most preferred choice for most players but most also do not come because of horrible & dangerous playing conditions in the rec room there
But in all fairness I also understand the unique problem with table tennis. It is a real pain to setup . I have done this for many years and so I know why. Plano Rec. is probably the only place in the world where the Rec. Center staff themselves setup and take down the tables 3 times a week, week after week. From my experience when players had to help setting up the tables , most made it a point of coming late (after the setup is done) and leave early enough (so they do not have to help with taking down the tables) LOL.
Plano Rec. also did a great job of making one night of gym session available at Oak Point Rec Center when TMRC was undergoing renovations. I think Oak Point staff also probably & understandably hated setting up tables. But it turned out that Oak Point was the best setup of all gym setups in Plano Rec centers & quite a few players came there until TMRC opened backup. These players stopped going to Oak Point and I completely understand Oak Point cancelling Thursday nights. But on the other hand it definitely does not justify the Oak Point game room looking like crap when the problem can be fixed in 15 minutes.
Anyway, getting back to the issue of pickleball & tennis compared to table tennis it does looks strange that they would not list table tennis in their two lists below. In all fairness this is the same situation in all Rec. Centers in North America because table tennis is not considered a sport. But I would tend to think Plano Rec would know better because it is available 7 days week in various Rec Centers. One cannot say it is not part of coaching schedule because I am fully aware of the fact that it is listed elsewhere on a separate schedules webpage but I have to wonder why pickleball is listed there as well but table tennis is not listed in the two pictures shown below. Given that it happens to be at least one table tennis coaching session offered.
And I also do not agree with the coaching model offerings for table tennis compared to pickleball and tennis. It just won't work for table tennis. And I think this is also why only 2 or 3 members signup for this (It has nothing to do with the coach. He is a fine coach)
If you look at the demographic distribution of players, 95% of the players who play table tennis at Plano Rec. (even though officially Plano Rec. only offers basement ping pong , based on their philosophy of handing out plastic rackets) are older adults in the 35 and over age group and either Asian (mostly China, India, Korea , Vietnam) or African born (mostly Nigerian). There probably are not even 5% of American born players (white, African-American or Hispanic) .
This does not mean these 5% do not play table tennis. It is indeed a weird situation . One third of these probably think table tennis in not a sport & is just ping pong & is actually too easy to play & waste their time (This is true ping pong can be mastered in an hour or two just like pickleball. But it takes an year or two for even the most talented to get a clue about table tennis since it is (for better or worse ... many say for worse ---- look at pickleball) one of the most complex individual sport there is.
But I have no doubt that the rest of these two thirds of these Plano rec. members (especially children) would definitely love to take up table tennis if it is offered properly. Most of these players actually understand how complex table tennis is and are sort of intimidated and worry about embarrassing themselves trying to play. When you give these people a plastic racket while the rest of the players are playing with $500 rackets , Plano Rec. is only making the situation much worse for these members , most of whom could turn out to be at least competitive table tennis players , if not Olympic athletes)
But Interesting thing about this comparison is that it is perfectly legal for Plano Rec. to have discriminatory policies even if everything else is equal. Because this is a polciy decision and they can include or exclude any sport for any reason or for no reason. Except that one can argue that table tennis and badminton are Asian commie sport now but pickleabll is an All American sport and tennis is a European sport though both table tennis and badminton originated from England as well LOL
My point here is that Plano Rec. could be more supportive of table tennis if not as much as pickleball & tennis and also even generate income. I can go into details of how this can be done but that would be a waste of time since I doubt very much that they would be interetsed in that
But if Plano Rec. wants to treat table tennis somewhat similar to pickleball or tennis, should definitely use various registered coaches at all 5 Rec Centers (TMRC,Liberty,Oak Point,Carpenter & SJRC) to offer free orientation & free group coaching sessions by many available registered coaches every few weeks as a pathway to finding students for paid group coaching or paid individual coaching.
Because non-Asian members of Plano Rec. (especially children) who may partialy know what table tennis is but are very interested, would stil NOT be interested in taking paid initial classes in table tennis at Plano Rec. centers. You can see that from only 2 or 3 students in the table tennis calss offered by Plano Rec. The problem is not the coach (he is a fully capable coach). the problem is the coaching model. Such coaching modlel may work great for well know activities like swimming or basketball etc but it is a useless model for attracting new students and posibly finding talent in table tennis.Table tennis is a sport with very high drop out rates because everyone comes in assuming they can learn it in a few sessions like pickleball (is disgned for) , but quickly leaave once they find out how conplex real sport of table tennis is. But all such Asian students (especially children) already know what table tennis is will go to many professional table tennis centers that have popped up recentlly in Plano & nearby cities.
Table tennis is not shown in both the webpages of Plano Rec. below
