TMRC Signup Boards & safety issuesPlease read the disclaimer page first if you can.
Before I proceed let me also make something very clear. This whole issue about signup boards seems like a super trivial & silly issue & looks like I am making a big deal out of it for no reason. Yes I agree, it does seem that way because in fact we NOT even need signup boards at all. We need signup boards only if there is a queue of like 4 or 5 players for each table. In my 50 years in this sport worldwide, I have only seen one place like that & there may be few others but TMRC is not one of them. If everyone is respectful of other players we do not need this silly stuff like signup boards at all. All that a player next in line has to do, is make sure one of the 2 players currently playing will stay to play you & make aware of both players you are next. That is it. But that sounds great in theory but unfortunately it is pure theory. Many a time I have seen players at a given table blatantly lie that you never told them because they prefer NOT play you, may be because you suck (or worse, like you use pips rubber LOL) So, this whole writeup is with the assumption that you do need a signup board to avoid problems like this. But I am harping on this so much only because of safety concerns to this issue . I will explain this later here The comments below apply only to TMRC & not elsewhere like Liberty Rec. Center etc.` There are 2 issues at TMRC: 1. Removal of boards after each session I will explore each issue below & suggest a solution if TMRC may be interested. 1. Removal of signup boards after each sessionI asked TMRC as to why they have to remove the table tennis / badminton / pickleball signup boards every time and I was told that kids write nonsense on the boards during times when these boards are not used such as during basketball. Anyway, even the two boards for table tennis have to be removed every time, it is double the work for the TMRC staff to setup 2 boards every time. I am trying to make it easier for Plano Rec staff by just setting up one signup board for all tables. It also makes sense to me why the staff have to remove the boards after each session. If kids are writing nonsense on the board, I am reasonably sure it is ONLY because you left the markers there. If you remove the markers , I do not see any reason why you have to remove the signup boards themselves, which is TOTALLY unnecessary unless I am missing some other very good reason. There are also many related problems with removing the entire signup board. I am not at all blaming the setup staff because this seems like a problem that manifested on its own but when new staff does the table tennis (or badminton) setup, they seem to forget to setup the boards... Even if they do setup the boards, they often forget the marker & eraser. All these issues can be avoided if you just leave the signup board there & just take ONLY the marker & eraser to the front desk after each session. If you leave them in the storage room with the signup boards & forget to bring it out next time, then every time you have to bring it out, the staff have to leave the front desk to come to the storage room for something as trivial as this. Why? If you keep them at the front desk & forgot to bring them out, someone from badminton or table tennis can just walk up to the front desk & pick up the marker and eraser. This way the staff do not have to leave the front desk for this. I do not know if I am missing something, like there is some other valid reason to have to remove the signup boards after every session. Again, kids writing nonsense IMO is not a valid reason at all... I KNOW for sure they have cameras at the front desk & possibly recordings. If someone writes something totally offensive & inappropriate they can be identified & suspended & then expelled permanently if they do it again. But again, this happened probably ONLY because the markers were left out & NOT because the boards themselves were left out. Also, if you are leaving yellow stickers on each table about a $1000 fine for moving tables, I am sure you can think of some way of warning members not to abuse the signup boards LOL! By the way, I also noticed that the signup board on the pickleball & badminton side of the gym is sometimes not removed. So it makes no sense just to remove the table tennis signup board only......because they play basketball on both sides of the gym unless only the players who play basketball on the table tennis side write inappropriate thing on the signup board but basketball players using teh other half of gym do not write anything inappropriate. This is kind of hilarious to me unless I am missing something about this anomaly 2. Number of signup boards neededAgain, please note that I am only talking about TMRC & NOT other rec centers like Liberty Rec. You may have needed 2 signup boards after COVID for a year afterwards but it is not all needed now. One signup board for all 12 tables is more than sufficient. But the primary reason I suggest is to reduce the totally unwarranted foot traffic back and forth along the back and side walls, increasing the risk of collisions & injury between players actually playing on the tables & players & families (especially small children) wandering back and forth to "analyze" both signup boards before signing up. Another advantage of just one signup board is that a player can see the full picture for all 12 tables at one place before deciding on a table. This also prevents a player from signing up on more than one table at a time (which if I am not mistaken is against signup protocol). The risk of injury & collisions doubles if there is only one signup board for all 12 tables but if the only signup board is hung on the far wall. Why ? Instead of noone walking back and forth in the case of the board being near the entrance, now 12 players could be walking back and forth against the far wall sacred & holy land. Even at my age I still keep crashing into the back wall however hard I resist not to do that as it is a 50-year-old habit LOL. This is a very difficult to visualize for even 75% players in a typical club as they never backup to the sacred holy land . So, I do not blame the Plano Rec. Center staff at all if they cannot visualize this.This problem of injury risk doubling with the signup board on the far wall is an accidental discovery but it clearly highlights how there is risk of injury if 2 signup boards are used even if it is half the risk. But by using only one signup board near the entrance to the gym, completely eliminates this half risk as well I can mostly understand Rec. Center staff or even management not being able to visualize what I am talking about here in this webpage & many other webpages on this website ttPlano.com , given that table tennis is not considered a sport in North America but is just a silly game where you just stand very close to the table like in your basement. But I have difficulty understanding other players, especially even those players who use the sacred holy land themselves, not being able to visualize this
The risk of injury & collisions is also why 1. there should not be people / players hanging around the back wall 2. there should not be personal items like bags against the back wall ( it is best to keep your bags near & under your playing table & also gives you a chain of custody against theft or forgetfulness if you leave them near bleachers . 3. there should be any bleachers against the side wall for table tennis sessions (This is VERY confusing as well in a multi-use gym facility for basketball , volleyball etc. because, the bleachers should be against the side wall ONLY for basketball & volleyball etc and not the other way around). So, I would ask that , if you are the last person to leave, to move the bleacher back against the long wall and not leave it against the shorter walls. This is why there also is a crash pad on the wall on the short walls) . If a basketball player or a volleyball player crashes into the bleacher the injuries can be as bad a table tennis player crashing into the bleacher, if the bleacher or items like bags are behind the player. As someone who played college & high school basketball in my youth at much higher speeds I can visualize this, buy again I completely understand if most players or Rec Center staff cannot visualize al this for both basketball / volleyball as well as for table tennis I am not sure how & why the practice of using 2 signup board even started in the first place at TMRC. Maybe they copied it from Liberty Recreation Center. It makes more sense at Liberty Rec Center because it is the best possible way to do it there with the 8-table setup & the gym layout. Interestingly one signup board would have been sufficient there as well when they allowed 12 tables just like TMRC (just like TMRC near the entrance door). But my biggest problem with two signup board is players wandering back and forth against the side wall & back wall increasing collision risk. I can think of only one reason they may have started using 2 signup boards at TMRC but I won't mention it here because it is very much an irrational reason & so it is irrelevant. Anyway, below is how a single signup board for all 12 table will look like at TMRC. Nothing complicated. Pretty straight forward.
Near means nearest to the wall close to entrance door or storage room door Far means farthest away from the signup board towards the far back wall I realize that it can be confusing initially from having 2 signup boards going to 1 signup board but after a few months it should become second nature. Problems will only arise if some staff hang the only signup board on the far back wall & other staff hang the only one signup board on the near wall. There is not much I can do about it as it is a training issue for Rec. Center staff BTW going to one board is pure coincidence & I actually have nothing to do with it . I would like to think I do but I don't. They told me they will not go to one board but went to one board because they told me the other board is broken. Personally, I hope the other board stays broken because I hope they do not go back to 2 boards again & bring back the risk of injury & collisions in the sacred holy land near the far side wall
Optional more confusing comment for those interested Actually the ideal situation would indeed be 1. to have the only signup board on the far back wall 2. to have both bleachers against the far back wall and 3. move the table 1 & 7 as close to the near wall (where the entrance & storage room entrance is). This is because there is poor lighting below running tracks against far wall but there is good lighting near entrance door wall . Players should walk to the far back wall ONLY all the way around the basketball court on other side to get to the signup board & bleachers against the far back wall.
But given that TMRC will not set up tables as I explained in my other webpage proposal on how to setup the 12 tables correctly with varying court size with different width & length , I do not see this happening
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