Triangle Table Tennis – One year Summary
Courtesy of USA Table Tennis
About 13 months ago, Triangle Table Tennis opened its doors, and that created a new dimension for table tennis in North Carolina and the Southeast US. The new facility has a 25,000 square feet of playing hall with 36 Butterfly competition tables, high intensity lighting, high ceiling clearance, Gerflor Sport Flooring, wi-fi, and spectator seating. It has another 5,000 square feet of amenities, including: Pro Shop, fully outfitted fitness room, break room, showers, and lounge areas. And it’s all open 7 days and 80 hours every week, providing the first opportunity for NC residents to enjoy a full-time, dedicated center.
This interview is with High Performance and Programming Director Mike Babuin, who manages the many programs and activities at the center. Our focus is to learn what Triangle Table Tennis offers on a daily basis.
USATT – Congratulations on your recent One Year Anniversary! Can you tell us what you have accomplished as a Center so far?
TRIANGLE TABLE TENNIS – Sure – happy to share! The short answer is that a LOT has happened in our first year! We’ve hosted a delegation from the Chinese National Team last October, added the USATT Hall of Fame Museum in March, and the center has received designated a USATT National Center of Excellence (NCOE) this past June. And off course, most important, is what we do for players, day in and day out. We’ve had over 450 members join the center, and seen over 500 non-members participate in our “all day pass” program. On top of those members and day-pass players, we’ve served monthly tournament players, summer campers, track-out campers, special event participants, corporate event participants, weekly league players, and other similar groups. We also have a following of regular participants in group lessons, private lessons and other activities.
USATT – Can you describe these activities?
TRIANGLE TABLE TENNIS – First of all, we have Group and Private Lessons here at the center. Many Americans might find this strange, but centers in most countries only offer group lessons – the US is one of the very few countries where centers include the concept of a “private lesson” in table tennis. We, of course, offer both Private and Group Lessons at Triangle Table Tennis. The lessons are offered by our coaching team, led by Head Coach Feiming Tong – an amazing former World #4 player, gifted athlete, and brilliant coach. Our coaching team includes other committed and dedicated coaches as well, including Regional Coach Danny Hill, Assistant Manager AJ Carney, Spencer Ip, Gregg Robertshaw, Jack Wu, Center Manager Tom Gabriel, and myself. And, we benefit from another 6-10 Assistant Coaches or sparring partners (some local and some visiting from China), who volunteer their time as well. Additionally, we are continuing to recruit coaches, and assisting some top international talent to obtain appropriate visas to coach with us soon.
Beyond coaching, we offer many “Special Events”, including private parties, charitable fundraisers, and “corporate team building” events. While some companies only want open practice/play, others want a customized event or tournament geared towards their specific needs. For example, one company recently requested an exhibition match, then a double elimination tournament for 154 participants – all in a 2.5 hour period of time…now THAT is challenging! We also host corporate “client appreciation events”, and run a weekly corporate league.
Speaking of leagues – in addition to our corporate league, we also have three skill-based Premiere Leagues going on each week. Those are patterned after the British system, so we have a Division 1 League for elite and upper advanced level athletes; a Division 2 League for lower advanced and intermediate level athletes; and a Division 3 League for upper and lower level beginners. We are planning a Saturday morning “kids’ league” this coming fall, as well.
We’re also introducing a fall/winter middle school league and a fall/winter high school league. These leagues will be after school team activities, with scheduled matches at Triangle Table Tennis. We’re excited to introduce a new school sport option for youth in the Research Triangle area of NC, and encouraged by initial responses from local schools. Our goal is to make table tennis a regular part of school sports in NC!
Of course, tournaments are a focus of many of our activities – because many other programs and activities help to prepare players for a tournament in some way. We have at least one tournament every month, and pride ourselves on making our tournaments high-quality events for players, with great prize money and awards, excellent playing conditions, professional execution, and a lot of variety from one month to the next.
Let me explain:
As an example, everyone knows of the ‘Cary Cup Championship’ (the popular giant round robin tournament that is now played at Triangle Table Tennis). But for 2016 (March 16-20, to be specific), what you might not know is that we are planning, for the first time, to double the number of players who can enter. For years, this popular tournament has been capped-out for the giant RR at 144 players. Those slots filled up early, and many players who didn’t register early were disappointed when they couldn’t get in. But in 2016, we’ll be able to handle a maximum of 288 players by offering a Giant RR on FRIDAY of Cary Cup week, and also another one on SATURDAY of Cary Cup week. Players will choose which giant RR event(s) to sign-up for: Friday or Saturday – or both! The rating class events will move to Thursday (one day earlier than in past years), and the Open Doubles event will be run on Wednesday night (March 16th) of Cary Cup week. We’re excited to let more people play in this popular tournament!
On top of that, the B, C, and D groups will advance the top TWO players from EACH of the giant RR’s (Friday and Saturday). This is an expansion from previous years when we advanced only the top player from each group. Meanwhile, the A group will advance the top FOUR finalists from EACH of the giant RR’s to the 3rd round on Cary Cup Sunday. So, on SUNDAY the B, C, and D group finals will be held as a single elimination of 16 players (8 from Friday Giant RR and 8 from Saturday Giant RR). And the A group will have a single elimination of 32 players (16 from each Friday Giant RR and 16 from Saturday Giant RR). If anyone needs clarification on the changes, they can just email me atmbabuin@triangletabletennis.com or give me a call, and I will be happy to answer any questions. The entry form for 2016 Cary Cup should be available later this summer.
USATT – WOW! That’s a big change and should really open up that popular tournament for a lot more players!
TRIANGLE TABLE TENNIS – Yes, that’s right, and the best news is the prize money will be higher than the $21,000 we had last year! We’re still adding sponsors, so stay tuned for the final amount!
Other tournaments that I should briefly tell you about are the next three coming up in 2015! First, the tournament on AUGUST 15th and 16th is our 4-Star 2015 Two Person Summer Teams Tournament and this format is a LOT of fun! We offer three events –U3000, U4000, and an Open event. Players can just find a partner and make sure their combined ratings don’t exceed the limit (for the U3000 and U4000 events). Each player will play both singles and doubles matches, and so we advise players that it’s best if they can find a team partner who they know they work well with in the doubles matches. But if players need help finding a partner, they can let us know and we can try to help – if they just sign-up themselves first, and they can call us for assistance.
The 2-Star September 2015 Open tournament is slated for SEPTEMBER 12th and 13th, and the 4-Star OCTOBER 16-18North Carolina Open is the other giant round robin tournament we host, and it will offer a lot of matches to all who register. This tournament will be very special because we have several ITTF World Tour athletes coming to compete from Africa – including the All African Games Women’s Gold medalist – and the competition at the top end should be quite compelling! Additional 2015 tournaments are available for registration on our website for November and December (November 14th-15th and December 5th -6th). Registration for any of our tournaments is easy – players can sign up online (www.triangletabletennis.com), or print and mail in a form, or call us at (919) 388-0272 and enroll over the phone.
In addition to the expanded Cary Cup Championship that I already mentioned, in 2016 we’re also offering a School Championships tournament on FEBRUARY 20th and 21st, 2016 for middle schools and high school students. While this is designed primarily for North Carolina schools, it’s an open format tournament, which means schools from out of state may compete, also. There are individual events, doubles events, and school team events! Look for this in the next month or so on our website. On MAY 21st and 22nd, 2016 we’ll be offering the very popular “Upside Down” tournament. This tournament awards more money to the lower rated players and less to the higher rated players. Unconventional for sure, but great for the average player who wants a shot at getting some serious prizes! Ratings used for this are backed up 6-months in advance to minimize the possibility of player sandbagging.
The last 2016 Triangle Table Tennis tournament I’ll mention is the DECEMBER 10th and 11th tournament. The 1st day is a more typical, and traditional format. But on December 11, 2016, those specific events are designed as a stand alone tournament for senior athletes over 40 years old. This tournament is part of the 2016 USATT launch of the US Senior Tour – an amalgamation of key club tournaments throughout the United States that are catered towards Senior athletes. The purpose of the tour is to garnish awareness and support over the next two years leading towards participation and promotion of the World Veterans Championships to be held in Las Vegas in the summer of 2018. Please note: the term ‘Veteran’ internationally refers to what we refer to as ‘Seniors’ here in the USA – (not ex-military personnel).
The 2016 Senior Tour will have six to eight key clubs/tournaments participating who will offer a stand- alone senior tournament. As is always the case, each tournament will offer varying amounts of prize money, and some variety of senior events – but most importantly, each tournament will have two consistent events – an Open Men’s singles and Open Women’s Singles event. These events will accept either US players or players from any other country. The higher threshold of prize money for the tournament will be offered in these two events.
Anyone over 40 years of age can compete in the Open Men’s or Women’s events – (depending upon their gender of course). In addition to the tournament prize money, 1-4th place finalists in the two events mentioned will receive Tour Points for their placement. The more tournaments that a player attends across the USA, yields a higher chance of probability that they might do well at other tournaments and receive more points as they potentially continue to finish in the top four positions in either the men’s or women’s single event. So – by the end of the year, the top tour point winners that have accrued the most points throughout 2016 will split a separate pool of money that each tournament pays into (approximately $500/club or tournament). This distribution and pay-out will culminate at the season ending ‘Grand Tour Finals’ to be held at Triangle Table Tennis on December 11th, 2016.
Note: The SENIOR (VETERAN) TOUR events including the Grand Tour Final Championship) will be listed and designated on the ITTF World Tour calendar as veterans’ events!
So our version of the Senior tour tournament (Grand Tour Championship Finals) will have many age-based events for men and women and as mentioned, will be the last stop on the planned ‘2016 US Senior Tour’. More information is coming over the next few months on this exciting initiative which will lead-up over the next two years to the 2018 World Veterans Championship to be held in Las Vegas. If any clubs wish to be a part of this exciting initiative, contact me at Triangle Table Tennis for more information.
USATT – That is an amazing variety of tournaments and some pretty creative formats! What else do you do at the center beyond leagues, tournaments and corporate events?
TRIANGLE TABLE TENNIS – Well, we offer Camps almost every week of the year. In addition to traditional Summer Camps, during the rest of the year we have “Track-out Camps”. Because we’re located in one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the US, the local school systems try to maximize their use of school facilities to keep up with population growth. Some schools run on a traditional calendar in which all students have summers off. Other schools run on a year-round calendar, with students assigned to one of four different “tracks”. Each track is in school for 9 weeks and then out of school for 3 weeks, with tracks scheduled so that there’s always one group of students “tracked out.” As a result, even during fall, winter, and spring, every week there are a lot of parents in the Triangle who’re looking for worthwhile daytime activities for their children. Our “Track Out” camps are the perfect solution for “tracked out” students who are looking for skill development, fitness and fun!
Later this year, on SEPTEMBER 21-25, we’re also planning a FREE Adaptive Sport and Para-Training Camp. We’re tentatively planning to offer the adaptive sport component in the morning and the para component in the late afternoons – – however, we’re staying flexible at this point so that timing and an exact schedule can be driven by the needs of the people who sign up. Interested players should contact the center, or better yet contact me directly, to get onboard with this great training opportunity.
USATT – Do you have any young ‘rising stars’ at the center?
TRIANGLE TABLE TENNIS – You bet! We are very focused on mini-cadets at this time and we have four exceptionally gifted and talented young girls between 7 and 9 years of age who you’ll be hearing about after the next US Nationals (and next mini-cadet trials). One is a penholder, one is a lefty shake-hander, one is a righty shake-hander, and another is learning to be a chopper. One of the 7-year olds really impressed me recently, when she did over 130 forehand repetitions in a row without error – all at a nice fast clip. Because none of the four girls ever picked up a racket in their lives before about seven months ago, that’s pretty encouraging to say the least – and best of all, they’re now giving the adult players some competition, too! We have multiple talented juniors as well, including a high school student who was the recent winner of the NC State Games Open event.
USATT – Great, Mike – thank-you for this detailed information about Triangle Table Tennis!
TRIANGLE TABLE TENNIS – My pleasure. Thanks for the opportunity to spread the word about our amazing center!
