“We Are Butterfly”: Maryland Table Tennis Center
Early Success Brings Continued Growth for America’s First Full Time Training Center
by Barbara Wei
Almost 25 years ago, Cheng Yinghua, Jack Huang and Larry Hodges brought the Maryland Table Tennis Center (MDTTC)
), the country’s first successful full-time training center, to life. With the goal of professionalizing American table tennis, the founders first opened the club in a smaller facility, and then moved it to its current location in 1997. The early years proved difficult for the club, as endless hours of coaching and working failed to turn a profit until almost 5 years after they had first opened their doors. However, as pioneers of what we know today as full time training centers, the trio persevered and quickly figured out how to build and maintain interest in the suburban Maryland community.
As table tennis interest grew in the first decade of the 2000s, so did MDTTC. Starting with less than 30 members in the early 1990s, MDTTC currently boasts over 300 members, including a long list of cadet, junior, adult, hardbat, and senior national champions, Olympians and world team members. Similarly, by 2012, MDTTC had vastly outgrown its physical size and thus underwent extensive renovations which doubled the space and added new community areas. To support its growing contingency of players, MDTTC has invested in bringing in and retaining high level young coaches to supplement its staff, such as Jeffrey Zeng (2569), Qingliang Wang (the 2012 U.S. Open Semifinalist), and Bowen Chen (2527). In addition, various visiting professional players and coaches have been invited to the club to train with MDTTC players in recent years. These coaches, practice partners, and the original founders have developed some of yesterday and today’s biggest stars such as Crystal Wang, Derek Nie, Han Xiao,
Nathan Hsu, Peter Li, Barbara Wei, Katherine Wu, Tong Tong Gong and countless others over the past 25 years.
Now primarily owned by Cheng, Jack and relative newcomer Wen Hsu who volunteers as the Club Manager, MDTTC runs a myriad of table tennis programs targeted at professional, beginner, and junior players. Offerings range from world class private coaching to group training session, camps, afterschool program, leagues, special events and amazing children’s birthday parties. In 2015 alone, several new programs were launched at MDTTC as it continues to dedicate its mission of growing and developing the best table tennis talent in the US. Notably, the new Capital Area League allows players from clubs across the Maryland, DC and Virginia areas to compete against each other for cash prizes. Also, the non-profit HW Global Foundation has brought its Talent Development Program to MDTTC, focusing on developing the best young talent (6-10 years old) into tomorrow’s national champions and Olympians.
Today, MDTTC’s top players face stiff competition from full time training centers across the country. However, with unyielding passion and over 25 years of experience, the MDTTC leadership team and coaches have no intention of slowing down. With the 2016 Rio Olympics around the corner, all eyes will be on the nation’s most elite players, many of whom have trained and honed their skills in MDTTC’s hallowed halls.
Visit Maryland Table Tennis Center’s website for more information.
