Seemiller rips USATT

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mynamenotbob

Post subject: Seemiller rips USATT

Posted: 26 Jan 2012, 05:37

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http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.asp ... &tid=33501

In an interesting post on the About forum, American table tennis legend Dan Seemiller harshly criticized the USATT over the embarrassing state of affairs for U.S. men's table tennis on the international scene.

Quote:

U.S. Men left out in the cold

Our U.S. Men's Team and top players have not been given a fair shake by our association. It is in fact embarrassing to me as a past President to see our team ranked 50th in the world. It's as if nobody cares.

Our Men's team has not competed in one single Pro Tour event for years. The Olympic Trials and Continental qualifiers are scheduled for April and the Canadian Men are ready. They are currently in Europe and last week they played the Hungarian Open and this week the Slovenian Open and their results are impressive.

Why isn't Fan, Mark, Timothy, Michael, and Peter going there? The Olympic Continental qualifier is by far the most important event that one can imagine yet nothing is being done. Will we beat the Canadians? I sure hope so. Does it look good? No, it doesn't.

Why has this administration just looked the other way? How can there be no budget for these guys? I don't understand this at all.

At the Continental qualifiers there will be 4 Men from each country with the top 3 finishers going to London. Whichever country wins 2 or more spots will receive the Team invitation to London. Could anything be more important than that?

Many people have asked me why I resigned as coach 2 years ago and it was the total lack of support that convinced me that we couldn't begin to compete at that level.

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roundrobin

Post subject: Re: Seemiller rips USATT

Posted: 26 Jan 2012, 06:19

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Oh well, what do you expect? An association that concerns itself in finding the cheapest venue for their Nationals last year, regardless of what their members think... Right now it seems to me they have emptied their holster trying to support the few promising U.S. women.

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Kryptos

Post subject: Re: Seemiller rips USATT

Posted: 26 Jan 2012, 06:45

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With all due respect for Mr. Seemiller resigning in the face of adversity and then complaining in the media would not seem a viable or constructive way to address the issue.

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roundrobin

Post subject: Re: Seemiller rips USATT

Posted: 26 Jan 2012, 09:22

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Kryptos wrote:

With all due respect for Mr. Seemiller resigning in the face of adversity and then complaining in the media would not seem a viable or constructive way to address the issue.

If you know for the past twenty years how our USATT works you will understand his frustration. No one is really in charge at the top. NO ONE. The USATT "President" actually has very little power. Virtually every decision is made by committees that meet up a few times a year.
Danny knows as well as anyone how this disfunctional "system" works, and those in charge will never change it.

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GrumpyJoe

Post subject: Re: Seemiller rips USATT

Posted: 26 Jan 2012, 09:41

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roundrobin wrote:

Kryptos wrote:

With all due respect for Mr. Seemiller resigning in the face of adversity and then complaining in the media would not seem a viable or constructive way to address the issue.

This is one time I agree with you RR. Coach Seemiller has done a lot for TT in the US. And I would bet that one of the reasons he left office is because it was too hard to get anything done. Too much "Politics".

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tabten5

Post subject: Re: Seemiller rips USATT

Posted: 26 Jan 2012, 09:44

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Seemiller is right, although it seems the most worthwhile thing would be to invest in the roots, and bring through new talent. No disrespect meant to the US team, but their current crop just aren't good enough to make it internationally (I say this with no bias as, currently, neither is England's team, with the possible and hopeful exception of Liam Pitchford.)

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mynamenotbob

Post subject: Re: Seemiller rips USATT

Posted: 26 Jan 2012, 10:05

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http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.asp ... &tid=33501

Another Seemiller comment from the About thread:

Our association is about 85 percent male and the Olympic Committee has virtually ignored them. To me it is not fair that the American public and corporations donate to them and our Men have not had the opportunity to compete for many years now. Our members should be outraged that their best has been forgotten. The Canadians have been pounding us for years now and that would have been unheard of in my time and it just makes me sick to my stomach.

The bottom line is they receive support and our guys are told to get better.
Dan

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Shoebox9

Post subject: Re: Seemiller rips USATT

Posted: 02 Jun 2012, 14:54

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It sounds like the only way forward is structural change, which a lot of committee seat warmers would be outraged about.

I've often wondered why the standards of top level US TT are so poor, but these posts appear to explain the heart of it nicely. Vision of any kind doesn't tend to survive well in large committees. It's the same in the business world.

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