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JimLes said:
Ping pong is definitely an obscure sport. Again, outside of East Asia, I'm not sure it's played at a professional level anywhere. It's not about skill versus athleticism, it's about where you can get the medals. Producing 2-3 world class ping pong players(whether or not ping pong is popular in China is immaterial here) is much easier than producing 12 world class basketball players or 23 footballers. Especially when the rest of the world seems to not care about ping pong.

China played the US in the final of the 1999 women's World Cup but women's football was in its infancy back then. It was easier to invest some money and have results. Now that the women's game has finally gotten some respect in Europe and there's actual investment, China's not even among the top 10 countries in the world. Hell, they even failed to qualify for a World Cup 2 cycles ago.

I suppose I don't know the details, but if China is investing into men's football and men's basketball, I'm not seeing the results. The Chinese Superleague is chock full of foreigners, and that especially goes for key players on teams. Last year, there were two Chinese players among the top 10 scorers. 5 Brazilians, though, and not Brazilians who are of any real quality. Meanwhile, the men's national team is as far from qualifying for a World Cup as they've been this millennium.

One Chinese player in the top 10 in scoring in Chinese Basketball Association this year. Same with rebounding. A few more in assists. China lost all 3 of its group games at the current FIBA WC, and by a lot.
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Are you talking about ping pong or table tennis? Cause the first one is not an olympic sport. Table tennis is. And even if it's dominated by Chinese it's still quite popular in Europe too.
 
Jazzmix said:
Are you talking about ping pong or table tennis? Cause the first one is not an olympic sport. Table tennis is. And even if it's dominated by Chinese it's still quite popular in Europe too.
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There is a difference?
 
JimLes said:
Ping pong is definitely an obscure sport. Again, outside of East Asia, I'm not sure it's played at a professional level anywhere. It's not about skill versus athleticism, it's about where you can get the medals. Producing 2-3 world class ping pong players(whether or not ping pong is popular in China is immaterial here) is much easier than producing 12 world class basketball players or 23 footballers. Especially when the rest of the world seems to not care about ping pong.

China played the US in the final of the 1999 women's World Cup but women's football was in its infancy back then. It was easier to invest some money and have results. Now that the women's game has finally gotten some respect in Europe and there's actual investment, China's not even among the top 10 countries in the world. Hell, they even failed to qualify for a World Cup 2 cycles ago.

I suppose I don't know the details, but if China is investing into men's football and men's basketball, I'm not seeing the results. The Chinese Superleague is chock full of foreigners, and that especially goes for key players on teams. Last year, there were two Chinese players among the top 10 scorers. 5 Brazilians, though, and not Brazilians who are of any real quality. Meanwhile, the men's national team is as far from qualifying for a World Cup as they've been this millennium.

One Chinese player in the top 10 in scoring in Chinese Basketball Association this year. Same with rebounding. A few more in assists. China lost all 3 of its group games at the current FIBA WC, and by a lot.
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This is just off, sorry. As an American who's worked for the Chinese Olympic Committee for years I can tell you they have and are investing a lot. Like a **** ton a lot.

You can call it obscure because it is in USA. But ping pong is not obscure in many many countries. Everyone in China plays it and enjoys it along with a lot of other skill games, like badminton, Chinese version of hacky sack, billiards, and a bunch of others. There are plenty of other countries that love it as well.

It's definitely a skill vs athleticism thing in China. If you focus on one thing and the way to get better at is do it over and over and over again non stop you'll develop skills, but you won't develop athleticism. That's the methodology and belief in China.

China wants to win a lot of medals and dumps money into anyone they think will do that. Look at snowboarding this year. They also really want to be good at the popular sports. They are very embarrassed and upset about losing in basketball and soccer and are putting big efforts to change that. But it takes time and the effort can be wrong.

China is still a fairly poor place for the average person. The well off people don't care about sports for kids. Your entire life is about getting a good score at your college entrance exam. That is the only way to make a good life for yourself and it's been pushed hard. It's only recent that parents are letting their kids play sports, besides the poor kids that get pulled out of school and moved away from home to be "athletes". In China you focus on one sport and school is pretty much done. This model is changing but it will take a generation for it to take effect.
 
Its wild that both Canada and Spain lost today, so their last round matchup is now gonna be an early elimination game.
 
fishonjazz said:
I wish I didn't read that lol. I will continue to act like im ignorant and continue to use both ping pong and table tennis interchangeably.
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My 10 year old niece was going for recreational table tennis trainings and she has been infuriated whenever someone would have called it ping pong. It must have been the first thing they taught her there lol
 
fishonjazz said:
I wish I didn't read that lol. I will continue to act like im ignorant and continue to use both ping pong and table tennis interchangeably.
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That article is also dated for the rules as table tennis has changed it's scoring system. But they are the same sport and the words are used interchangeably. Ping pong is a more casual word for the sport and people involved get serious about their sport.
 
Ron Mexico said:
That article is also dated for the rules as table tennis has changed it's scoring system. But they are the same sport and the words are used interchangeably. Ping pong is a more casual word for the sport and people involved get serious about their sport.
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I wanted to be sure what JimLes meant when he was saying that nobody plays it seriously outside of China which is simply not true. I have never been particularly interested in it but could name famous European players.
 
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