Balls, Equipment, and generating interest in the club

Hi,

 Next year I will be in charge of my university's table tennis club/team.  At the moment we are running out of balls and two of our four tables have broken wheels.  I was wondering what the cheapest 3-star balls you would recommend are.  We currently use Gambler "Bullet" 3-stars, which are approved by the USATT.  These can be purchased at $12 US per 36 balls at Megaspin.com.  When I searched Amazon.com, I found a brand I have never heard of that sold 144 3-stars for only $26 US.  This brand was GOGO. What do you think?

 We also need to replace our tables as I have mentioned above.  I am not sure how much funding we will be able to receive, but I figure no more than $2000 US for the year, including tournaments, coaching, etc.  So we would like to buy a durable, cheap, quality table.  I was wondering if you had any recommendations.  (I know these are hard things to find together)

 Finally, we are getting a bit low on membership.  I was wondering if you had any ideas on generating interest in the club.  We have a team that competes in regional tournaments with other university's and this year the team is going to national's, but we are also a club for the general student body.  Do you have any suggestions for getting new people?

 Thanks a lot for all of your hard work and reading my question,

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

I haven't used those brands of balls so can' t really comment.  Perhaps someone else has and can help you out.  Look fora ball that is reasonably hard and round.  They are the two biggest criteria.  You need to press the ball to see if it is soft or hard.

I use Stiga Compact Roller tables for the schools I coach at.  I think they are a durable and affordable table.  Althoguh this exact table may not be available iwhere you are, look for somethign similar.  The Stiga range I have found to be good quality in general so maybe search for what is avaiable where you are and select something in your price range.  If the tables are going to be up all th etime you will have a lot less wear and tear on them.  The biggest killer of tables is putting them up and down and moving them into storage.

As far as recruiting is concerned, I have always found exhibitions work well.  Try to set up a display in a public area, perhaps even the cafetereia area and allow people to play or challenge the club champion.  That often gets them in.  Everyone thinks they are good at table tennis.

Try 'Bring a Friend' days or weeks.  Offer incentives to members who bring a friend. You could organise a raffle and members get one ticket every time they bring a friend.

Just getting more information out through emails or other contacts that the club exists. Running a simple website for the club.

Offer coaching once a week or month for members.  Players like to be able to improve thier skills.

Run Handicap tournament. Players are givena handicap according to their ability.

Have social gatherings around table tennis.

I hope some of these suggestions help.  Others I am sure will have more ideas expecially for the University setting.

Good luck with it all.