Creating A Club
Discussion
Julian Albulescu Asked 6 years ago
Hello,
Given my strong interest in Table Tennis, it is unfortunate that my local High School does not have a club that I can participate in. It is my plan to create a club at the High School to expand and attract Table Tennis lovers. Do you have any tips on that? Where do I start? What’s a good way to get people to join? I know I need a sponsor, what is a good approach to come up to a company like Stiga or Butterfly to see if they are interested in supporting my club. Any tips I can get would be extremely helpful.
Thanks,
Julian
Alois Rosario Answered 6 years ago
Hi Julian,
It is great that you are taking the initiative of starting up a new club. It is not easy but you will find it worthwhile.
One of the main things I think is to create a place where people want to come. That means it has to be friendly and inviting and provide a variety of services to cater for the wide range of needs of players. Things such as times when players can just come in for a social hit, times when you are providing coaching assistance, times for competition and any other needs you can see from the group. As you can see there are a wide variety of needs that a player can have.
As far as sponsors it is a matter of what you can offer them as far as exposure to their products. I am definitely not a marketing person so others may be able to help in this area as well.
We did a podcast on the topic of clubs, Ask The Coach Show #85 - How to Run a Successful Club. I think it will provide you with some good tips.
Thoughts on this question
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Nigel C Posted 6 years ago
Julian, you may find that the national association of which ever country you live in might well have help and information about playing in schools. The ITTF website has a directory so you can look up your national association.
https://www.ittf.com/directory/
Good luck.
Julian Albulescu Posted 6 years ago
Alright, more or less I think I got the most part of what you said.
As far as hosting local tournaments goes (for example on omnipong), I am aware that I need to create a directors account.
How exactly do I do that?
Do I need to be a specific age to host my own tournaments?
Would it be better to do it straight at the High School itself or at a local community center for example.
Sorry for the overwhelming questions, it would just be extremely awesome if I ran my own club so I am trying to get as much advice as I can with it.