Last year I decided it was time to upgrade my Sriver FX rubber to something with a little more kick in an effort to appease my inner Equipment Junkie. Like a lot of players, I went to Butterfly Online. After perusing all of their different lines of rubber I began to notice that the descriptions for each rubber were about as useful as a pair of breasts on the back of a pig.
So I browsed, but never bought anything until one day Brian Pace popped up on the front page of the site giving the first video review of the Bryce family of rubber. Outside of his recreational racket and his reputation as a player, I didn’t know a lot about him. Shortly after seeing the video I bought a couple sheets of Bryce FX. There was something about the way he described the characteristics of the rubber that cut through the “Marketing Hype” that plagues just about every product description on the site.
When Brian would come out with another video about drills and exercises with the Amicus robot, I’d watch it hoping to learn something that I was missing from my own game. Then one day, Brian wasn’t doing videos anymore. Instead, I was watching a German player named Stefan Feth replace Brian for their instructional videos. Stefan’s techniques and methods are top-notch, but I was just getting used to watching Mr. Pace on the site. Shortly thereafter, Brian Pace would no longer be seen in any video on the site ever again.
Eventually the instructional videos stopped only to be replaced by videos of Jack Huang showing you how to perform a stroke for 2 minutes without any explanation or coaching tips whatsoever. I stopped watching the videos after that.
Fast forward a year and I manage to stumble across some news about Brian Pace’s new company. Some discussion surrounding it had popped up on a forum and shortly after that Mr. Pace himself logged on and started answering questions. After reading some of his posts I became intrigued by his enthusiasm for his new company, Dynamic Table Tennis. I wanted to learn more about his story, why he left Butterfly, and reveal the truth about American table tennis sponsorships. So I asked him for an interview and he agreed graciously.
Thank for chatting with me Brian. Why don’t you tell me a little bit about your Table Tennis career?
I started playing Table Tennis in a USATT funded junior program with the hopes of producing an Olympian. It was not a participation program, it was an elite junior program. We had Nigerian players ranked at 2500 as our coaches and training partners. The group went from 75 kids to about 12 elite level juniors, and the more intense the training got, the more the number reduced until it got down to Oscar Melvin and I. We would both went on to the live at the Olympic Training Center, and the program was unofficially over in 1988 but continued for 1 more year.
How and when did you get sponsored by Butterfly?
I was at my local Rec Center looking for a new activity, and Ty Hoff walked in. We played for about 1 hour. He gave me 2 yellow balls, and I went home and told my mother I was going to be a professional table tennis player. The USATT funded grant was influenced by Bowie Martin Sr. who was running Martin-Kilpatrick which sold low level table tennis equipment. They were also the North American distributor of Butterfly equipment, and the top juniors in the program received a small sponsorship. It was some rubber, shirts, shorts, shoes, and a bag. It did take me a while to become one of the elite 6 that would receive the sponsorship. Since I started with them, I felt obligated to stay.
On a forum recently you stated that being sponsored is an illusion. For a lot of players once they’ve attained a decent rating they’re next goal is to get sponsored in order to help pay for equipment, travel expenses, etc. Tell me about your experience being in that situation and what it was really like.
If anyone that has hopes of getting sponsored, you may want to skip this because the answer is going to break your heart…
Tags: Add new tag, Brian Pace, butterfly, Dynamic Table Tennis, Interview
Looks like Adam Bobrow is at it again, but this time with real match footage. It kind of reminds me of the infamous Ding Song vs. Timo Boll match… except with dancing.
Tags: Adam Bobrow
Here are the results for the 2009 NCTTA National Championship.
Men’s Singles: Mark Hazinski (Texas Wesleyan University) def. Eric Owens (Midwestern University) 4-2
Women’s Singles: Judy Hugh (Rutgers University) def. Jasna Reed (Texas Wesleyan University) 4-3
Coed Team: Texas Wesleyan University def. Puerto Rico 3-1
Women’s Team: Texas Wesleyan University def. University of Toronto 3-0
Men’s Consolation Singles: Guilherme Dalcin (Lindenwood University)
Women’s Consolation Singles: Pam Fontaine (Texas Wesleyan University)
Men’s Doubles: Carlos Alvarado (Columbia University) & Tahl Leibovitz (Queens College)
Mixed Doubles: Mark Hazinski & Ines Perhoc (Texas Wesleyan University)
Women’s Doubles: Jasna Reed & Ines Perhoc (Texas Wesleyan University)
Paralympic Singles: Tahl Leibovitz (Queens College)
To view specific match details or confusing tree diagrams visit the NCTTA 2009 Championship official results page.
Tags: Judy Hugh, Mark Hazinski, NCTTA, Texas Wesleyan University
This weekend starting Friday April 3 is the National Collegiate Table Tennis Assocation’s (NCTTA) National Championship will kick off in Rochester, MN. Two schools from Georgia will be competing in the Men’s/Coed and Women’s Teams: Georgia Tech and Georgia State.
Can’t find a reason to go to Minnesota? Its okay, neither can I. Follow the tournament progress via the NCTTA’s Twitter feed or you can just visit the official site.
Yeah I know its April Fools Day, and I’m supposed to do some kind of gag with the site, but the pollen is getting to me and I’m drawing a blank. After the jump is a complete list of all the qualifying schools that made it into the Championship.
Tags: Georgia State, Georgia Tech, National Championship, NCTTA
In case you missed the Cary Cup last weekend (like I did), Brian Pace was awesome enough to get some really good highlight video. The video features Eric Owens, Stefan Feth, Wang Zhen, Robert Roberts, Sara Fu, Amereesh Sahu, Ragu N, Sara Fu, Michael Landers, Chris OBrian, Dan Barrett, Paul David, Keith Evans, John Wetzler, Thomas Yu, Kim Bong, De Tran, Han Xiao, and Heather Wan.
Part 2 is available in HD quality on the Media page at the DTT website under the Tournament Highlights section. Atlanta’s Didi DeSouza can be seen playing against Mark Hazinski. And while you’re on that page, be sure to watch part 1 the “I am Table Tennis” interview with Brian Pace. In the next week I’ll be posting an interview that I am doing with Mr. Pace on his views of the sport and the business behind it.
Tags: Brian Pace, Cary Cup, Dynamic Table Tennis
Brian Pace can crush your loop with ease, and lift city buses using only his hamstrings - Photo by Robert Trudell (outpost81.com)
Butterfly sponsored Brian Pace has recently ventured out onto his own as a free agent to form his own company, Dynamic Table Tennis (DTT). A project 15 years in the making, Pace made the tough decision to leave his sponsor of 23 years in order to pursue a project so near and dear to his heart that he felt he needed to do it himself.
DTT is a series of 7 video training system that will be available on DVD, and also in two downloadable formats: (that cost less than the DVD) Windows Media and Quicktime MP4. The videos center around what Pace calls “Dynamic Harmony” which is a “systematic approach to how to play each shot technically perfect” and applies to every stroke that the series covers. It is designed to be watched repeatedly in order to strengthen your skill with each stroke. Thankfully it looks like the music actually bearable to listen to if you like it, and paced evenly with the video enough that you can ignore it if electronic music isn’t your taste.
What is admirable is that this is the first time an American Table Tennis player has done something like this fueled entirely by self-determination. Most training videos available today are sponsored by major retailers like Killerspin or Butterfly and feature European and/or Asian players, and at times are more often advertisement or interview fluff than substantial content. DTT looks to crush those stereotypes and be the first high quality American Table Tennis training video series. The first installment, Textbook Table Tennis is now available on his site. After the jump is a 5 minute long sample of the video.
Tags: Brian Pace, Dynamic Table Tennis, Training
