Details and match reporting form.

Welcome to the January 2024 Monthly update!

The new business: 

• Jameson Bernard's group coaching will be held Mondays, January 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th, and Feb. 5th.  The kids session is now full, but you can have your child's name placed on the waiting list.  There are now single session spaces in the adult sessions. Sing up at: http://level2199.com/short/single
• The Greatest of Ches-Mont qualifiers begin now! The Ches-Mont singles championship tournament will be held March 12th. To participate you must reside, work, or go to school in Chester or Montgomery Counites and win six matches against six different individuals at the club between now and the tournament. Report your wins here: http://level2199.com/short/matches
• The Groundhog Trophy tournament returns for it's third year in a row. This year it will be held Saturday Feb. 3rd at 9:30am.  This will also be a handicap tournament. Details to follow. Sing up here!
• National Rubber Duck Day is Saturday January 13th.  So to warm up for the Groundhog Trophy, we will hold a test handicap mini tournament that day.  No sign up necessary.

The old business:

• The second annual Greatest Ever Doubles Tournament was held 12/30. Twelve teams competed across three divisions after an initial seeding round. Here are the results:
  • Diamonds Division: 1st Zhongqi Zhang & Ray Wang, 2nd Place Mark Vrabel & Steve Lowry, 3rd Steve & Jimmy Good, 4th John Richards & Frank Roth
  • Hearts Division: 1st Alan Watt & Alex Tse, 2nd Mohammed Rajput & Randy Stoddard
  • Spades Division: 1st Karun Harikrishnan & Abishek Stanley, 2nd Santosh & Keshav Kurup
• Karun won the Greatest Ever Doubles Challenge, which is held every club meeting, 29 times in 2023. He therefore gets to keep the flag! But do not fear, we have a new one that you can fight for over the next 100 some club meetings! Girish is already training, so watch out!
• In Princeton Pong's December tournament, Karun took 1st place in the U1250 and Shata took 2nd in the U1000! Princeton holds a tournament on the first weekend of every month.

Time for the Phoenixville Table Tennis Club Monthly Update!

Schedule notes:
I had announced to the players last Saturday that we would be closed for the next two, that was INCORRECT! 
Sat. 12/2 - Closing early at 11:30 - We are unsure if we will have 9 or 7 tables in play this day. Kids mult-iball will be 11-11:30.
Sat. 12/9 - Only two rooms, 6 or 7 tables.
Sat. 12/30 - Doubles Tournament. No open play this day.
Going forward, kids multi-ball practice will be from 11am to 11:30am Saturdays.

Saturdays are always in flux for us. We are allowed to used the space if nothing else is going on. It is more profitable for the recreation center to rent the rooms for events and if that happens we have to accommodate them.  I appreciate your cooperation with this. I know it can be annoying sometimes!

Our Greatest Ever Doubles Tournament will be held Saturday 12/30 at 9am. Sign up at here or send me a message and I will add you manually.
Details link.

Details: http://level2199.com/short/gedc2023

Greatest of Phoenixville
Congratulations to Subodh for winning the Greatest of Phoenixville Championship, and to Brady and Nick for winning the doubles championship!
Here is a link to the photo album which includes the pre-tournament introduction video. Our Facebook page has a video of the live feed, and it was not a very good video. But it paves the way for our future improvement!


Greatest of Ches-Mont qualification matches will begin January 2nd.  To qualify 1 - Live, work, or go to school in Chester or Montgomery Counties. 2 - Win six matches against six different individuals at the club from January to March. We plan to have an open, women's event, under 18 event and doubles on different days in March.
Report wins here: http://level2199.com/short/gocmmatches

Jameson's group coaching programs will be held Mondays in January, 1/8, 1/15, 1/22, and 1/29.
6pm - 7pm is the kids program.
7pm - 8:30pm is the adult program.
Cost will be $75 for the full four weeks.
Sign up: http://level2199.com/short/jb

Are you ready to volunteer? I have had warning I may need to pick up overtime from mid December thru early January. Should this happen during a club session, you will get the call to help setup and breakdown in my absence!  Everyone is really good at helping out. I appreciate you all!

Nick here with your November 2023 Monthly update!

Some scheduling changes coming up this month: Tuesday November 7th is election day, so we have moved that meeting to Monday November 6th.
Saturday November 18th, we have to close off the stage room after 10:45am, and will be down to 6 tables after that.

Battle of the Ages

We switched from our A,B,C vs X,Y,Z format in September to the MLTT format in October.  Team Legacy was leading up until the second week of October and then Nexgen took the lead and never looked back! Congratulations to the youngsters! Final standings: Nexgen 179, Legacy 144. Photo gallery here!

USATT Innovation and Growth Challenge

I had entered a video for the USATT's 90th Anniversary Innovation and Growth Challenge and WON! With the win I received a plaque, one year pro-membership, and free entry to the US Open.  Since I work at a small business and two of my co-workers are expecting newborns the same weekend as the Open, that is a fine excuse for my not flying out to California. And totally NOT that I dislike flying! But I am grateful for the opportunity! Don't know why Brady got his photo front and center there, maybe it is because I inspire him!

Greatest of Phoenixville

Our 2023 Greatest of Phoenixville Championship will be held Tuesday November 28th. You must qualify for this single elimination event.  To do so, you must live, work, or go to school in Phoenixville and you must report winning six matches against six different individuals at our club meetings during the months of October and November.

Greatest Ever Doubles Tournament

The Greatest Ever Doubles Champions tournament will be held Saturday December 30th at 9:30am. Registration is open through Omnipong.com.

Juniors: Kid and teen players

We have an unofficial program going. On Saturdays,11:30 to 12 Noon, I take any young players and cycle through multi-ball drills with them.  The goal is to give kids attention and drills to help them improve their play. Jameson would like to conduct group training with the more dedicated kids, please contact me if you have a kid interested. Once we have enough kids we can arrange the days, times, and price.

-We have a robot for rent for our regular players.

The long version:
Let's start with upcoming events.

Bye guys! 

Bo and Jimmy are off to college. Study hard fellas! See you soon!

BATTLE OF THE AGES

GREATEST OF PHOENIXVILLE

GREATEST EVER DOUBLES TOURNAMENT

Now for the month of August in review.

USATT 90th ANNIVERSARY TOURNAMENT

The all the time stuff:

GREATEST EVER DOUBLES CHAMPIONS

WATCH OUT FOR SLICK FLOORS! 
When the dew point is high, our floors and tables begin to sweat.  This begins in the furthest most room and so far has been contained there.  Please let everyone know if you feel things getting slippery.  We reconfigure the playing area to avoid that room if it occurs.

ROBOT FOR RENT
We now offer rental of a Newgy Robo-Pong 1040 to our regular members. You can take this robot home with you for $10 per week or $30 per month. You have to supply your own balls.

Blob Trophy 2023 - Our Blobfest inspired hardbat tournament saw 13 players compete. Tim H. was our winner beating Jimmy S. in the final!

Battle of the Counties has come to a close.  Our two month long event saw the Montgomery County Monarchs pulling ahead of the Chester County Cheetahs in the last two weeks and they never looked back. The Berks Bears took third over the Lehigh Lobsters.  Both those teams could only compete sporadically but I appreciate them joining in the fun!

Watch out for slick floors!  The DEW POINT is the bane of our club.  When it gets hot and humid the AC cools down the floors and table tops to the point that a thin layer of water forms over them. Please be careful, and notify others if you notice it starting up.

We will hold a USA Table Tennis sanctioned tournament on Saturday August 19th.
If you have not already signed up please contact me to be placed on the waiting list.  The events have been full for a while but people do drop out. There is no open play that day but you are welcome to spectate or volunteer!  I could use some scorekeepers for the final matches.
Here is our local area guide for those coming from out of town. 

New places to play
Recently I found out about two new places opening. 
Club 28 - 3559 Edgemont St, Philadelphia, PA 19134.  Plays Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. They also offer coaching, which you can book through their website.
Wise Game Club - 1045 Bustleton Pike Unit 7A, Feasterville-Trevose, PA 19053.  Billiards, table tennis, computer gaming.  All the Facebook videos they put out are in Russian. 
Here is a google maps list I have created with all the places to play in our area.

Princeton Pong Tournament Winners 
Jimmy and James took home some hardware in the monthly Princeton Pong tournament.

Tim-nitiative!
Tim W. has some items he would like to discuss. He is keeping a club ratings record, you will find it posted at the club. All you need to do to keep it up to date is send him your wins and losses.
Tim also would like to see about opening the club on Thursday nights.  We wanted to see if a team can be put together to share the responsibilities of setting up, breaking down, turning the money in, etc.  Nick cannot help because he works Thursday nights.  Once we have a group of volunteers, then we will approach the Rec Center with the idea. Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Greetings and Salutations my table tennis friends!

Club Calendar:
Special opening Monday July 3rd, 6pm - 9pm. 
The Rec. Center is CLOSED Tuesday July 4th.
Saturday July 15th 9:30am: Hardbat Mini-tournament

It has been an interesting month! The player count ebbs and flows as the Summer vacation period begins. Our Battle of the Counties event continues on however.  We are at the halfway point and the Chester Cheetahs and Montco Monarchs are in a tight race to win the title. You can still join up here. The event runs through the end of July. Standings can be found here. 

Looking for some tournaments?
Princeton Pong has a monthly event that is usually the first Saturday and Sunday of every month.
There is an Upside Down Giant RR in Middletown on July 15th and 16th.
Go to Omnipong.com to enter or download the event entry forms.

The Colonial Theater hosts the annual BLOBFEST July 15th-16th.  So we decided to hold a 1950s themed event, the Unofficial Blobfest Hardbat Mini-tournament on Saturday July 15th at 9:30am. $3 entry fee (in addition to the regular $5 session fee). We have old school pips out, no sponge rackets that you can use for the event. Best of 3, games to 21, serve switches every 5 points, single elimination.  

Our USATT 90th Anniversary Open is full, but people do drop out from time to time. Contact me if you want to be put on the waiting list.

Congratulations to our players for their finishes at the Princeton Pong June Open!

Happy Summer Table Tennis Fans!

This has been one action packed month! Forgive me if I left something out!  Nice weather, holidays, and summer time events have probably influenced out numbers recently.  We have fallen below our 30+ player day into the mid 20s recently.

The Pennsylvania State Championships were held May 12th and 13th in Lancaster. 
Several of our players made it out to compete and spectate. 
States Champions Archive : States Photo Archive : Fox 43 News clip
I also maintain the Pennsylvania Sate Table Tennis Championships Archive on our website.

Mustache night was lots of fun: Mustache Night 2023 Photos

There was no meeting the 16th due to elections, but there was a King of Prussia District Sponsored outdoor tournament that we flocked too for free pizza and beverages.
Karun ended up edging out Dimitri for the grand prize, $50 Wegman's gift card.  Then some of us headed to the Rec. Room by Conshohocken Brewery afterwards.
Here are the Photos.

June through July we pit Montgomery county against Chester county. We have started pre-season play in preparation.
Chester County and Montgomery County will put together as many teams as they like to compete against each other.  The teams will be made up of three players each. Teams should be made up of players of similar playing ability. The top players in team A, next best players team B, etc.

A captain/manager should be selected for each county.  They will be in charge of communication with players, determining line-up and substitutions for each playing session.

Counties will rotate weekly in presenting a line-up. The “away” county line-up is presented, the “home” county will offer their line-up. If any substitutions are required to be made by the “away” county before a session’s matches begin, the “home” county may be allowed to make any changes to their line-up.  Line-ups may not change once the first match has begun. 

Matches are played as follows:
Away Team Players: A,B,C
Home Team Players: X,Y,Z
AvY, XvB, BvZ, YvC, CvZ, AvX, doubles

Each match win will count as 1 point towards the cumulative county standings.
Sign up here: http://level2199.com/short/botc
Standings are posted here: http://level2199.com/short/botcstandings
Match reporting can be done here: http://level2199.com/short/botcreporting
You can join at anytime.

We will be holding a USA Table Tennis Tournament on August 18th, 2023."
However we most events are now FULL! There are four openings in the U1000 at the time of this posting.
You can sign up through Omnipong.com. Here is a printable registration form.
For those of you who do not know how USATT tournaments work, come talk to Nick at the club or drop me an email.  I will be happy to explain it.

A big thank you for the gift card that many of you contributed towards! We appreciate it very much!
But we have to say that we appreciate all of you, our table tennis family, for making our club such a friendly and enjoyable club.
So thank you for being involved and being AWESOME!

The Greatest or Ches-Mont 2023 have been crowned! Congratulations to Dimitri, Varun, Naomi, Janel, Keshav and Jimmy!
You can find the results on our State and Local Champions page.
The Pennsylvania State Championships are being held May 12th and 13th in Lancaster. They have plenty of openings for the Women's Title, and a waiting list for most of the other events.

Our month+ long anniversary celebration continues with Mustache Night on May 9th.
Fake mustaches, come dressed up in manly costumes to win prizes, bacon, and a CAGE MATCH table!

June through July we pit Montgomery county against Chester county.
Chester County and Montgomery County will put together as many teams as they like to compete against each other.  The teams will be made up of three players each. Teams should be made up of players of similar playing ability. The top players in team A, next best players team B, etc.

A captain/manager should be selected for each county.  They will be in charge of communication with players, determining line-up and substitutions for each playing session.

Counties will rotate weekly in presenting a line-up. The “away” county line-up is presented, the “home” county will offer their line-up. If any substitutions are required to be made by the “away” county before a session’s matches begin, the “home” county may be allowed to make any changes to their line-up.  Line-ups may not change once the first match has begun. 

Matches are played as follows:
Away Team Players: A,B,C
Home Team Players: X,Y,Z
AvY, XvB, BvZ, YvC, CvZ, AvX, doubles

Each match win will count as 1 point towards the cumulative county standings.
Sign up here: http://level2199.com/short/botc
Standings are posted here: http://level2199.com/short/botcstandings
Match reporting can be done here: http://level2199.com/short/botcreporting

We will be holding a USA Table Tennis Tournament on August 18th, 2023.
You can sign up through Omnipong.com. Here is a printable registration form.
For those of you who do not know how USATT tournaments work, come talk to Nick at the club or drop me an email.  I will be happy to explain it.

Greetings table tennis fans!

April marks our 1 year anniversary at the Phoenixville Recreation Center! The club has really grown over the last year! We went from 6 to 9 tables and are seeing our player counts moving into the 30s on both Tuesdays and Saturdays!

We just finished our first kids program. We learned a few things from it and are formulating ideas on what we should do next for the kids. 

Now, let's celebrate! 

Asking for volunteers to open the club on Saturday May 13th.  Drew and Chris have volunteered to breakdown and close up. We just need a couple of people to open.  
Why? Because the Pennsylvania State Championships are that day, and the regular show runners are going.

August is a ways off, but we are hosting our first USA Table Tennis (USATT) sanctioned tournament, August 19th, 2023.

More, more, more coming soon, but I want to keep you guys focused.

Love you all!

Nick

Greetings Ping Pong fans!

This month we began our first beginner program for kids.  We had to cap the number of participants at twelve.  The ages range from 8 to 11 and they were very enthusiastic the first week.  Be aware that kids may still be playing when the club opens at 6pm, so be kind and courteous to these new players.

I am always looking to tweak and tune the club procedures and activities to give everyone the best experience.  We just started a color coded system.  We start out at CODE GREEN.  During code green, matches are best of five and practice is limited to 15 minutes.  When we exceed 25 players, we go to CODE RED. During code red, matches are best of three, and practice limited to 10 minutes.  So look for the color bar at the top of the waiting list, and the colored cards attached to the net sets at the tables.

Skipping. Keep in mind, we allow skipping when your name comes up on the list.  What does that mean? The player skipping retains their place on the list and allows the next person to play in their place.  But when the next table opens, the player who skipped is up again. So please, don't cross off a player's name when they skip, and look out for skipped names who may have a lot of crossed out players beneath them.

Time is running out to qualify for the GREATEST of CHES-MONT tournament being held the last week of April.  Be sure to report you match wins!

We have several members looking to unload equipment. Rackets, blades, and rubbers.  If you are in the market for some discounted equipment check out our Facebook group or drop me a message. We also have T-shirts for sale. Shirts can also be custom made. See the PongFather for details.

Mark your calendars for April.

• April 4th: Ladies night with Greatest of Ches-Mont WOMEN'S event.
• April 11th: Juniors night with Greatest of Ches-Mont Under 18 event.
• April 18th: Mustache night 
• April 25th: Greatest of Ches-Mont Championship.

That's all for now!

Um... I don't think I have met Tommy before, and I don't know his last name, but he beat Brady in the final 3-1 with his pen-hold style, pips, positioning, and power!  
Thank you everyone for participating!

 

 

 

 

Next up is a jam packed April! It's our month long anniversary celebration. 
Janel plans on baking something for everyone each Tuesday. Here is what I have for you so far!

• April 4th: Ladies night with Greatest of Ches-Mont WOMEN'S event.
• April 11th: Juniors night with Greatest of Ches-Mont Under 18 event.
• April 18th: Mustache night 
• April 25th: Greatest of Ches-Mont Championship.

USATT Tournament.  Okay, this is the big one.  Here is the story. 
May 6th we have been moved to the gym so that another event can be held in our normal spot. 
This gives us the opportunity to hold a full tournament in the gym.  But this is something I cannot do alone. 
I need help and backup. If you want to volunteer to help please come talk to me.
The plan is running 4 consecutive events on 8 tables and would probably run from 9am to 4pm.
If you would like more information on how USATT tournaments work let me know.

The Greatest Doubles Champions Challenge is going strong.  We post the winners on Facebook and in our website gallery. 
Hey, maybe the players who end up in the most photos at the end of the year will get something special.  

You still have time to qualify for our Greatest of Ches-Mont Championship. 
You must live, work, or go to school in Chester or Montgomery Counties and win six matches against six different players at the club between now and April 25th to qualify for the "closed" overall final. 
The Greatest of Ches-Mont Women's Championship and Juniors Championship have the same county requirement, but six wins are not necessary.
Report your wins to Nick or via this link.
Qualifiers will get their photo on a virtual "trading card" which will be posted on Facebook and in our website gallery.  

Now, lets talk about the balls.
The Nitakku balls are pretty good, haven't seen one crack yet, but have started disappearing.
Our solution? Back to cheaper balls!  There is no clear consensus on which of the three types of orange balls are best, so we are just going to use all three! 
Joola training, Nittaku training, and Mapol 3 stars.  So if you like a specific version, you can probably find one around. 
If you prefer top of the line balls, you can bring your own or purchase one from the club.  We will have white 3 Star Gambler poly balls for sale. 
Using a white ball will allow you to track it down easier amongst our sea of orange ones. 
I can't wait to talk on this subject in the next update! Oh boy!

Thanks to everyone for making our club welcoming to all and thank you to those who help setup and breakdown, YOU ROCK!

-Nick

Click here to sing up now for the Greatest Ever Doubles Ping Pong Tournament 2022.
New Years Eve, 12/31/2022 9am-12noon. Cost to enter is $30 per team.
Up to 24 teams can compete in a 3 to 4 team round robin followed by placement into either the Aces or the Kings divisions.
Each division will play in randomized single elimination round. 
Trophies will go to 1st and 2nd in each division.
Prize money might be available for the Aces division if we exceed 12 teams.  At which point prize money will scale based on entries up to a maximum of $150 for first place and $60 for second.
Kings division earns trophies only.
*This is not a USATT sanctioned event.  We will play in the three multipurpose rooms, with tile flooring, on  3 Joola DX30 tables and 3 Joola Indoor 25mm tables using white Gambler balls.

Print out flyer.

Looking for a teammate? Use this form.

Greatest of Phoenixville 2022 - Time is running out to qualify. This single elimination event has no entry fee and will be held 12/27/2022 - STARTING AT 6PM. You have only a few sessions left to qualify and compete to earn the title of 2022's Greatest of Phoenixville.  This event is mainly for bragging rights, winner gets a trophy and the title.  Next year begins the quest for Greatest of Ches-Mont.

Winter is coming.
Make sure you don't travel out to the club only to find our session canceled!
We don't just cancel for the weather, Saturdays are especially prone to cancelation due to other events being held at the recreation center.
Check your email, the website, our google calendar, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter before you come out.
As you can see, I am trying to make it as easy as possible for you so you don't waste a trip, so please check first!

Stats for 2022
Tuesdays: Highest Attendance 24, Lowest 9, Average 16, Number of meetings 31
Saturdays: Highest Attendance 13, Lowest 5, Average 7, Number of meetings 15

Thank you everyone for your making the club such and awesome place to play and socialize! We are grateful for you!

Greetings Phoenixville Table Tennis Club friends!

Table of Contents.
1 - Will election day affect the club?
2 - The Greatest of Phoenixville will be determined for 2022.
3 - The Greatest of Ches-Mont Tournament qualifications begin.
4 - The Greatest Ever Doubles Champions.
5 - Club shirts available.
6 - Recession Buster Vouchers

1 - The Phoenixville Recreation Center will be a polling place on Tuesday 11/8.  I have conflicting information on if this will affect us playing or not.  At the very least, it may cause parking headaches.  Since it is my polling place, I will let you know on that day if we are open or closed, and what the parking looks like.

2 - The Greatest of Phoenixville Ping Pong championship is approaching.  So far we have two players qualified, Janel and myself, imagine that.  The plan is to hold it before the end of 2022.  If we cannot obtain the gym for a full tournament, the championship will be held during normal club hours on a Saturday.
Remember, if you live, work, or go to school in Phoenixville you must win six matches against six different opponents to qualify for the championship event!

3 - Okay, now that Phoenixville is out of the way, Who is the greatest player in all of Chester and Montgomery counties?  Let's find out!
The Greatest of Ches-Mont Ping Pong championship event will be held in 2023.  Early bird qualifications begin 11/5. On Saturdays only, from now until January, win six matches against six different players at the club to qualify.  Starting in January, you may also qualify on Tuesday nights as well. But for now, I am using it as a way to lure more players out to Saturdays! (9am-12Noon)

4 - This is just for fun! I have a flag announcing the Greatest Ever Doubles Champions. If you want your team to get a photo with the flag, you have to be the winners for the night!  So once one team wins, they get the right to get a photo unless you beat them!  This starts from scratch each night.

5 - We have new club shirts! These shirts are cotton with a white logo and are $10.  Let me know a size and color and I can have one made for you. We also have some quick-dry embroidered club shirts for $22, while supplies last.

6 - If you would like to come to the club, but your budget is tight, reach out to me.  We are starting a voucher program.  We gave vouchers out to winners of our last tournament, and I would like to extend them to players who want to come, but have a hard time affording it.

Greatest of Ches-Mont 2023

Greatest of Ches-mont Photo and Video Gallery.

Greetings Ping Pongers!

I have started planning our next tournament, Groundhog Trophy 2023.  We are aiming to hold it Saturday Feb. 4th.  Amongst the events are USATT sanctioned Open, U1700, an unsanctioned novice event, and the GOP.
The GOP is the Greatest of Phoenixville.  This specific event has two requirements.  First, you must be a resident of Phoenixville. Second, you must record six match wins against different players at the club between now and the event. These are my ideas for now, and I am always open to suggestions, so anything can change before the actual event.  

I want to thank our volunteers for helping out in September.   Please let me know if you would like to volunteer to help open or close when I can't make it.  There is a video below detailing the steps we take.

The club is CLOSED Saturday 10/29

You can keep track of all the club closings, events, and local tournaments by following the “calendar” link in the menu above.

Greetings Table Tennis and Ping Pong fans!

August is over, and I sit here trying to think of all that happened.  Its tough because I am taking a vacation next week which is why the club will be CLOSED Tuesday 9/6 and Saturday 9/10.

We are still lacking a sufficient number of volunteers to take over when I am unavailable, so we are going to continue announcing closures via email and Facebook.  If you aren't on the email list, I recommend getting on it!
We will also be CLOSED Saturday 10/1. (updated)

Brady and I visited Manor Church Table Tennis Club in Lancaster in August for their giant round robin tournament. Brady advanced, but ultimately lost to the third place winner. 
Doug took 4th place with his custom hexagon anti-spin Turkish racket.

Congratulation to Bobby!  He took second place at the under 1200 at the South Jersey Indoor Sports Center.

As most tournaments in the area are held on Saturdays, you can expect Saturday closures regularly to give us the opportunity to compete.  If you are interested in going, let me know, and maybe we can carpool. 

We also will continue to bring out the Newgy robot on Saturdays for those who want to check it our or practice with it.

That's all for now!

Nick

Hello and welcome friends!

We have had an increase in playing doubles recently. YES! I love it, keep up the good work. 
Saturday morning sessions are kind of slow, 5,6, maybe 8 players a week.  So that's when I lug my Newgy Robo-Pong robot out to the club and let people try it.  If you are interested, stop on by.
Saturdays are more likely to experience cancelations than Tuesday, so please keep an eye on the announcements above, our Google calendar,  or our Facebook page/group.  Check it before you come out.

We were planning a tourment in September, that is on hold for now, things were not panning out as we wanted them.  I will let you know if things change.
Here are a few of our upcoming closures:
Club will be CLOSED on Saturday August 27th 
Club will be CLOSED on Tuesday September 6th. 
Club will be CLOSED Saturday September 10th. 

That's all for now, see you at the club!
Nick

Greetings Table Tennis Fans! Welcome to July.

We are attempting to open up on Saturday mornings 9am to 12noon.  Now there are a few things we have to take into account.
1 - We would like to get more volunteers to help setup and run things   Currently the Flor family take on this responsibility. But if we can't make it one Saturday, we'd like someone to be able to step in and take our place rather than having to cancel outright.  If you would like to help, let me know.  
2 - We are considered a program of the recreation department.  They do get more money by renting the space out than they do when we play.  So for Saturday in-particular, we may have to change rooms or cancel if someone would like to use the space.  So it is important to watch our social media, website, or be on our email list so you don't waste a trip out because we had to close.  Right now, we will announce all the times we are open until we decide that it is a good idea to continue.  We have to gauge the demand in that time slot.

On June 25th we held the Chris Cruz Memorial Table Tennis Tournament.  Nineteen players competed in three divisions.  Aces Division: 1st Doug W., 2nd Robert S.  Kings Division: 1st Shuming Z., 2nd Karun H. Jacks Division: 1st Cole L., 2nd Sal L.
I think most people enjoyed to tournament and that is ran picture perfect.  If you participated and have a different opinion, please let me know.
 

We are planning on having a USATT Sanctioned tournament on September 17th, 2022.
What does sanctioned mean?  Well first off, it is more expensive because you have to join USATT to participate.  USATT yearly membership fees for most players is $25.  You can check out the USATT website for more info, but honestly it's a bit confusing there right now, so best just to ask Nick at the club and I will give you a rundown. But after you join, there are event fees as well.  But we hope to attract current tournament players from all over the region by making it a sanctioned tournament.
Secondly, you will get an official USA Table Tennis rating.  This will allow you to participate in other tournaments such as Trolley Car's and Princeton Pong's events.  The rating helps you align with similarly skilled players in tournament events and can provide motivation to gain points at tournaments.  Again, something you can discuss with me at anytime.

Alright, I believe I have given you both too much information and too little!
See you at the tables!
Nick

Welcome to monthly update version V3.0 (this update keeps changing!!!)

This started out as a poor monthly update.  It went from bad to worse, except that we now have the tournament rescheduled.
Sorry if this is an absolute mess.  Okay, I am going to stop fiddling with it now.

We had our first closing due to COVID in May and had to postpone our tournament.

And now we have to wear masks to enter the building until the borough decides otherwise.*¹

We are now a USA Table Tennis affiliated club.
Now we can plan on holding a sanctioned USATT tournament!
, so maybe our tournament will become sanctioned.
That's all I got, just going to lie low for now, see how things shake out and take it from there.
Happy ponging!

Tournament has been rescheduled to Saturday June 25th.
Register at tinyurl.com/cruz2022

Here we are! Four weeks after opening! Here's the scoop.
We've had a mix of old and new players, I'd say most in the 1400-900 range ratings wise, Red Owls using the PHXTTC rating system.
First night we had 17, 11 the second, 12 the third and 8 the fourth.  So the wait time is almost no existent at this point and we have unused tables through out the night.
However, let's see what happens over the next week because we may get new players after the following:

The Recreation Center open house was held on Saturday April 30th. (As was every other event you can imagine in the entire area!) 
It was a lot of fun, community members took home keychains and all of the 30 pamphlets we printed up.
Quite a few recreational players hit around. Janel and I played though-out the day, ended up tied 6 games to 6.

PA State Championships have completed! I have the results recorded in the Pennsylvania State Table Tennis Championships Archive.
However, Since there were only 4 State Champions events held, I keep thinking to myself, what if we held the other categories during another tournament? 
That sound you hear is the gears in my head turning.

Rating System
I have updated the PHX Skill tracking system.  I am slowly adding names.  I put a little description of the concept on the page. I am also working on physical rewards to hand out.  I have been thinking about using the system to determine divisions in our next tournament.

 
I was contacted by my friend at Valley Forge Baptist Temple in Collegeville about them starting up Monday Night Hangouts again there.  They usually ran from 7pm - 9pm.  I don't think my family will participate this time, one night a week is plenty for us.  But if you are interested and want me to help you organize some play time there, let me know.

 That's all I got for now.  I think it is more than enough!
Come out to the club!!!

The club is now open again!
When: Tuesday nights 6pm-9pm
Where: 501 Franklin Ave, Phoenixville PA 19460 (Phoenixville Recreation Center)
How much: $5 per night.
If you have not played with us before, check our our rules and code of conduct below.

The Phoenixville Recreation Center will also be hosting an open house on Saturday April 30th from 10am - 2pm if you want to come check the facility.
The 30th is rough!  I had to drop out of the disc golf tournament at Rez Park, right across the street happening that same day.  
And the Pennsylvania State Table Tennis Championships are now held that day as well!!!

Space is limited for the States, so sign up soon!
https://pa-statettc.com/

Who needs USATT tournament ratings? When you can use the Phoenixville Skill Level Tracker!
Why? Because I can! Yeah, I said that, isn't it cool? 
Here is my prototype system, see if you can figure it out just by the picture.  More on the details to come later.

Welcome back to the monthly update, I'm your host, The PongFather.

I have completed my 30 day table tennis challenge and I wrote an article about my experience.  I had a great deal of fun and many more things happened than I had anticipated.
Read the article here.

A Ping-Pong-A-Thon event was held on Feb. 26th.  12 hours of pong.  It was a real party!  In our "professional" double elimination tournament, Brady won 1st place and newcomer James took 2nd.
I honestly wasn't sure we would finish, there were so many players vying for table time.  I want to thank everyone who came out and donated! 
There is another Ping-Pong-A-Thon event in West Chester going for a full 24 hours March 25th/26th. Click here for more information: https://pingpongathon.com/t/chesco
You can also donate through that link.

Novice event winners Scott (2nd), Jamie (1st)

James

The Pong Father returns for the Health Care Access Virtual Karaoke contest. Unfortunately he could not place among the winners in the contest. Maybe next year.
Health Care Access provides the means for uninsured or underinsured residents of the greater Phoenixville area to get health needs met.  

Coming soon...

The Phoenixville Recreation Center is nearly complete.  We have already moved the tables to the facility and are just waiting to announce the opening.  The facility will be hosting an open house on Saturday April 30th from 10am to 2pm. We invite you to join us then and take a peek at the club's new home. 501 Franklin Ave, Phoenixville PA 19460.