To be fair the ping pong girls work their ass off to achieve this glory.
Ping pong is a split seconds game where you need thousands of practice to perfect your
reaction, just like martial art you have nanosecond to decide how to counter attack.
China has strict policy that top elite national team players cannot be brought over by any other countries, so what singapore can get is the outcast players, B-Team? not a chance, china did not even consider them as reserve's reserve.
I believe the girls' mind are more on revenge and making a statement than the bonus.
saudi and uae boast the richest reward for soccer team and did they make it to the world cup?
As for all of you old uncle sweating and wearing just ur underwear in front of the computer with a fan blowing over ur bald head typing all those sarcastic remarks, did you talk the talk and walk the walk? How many of you do encourage your children to commit their career in sport? If not how are you expecting singapore to produce a local champion?
Any of you think ping pong is easy I welcome you to challenge me, I promise I will not make any attacking smash, and you can smash all you want, all my points win will be from your mistake, anyone?
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well, no body discounts the hard work that these girls and all athletes put in, practice makes perfect, holds true for all sports.
what i find disgusting is the notion and belief that in order to pursue success, we can always "buy" success - by importing talents - be it rejects or pass by from the other countries, get them to don our uniform and play. Whats wrong if we don't do well in table tennis? Whats wrong if we play badly so long we tried? Just because China is strong in table tennis, we Singapore must also be strong and at all costs, die die to win a medal, regardless at what lengths?
So what if we win now win the WC? How is this success gonna cascade downwards to groom young players? Our first FT player for table tennis, is Jin Jun Hong. Did she manage to groom younger singaporean player who now plays for the team? No. Instead, they brought in these 4 girls from China and get them to play for Singapore.
Though the rules forbid them from possibly representing another country - thereby forbidding them to leave because of money, we spent money to "import" them. Why not spend the money as well to properly shake up the table tennis structure to have an established system to groom and identify young players from start?
The thing don't stop there, you have to make sports a viable business and trade - people don't play full time in Singapore simply because it does not earn enough. Looking at it, I would also not encourage my children to do sports full time because an injury can ruin your career and without a backup, you are gone. Few years down the road, no one give a fuck if you are the ex-world champion.
Contrast this with the system that other countries have, they have well setup system that ensure that playing professional sport is a viable career - they have leagues, teams that play competitively. Singapore, no. And looking the hoo-has recently with STTA, I can only shake my head in dismay. First and for most, why the fuck have a MP in charge of the association? What is her purpose and function?
There are plenty of countries who don't have a strong sports culture but they are strong in other fields. its not wrong to aspire to be good in sports - but do it ground up and setup the infrastructure properly.
Other gov'ts take care of their citizens where else in Spore its about what you can do for the PAP.
