Former National Table Tennis coach Babatunde Obisanya has shared his opinion on why table tennis is not very popular among the youth in Nigeria today as football does. It is believed that football enjoys more attention from sports fans and if things are done right, the table tennis will make sway.
Sports247 engaged the coach to know why today’s youth do not involve themselves as it use to be and what are the possible ways to rekindle the passion today. “the young ones should be exposed to variety of sporting activities early in life to allow for choices to be made as it was before and in developed countries where basic facilities are available at various levels of government. During my tender days in Ibadan, while some people were playing football, some of us were busy with table tennis while some were busy with hockey, athletics etc.” Obisanya believes that if children are exposed to sports early enough in their lives they could make decisions on what sports to play.
Obisanya also made known how players interest can be raised in playing tennis and the coach has this to say “Each state sports council or whatever should identify people who have passion for this sport and reach out to some philanthropists in their area to organize competition at their local level and giving winners playing equipment which hitherto they could not afford and monitor there on. Impress it on them that they can be like Atanda/ Lawunmi of this country who are presently multi millionaire in their businesses based on what they gained playing table tennis.
Tennis may not just be a thing of age especially when you remember the ageless Funke Oshonaike and the coach clears the air about a possible age grade in tennis. “There are about 3/4 age categories namely::U13, U 15, U 18 and of course the Open/Senior 18 and above.
Apart from the table tennis being embraced by schools, it can still be embraced by other individuals and the coach has this to say on this one. “Table tennis and other sports should be accessible by all citizens at all levels of government and the government providing basic infrastructure. This is what is obtains in other developed countries ie. Any community you have a population of about 2/3hundred thousands must have a community hall with sporting activities that may be peculiar to that community.”
If it is possible to have a league for schools in table tennis, and the coach shared more light to this “Table Tennis league is a must for further the development of the game and to let some of us know that this is the foundation upon which table tennis was laid in Lagos and to mention but a few, Olowogbowo table tennis club, Alakoro table tennis”
