says
Australian 2xOlympian. Highest Men's World Ranking: 61...
says
Australian 2xOlympian. Highest Men's World Ranking: 61...
Member
Hey guys,
thought I'd bring up an oldie from 2015 and shoutout Dan Ives from TTD for capturing this footage. Lovely guy, for those that haven't met him in person.
I'd known FZD since we played local chinese tournaments back in 2012-2013 when he was still damn good, beating wang liqin, but wasn't quite worldwide famous yet.
We were at the Swedish Open, I'd had one of the best wins of my life beating Jakub Kosowski, a former top 75 in the world player. I went on to have 2-2 6-6 with Mattias Falck the round after, but losing 4-2. He was still Mattias Karlsson at the time. After many bad tournaments leading up to the Swedish Open back in 2015, I was more than stoked to have this kind of result. This was in the Snowy cold November of Sweden! And remember guys: When we as Australians committed to living in Europe to better our table tennis, we were locked in Europe basically, the opposite side of the world for us, as flights were way too expensive and long to fly back home. The things we did for Table Tennis ey!?
Whilst winding down at the end of our tournament, with my Aussie compatriot at the time, David Powell. There was these mixed emotions of awkwardness yet relaxation. He did not have the best tournament, but also not a shocker or anything like that.
This was all awkward for us two to sit together so closely at the time because less than 2 months after that, we were set to compete for 3 Olympic Male spots to represent Australia at the 2016 Rio Olympics. We lived together in Europe for 6 months to prepare for it, went to pro tours as Aussie representatives, but deep down we were each others' biggest rivals and we KNEW IT. We felt like we could never explicitly say out loud that beating each other at Aussie tournaments was our number 1 priority, but it was very true. A topic to be discussed about on my YouTube another day (How it is having rivals, the emotions of it, and how it helps each other having arch rivals). I also was dead in the legs with cramps EVERYWHERE! Happy, relieved but also anxious whilst having Olympic trials in less than 2 months, and sitting down chatting more openly than I was comfortable with, with a guy who was my arch rival at the time, and could very much take my Olympic Spot.
So, we were debating life as usual, deep chats as men/guys do haha. Chatting about the after feels of a tourmament, running on basically being broke trying to cover the fees of tourmaments, and earning such little money from playing for our country and local clubs. Then comes FZD, swagger and all, like a boss. Funny thing is: Powell and I were sitting there like two people who to us, winning pro tour matches was considered "an unreal and tremendous effort". Then days after, the big dogs come in. Guys like FZD, Mizutani, etc come in and their first main draw match hasn't even started, by the time guys like Powell and I, are finished in the tournament. You could not HELP but to feel overwhelmed in a starstruck way, but also feel so shit as a human being. Looking back, I do believe I tried to be as good as I could in the sport to run away from the pain of thinking I was inadequate as a human being, which can also stem from being bullied in school and/or having strict asian parents who were loving, but would often tell us that achieving certain things just wasn't possible for somelike like "me". Yep, I battle far more demons than you guys probably expect or realise. Still very much do today.
Pro Tour life often throws you down mentally and challenges you HARD, makes you feel "wow, I've worked for 15 years and given my life to become as good as I am today, and here are all these players who are much higher level than me... How many DAMN levels are there in this game?!" This feeling often rocked us, and made us realise that we could become pros and olympians, but we were never NEVER going to realistically become world champions. This really challenges you as a human being, but also grows you BIG TIME.
You may read this now and think "greedy pig Heming, you got to experience Olympics, Grand Slams, etc". That is a truth and someone I realise and am grateful for, today. But as a player striving to become your best, you NEVER EVER feel like you are "good". Key word "feel". Because the comparison just becomes higher and higher, the better you get. And no matter how much you get better, there'll always be someone better in this world.
When Fan asked me to hit some balls with him, NO WAY was I going to say no to an old friend. And NO WAY was I going to say no to someone I thought would be a future olympic champion (my prediction was correct). Thankfully today, we have this footage
Today, David Powell and I are extremely good friends. We had similar levels of achievements with him being the better player for most of our career and most of me chasing his tail, being 3 years younger. Yet me being the much more dominant one since 2016. I find this topic interesting as rivals yet two people who shaped each other to the people that are today. We are very thankful today looking back, at all the life skills and lessons the sport and journey has given us!
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