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The thread about selling a J.O. Waldner blade signed by Desmond Douglas to raise club funds got me thinking about this.
When I was about 7 and on holiday in a big old mansion in Devon around 1981. One of the kids told me Des was the English champion and used 'reversed rubbers'. That same day I saw and used my first reverse rubber bat. I thought it was ingenious. I never played again until I was 11 on a caravan holiday in Scotland and saw people doing a backhand chiquita type shot. Thought it was awesome and decided I wanted to be good at this too. They were talking about 'Tackiness D' and I thought 'woah' TT is cool. We'd had a net on the dining room table put I'd never played on a proper table.
Later that summer my mum was worried that I was too inactive and hated regular sports. She said 'Please choose a sport, you can do anything, I'll get you into a club and take you there as much as you like'.
Table tennis was the answer. I believed I could play because my dad was a decent player and I have patience in general.
She found the local club and it was in a disused school which had a youth club and a hindu community centre downstairs. Often I'd show up and no one would be there to open up but I kept going and this old guy called Vic who used a hardbat would often be there to give me practice. In the end I got his phone number and would check if he was gonna be there. He always would. What a legend. No one else took time to encourage juniors and I could sit on the bench for hours sometimes desperate to learn. I promised myself I would always be available for juniors and now I am. Not that it's necessary to think this way at my current club. We have a great system where the head coach calls the names of a pair and which person's turn it is to decide the practice drill. I you draw a youngster he tells you what to focus on feeding or teaching. Such a good system.
It took me so much courage to ask my parents for a 15 quid bat for my 12th birthday but knew I needed half decent equipment. Dunlop combination bat. It had some medium pips on BH and I struggled to learn how to use it. Had to wear it out though and prove I loved the game before getting my Stiga Johansson semi anatomical with Sriver and Black power. I was so nervous to get that and messed up cutting the rubbers. Was an ace bat though. Seems you can still get black power on ALI. I am shocked!
Then my first visit to a live tournament was the EurAsia tournament in Cleveland. All the buzz was about Waldner and he indeed dominated the tournament. I went to a few others after but that was the most impressive one by far. V. entertaining performances by Klampar and Li Gun Sang I think was his name too. Great defender.
I'm really interested to hear how you all got into this highly addictive sport.
When I was about 7 and on holiday in a big old mansion in Devon around 1981. One of the kids told me Des was the English champion and used 'reversed rubbers'. That same day I saw and used my first reverse rubber bat. I thought it was ingenious. I never played again until I was 11 on a caravan holiday in Scotland and saw people doing a backhand chiquita type shot. Thought it was awesome and decided I wanted to be good at this too. They were talking about 'Tackiness D' and I thought 'woah' TT is cool. We'd had a net on the dining room table put I'd never played on a proper table.
Later that summer my mum was worried that I was too inactive and hated regular sports. She said 'Please choose a sport, you can do anything, I'll get you into a club and take you there as much as you like'.
Table tennis was the answer. I believed I could play because my dad was a decent player and I have patience in general.
She found the local club and it was in a disused school which had a youth club and a hindu community centre downstairs. Often I'd show up and no one would be there to open up but I kept going and this old guy called Vic who used a hardbat would often be there to give me practice. In the end I got his phone number and would check if he was gonna be there. He always would. What a legend. No one else took time to encourage juniors and I could sit on the bench for hours sometimes desperate to learn. I promised myself I would always be available for juniors and now I am. Not that it's necessary to think this way at my current club. We have a great system where the head coach calls the names of a pair and which person's turn it is to decide the practice drill. I you draw a youngster he tells you what to focus on feeding or teaching. Such a good system.
It took me so much courage to ask my parents for a 15 quid bat for my 12th birthday but knew I needed half decent equipment. Dunlop combination bat. It had some medium pips on BH and I struggled to learn how to use it. Had to wear it out though and prove I loved the game before getting my Stiga Johansson semi anatomical with Sriver and Black power. I was so nervous to get that and messed up cutting the rubbers. Was an ace bat though. Seems you can still get black power on ALI. I am shocked!
Then my first visit to a live tournament was the EurAsia tournament in Cleveland. All the buzz was about Waldner and he indeed dominated the tournament. I went to a few others after but that was the most impressive one by far. V. entertaining performances by Klampar and Li Gun Sang I think was his name too. Great defender.
I'm really interested to hear how you all got into this highly addictive sport.
