The Late-Developers of Table Tennis (Do they exist?)

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Hi guys,

On Friday I posted a question on my Facebook page asking...

"Do you know of any international table tennis players that were late developers? For example, didn't start playing until their teens or played several sports and didn't specialize until their late teens. I'd be interested to interview them. Do you think it is essential to specialize early in order to reach the top in our sport?"

It gained a fair amount of interest and Dan suggested I start a thread on here to create some further debate. Here are a few questions I'd like to tackle...

1. Are there any top players that didn't start playing until their teens?
2. Do you need to start playing table tennis at a very young age to ever have a chance of reaching the top?
3. Is it possible to play many sports and only specialise and focus on TT later in life (mid-to-late teens)?
4. Is there some sort of "window of opportunity" at a certain age that helps the learning of a sport like table tennis?
5. Does playing table tennis at a young age at such a high intensity lead to burnout or injuries later on?

I find all of this type of thing really interesting and I'm keen to hear your thoughts too. If there is enough interest I'll try and track down some players and coaches to interview about it all.
 
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Yes. I was hoping that you would talk about how much training you actually need as kid. Pitch was highly ranked but training was few in hours even compared to his European competition. Plus he was up against players that generally trained even less than he did.
 
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I have heard that some top player in HK start to learning table tennis at about 17-18
 
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I think Bettine Vriesekoop only started around 12, and became European Champion around 20 years of age. But times have changed of course :p
In either case, if you start late, you have to do something to make up for the lack of practise, so you have to practise more than others to reach your top. I heard that a player on average will reach his top after 10.000 hours of practise/playing. This can be reached when you start later too, but you have to practise alot to get it before you get old :p
 
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im joe howard from england, im 13 and have been playing for two years but have only in the last six months started training every day working hard and taking it seriously is it possible that someone like me who would otherwise be known as a late starter to be able to get to the top or is the time lost when others have been training hard too much to make up?
 
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im joe howard from england, im 13 and have been playing for two years but have only in the last six months started training every day working hard and taking it seriously is it possible that someone like me who would otherwise be known as a late starter to be able to get to the top or is the time lost when others have been training hard too much to make up?


No one can answer his question, success is not a matter of hard work only.

Success = Natural talent in something + Quality Hard Work + Correct Decision making with Timing + Personality + Luck (you need luck to have all of the previous)

Especially the luck factor is something which is out of our control. Most of the top athletes (in any sport) that are down to earth, always say how lucky they feel cause they can do what they love for a living and secondly being in the top of the world at their profession.
 
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im joe howard from england, im 13 and have been playing for two years but have only in the last six months started training every day working hard and taking it seriously is it possible that someone like me who would otherwise be known as a late starter to be able to get to the top or is the time lost when others have been training hard too much to make up?

Hi Joe and thanks your question.

I really believe that it is possible for a player like yourself to reach the top with the correct attitude and quantity/quality of practice. It seems absurd to me that a 13 year old could be told he's "too old", although I hear this kind of thing a lot.

That's not to say that it wont be very difficult as I guess it's like starting an F1 race in last position and as you slowly overtake the over racers there is still the possibility that the front few drivers are flying off on their own and leaving everyone else behind.

I feel that this question of "am I too old/did I start too late" is fundamentally important and this is why I am determined to get to the bottom of it. If it is true that you must start at 10 or younger to reach the top then we should be telling people not to waste their time. However, if there are players that have started later or not started serious regular practice until their teens then lets find them, interview them, and encourage others like yourself to follow in their footsteps and prove the doubters wrong.

I have lots planned regarding this topic on my blog and I'd be happy to help/encourage you (and others) in any way I can!
 
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Hi Joe and thanks your question.

I really believe that it is possible for a player like yourself to reach the top with the correct attitude and quantity/quality of practice. It seems absurd to me that a 13 year old could be told he's "too old", although I hear this kind of thing a lot.

That's not to say that it wont be very difficult as I guess it's like starting an F1 race in last position and as you slowly overtake the over racers there is still the possibility that the front few drivers are flying off on their own and leaving everyone else behind.

I feel that this question of "am I too old/did I start too late" is fundamentally important and this is why I am determined to get to the bottom of it. If it is true that you must start at 10 or younger to reach the top then we should be telling people not to waste their time. However, if there are players that have started later or not started serious regular practice until their teens then lets find them, interview them, and encourage others like yourself to follow in their footsteps and prove the doubters wrong.

I have lots planned regarding this topic on my blog and I'd be happy to help/encourage you (and others) in any way I can!



thank you for that. i too believe that if someone is prepared to put the hard work in and has the right people around them it is regardless weather they start at 7 or 13 they can still reach the top. however obviously it is required to catch up with the early starters as soon as possible.
 

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IMO, this question is bested answered by a careful research with appropriate methodology to identify the factors that influence the development of TT. Is there such a research already? I don't know.

Great posts guys. There is very little research on this topic within table tennis Iczy, have you ever read the book Bounce? However across other domains there has been plenty of research.

There is some more information on here guys about Liam Pitchford whether it is nature or nurture that got him to where he is now: http://www.tabletennisdaily.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?4736-Liam-Pitchford-Nature-or-Nurture

@2020 tt star

I think if anyone wants to get the the top in their game in their country they can do it. It just takes ridiculous hard work and dedication on the right stuff to build their game plan. Components such as video analysis, serve practice, multi ball, good practice partners etc, all the correct building blocks to make a great player. This hard work doesn't mean just on the table tho. This means having to travel perhaps on your own to clubs every day, part time jobs to pay your entry fees. When you reach 15-16 years of age I think you have to go abroad to a top club to practice, perhaps to Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France. You have to try create contacts with these places young so it's easier to move and practice abroad to learn new things when your older. This is just what I think because I have known many players who become great at table tennis who followed this sort of path. They didn't just stick around at 1 club all there life, they traveled, played plenty of events/leagues where they learned lots of new approaches and ways to improve.

There will be those 'lucky' players as @TTFrenzy mentioned. Whereby they are born in an area that has an excellent table tennis club full of practice partners and coaches. This is called a 'hotbed' If you have this, then your chances will be much greater if you have the right enthusiasm, dedication to make it. I think Liam Pitchford had this hotbed as he had 4 players in his club who were all of the same age, who all worked towards similar goals with great coaching feedback.

I think in some cases starting a little later can be a good thing. Lots of players who specialize early and succeed at a very young age can burnout, get bored or not have the motivation to succeed. However for those who start later can have a much more burning desire to win in there later teens, senior years (peak). Thus, in the long term you can overtake these players who started early.

Anythings possible, just have to believe and most of all enjoy what you do.

I side tracked there from Ben's question, but yes keep your posts coming guys, I am interested in who started later in table tennis and made it to become a professional table tennis player.
 
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The Swedish national team member Jon Persson did not play regularly until he was 15 i think. Then he moved to the table tennis academy in Köping. As a 22 year old he took the doubles bronze in the European Championships in St. Petersburg. I think he is a very late developer, but it has been said that he is extremely talented. He has been injured for long periods which means he is only around 200 in the ITTF rankings.
 
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I reckon it would be possible for someone who played several sports (including table tennis) up to the age of 15/16 and then chose to specialise in table tennis to become a top player, in the UK at least. They will have had the benefits of playing in various sports and getting used to different range of movements, reactions, training techniques. coaching techniques, competition and tournament experience etc. However they would then need to dedicate themselves to the game as much as their contemporary players and rely greatly on luck, since they will be coming in from outside of the "system" and having to compete against players who already have sponsorship deals and have had (sometimes) large amounts of money spent on them by their governing body. The benefit they may have is that their natural style and technique may not have been coached out of them and therefore are not clones, and the fact that they have a slightly unnatural technique could prove beneficial. If they started playing the game at 7/8 and have been coached since then, then will most likely be attacking players. It they have only been playing for fun they may have developed a defensive game and this could prove beneficial as there are so few top class defenders these days.
 
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