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As table tennis players, we’ve probably all wanted to be professional at some stage in our careers or imagine how it would be. We may of also thought the goal of being pro was achievable. It comes at no surprise though that it is almost impossible to achieve, no matter the ambition, the effort or the ability.
This brings up the question, is it even possible to become pro or is it the hardest sport to become pro?
When I say professional, I mean that you can make a career out of table tennis without needing an on the side job, coaching or video creator etc. And to make a career out of table tennis just itself, without any evidence, I would say that you have to be top 500 in wtt men’s and women’s and maybe even that is pushing it so it could be something more like 300. Other people may be able to back me up on this but I think that players probably make the majority of their money from domestic leagues and sponsorships if you arent inside of the top 30 and winning prized events regularly.
With that being said, maybe only 1000 people in the world make a career solely on themselves in table tennis which really is marginal compared to the amount of people who play it. Compared to other sports like football/soccer where there are 200,000+ pros and other sports, there really aren’t that many pros at all.
Also, table tennis in my opinion requires the most amount of training than any sport in the world. Michel Gadal, the ex coach of France always brought up the phrase of the famous 10,000 hours which is the average amount of hours it takes for someone to become pro. Keep in mind, this is 20-30 years ago when players may of been training slightly less. That 10,000 hours does not include physical work either which may take another 5+ hours of your week up as a pro. For someone like me who trains 10 hours a week, it would take more than 15 years of dedicated training to apparently get to pro level and this isn’t a guarantee. Say I started at 6 years old, that means I would be pro at 21 years old. Some players now in wtt have been there since they were 15-16 so I would already be 5 years behind them.
Is table tennis really the hardest sport to go professional, taking in percentage of players that get there and hours of training needed etc?
Let me know🙏🙏🙏
This brings up the question, is it even possible to become pro or is it the hardest sport to become pro?
When I say professional, I mean that you can make a career out of table tennis without needing an on the side job, coaching or video creator etc. And to make a career out of table tennis just itself, without any evidence, I would say that you have to be top 500 in wtt men’s and women’s and maybe even that is pushing it so it could be something more like 300. Other people may be able to back me up on this but I think that players probably make the majority of their money from domestic leagues and sponsorships if you arent inside of the top 30 and winning prized events regularly.
With that being said, maybe only 1000 people in the world make a career solely on themselves in table tennis which really is marginal compared to the amount of people who play it. Compared to other sports like football/soccer where there are 200,000+ pros and other sports, there really aren’t that many pros at all.
Also, table tennis in my opinion requires the most amount of training than any sport in the world. Michel Gadal, the ex coach of France always brought up the phrase of the famous 10,000 hours which is the average amount of hours it takes for someone to become pro. Keep in mind, this is 20-30 years ago when players may of been training slightly less. That 10,000 hours does not include physical work either which may take another 5+ hours of your week up as a pro. For someone like me who trains 10 hours a week, it would take more than 15 years of dedicated training to apparently get to pro level and this isn’t a guarantee. Say I started at 6 years old, that means I would be pro at 21 years old. Some players now in wtt have been there since they were 15-16 so I would already be 5 years behind them.
Is table tennis really the hardest sport to go professional, taking in percentage of players that get there and hours of training needed etc?
Let me know🙏🙏🙏
