Is table tennis THE hardest sport to go professional in?

[Sp8e00]

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🙏🙏🙏

 

[jk1980]

If the cognitive abilities are given you will earn much more in any other decent job than as a pro if you are only in the top 300 which is still incredible hard to achieve and not really a long lasting financial strategy

 

[sebi]

Hardest sport football(soccer)

 

[Sp8e00]

Hardest sport football(soccer)

I mentioned already that football has around 200,000 professional players whereas table tennis has less than 1,000. In terms of statistics, it’s much harder to be a professional table tennis player

 

[Zezima]

I mentioned already that football has around 200,000 professional players whereas table tennis has less than 1,000. In terms of statistics, it’s much harder to be a professional table tennis player

Pretty sure that number is higher if we take everyone who can make the minimum wage. Hell even some kids here make 1000€ a month playing one match a week.

 

[Gtsnake]

In terms of money earned I would say TT is the most difficult to earn a living. There just isn't enough money to go around to make a decent living. The 1000th ranked golfer on the PGA is a millionaire. How many millionaires are in TT?

 

[Sp8e00]

Pretty sure that number is higher if we take everyone who can make the minimum wage. Hell even some kids here make 1000€ a month playing one match a week.

Crazy!!!

 

[Sp8e00]

In terms of money earned I would say TT is the most difficult to earn a living. There just isn't enough money to go around to make a decent living. The 1000th ranked golfer on the PGA is a millionaire. How many millionaires are in TT?

Hard to say, because all the best CNT players put all their money from comps back into the federation therefore players like ma long and fzd may not be millionaires or definitely not during their careers. Most of the presumed millionaires of tt definitely made the majority of their money from things after their career, big brand deals like zjk to donic and coaching like he did

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

the effort vs pay out is so massively insane, my advise is better to be a professional tooth puller ( aka dentist ). Six years of intense study and you are guaranteed a career that can make you a networth millionaire.

Meanwhile a TT pro may have ro start at six years old and the chance of making a net worth millionaire is so slim; the effort to pay out ratio just does not seen logical.

NB: kids, just go and study your calculus and quadratics.

 

[NetProphet]

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🙏🙏🙏

I reckon sprinting is probably the most difficult to reach a level where you are visible to anyone.
Of the 10 that lineup in the Olympic final hoe many can anyone even name? Probably 1 or 2 only.
So so so so difficult and an absolutely immense amount of training and mental strength required.
And it's not nearly as much fun as TT. How they do it I just can't comprehend

 

[the-don]

it's quite easy actually.
you just show up to a club, compete, national team.... go pro.
it's not even a very expensive sport.

other sports are much more niche.
like race driver for example.
I never knew anyone who was a race driver.

 

[Sp8e00]

I reckon sprinting is probably the most difficult to reach a level where you are visible to anyone.
Of the 10 that lineup in the Olympic final hoe many can anyone even name? Probably 1 or 2 only.
So so so so difficult and an absolutely immense amount of training and mental strength required.
And it's not nearly as much fun as TT. How they do it I just can't comprehend

I agree to a level because sprinters are incredible, it’s a sport that takes lots of dedication and hard work and you can still be limited by genetics no matter the work load. In terms of hardest to become no1 in the world or greatest of all time then it’s probably in my top 5 with pole vault and a few others. But the question is whether table tennis is the hardest to become professional and make a career out of. Many track athletes can make a career out of what they do somewhat easily and there are other ways. I don’t know if you know about the enchanted games but for the 100m some not enchanted sprinter won something like 100k dollars just by running a sub 10. This is not a fast time in professional sprinting standards and probably thousands of runners have run a sub 10 but the prize pot is still huge!!!

 

[Sp8e00]

it's quite easy actually.
you just show up to a club, compete, national team.... go pro.

other sports are much more niche.
like race driver.... I never knew anyone who was a race driver.

I know people who are race car drivers and have gone pro, there are a multitude of ways into professional motorsports like f1, f2, 3-4, rally etc. The list could go on forever. Maybe 100 differnt events each with 20 drivers means 2000 professional places in motorsports. And I bet they get payed a lot more than table tennis players. I recon with the best coach in the world for 3 years with two hours of training a day then I could be in one of them 2000 places. I can’t say the same about table tennis. Atleast 25-30 plus hours is necessary every week for the rest of your life and even then, your chances are slim for becoming pro and making a career out of it

 

[TTpastor]

the effort vs pay out is so massively insane, my advise is better to be a professional tooth puller ( aka dentist ). Six years of intense study and you are guaranteed a career that can make you a networth millionaire.

Meanwhile a TT pro may have ro start at six years old and the chance of making a net worth millionaire is so slim; the effort to pay out ratio just does not seen logical.

NB: kids, just go and study your calculus and quadratics.

Calculus is the way, I must say as a theologian.

 

[the-don]

I know people who are race car drivers and have gone pro, there are a multitude of ways into professional motorsports like f1, f2, 3-4, rally etc. The list could go on forever. Maybe 100 differnt events each with 20 drivers means 2000 professional places in motorsports. And I bet they get payed a lot more than table tennis players. I recon with the best coach in the world for 3 years with two hours of training a day then I could be in one of them 2000 places. I can’t say the same about table tennis. Atleast 25-30 plus hours is necessary every week for the rest of your life and even then, your chances are slim for becoming pro and making a career out of it

I think at some point you don't need to train that much anymore.
like the movements become automatized so it doesn't really add anything to train more.

 

[Sp8e00]

I think at some point you don't need to train that much anymore.
like the movements become automatized so it doesn't really add anything to train more.

You really still do at professional level

 

[lightspin]

In America how many truly professional players do we have in the USA? Kanak? Maybe Lily. The others have to spend their time coaching or have their families foot the bill. Making a living coaching is way easier and in almost all instances way more lucrative.

At a tournament in the USA there was a top 50 player playing with his girlfriend/wife in attendance watching. A friend of mine asked her "Wow, so and so is top 50 in the world, he must be making a lot of money." The lady laughed and said he clears around 30k after expenses each year. You might as well go work at McDonalds.

I do know of some non-CNT players clearing 150k playing events in China. These are the top of the food chain in China not on the national team. Their earnings aren't that common.

The road to becoming a pro is also a nightmare compared to other sports. I have described this 100s of times in other threads, so I won't bother doing so here.

 

[Zezima]

There are no coaches within 2h and for every club anything above 15€ is not even affordable to pay for 1h of coaching. Like there is no ecosystem nothing. We have to accept this sport as a hobby and maybe more casual. It's not gonna change in my lifetime atleast