Why I Never Became a Pro Table Tennis Player

[Matt Hetherington]

Hi all, I spent the better part of 5 hours putting this together until 3am this morning and it has resonated better than I expected for such a long video. I thought given the types of responses it may very well be helpful to some people in this forum who have been grinding away at the sport for a long time, but still have goals 😇

 

[lightspin]

Interesting video. I think the reason why you didn't go pro or why 99% of the people don't go pro is from a lack of serious training from an extremely young age. If you do not get the proper coaching and put in insane hours as a very young kid, you have absolutely no chance to become "pro." Look at most in the top 10, how young they started and the resources they started with. They all have commonalities. Most people on Earth, even if they desperately wanted to train that way, don't have the chance. It is simply impossible.

Furthermore, in the USA, how many pro players do we have? Kanak for sure. Maybe Lily. And I think that is it. Most reasonable players go the coaching route because it can make way more money than playing and is much less stressful. There was a good player from China who arrived to the states years ago who had beaten some big names when he was younger. He immediately went into coaching full time because as a coach he could clear 150-200k a year. There is no way after expenses he could make that much playing and as a "professional" his job is to maximize profit. So he just coaches full time.

Had you been born in Beijing, Tokyo or Seoul with millionaire parents with relatives on the national team to train with, and practiced seriously starting at age 2, you could have went pro. But you are doing pretty good for yourself now, which I think is pretty cool.

 

[Matt Hetherington]

Interesting video. I think the reason why you didn't go pro or why 99% of the people don't go pro is from a lack of serious training from an extremely young age. If you do not get the proper coaching and put in insane hours as a very young kid, you have absolutely no chance to become "pro." Look at most in the top 10, how young they started and the resources they started with. They all have commonalities. Most people on Earth, even if they desperately wanted to train that way, don't have the chance. It is simply impossible.

Furthermore, in the USA, how many pro players do we have? Kanak for sure. Maybe Lily. And I think that is it. Most reasonable players go the coaching route because it can make way more money than playing and is much less stressful. There was a good player from China who arrived to the states years ago who had beaten some big names when he was younger. He immediately went into coaching full time because as a coach he could clear 150-200k a year. There is no way after expenses he could make that much playing and as a "professional" his job is to maximize profit. So he just coaches full time.

Had you been born in Beijing, Tokyo or Seoul with millionaire parents with relatives on the national team to train with, and practiced seriously starting at age 2, you could have went pro. But you are doing pretty good for yourself now, which I think is pretty cool.

Yes there’s definitely the survival instinct as really the pinnacle of it all, can I LIVE doing this or not. I definitely couldn’t, I had no national team support at all so I ended up covering all my event costs entirely. After spending thousands of dollars and getting nothing back it was pretty clear that it was the end of the road, and I was already almost 30 by then 😅

The one consolation I take away is that, if I had started training in a proper infrastructure from a young age, maybe I wouldn’t love the sport anymore anyway and maybe I would’ve quit and done something else. I didn’t burn out in table tennis because I was always chasing something and playing catch up.

 

[lightspin]

The one consolation I take away is that, if I had started training in a proper infrastructure from a young age, maybe I wouldn’t love the sport anymore anyway and maybe I would’ve quit and done something else. I didn’t burn out in table tennis because I was always chasing something and playing catch up.

Definitely. I know a lot of ex-professionals who detest playing. To them it is just a job. They cannot imagine why someone would show up to the club and play "for fun" as table tennis is anything but fun for them.

 

[NextLevel]

Definitely. I know a lot of ex-professionals who detest playing. To them it is just a job. They cannot imagine why someone would show up to the club and play "for fun" as table tennis is anything but fun for them.

Even national level coaches who in many ways love the sport - they try to change their relationship with playing but they always remember a time they were better while someone like me can continue to pretend I can get better for the rest of my life lol.