Thread: TableTennisDaily Podcast #11 - Jan Ove Waldner

Hello and welcome to episode 11 of the TableTennisDaily podcast, today on the show we have arguably the greatest player of all time Jan Ove Valdner the mozart of table tennis. Jan Ove Waldner has recently retired from competitive table tennis, however he will still be an ambassador in taking part in exhibition matches such as the ITTF Legends Tour.

Over the course of his career Jan has collected virtually every honour available in table tennis from winning the Olympics to years of dominance over the Chinese in multiple world team and individual championship victories.

In this podcast we try and unlock a few secrets into what it takes to reach the absolute pinnacle of a sport played by so many millions and what Jan thinks of China's current firm grip on the world stage of table tennis. We also get Jans opinion on current hot topics, issues and changes surrounding modern table tennis.

Here’s the podcast.



Breakdown of the podcast

00:00 Introduction.
00:49 Start.
02:30 Naturally gifted?
03:45 Moment when Jan realised he could make it.
04:30 Why Jan started playing.
05:30 Biggest influences?
06:40 How Jan gets feeling for the ball.
08:10 How much practice Jan did when he was younger.
10:02 What sort of practice Jan did and importance of practice matches in training.
11:24 How to get good at reading the game.
12:48 Regular vs irregular.
14:19 More on the importance of matches in the practice hall.
15:46 Was Jan really as calm as he looked when playing big matches?
16:45 Sports psychologists?
17:25 Mentally and physically getting ready for matches.
18:25 Warming up just before playing.
19:00 The Waldner Service.
23:00 Federer.
23:30 Best moment in Jans career.
25:35 How can Sweden compete with China again?
26:43 Have recent changes in table tennis helped or made it worse?
27:35 Ball issues.
29:00 Changing from 38 to 40mm ball.
30:40 Prize money.
31:46 Chinese dominance and some European players "don't want to take the next step".
32:56 How would Jan thinks he would have got on again today's top Chinese in his prime.
34:30 ITTF.
35:43 Ma Long.
37:03 Chinese Hurricane rubber.
37:40 A couple of user questions (Not as many as usual as we had limited time)

Moments from the podcast

Jan started at the mere age of 6 years old and played his first professional match for Sparvagen in Stockholm when he was just 12 years old. 38 years later Jan Ove waldner retired for the same club Sparvagen. Waldner believed he had a talent for the game and that the two year age different he had with his brother helped push, influence and motivate him. Stellan Bengtsson and Tibor Klampár were Waldner's idols and he watched them often to learn from them when he was younger. Waldner's trip to China inspired him at the age of 14 to work hard, China was a real eye opener to work hard to be a world class player.

In the training hall Waldner said he spent hours and hours practicing. At times he lost track of the time, one minute he thought it was 10am and infact it was 2pm. Jan spent a lot of time playing tournaments every Saturday and Sunday to gain a lot of experience, sometimes 10-20 hours a weekend. Waldner said of the important to give 100% in every training session and to play and practice against lots of styles. Waldner played lots of practice matches in training especially against Appelgren. The importance of fun in the session was important for Waldner to making sessions creative by using targets in serve practice for example. Jan used a lot of irregular exercises to build his awareness of the game.

Waldner talks about the importance of European players needing to come together to take on the Chinese such as Sweden's Anton Kallberg. He feels the Europeans are not willing to take the next step to take on the Chinese, more work needs to be done within Europe together to build the cohesion to catch the Chinese National Team.

If you look at the history Waldner did not win his first finals in the World and European finals, this was a good motivator for Waldner to win medals long term. Jan did not have any sports psychologist and felt he it was up to him to work on his game. He looked at a lot of videos of himself playing and spoke a lot with his brother reflecting his game. A go to strategy Waldner had when he was nervous before a game was his preparation. Waldner practiced harder and longer before a match, he felt a lot warmer before a big game. Waldner focused on developing his feeling for the ball in the warm up before a game with lots of serve and receives. Waldner prepared for his matches by practicing against a player who had similar styles to his opponent.

In the podcast Waldner talks about the recent changes to the sport and said how the rule change from 21 points to 11 was a successful move as its made the game more intense. "I like the matches to 11 as it makes it a lot more interesting for the spectators". Waldner said the bigger ball is not good for the sport as the quality of the balls are so poor and the ball does not suit players who like to have a different style. The new ball has made every player play the same way. He says there needs to be better link from players, manufacturers and ITTF to consult the issues.

When asked how Waldner would play against the current Chinese players such as Ma Long, Zhang Jike and Xu Xin. Waldner expressed how its very difficult to compare the generations as the sport has had many changes. Waldner said they would win in the backhand to backhand department, it would be difficult.

Be sure to check out Jan Ove Waldner's website here.

If you would like to save or listen to the podcast on itunes, search TableTennisDaily in the itunes store. If you are an android user you can download the Stitcher app and search for TableTennisDaily.

What do you think about Jan Ove Waldner's opinions on the world of table tennis?
Thanks for listening!

Originally Posted by anchorschmidt

Some interesting views compared to previous podcasts:

1. Talent matters.
2. Play lots of matches once you have the basics down. This seems to help match performance.

Yeah I agree, it does sound like he felt he had a lot of innate ability for the game. Lots of matches in practice makes a lot of sense, it was also interesting to hear how he put a lot of pressure on the training matches, this will have kept him highly motivated at all times. It also felt whenever he played he always put 100% into his practice and matches. Similar to Michael Jordan and the other greats out there

Originally Posted by ttmonster

Just completed listening to the podcast ...

highlights for me :

1. How humble he is , both persson and he came out as a wonderfully modest and honest ambassador of the game !!

2. How he stresses the important of playing team matches , he calls them out as his greatest victories !

3. Even when he is giving an interview, he is constantly analyzing his own responses !! I loved the way he said that he ended the interview saying that he does not want to sound negative and wants people to beat the chinese domination

After listening , I am pretty much convinced that the biggest challenge in our individual sport is to make people come together , help each other and the best way this could be done is by doing team competition !!!

Thank you Dan and Thomas !! You guys rocked !!

Glad you enjoyed the podcast ttmonster! I thought this to, I was very surprised with how much thought he put into the podcast. It was nice he gave his best efforts in the answers. Thanks for listening and for submitting questions to the TTD podcasts!

Originally Posted by MJB

Dan, another excellent podcast. Well done.

After listening to most of them, there seems to be a common theme - these world-class stars do not have a lot of time or respect for the ITTF. Jan Ove spoke about them not discussing rule changes with the players and prize money going downhill fast.

So, with that in mind, I think it's time you interviewed a 'big cheese' at the ITTF. Let's hear their point of view.

Here's 3 questions if you ever get round to doing it.

1) Are you worried the elite players will eventually revolt and form an alternative association? (It's happened in boxing, darts and a few other sports)

2) The last 3 ITTF events have been poorly attended (that's putting it mildly). How embarrassed do you feel about this?

3) Why are the ITTF videos on Youtube such poor quality?

Hi MJB, happy you liked the podcast

Thanks for the questions we will incorporate these into some of the podcasts in the near future as the answers will be interesting. Thanks for tuning into the podcasts.

Originally Posted by Tom TTD

Things I take from the podcast :
- practice with concentration or not at all
- running/ fitness is a good thing to do when not focused
-match practice is a good way to train
- footwork drills help with long rallies
- irregular blocking is good
- regular and irregular are all good
-playing in tournament gives motivation to practice
-treat practice matches like real finals in a tournament
-serves , they should have a similar look with different spin , long serve is good to have in the range . Serve with others to improve together with competitions etc
- Travel around and enjoy

I hope you have been practicing on these Tom I really liked how Jan worked on irregular blocking, I think this type of practice is used quite little among coaches and players. I will bring this random block practice into my sessions a bit more and see the effects.