Table tennis as a profession

Narendra B Asked 12 years ago

Hi Alois,

This is Naren and I am a big fan of Pingskills. The quality of your video tutorials is excellent and I sincerely appreciate you and Jeff for that. I have been dwelling up on this question for quite some time now and I thought of taking your advice here. Pardon me if I am lengthy coz this is really important for me.

I am a software engineer. I am 24 and I have been playing table tennis for past 4 years.  I learnt the sport mostly by playing with my friends and watching videos. I soon came to know that I am really good at it and last year hired a personal coach and we play every weekend.

I am an intermediate player with good knowledge on all shots(but still working on using them during match). Unfortunately, I met with an accident recently and had ACL injury. Though it is not a complete tear, doc said it will take at least 6-8 months for complete recovery.

I am so dedicated to this sport that I am ready to take any amount of pain in order to come back and play TT again. Moreover I want to take TT as a profession. I know that I sound stupid as it is almost impossible to become a world class player if I start at 24 but I feel nothing wrong in aiming high.

So if I recover in another 6 months and start training from now on, is there any chance that I can become an international player? If YES, then how my approach should be? If NO, then at least what is the highest level that I can attain from here?(I mean Nationals or State level)

Please tell me your honest opinion.

Thanks and Regards,

Naren

Alois Rosario Answered 12 years ago

Hi Naren,

I never say never but of course it will be difficult for you to reach International level.  Table Tennis is one of the sports that is much more easily learned at a young age.  It also takes at least 10 years of playing 5 to 6 times per week to reach an international level.  If you can afford this sort of commitment then it may be possible.  You need to work out if yo can afford to spend that much time as a gamble.

So you can see these two things are against you.  But... never say never... and I would be very happy to hear in 10 years that you had pursued your dream and achieved it.

The worst thing that can happen is that you lose that time, but you can also gain a lot in the journey.