Join My Table Tennis Journey

Who should read this blog?

If you are a middle-aged player who is struggling with injuries; if you feel your best days of playing table tennis have passed, and there is no way that you can get significantly better or if you are a new starter who cannot keep up with younger players, perhaps reading this blog will make you to feel differently!
 
In this blog I shall describe the steps I took in my journey to overcome each of my obstacles in the most efficient way and become a more all-round classical-style player. Please feel free to adopt any of these steps as you see fit and send me your success stories, which can be shared with others here as well! 

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Who am I?

My name is Farshad. I live and play table tennis in Oxford, England. Let's make it very clear from the outset, I am NOT a top-ranked or nationally/internationally renowned player. I am NOT even a weird player with an unusual style or a weird bat who drives everyone crazy.

I am an amateur, very classical-style player in my fifties. I was a recreational player when I was in university and paused playing after getting married and starting my career as a doctor. I started playing again more seriously in my forties after a 20-plus year gap, largely to have a joint hobby with my son, Kiarash. I started from Division 4 in Oxford and gradually made my way up to the top division over the last 10 years.
 
I had a decent tomahawk serve, a good F/H smash, an unusually good B/H punch block and a decent B/H chop when I started again at age 40. I didn't know how to hit either F/H or B/H topspin, my return of serve was awful and I would play the whole match standing almost fully still, stuck to the table (no movement whatsoever).
 
Currently I play in Division 1 in Oxford and Division C of the Senior British league. My rank is in the top 500-700 in England and in the top 20 in Oxford. I appreciate these are not particularly high ranks, but given where I was a few years ago, I have been praised by others saying that my progress, if not unique, is rare and inspiring.

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Why my story is unusual?

My journey was unusual and, according to many of my peers, inspirational as I had some significant obstacles to overcome, in order to improve my game. These were:
-        My age: I started to play seriously for the first time from age 40 or so, which for most players is the age of gradual decline in their level.
-        My busy workload: I restarted playing whilst holding a number of senior positions in mental health services in Oxford, Northampton and Wales, requiring lots of driving.
-        My several significant injuries: I have suffered a number of sport injuries along the way in the last 10 years such as right shoulder bursitis, right tennis and golf elbow, painful right wrist, bad back and bad left ankle.
-        My poor eye-sight (stigmatism): I played the first 9 years without glasses and as a result I would see three balls, and I had to hit the middle one. This blurred vision had made it very difficult for me to see clearly and therefore read the spin of other players when they serve.
-        My weight: I am slightly overweight with a BMI of 26 -27.
 
However, I didn't have just challenges and obstacles in my way. They say that to become a good player you need to practice (the 10,000 hours thing), good players to practice with, somewhere to play, good coaching and, above all, the will to succeed. I have been lucky enough to benefit from a number of advantages as well:
-        Good sparring partner: I have benefitted immensely from having my son Kiarash, who is an accomplished player, as my in-house sparring partner.
-        Table at home/ robot/ good accessories and equipment.
-        Good relationship with my local club, Kidlington Forum TT club.
-        Access to good coaching/training programmes in Hungary and especially my individual coaches, Imre Bak and Will Maybanks.
-        Financial security to source above and a very supportive/understanding life partner, Marjan.
-        And last but not least, will-power/ambition to become a better player.

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