Interview with Annett Kaufmann, a 15 year old table tennis talent of compass with impressive results and a supportive team of experts. She plays for the joy of the game and her role model, Ding Ning.

“I don’t play table tennis for success. I play because I enjoy it. Success comes and goes, but the joy is always there.”

Annett Kaufmann is only 15 years old but expresses herself very wisely and shows that she has already thought things through. Annett had an amazing 2021 with three gold medals and a bronze medal at the European Youth Championships, a gold medal in singles at the European U21 Championships, becoming the youngest ever winner of the tournament, as well as being a member of the national team that won gold at the European Team Championships.

“Good people around me,” she answers immediately when asked what made her journey possible. “My family, my friends, my personal coach Evelyn Simon: it’s Melanie (Heilemann, personal trainer), Sönke (Geil, sports director of the Table Tennis Association of Baden-Württenberg) and Lara (Broich) and Tamara (Boros) at the DTTB (the German Table Tennis Federation). They help me not only at the table, but also elsewhere. If I don’t play well, they are there and support me. If something doesn’t work right away, they’re there to make me understand that it’s because I’m not patient enough.”

It sounds like an extended family, an association with a mixture of skills, experience and humanity, in which Annett develops and unfolds as a person and as a table tennis player. It is also an extended family that usually meets in Böblingen just outside Stuttgart, the place where most of the table tennis action takes place. Annett is also part of the SV Böblingen national league team, which finished fifth this season.

“I feel comfortable in this group. They are open and I can be honest. I don’t have to change my personality. That kind of confidence is important to improve.”

“No, not really, more like a combination of a lot of little things. I felt confident when I did the counter-runner serve like Timo Boll; also the tomahawk of Ding Ning, which a lot of my opponents had a lot of problems with on the return. I practiced a lot on the small footwork in different combinations, for example, on a short ball at the net and the next one quickly on the elbow- and then way out to the forehand. Switching from forehand to backhand, standing lower with the knees, working more with the wrist, getting more body power into the ball. Things like that.”

“I didn’t have any expectations for 2021 and I don’t have any for 2022. I don’t like expectations because I don’t want to be disappointed if I don’t meet them. Expectations means I want to achieve this or that and that creates pressure. That’s why I prefer to look at the victories as a bonus. I focus on myself and on improving my game. I don’t compare myself.”

“They have a lot of very good players. They train a lot, some days eight hours, while I usually train two to three hours. They are extremely structured and systematised – I do more of what I think is best. In general, the Japanese don’t make many mistakes at the table, but they are also kind of predictable. So my feeling was that anything is possible. I have my game and try to impose it and dominate the rallies. If that doesn’t work, I instead try to break their game, destroy it. Like Truls Moregardh. He doesn’t play like most players. He thinks creatively in the game to win the points.”

“Yes. Ding Ning. Normally, I don’t know many Chinese players who show their emotions, especially negative ones. After all, spectators can’t always understand what they’re feeling looking at them from the outside so it’s easy to be misinterpreted. But Ding Ning did. She showed her joy, she showed her fighting spirit, her passion for the game. How much she wanted to win. And besides, she’s a left-hander like me. And quite tall.”

You can find more information about Annett on her Instagram channel.

Click here to read part 2 of this interview.