Portrait of Benedikt Duda, consistent top 50 player with Olympic ambitions, and his pathway to his success in table tennis through mental and physical training, combined with utter determination and strength of will.

Talent is often interpreted as meaning an elegant game and a distinct, innate ‘feel’ for the ball. But the word actually means much more than that, including the ability to train hard, physical strength and effectiveness. These qualities are what has made Benedikt ‘Benne’ Duda a durable top 50 player in the world. Now the 26-year-old from Bergneustadt has set his sights on higher goals through specialised training for his brain, eyes and breathing!

“I’m more confident. I no longer evaluate or classify what happens into good and bad. I think very simply.” Benedikt Duda explains this as a result of his mental training.

For Benne Duda, table tennis life has never been easy. When he was up for consideration for inclusion in the German youth national team, he was voted out again and again. The officials thought he did not have polished enough technique, had too little coordination of body and stroke movement and simply, not enough ‘talent’. At home at the kitchen table, many emotionally charged conversations took place– with the table tennis playing parents, but primarily with Evelyn Simon, now compass coach, who was working for the West German Table Tennis Association at the time and had discovered Benne’s potential early on.

“After every disappointment, Evelyn said that I obviously wasn’t one of the favoured ones,” Benne reports by cell phone from the strength training room at the German Table Tennis Federation’s training centre in Düsseldorf.

“There was only one way left: to train more and harder than the others and achieve results that would force the sceptics to take me seriously. This insight deeply shaped my attitude towards table tennis and still does.”

As a result of these realisations, while the others trained six-seven units a week, Benne trained ten. If the others trained two and a half hours per session, he trained three and a half. When the others slept, he was up and improving his serves. “His ability to practise effectively was unparalleled,” Evelyn Simon recalls. “Every rally was important to him. He knew exactly what he wanted from each drill. He got better and better with each session.”

“Evelyn was strict,” Benne says. “She never gave up until I did something right. Her method was to constantly present me with new challenges, which motivated me to overcome them. I remember one drill in particular that we did thousands of times: she played short serve, I also played short back, she played short again, I played short back– then all of a sudden she placed a long ball across the whole table. I went back and drew a loop– then it was free play until I made a mistake.”

In 2010, there was no getting around Benedikt Duda in the nominations. He won the important national ranking tournament Top 48 and so he was finally included in the selection for the European Youth Championships the following year. Since Germany won the team championship, he did not play a special role. However, he went on to win a medal in mixed in his EYC debut.

At the end of 2012, the World Youth Championships were held in Hyderabad, India. Benne fought his way through in singles, trailing 1-3 and 3-7 against Poland’s Kulpa and surviving 7-8 match points before winning the deciding set 15-13. It was just as even against Japan’s Machi in the 16th round. Five match points were saved before Benne won the match with his second match point. Within fifteen months, he had gone from being a benchwarmer on the national youth team to one of the only two Europeans in the singles quarterfinals at the JWM.

“One of the main reasons for that was that I had started in a school focused on sports and managed to get Evelyn and I to do two extra morning sessions of ballroom training. That accelerated my development. I increased my strength training and noticed that I was getting stronger than my competitors. As a result of my stronger body, I managed to train at a higher intensity.”

Eighth place in the world in his age group made him want more and aim higher, even as his parents were sceptical about the decision to turn pro. After Hyderabad however, they were easier to convince. Immediately after finishing school, Benne moved to the German Table Tennis Association’s centre in Düsseldorf, in a serious attempt to make a long-term living from his sport. Emphasis on serious. There, in fact, he sets his alarm clock most days for 5:50 a.m. He does serve training and an extra session of ballroom training with a trainer that Benne pays for out of his own pocket. Then the other national team players come for the usual group training. After lunch, more serve training before the normal group training. When the obligatory weight training is over, Benne is left to carry on.

Even small strides with small daily improvements sometimes lead to a quick rise in the world rankings. In the fall of 2016, Duda improved from 101st to 43rd in three months, and has maintained his ranking in that range, peaking at 35th in July 2018.

“It took a long time to become an established top 50 player. It requires a whole different level of consistency in your game. You must work out the weaknesses you have because you are analysed much more in depth by your opponents and their coaches. I’ve been working a lot on improving my forehand flip and my backhand opening. My game is becoming more compact. I’m making fewer and fewer mistakes. I’m getting stronger mentally. It feels like I’m ready to take more steps forward when everything gets back on track.”

For Benne, realising his full potential means not only training hard at the table, but also finding his own way in general. Since training requires tremendous amounts of energy, he eats more often than conventional, with smaller portions.

Since 2016, he has been improving his reaction speed by training the perceptiveness of his eyes. In Cologne, half an hour by train from Düsseldorf, he is part of a group that trains the speed of eye, hand, and leg coordination under scientific supervision, done using various laboratory experiments and exercises that he can do at home. “Thanks to the eye training, I feel less stressed at the table. My reactions are faster, and I gain time.”

Continuity is important to Duda. He still plays in TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt, where he started playing table tennis when he was ten. The whole Duda family is involved in the club, which plays in the Bundesliga.

The mental training, incomprehensibly underestimated in table tennis, plays its role of course in Benne’s everyday life. He insightfully remarks that the brain controls everything, so it needs to be trained to get better for his individual needs at the table

“The brain training helps me feel calmer and more relaxed. Before, I could get into trouble with negative thoughts getting stuck in my head during a match, causing me to doubt myself and my game. By training my brain, I have learned to recognise the negative thoughts so I can tell when they’re occurring.”

The trick is to not fight them and start an internal battle. “Instead, I accept the negative thoughts that come up. That’s okay then. Then they disappear and I can focus on the game again.”

What about feelings? What does Benedikt Duda do when negative feelings arise and scare him? “Then I break through their effectiveness with a special breathing technique I’ve practised. I can do that before or during the game, in time-out or when I get my towel and dry off.”

In the end, what does this eye, brain and breathing training truly lead to? “I’m calmer and more relaxed in the game now. I have fewer negative thoughts before and during the game and even if they do occur, I just contemplate them. As a result, they lose their power. So the overall result is that I am more in the here and now. It makes me become braver, move better and coordinate my movements faster.
I’m more confident. I don’t judge anymore; I don’t classify what happens into good and bad. I just think, regardless of how the game stands. If I win, I’m grateful for the feeling the victory gives. If I lose, I’m grateful for the insights the loss gives.”

This sounds like an almost Buddhist way of behaving at the table. A being who is free and deep, practising humility. A profound understanding of what it takes for the person who wants to win a medal at the Olympics. “I do everything to reach my maximum. I can’t get there by just training two sessions a day, and then some strength training.”

In April 2023, Benne reached number 26 in the world rankings, has stayed above 50 since October 2017 and as of October 2023, proudly maintains his spot at number 33.