Ladimir Mayorov from Spain has already achieved many remarkable successes. But even more impressive is the attitude of the team around him. For the Mayorov family, the goal is the process – they use the results of the competitions only as a test to see where the process is at.

It is Friday morning in the small coastal town of Calella, 50 kilometres north-east of Barcelona. In a hall with 16 tables, only the one in the middle is being used. This is where Ladimir Mayorov joins in with his father, Eduard. When the warm-up is over, the father asks what the son wants to start with today. The eleven-year-old places the racket vertically on the table and turns it around a few times before answering: “Backhand”.

As an eleven-year-old, Ladimir Mayorov became the hero of the spring when Spain defeated Romania in the semi-finals of the U13 team competition at the Youth EC in Bucharest. He was 2:0 down in the decisive match, but came from behind to win. Ladimir also won the Euro Minichamps in style. And a year younger than his opponents, he went undefeated without dropping a set when Europe’s best eleven-year-olds played head-to-head at the Stiga Minimes in Belgium.

Father Eduard comes from Ukraine, which was part of the Soviet Union when he was growing up. There was a strong backhand tradition, and Eduard is no exception. He presses with his counter-backhand while Ladimir kicks back. Concentrating, “Ladi” works out how to hit his backhands depending on the distance to the table. He kicks, pulls back a bit and plays loops with longer swings. Everything looks natural. Easy, relaxed, irresistible.

After a while, young Mayorov wants to play a match in the backhand diagonal. And so it is. The intensity increases, the ball bounces faster from one racket to the other. 7:5. Towards the end of the set, there is a small argument about whether the ball was on the right side of the centre line or not. Both turn to the mother, Svetlana, who is sitting at a table far off the court. She laughs out loud and throws her arms up in the air. “How could I have seen? “ she said. The argument between father and son continues. Ladimir doesn’t seem to give in, Eduard smiles, and then they agree on something before the next duel begins.

“All three of us are winners,” says mother Svetlana Bakhtina, shaking her head at the predicament. “Terrible loosing skills. When we play matches, it’s dead quiet in the car when we drive home.”

Svetlana has a background in the Russian national team, while Eduard has played for Ukraine and Portugal. They have worked together as players and coaches for a long time. They first met at the 1996 European Championships in Bratislava. Eduard asked if they could have a pizza together, but Svetlana has never liked pizza, so it didn’t happen. The following year, at the World Championships in Manchester, Eduard had learned his lesson and invited her for coffee. From then on things went better. After a while they moved to Spain and their first child, daughter Cristina, was born. She became a tennis player, so talented that she won a scholarship and is now studying at a university in the United States.

“Although with her we copied the same authoritarian style that we ourselves had grown up with in sport,” says Svetlana. “That the coach decides and the player obeys. With Ladimir we do things differently.”

The difference is that Ladimir’s advisor is constantly involved in the process, that he has already started to learn what questions to ask and what to think about in order to have his own opinion in the team. To influence himself. Play, joy and relaxation seem to be the watchwords carefully mixed and matched in the Mayorovian training and matches. The tools are time for a lot of training, thanks to flexible schooling – and that the regular evaluations of the process are about much more than concrete results in a competition or match:

“For example,” says Eduard during a break, “after major tournaments we try to analyse the whole picture: mistakes, the introduction of newly mastered elements, physical preparation, mental readiness, emotional swings under control, and not least Ladimir’s ability to keep these processes under control. We observe how he matures and how his analysis becomes deeper and more diverse.

We also ask the opinions of various experts to get their perspective”.

Svetlana continues: “In general, there are different tests that can show development. What is important for us is the process of development and improvement in the given period. Results such as medals in competitions are just tests that can show whether the development process is going well”.

“Dad,” Ladimir interrupts after a visit to the toilet. “Do you want to be beaten when you fish back from the table and I loop my forehand to your backhand side?”

“We’ll see,” says Eduard with a smile, and they return to the table, where this exercise soon turns into a game. When his father wins, Ladimir is a little upset, but after some consolation he is back on track when Svetlana comes out to serve and receive training. With his concentration back, Ladimir receives serves from his mother that he has to read carefully, each time deciding whether to use backhand flick, drop it short or play topspin. His anticipation of when to use which technique is already well developed.

It is time for lunch. Ladimir does not really want to stop. He wants to play more.

“It has always been like that,” says Svetlana. “We tried to keep him away from table tennis as long as possible, but when he was six it was no longer possible. He almost always went to the locker after regular training to find someone to play matches against. And it was almost impossible to get him away from the table and go home”.

So it was and so it is. And so it will probably remain. The exciting journey of Ladimir Mayorov’s development in table tennis continues.

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