Talent Development
At compass we believe in the power of our table tennis players and their unique skills. Therefore, we make sure to provide our talents with the best possible opportunities and create optimal circumstances tailored to every individual’s needs and goals so that they can excel. Our methods include the following:
Talent Development
At compass we believe in the power of our table tennis players and their unique skills. Therefore, we make sure to provide our talents with the best possible opportunities and create optimal circumstances tailored to every individual’s needs and goals so that they can excel. Our methods include the following:
Talent Development
At compass we believe in the power of our table tennis players and their unique skills. Therefore, we make sure to provide our talents with the best possible opportunities and create optimal circumstances tailored to every individual’s needs and goals so that they can excel. Our methods include the following:
Our experience and research shows that world-class table tennis players’ successes are almost entirely the result of individual initiative taken by parents and dedicated individual coaches, combined with the support of other stakeholders, such as clubs and national federations.
Research of compass
Research of compass
When founding compass, we conducted extensive research and interviewed 13 of the best European Top 10 players, who have dominated the world table tennis scene alongside their Chinese and Japanese competitors for many years, including athletes such as Timo Boll, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Jan-Ove Waldner, Jean-Philippe Gatien, Jean-Michel Saive, Jörg Roßkopf, Vladimir Samsonov and Jörgen Persson. We asked over a dozen essential questions about their careers and the determinants of their successes and our findings were key to developing our training philosophy.
We found that the average age at which they started to play table tennis was 5.32 years old. Their extensive skills at such a young age are shown above all by the fact that all of the European Top 10 players interviewed had already won medals at youth European championships. In contrast, the best Asian athletes started playing table tennis at the average age of 4.89 for the men and 4.5 for the women, confirming our research as well as our theory that “starting early and playing a lot of table tennis gives you decisive advantages.”
As a conclusion, beside the key factors mentioned above of parental and coaching initiatives and support provided by stakeholders in the sport of table tennis, we found three additional factors that are key for the growth of talents and their achieving world elite level:
- Personal characteristics of top players
- Interdisciplinary support between the social and sporting environment
- The right conditions
Personal characteristics of the top 10 players
Personal characteristics of the top 10 players
Interdisciplinary support between the social and sporting environment
Interdisciplinary support between the social and sporting environment
Many parents or coaches with an affinity for table tennis have supported and encouraged very young ambitious children with particularly great commitment from an early age, just as seen in other individual sports and the fields of art, music, ballet etc.
We call this intensive and individual support by one person a “personal coach activity”. The vast majority of top players from the 1990s onwards had just such an important person, a mentor, and this is one of the reasons why they were able to become so successful, in some cases even reaching absolute world class level.
Significant: A survey of all European top 10 table tennis players in the world showed that they had a personal coach at a young age. In Germany, the players Timo Boll, Dimitrij Ovtcharov or Petrissa Solja are the best proof of this.
There is a significant connection between development and success and intensive support and coaching received. Parents or even personal coaches know all areas of a child’s life; sports, school and social. A relationship of trust between the child and the personal coach is an indispensable prerequisite for a fruitful collaboration.
Crucial: The personal coach must make the table tennis training and later the competition program dependent on the motivation and goals of a young player. If these are high, correspondingly high demands should be placed on the player, so that they can achieve their set goals.
If the motivation and the importance of reaching goals decreases, the demands on the player should also be reduced and the support can be lowered to a standard level.
Another important success factor is the cooperation of the personal coach with all other people in the child’s environment, such as parents, teachers, club coaches etc., and later the state and national coaches.
The right conditions
A 4-6 year old child should have the opportunity to play table tennis every day. Training partners such as parents, siblings or junior coaches contribute to the fact that the development of a child proceeds 3-4 times faster than when training with children of the same playing strength. Intensity and quality of training are also essential in the later development process.
This level of play and training must be in place in order to ensure that talents keep up with peers from other countries.
Important: For us, it is a given that a child should NEVER be forced by parents or a coach to go to training. The child must want it themselves, know about the possibility and request the opportunity to go play table tennis.
It is also a given that a child who plays table tennis frequently will improve quickly. Being good at something gives everyone a sense of accomplishment and these positive experiences usually increase the joy of playing and are the best and healthiest motivation.
“Practise early” is more than just a saying in table tennis, because it is based on scientific fact. Our strategy is based on empirical and scientific findings and also draws on the expertise of experienced coaches and former world-ranking table tennis players.
The support strategy of our foundation is based on two elementary factors: a specially conducted questionnaire survey of the best European players who are, or have been, among the top 10 in the world rankings of table tennis and the scientific facts of learning to move.
The right conditions
A 4-6 year old child should have the opportunity to play table tennis every day. Training partners such as parents, siblings or junior coaches contribute to the fact that the development of a child proceeds 3-4 times faster than when training with children of the same playing strength. Intensity and quality of training are also essential in the later development process.
This level of play and training must be in place in order to ensure that talents keep up with peers from other countries.
Important: For us, it is a given that a child should NEVER be forced by parents or a coach to go to training. The child must want it themselves, know about the possibility and request the opportunity to go play table tennis.
It is also a given that a child who plays table tennis frequently will improve quickly. Being good at something gives everyone a sense of accomplishment and these positive experiences usually increase the joy of playing and are the best and healthiest motivation.
“Practise early” is more than just a saying in table tennis, because it is based on scientific fact. Our strategy is based on empirical and scientific findings and also draws on the expertise of experienced coaches and former world-ranking table tennis players.
The support strategy of our foundation is based on two elementary factors: a specially conducted questionnaire survey of the best European players who are (or have been) among the top 10 in the world rankings of table tennis and the scientific facts of learning to move.
As a consultant and partner, we have already been able to convey our findings and ideas to the following “movers and shakers” in the international table tennis industry: