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Undefeated on his imported French table that takes pride of place at home and with a long list of defeated team mates past and present, Robin Van Persie is one of footballs top table tennis players.
After receiving a phone call from Arsenal Football Club who told us how keen a player Robin was, a training session was set up for Robin, national U21 champion Darius Knight and three times Commonwealth Champion Matthew Syed at the ETTA Premier Club, DHS London Progress.
Robin arrived at DHS London Progress with his wife Bouchra and son Shaqueel looking like a child at Christmas where he was soon put through his paces by Darius with a range of serving and returning drills. It was quickly apparent that Robins skills were quite impressive and not just sportsman like bravado, Matthew Syed was so impressed with his back hand chop that he was heard saying “I can’t read the spin!” . Robin was then given a master class in defensive shots by Matthew as part of his final coaching before the big game.
The nature of being a sportsman whether it be an international athlete or a pub league footballer means you are a competitive person, this shone through as Robin who plays table tennis as a hobby urged Darius (the international player) to play at full throttle, no holding back. Although the result was only likely to go one way Robin managed to put a few past Darius with respectable defeats of 3-11 and 4-11. “This guy’s magic!” was Darius’ response to the Arsenal players ability.
After being presented with a new bat to help continue his unbeaten home winning streak Robin admitted that although it was just one afternoon of coaching and playing, he felt that he had learnt a lot.
With Darius picking football (and athletics) as strong sports before he focused on table tennis, I wonder how he would fare in a kick around at the Emirates? |
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Darius gives Van Persie a few pointers |
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Robin, what did you take from training and playing with two international-class players?
Lots of things – lots of details, lots about topspin, backspin, the way you should pass the ball back. It’s a fantastic game, you have to be consistent, and in that sense it’s quite similar to football even though football is a team sport. In table tennis you do everything yourself and you pay for every mistake by yourself. With football it’s a bit more complicated because you sometimes have to correct other people’s mistakes or your team-mates have to do the same for you. Especially against these guys, proper players, you have to be incredibly consistent.
This will only help you strengthen your unbeaten record at home, surely...
Hopefully! I play every day when I’m at home – every guest or member of the family who comes over has to play at least one game with me! Funnily enough my brother-in-law was helping with my garden recently, he stayed with us for six weeks and every single day we played five long sets, up to 21, and you could see how he improved. He started as a novice and six weeks later he was a proper player, in our terms anyway! In this game you can improve so much in a small time – even now, playing for two hours or so, I can tell I’ve improved by taking in the advice I’ve received and that’s fantastic.
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Robin Van Persie shows us what he's got |
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I know you play against several of your team-mates – Mathieu Flamini for example. Is it a sport that footballers take to naturally?
Flamini has no chance against me! But yes he can play, Hleb can play, Pascal Cygan used to, Thierry Henry too. Almost every top footballer has that feel for timing, for where and when the ball is coming – and that’s what table tennis is all about, timing, reading the topspin and things like that. It’s all about that one moment you hit the ball – it’s spinning this way and that and you have to time it right.
You seemed to have a really enjoyable afternoon...
I did. I want to thank Darius and Matthew for looking after me – I was actually quite nervous, I wanted to get as many points as possible and I asked Darius to play at his maximum. I took a few of him and that’s not bad, he’s a fantastic player with a great future. This is my first hobby after football. I love this game, it’s a fantastic game and I’ve had a really good day.
Expert Opinion
Matthew Syed tells us that Robin top the tree among his peers...
“It was very interesting to see Robin play. He’s very clearly a natural ball player and that extends beyond the ability to use his feet. He adapted fast the spin, he has very nice technique considering he hasn’t had much coaching if any, and is very athletic. The other thing that came across is that he’s very competitive. In summary I’m highly impressed with him.”
“I suspect he’s the best of all the players in the Premier League. He has told me that Peter Crouch is meant to be good but I’ve not really seen him play. James Harper at Reading is certainly pretty handy but I’d be amazed if anyone’s better than Robin. Ability-wise he’s actually quite similar to Andrew Flintoff. And he has the edge over other celebrities, too – Darius has played against Damon Albarn before and Robin’s definitely better than him.”
“Table tennis is genuinely useful for footballers. It’s a cerebral sport, you have to use your brain. I’m not surprised that so many footballers play and there are so many table tennis tables at training grounds around the country.”
“Nationally, it’s a growing sport. I think it’s up to us now to harness the excitement from the Olympics to create a whole new group of young and older players, because it’s a sport anyone can play. It’s a very good urban, metropolitan sport.”
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Van Persie challenges Darius |
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