My Experience of Playing Table Tennis Abroad
At one point in my career when I was in my early 20s, I considered trying to make a career from playing table tennis. I knew there was no possibility of achieving this in Ireland as the money just did not exist in the sport to pay athletes to compete. I also knew some Irish players such as Colum Slevin and Hilton Moneely had moved to Germany and had signed professional contracts with clubs there and were now earning their trade through the sport. In the end I decided that I would stay at home to continue with my education. In a way I was a bit afraid that if table tennis became my job, I would lose my enjoyment for the sport and that was a risk I was not willing to take at the time.
I finished my primary degree in University College Dublin and immediately started working on my Masters. Throughout this time I continued playing table tennis competitively as I found that combining sport with my studies was good for my mental well-being. I achieved my Masters degree with first class honours and embarked on a career in the tourism industry.
Meanwhile my career in table tennis was also progressing to the next level. I had been called up to the Senior Irish team for the first time at the age of 22 and there followed 13 years of International representation at World and European Championships. I won several Irish ranking events including the National Championships on two occasions. The question of what have I left to achieve as a player in the game started to enter my head and I decided the one ambition that I had not yet achieved was to play table tennis abroad. As a fluent German speaker, I started looking for opportunities in Germany.
In the Summer of 2007, I signed a contract with SC Urania Hamburg to play for them in the Oberliga (German third division). The contract I signed was not a fully professional contract but a semi-professional one, whereby my travel to matches and all expenses would be covered. At the same time the No 1 female player in Norway was also signed to the team. In October 2007, I travelled to Hamburg for my first match.
My first memory was landing in Lubeck airport and meeting all of my team mates in the arrivals hall. My first impressions were very good, they all seemed very friendly and welcoming and I was looking forward to getting to know them better. The journey from Lubeck to Hamburg was about an hour and we chatted all the way in a mixture of German and English as our Norwegian team mate could not speak German.
When we arrived at the school where our match would take place, I was feeling a mixture of nerves and excitement. I had no idea how high the standard would be and was a bit nervous that I would be out-classed. The first knock with my team mates put my mind at ease as their standard was pretty similar to mine, so now I only had to worry about the opposition!
I didn’t need to worry, the standard in this division was perfect for me. I won probably a little over 50% of my matches in that first season, which I felt was quite a decent average playing at number 2 on the team. Teams were made up of 4 players – the number 1 and 2 played against the opposition’s number 1 and 2 in two singles each and one doubles and the numbers 3 and 4 played similar cross over matches and doubles, making a total of ten games per match. After every match the team had a nice meal together which added to the comaraderie.
Normally when I travelled over at weekends we played two matches, one on Saturday afternoon and one on Sunday morning before I took my flight back to Dublin on Sunday afternoon. This schedule worked out well allowing me to fly over on Saturday morning and back on Sunday afternoon which was great considering I had a full-time job at home. But often when Away matches were taking place it wasn’t quite so straight forward and I needed to fly over on Friday night and back much later on Sunday. This was pretty tiring considering I was going from the office to the airport on Friday then back just on time to get a few hours sleep before going to work again Monday morning.
However, all of the long hours spent at airports and travelling were worth it as we won the division overall that season, meaning a promotion to Regionaliga for the following year. The jump in standard between Oberliga and Regionaliga was one I was not quite prepared for but, despite losing more matches than I won, I felt the experience of playing at that level really stood to me and helped bring my game to a level it had never reached before.
Some stand out moments for me during that season were our weekend in Berlin where we played against two Berlin-based teams, one of which contained an ex-Russian International who had played in the final of the European Championships only a few years previous and my victory against a pretty decent defensive player, which was satisfying because I had always struggled to that point against defenders and I felt this was a sign of how much my game had progressed throughout my time playing in the German league.
Unfortunately our efforts that season were in vein. Hampered by the lack of availability of our Norwegian player, we ended up in a relegation spot and our fate back in the Oberliga was sealed. My second season in Oberliga was cut short when I became pregnant with my first child, but the two seasons I had completed, one in Oberliga and one in Regionaliga were a valuable, fun and exciting experience.
For a couple of years previous to my joining Urania I had been overlooked by my association for International selection as I was in my thirties and players fifteen years my junior were starting to be favoured for team selections. However throughout the course of my first two seasons at Urania, my game improved to such an extent that the association had to sit up and take notice again despite my age! In both of those years I was selected to represent Ireland once again at International level. I also won more games than ever before in the premier division of the Women’s British League thus proving to myself and others the benefit of my stint abroad.
For any player considering playing abroad, I would highly recommend it. The experience will always stand to you. Nowadays it is more common for players to go at a younger age than I did but each individual needs to decide for themselves the best time to make the leap. Personally I am happy that I finished by studies first and went abroad at a later stage in my career but others choose to take some time out of studies to play table tennis abroad. Whatever your decision, make the most of the opportunity to bring your game to the next level.