European paddlers hope to see non-Chinese world champions
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Bettine Vriesekoop, European champion in 1982 and 1992 who was able to beat some Chinese players in her career, has a clear explanation for China's dominance.
"European table tennis players simply practice too little," the 49-year-old said. "The Chinese are training daily for five to seven hours at the age of six or seven already. They continue doing so until they turn 20. They can be very strict in selecting players because they have so many who are willing to train that many hours."
According to Waldner and Persson, the European table tennis players should practice more often together. "I think they have to practice better and practice more together, every month in training camps," Waldner said.
"In China they practice with the top players all the time. You also need this in Europe. When I was young I was there a lot, at the age of 14 I was in China for a month. It's good to practice there."
"They have so many good players and those best players practice against each other. If the No. 4 of the world is not available, a Chinese player can practice against the No. 6, 7 or 8. That's the reason why they are so good. Also because table tennis is the national sport in China," he said.
"At the moment the gap between China and Europe is big," Persson added. "The gap is increasing. Hopefully the young players will come, but Europe has to be more cooperative. We have a lot of players in each country, but you have to get them together."
"The practice groups of the Chinese are top, the same goes for Japan and Korea. In Europe it is not that good. We have to cooperate more and make training camps like we did for the Olympics. Let' s put the best players together," he said.
Vriesekoop said that such an initiative is already taken with the opening of the Werner Schlager Academy in Austria.
"The best European talents are able to train over there," Vriesekoop said.
"I did not have that advantage. My training partners were not good enough. Therefore I had to go to China and I could only go just a couple of times for one month. In that case I could not systematically beat the Chinese. Considering my circumstances it was a superb achievement beating them sometimes as I did," she said.
A reversal can be seen in the way China looks at its own dominance, according to Vriesekoop.
"China wants to help Europe to save the table tennis sport. They want to come here to help us. The Chinese want to send players and coaches to come here and train our children. They know that if they continue to dominate, people lose their interest in the sport," she said.
"We have to be careful, because table tennis could even disappear from the Olympic calendar. The IOC could demand table tennis to be played on to level in more than a few countries. This could happen if Europe can not compete with China for a longer period. Of course table tennis is still a global sport. They train hard everywhere in the world, but not as hard as the Chinese," she said.
