Former Euro Youth Champ Aims for Higher Pinnacle

On July 25th 2010 in Istanbul, Turkey, young German table tennis star became the European Youth Table Tennis Champion by beating a field of top European juniors. Representing the Hanau TTC in the DTTL German League in the top division, Franziska is carving his way to the highest ranks of German players. Thanks for the interview Patrick! Also check out Patrick's blog here.
Full Name: Patrick Franziska
Age: 19
Date Of Birth: 11.06.1992
Nation represented: Germany
Highest World Ranking (Junior): 6
Highest World Ranking (Mens): 132

Patrick Franziska
Image Courtesy of Table Tennis Germany 

Equipment Used?

Blade: Timo Boll ALC

FH Rubber: Tenergy 05

BH Rubber: Tenergy 05 FX

Your Career

How long have you been playing table tennis for, when and how did you start?

I started to play when I was 6 years old.

What has been the highlight of your table tennis career so far? 

The semifinal at Junior World Championships in Team Event against Korea, we won 3:2 and I played my best table-tennis.

What is your next big goal for table tennis?

To come closer to the Top 5 in Germany

What was it like winning the 2010 European Youth Championships?

This feeling was awesome. The whole tournament I was not playing my best table tennis, but I was fighting.

You have met a few of the New Zealand Junior players, what was your impression of them?They are very funny and laugh a lot.

How much more of a step up from your level were the Chinese Juniors when you were playing under 18s?

I think we had good chances against them .In JWTTC 2009 in the team final, I had 5 matchballs , and the other match from Floritz was also very close. In 2010 JWTTC I lost 4:3 very close against Song, the World Champion.

What do you think makes the Chinese so dominant in table tennis?

They are very athletic, unbelievable power in their strokes and mentally, they are very strong.

What do you think Europe needs to do to improve to compete with China and Asia?

I think a little bit more power in their strokes, and just more practice. The chinese make no easy mistakes.

Patrick and Jorg Rosskopf playing doubles in the DTTL

Image Courtesy of TTC Indeland Julich 

Off the Topic Questions

Who’s your favourite sportsperson of all time? Roger Federer

Favourite food? Pizza

What do you do when you aren't playing table tennis? I meet my friends

Dream Car? Audi R8

Ideal holiday destination? Mauritius

Your Team Mates

Who’s the funniest player in the training hall? Thomas Keinath

Who trains the hardest in the training hall? Steffen Mengel

If you were stranded on an island which team mate would you have with you and why?

Steffen Mengel, we are good friends and are living in the same house.

And Lastly

Would you like to add one last tip, or an inspirational message for other table tennis players looking to succeed?

Keep on going playing table tennis, also in hard times :-)

Team Hopes for NZ Senior Team Events 2011

With the entries now closed for the 2011 New Zealand Senior Championships to be held in Palmerston North 12^th-16^th October, it was time to see which Associations were gunning for the Teams titles. With some tough competition throughout the year, the NZ Open Championships is the pinnacle of domestic competition, this is where all the hard training and discipline is put to practice. With the team event to be held first there are high hopes from all associations participating, though without a doubt Auckland appears to be the dominant force in the field.

An epic battle at this year's North Island Indivdual Champs
between the two top guns in Auckland's 2011
Men's Team for the Nationals

'I expect the auckland team to win with relative ease as we have the best player in the country as our number 1 and #1 ranked player in the country in 2010 as our number 2' Zhiyang Cheng (Auckland). Of course Zhiyang speaks of top gun Teng Teng Liu who made the semi-finals at this years Australian Senior Championships and Phillip Xiao a close rival, the two of whom battled it out in an epic finale at this year's North Island Individual Championships, both are players of high skill and with the backup of other notable Auckland players they are looking confident to take the top Mens shield which we can be sure Josh Alexandre is looking forward to hoisting up in the team photo once again.

Josh Alexandre holds the A Grade Mens Team Shield for
Auckland, the 2010 Winners of the National Event.

Close competitors in the Mens Team Events are likely to include the main centres; Canterbury, North Harbour, Waikato and Wellington and of course the hosts Manawatu. 'We are an old team that train only a fraction of the Auckland teams, so without even considering the other teams it's already going to be very tough' Yi-Sien Lin (Canterbury) on his teams chances. Yi-Sien will combine with Simon Wallace and experienced New Zealand Veteran Malcolm Darroch who has a long history of success in table tennis here in New Zealand. Confidence from Mitchell Barker for North Harbour also 'I think we have a good chance to be there at the end providing our players are on form we are just as good as any other team' Mitchell Barker (North Harbour). No doubt we will see Mitchell combining with 2005 National Champion Brad Chen and of course Craig Dye who recently reached the semi-finals of the Auckland Open Championships just 2 weeks ago.

Hosts of the competition Manawatu are aiming high 'Hopefully top 3, if they play well' Nathan Watson (Manawatu). It will be interesting to see whether playing on home ground can help them manoevre their way to the top. Close neighbours Wellington have entered a number of teams, Coach and Selector Stephen Hirst had this to say on his expectations for the Wellington teams: 'If our top Mens and Women's team play to their potential I'm expecting they will go further than people would expect them to. Quietly confident but it will all come down to doing the right things in the pressure situations on the day. We are not going there to make up the numbers.' This statement was echoed by Wellington representative Hayden Tapp 'Wellington are after a top 4 finish. We are getting back on track and have high hopes'.

Feng Jie holds the A Grade Women's Shield for Auckland,
Winners of the National Women's A Grade Teams.

In the Women's Team Event the Otago team will be travelling up for the competition, great to see. Team player Gemma Buzzard stated her hope was simply 'to win some games and have a good time' a great outlook for the social and competitive balance for the event.

Wellington have put a strong team forward to contest the women's and will be aiming for the top spot having won the North Island Team Championships. 'I believe that Wellington has selected a strong women's team for this year, and the chances of doing well are very high. As always, it all depends on who Auckland and Christchurch sends' Lisa Yue (Wellington). In the end it promises to be a great competition and it's great to see the players aiming high. Waikato will certainly be looking to earn its way into the higher finishing places after a good effort last year to try and make the top spot.

With a number of skillful players competing in the team events there will be plenty of exciting table tennis matches to watch across all grades. A match we can really look forward to will most certainly be the clash of North Harbour's Brad Chen and Auckland's Tony (Teng Teng) Liu.

A Response from a Legend of the Sport Vladimir Samsonov

Well folks, I won the Interview Showdown and achieved an incredible feat for this small blog and am buzzing! Vladimir Samsonov is an inspirational European player often overshadowed by Timo as one of the greatest European players of all time. Having maintained a top 10 position in the ITTF World Rankings for a number of years now, Samsonov shows how experience, hard training and superior knowledge of the game can continue to bring the wins for those who are committed to the sport. Thank you Vladi for the interview! Enjoy people :)

Full Name: Vladimir Samsonov
Age: 35
Date Of Birth: 17.04.1976
Nation represented: Belarus
Highest World Ranking: 1

Equipment Used
Blade: Tibhar Samsonov Force Pro
FH Rubber: Tibhar Genius
BH Rubber: Tibhar Grips Europe

The Prince of European Table Tennis 

Your Career

How long have you been playing table tennis for, when and how did you start?
Almost 30 years , started when I was 6 , first time played with my father

Who has been the biggest influence on your career so far?
I worked with 4 amazing coaches for a long period of time , and also of course my family

What has been the highlight of your table tennis career so far?
I have been world number 1, won 3 times the World Cup, 3 times European Championships in singles, silver medal at the World Championships in singles

What's does your training schedule for a week period involve?
Mostly I practise twice a day , total of 4-6 hours a day

What is your next big goal for table tennis?
Olympic medal is still a big dream for me

Who has been your biggest rival out on the table since you started playing?
Used to be few generations of Chinese players , JO Waldner , Timo Boll , now many others also, upcoming players

What do you think is the most important thing in table tennis for becoming a successful player on the international stage?
I do not think you can single out one individual thing, there are too many factors like talent ,good training conditions , will to train hard, etc. all of these are important in making a successful player

What was it like winning 3 World Cups? Is this a feat you hope to achieve again in the near future?
It was great , especially the last one (beating Ma Long and Chen Qi). Of course I hope I can win again, only it is not that easy. (Vladimir has won the World Cup 3 times, the record held by Ma Lin (China) is 4 victories of the World Cup. Best of luck to Vladi in contesting the 2011 World Cup and his chance to make more history.)

Vladimir the Victor at the 2009 Table Tennis Mens World Cup

Image Courtesy of www.allabouttabletennis.com

You have consistenly remained in the World's Top 10 Mens players for some time now, how do you keep on top of the new upcoming players, do you feel experience is a large factor?

I still practise a lot and there are not many new players . Of course experience is very important , still it will not help you if your opponent is much better than you

Why do you think China currently dominate the sport and what does Europe need to do to bring players to that level?
Chinese work harder , are more professional , more organized, also they have many more players . Most of top Europeans live far away from each other , we should practise more together like the Chinese do, this seems to work for them and is something we lack

Is there a tournament title that has evaded you so far that you have been working very hard to win?
Olympic Games

What has been your proudest moment out on the table?
Each victory is special

What one thing do you consider to be most important in becoming a great table tennis player?
I do not think you can single out one thing , too many factors like talent ,good training conditions , will to train hard, etc. are important . (same answer like to the - What do you think is the most important thing in table tennis for becoming a successful player on the international stage?- question )


Off the Topic Questions

Who’s your favourite sportsperson of all time?
Michael Jordan

Favourite food?
Pancakes

What do you do when you aren't playing table tennis?
Enjoying time with my family

Dream Car?
Not interested

Ideal holiday destination?
Formentera, Spain

First thing you would do if you won $1million?
Celebrate with my family and friends


Your Team Mates
Dimitri Ovtcharov , Alexei Smirnov , Fedor Kuzmin

Who’s the funniest player in the training hall?
Petr Korbel

Who trains the hardest in the training hall?
Robert Gardos

World Cup Final 2009, Samsonov vs Chen Qi 

And Lastly

Would you like to add one last tip, or an inspirational message for other table tennis players looking to succeed?

I know it sounds silly – train hard and believe in yourself .

Thank you Vladimir, from all of us, please continue to believe you can be the very best and inspire us to do the same!

Want to read more great interviews with other former World Champions, Cup Winners and Number 1's? Click for MORE INTERVIEWS.

Interview Showdown Matt Hetherington vs. TableTennisDaily

Me (Matt Hetherington) and Dan Ives (TTDaily) are going head to head in a challenge!

VS.

In our most recent conversation I challenged Dan to pick one player he would love to interview within reachable potential (ie not Chinese basically), he chose Timo Boll. In response to his selection I decided to be fair I would also nominate a top 10 player and chose Vladimir Samsonov.

SO who do you think will get the interview first!

Vote on the Sidebar Poll!

Prause Fueling the European Dream

Having previously had good feedback on my interview with Swedish National Coach Peter Karlsson, I decided to seek another interview with a world class Table Tennis Coach. Richard Prause was incredibly successful in the position of German National Coach and now continues to inspire and coach players in Europe at the Werner Schlager Academy where he is Head Coach, thanks for the interview Richard, hope everyone enjoys!

Full Name: Richard Prause

Age: 43 years

Date Of Birth: 09.03.1968

Nationality: German

Highest World Ranking: 58 (1995)

Highest Coaching Status:

German National Mens Team Coach

Werner Schlager Academy Head Coach

Richard Prause
Former German National Mens Team Coach and Current Head Coach at the WSA
Image Courtesy of ITTF

Equipment Used?

Blade: Michael Maze

FH Rubber: Tenergy 05

BH Rubber: Tenergy 05

Your Career

How long have you involved in table tennis as a player and coach, when did you start each of those roles?

I had been working from 1999 till 2010 for the DTTB in different trainer and coaching jobs. From 2004 I was responsible for the German National Mens Team. Since 2010 I am head coach of the WSA (Werner Schlager Table Tennis Academy,founded by Werner Schlager and situated in Schwechat close to Vienna, Austria.

What has been the highlight of your table tennis career so far perhaps 2 seperate ones, as a player and as a coach?

Career Highlight as a player: 3rd place team 1993 in Gothenburg World Championships

As a coach: silver in mens team event 2008 in Bejing Olympics

What do you think of the state of table tennis worldwide as a sport? What is it lacking which it requires to become better?

Table tennis is in some nations a sleeping beauty, eg in germany there are more than 700000 players but in tv our sport is not often shown. Maybe now through modern media like internet the popularity will grow and of course also because of the performances of Timo who leads a german team that might be able to compete with the Chinese.

In many Asian nations table tennis is quite popular and shown very often on TV. Unfortunately in Europe many nations concentrate more on sports like football or just do not have the right structure for a sport like table tennis. The ITTF is trying to help a lot with increasing the ittf hot spot centers and hopefully this will help to create more successful players that will lead the way for more popularity in their nations. To my point of view we changed already quite some rules and table tennis as it is played right now is an attractive sport. We just have to make high effort to create a system where the players are able to work hard every day in order to compete with the best nations like China or in Europe; Germany and France.

As the German National coach what were your proudest moments?

2007 Germany won the first time ever the European Team Championships
2008 Silver in Bejing Olympic Team Event

2010 getting closer to the chinese in the WTTC team in Moscow where we had a close final against China

Richard Prause with his German National Coach successor Rosskopf

What were your goals for the German team and how did you work towards them?

As a German national team coach I tried to work a lot individually and find ways to communicate a lot with all my players. We tried to give all the players the feeling that they have a most important role inside our team and that they have to compete with each other, but at the same time be ready to work for and help the team. We had a very good team spirit although everybody tried to improve more than the other. We tried to always keep the belief to be able to improve every day and were always ready to compete with the Chinese in order to learn from them and to be ready to beat them.

What does Europe need to do in order to work towards beating Chinese players?

The Europeans have to work better together, maybe also to have camps more regularly together in order to raise the intensity of practice. The best 25 Chinese players are always practicing together. In Europe there are, with exception of Germany, mostly one or two good players in one nation. So we have to start putting these players together more often as it is done for preparation for the Olympics. Also the Europeans should have a look at the competition schedule that disable many players to practice regularly.

How has coaching at the Werner Schlager Academy been and what is your involvement there? What kinds of players come there to train? I know William Henzell will be training there, are there others like him looking to build up for Olympics also?

Right now I am working as head coach in the WSA. We are trying to give players from all nations and different levels the possibility to practice in a good structure and surrounding with professional coaches eg Dirk Wagner, Mario Amizic and myself.

Some players are living and practicing in the WSA like Joao Monteiro, Daniela Dodean, Robert Gardos, the Austrian National team, Bobocica, Burgis, Henzell and apart from them we have always guest like the Croation National team, players from Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, Brazil and many more.

What are your goals for the next few years?

Our goal is to help all the players to improve their table tennis skills and make them perform their best table tennis. Would be nice if after 5 or 10 years we see some players that are practicing in the WSA winning medals in the WTTC or in the Olympics.

Off the Topic Questions

Who’s your favourite sportsperson of all time?

Timo Boll

Timo Boll, Richard's favourite Sportsperson
Image Courtesy of Denis' Table Tennis World

Favourite food?

Chinese Food

Dream Car?

Porsche

Ideal holiday destination?

Maldives

First thing you would do if you won $1million?

2 Weeks holiday then go on practicing

Your Team Mates

Who trains the hardest in the training hall?

everybody has to be ready to practice very hard and above the rim

And Lastly

Would you like to add one last tip, or an inspirational message for other table tennis players and coaches looking to succeed?

Keep on dreaming and it is always worth trying to improve

Thank you Richard! 

Want to read more great interviews with other former World Champions, Cup Winners and Number 1's? Click for MORE INTERVIEWS.