Tim Jonkman was a talented hockey player and made it to the selection of the then hockey superpower Oranje Zwart. Injuries prevented a definitive breakthrough, after which playing pool happened to come his way. The now 37-year-old Eindhoven resident recently won his first Dutch straight pool title. And that as a semi-professional. “The prize money is going up, but this development comes at the wrong time in my life.”
Jonkman was a talented youth player for the Oranje Zwart and made it to the first team, albeit as a bencher. He then played for Eindhoven’s EMHC and HC Eindhoven for many years. “I think I could have been a nice big league player, but there were always injuries. One time a broken finger, then another a broken wrist or collarbone. I was out of action many times, at a certain point it was over.”
“I like sports with balls.”
He exchanged one sport for another, because the Eindhoven resident happened to play pool billiards. His friends wanted to play a game of pool and Jonkman couldn’t stay behind. “It turned out that I quickly got a feel for it. Sports with balls suit me. I enjoyed it so much that I could hardly get myself off the table.”
In search of a better pool center, he ended up at Snooker & Poolcentrum Woensel in his hometown. There he trains, plays in a premier league team and is a manager. “I make time to train before and after work. Every week I spend between ten and twenty hours behind the table. I also regularly go to the gym and do stretching exercises every day. You have to pay attention to your body, in a tournament you sometimes play for hours on end over several days.”
Jonkman has already won the national title twice in Pool, China, where the table and pockets are somewhat smaller. Last week he became straight pool champion for the first time. You play with fifteen balls, each worth one point. It was a title that left me wanting more, although it will be quite a challenge to prolong the gold.
“I already know that I will have less time to play pool next year.”
“Many top players opt for a full-time professional life, but I want to continue working on the side. There is more and more to be earned within the sport, but we have consciously made the choice to start a family. As a full professional you are away from home a lot,” he explains.
“We have a one-and-a-half-year-old son and number two will come in January. I already know that I will have less time to play pool next year. That’s why I’m trying to make the most of it now,” he says, laughing.
Despite his full agenda, Jonkman remains ambitious at the table. “When I play pool, I always want to get the best out of it. I keep trying to play at the major tournaments, anywhere in the world. That’s a great challenge.”
