This weekend the table tennis players of Climate Group Stars will start the competition in the premier league. Anne Vlieg experienced the glory days as coach of the Middelstumers in the late 1990s, when hundreds of fans were in the stands during matches. “Those days will never come back.”
In 1998 there was a big party in Middelstum. The table tennis players of Midstars broke through the hegemony of FVT Visser from Rotterdam and became national champions for the first time in history. Under the inspiring leadership of the coaching table tennis brothers Jan and Anne Vlieg and with the current coach of Midstars, Jan Tammenga, as a player, hundreds of fans celebrated the unique success.
The public stays away
This weekend the Premier League starts a new season. Midstars is still there, the hundreds of fans are gone. During matches, there are often fewer than fifteen people sitting next to the table. Not only in Middelstum does the audience stay at home, at other clubs too, one and a half people and a horse’s head come to watch on match days.
Glory time
Anne Vlieg (67) thinks back with nostalgia to the glory days of table tennis. “Those days will never come back,” he says firmly. “That has to do with the spirit of the times. When I started playing table tennis fifty years ago, there were about 150 people in the hall during matches, later there were sometimes 500 or 600 people watching.”
When Vlieg thinks back on his years as a player, something immediately comes to mind. “I once gave an explanation before a match. I explained what would happen if I gave a ball a certain effect and where I could expect it next. That day I played against Bert van der Helm, the Dutch champion. The first ball landed exactly where I predicted and I whooped it back to the other side. The crowd understood what was happening and started clapping. It happened again on the second ball, and on the third, the fourth. I took a 4-0 lead and the crowd went crazy. I thought it was so funny and had to laugh. Lost concentration. I then lost the game with absolutely no chance.”
Nobody comes to watch
In the years that followed, audiences continued to flock to the table tennis halls, but spectator numbers have declined rapidly over the past twenty years. “The involvement used to be greater,” says Vlieg. “People were really supporters of a club. I don’t think we can take it back anymore. I can give a whole argument about why this sport is so much fun, but that doesn’t help anything. That Frenchman from Midstars, Clement Chobeau, is a great player. He can entertain the audience, but no one comes to watch.”
Frustrations
Vlieg left Midstars a long time ago and now travels across the country to teach table tennis. “I officially retired a few months ago, but I still do the same thing as then. Only now Father State is also contributing something.”
Vlieg is having a good time, but there was a time when he could be very angry about the Dutch table tennis world. “About twenty years ago I left the union in sick frustration,” says Vlieg. “I thought they were just a bunch of goons. I didn’t like the way they trained at all.”
Stupid hours-crunching
Vlieg still believes that there is a lot to be gained in training methods. “Many training sessions are nothing more than mindless hours of repetitive exercises. But that doesn’t happen in competitions. Anticipation is the magic word in table tennis. The serve, return and the first stroke afterward are the most important. You have to train for that, but that happens far too little. There are two French brothers and a Swede who have become very creative in this way. It is the only way to cope with the Chinese.”
Missionary
Vlieg is like a missionary who preaches the training method in which anticipation and creativity predominate. He does not find a listening ear everywhere. “But Jan Tammenga, who I think highly of, does try. It takes a lot of getting used to for table tennis players.” Vlieg also noticed this when he trained Shuohan Men from Midstars. She didn’t like the method. “I think Shuohan has gotten stuck. I’m shocked when I see her play.”
A return to Midstars is not an option for Vlieg. “I’m not looking forward to that, but if they ever want some tips about training methods, they can always call. I want to spread that Word as long as I can.”