My Table Tennis Journey
My Table Tennis Journey
I have divided my table tennis journey into 3 parts:
My early days in table tennis
How I became a coach
How I started my own club
My Early Days in Table Tennis
I started playing table tennis as a recreational player in my early 20’s when I was living in Karachi, Pakistan. My first exposure to table tennis was in my first year of college, where we had an old broken table there. I still enjoyed playing and continued for almost 2 years.
I played almost all of the popular sports when I was living back home in Karachi. However, for some reason, the moment I hit a few balls with my college friends, I fell in love with table tennis. Playing in college was never enough for me, so I also set up my dining table at home to play table tennis. The table was quite small, about 3 ½ feet wide and about 6 feet long, smaller than a standard table tennis table, but it killed some time.
During these early days of college, I also discovered a table tennis club at the YMCA center. The club had 2 professional tables. I decided to have a yearly membership there and played two to three times a week at the club. At that time I wanted to learn more about table tennis, but unfortunately, there was no coach available at the club. Luckily, I found a friend in the club who taught me how to play the basic forehand stroke and a few spins serves.
As a beginner player, we always used the 2nd table at the club. This is because Table 1 was reserved for players who had intermediate-level skills. For instance, they could hit backhand and forehand well and had pretty good topspin and looping skills. I never got to play with them because I was a beginner-level player. Even though I only had a few people to play with, I continued to play at the YMCA.
Eventually, I moved to the USA in the early 90’s. For the first few years, I got very busy with my college education and a full-time job. And, on the weekend I played soccer once a week with my friends. Due to my busy schedule at that time, I didn’t get the time to think much about table tennis. But in the year 2000, I discovered a club in Waltham, MA, owned by a man named Mozart (who is also the coach there). I started playing at the club 2 to 3 times a week. I did this for a few years. During that time I had the opportunity to play my first tournament. I never played a tournament in my entire life. This was a completely new experience for me and I was very nervous playing my first few matches.
Becoming a Coach
I kept playing as a beginner-level player for the next 3 to 4 years at Mozart’s club. In the year 2004, I won a couple of local tournaments at the club. I was so excited at that time and I thought that my skills were very good. In reality, I was still a recreational level player that knew how to do a few good spins serves and a decent forehand stroke. For the next few years, I got tied up with my business and didn’t play very often at the club.
In the year 2010, I decided to take coaching lessons from Mozart. I took lessons with him for almost a year. Later, I assisted him in coaching groups of children every Saturday, voluntarily. Once I learned the fundamentals of table tennis, I decided to coach my 7 years old daughter, Hina, at home. In the next few months, she had learned the basic skills of the sport very well. In that time I also had the opportunity to organize and run a couple of tournaments at Mozart’s club.
Teaching my daughter table tennis inspired me to become a coach. I decided to take table tennis certified courses to enhance my overall skills. In the year 2011, I got certified as a Level 1 coach and started coaching part-time at the Watertown club. For the next few years, I was coaching children and adult groups at the club. Once I became certified, I continued coaching children at the club and my daughter at home.
The Level 1 course helped me coach beginner-level players. I wanted to also be able to coach intermediate and advanced level players. So in the summer of 2015, I became a certified Level 2 coach. Finally, I decided that I needed my own space for coaching. I started searching for a location where I could have my own space. Luckily, I found a space at a club in Wellesley called the Maugus club and rented it. They had 2 tables in the club and I was the only table tennis coach available at the club.
At the Maugus club, I was able to coach for three years. During that time, I got a pretty good coaching experience and knew how to run a small club. Shortly after, in the year 2017, I rented a one-day space in Andover and organized and ran the “Massachusetts State Table Tennis Championships 2017”. After that, I ran and organized a few local Watertown club tournaments.
Starting My Own Club
After acquiring the experience to exclusively coach at a club for many years, I felt I was ready to open my own table tennis club. I started searching for a space to rent. Fortunately, with the help of my wife, I found a spot in Newton with the Newton Parks and Recreation department. I opened my new club in June of 2019 and named it the “Newton Table Tennis Center”. The club was open three days a week on Sundays, Mondays, and Wednesdays.
At last, I owned my own space and was very excited to have a table tennis center in the same town I lived in (Newton). I began private and group coaching there and I ran a few club tournaments at the center while we were open.
I hope the pandemic era will pass by us soon. While the club was closed I started writing a monthly blog post and sending out emails regularly on Sundays to all our subscribers if you would like to join my email list and learn more about table tennis click here.
My dream is to one day open a full-time club in the greater Boston area.
The Center is open now. For all the non-members, please click here to sign up for a one-day pass and email me your confirmation. We have very limited spots for non-members. These will be filled in on a first come first serve basis.
Once you have paid, please email me which days you are coming that week.