William (7) and Vassall (9) arrived in London from Jamaica in the 1950’s. Like all children they went to their local school which wrongly thought William, being the bigger of the brothers, was the elder. He was put in the class for 9 year olds and, having never been to school before, struggled. Soon he was put in the remedial class where the teacher concentrated on keeping order and taught William nothing.
Not surprisingly, given his low starting point, William found secondary school tough and when he was 16 ended up with one “O” level. However, William liked school. He was happy and wanted to be a teacher but he needed 5 “O” levels to go to 6th form. He decided to re-sit his exams, convinced he had the talent inside him to succeed academically. Then he met teacher Ray Sanders who also believed in him and helped him to get his exams. William went on to become a teacher and then Headteacher of a failing school. He used his experience of being seen as a failure, and mixing with others who found learning difficult, to transform the school and make it one of the most successful in the country. His name is Sir William Atkinson.
Matthew Syed in his book “Bounce” believes we all have the potential to become exceptional table-tennis players. Do you believe it? You ought to. None of you are at such a poor starting point in your sport as William was at school. The coaches in our club cannot believe how we have recently acquired so many talented beginners who are already good for their age. You all, every one of you, have the potential to become exceptional players if you have the desire and use club to its full.
At club you can practise at least twice a week and many of you have matches in addition. Some of you play at home and at sports centres and there will be opportunities this season to enter club tournaments at Campion school or at Lawrence Sherrif School in Rugby. I have watched several of you during the Summer who seem to have spent half the week playing table-tennis and the improvement has been unbelievable. If some can do it so can all of us! William worked hard to get his exams, at the second time of asking, but always believed he was good enough. If you work hard and believe in yourself you can be as good as you want.
William also met a teacher who believed in him. At club you have coaches who believe in you, who set up coaching drills which will improve your shots and movement so that they become second nature. Their aim is to allow you not to have to think about shots and movement during the game, to make them instinctive, giving you time to think about outwitting your opponents. I could give you many examples of players in our club who now play brilliant shots on a consistent basis and who are winning many more matches because they have time to read the game.
You are also lucky in that you belong to a club where the competition (and the friendship) is great. We have so many talented players on our doorstep. Every time you play someone better it should challenge you to copy what they are good at. Are they faster than you, have they a better back-hand, are their serves difficult to return and if so, why? Go to your coach and ask them to set up a routine that will make you faster or improve your back-hand. You will be as good as them in time if you believe it and are prepared to work hard.
A new season is in front of us. Will we be winners or losers? The coaching team really believe we have great talents in our club who will find that they are winners.
Have a great season, work hard, learn all you can, and, above all, enjoy yourselves.
Phil
