17
Jul
BIG BALLS CONQUER SMALL BALLS [PART 1]
by PUMA
02H 37, Wednesday 17 July, 2013
by PUMA
02
We recently caught up with the newly crowned ping pong champion of South Africa, Luke Abrahams. Yes, that's right... the man has the biggest balls in a sport of small balls.
Howzit Luke, thanks for putting your balls down to give us some of your time. You've just been crowned SA Champion, congratulations that's beyond epic. How does it feel to be numero uno, and what was the final match like?
Ah, thanks man. It's a great feeling, not many people can say they've been the best ping pong player in the country. It's something I'm very proud of because it took a long time - approximately 5 years to win it again after my first time in 2008.
The final match was very tactical, the crowd was quiet at the beginning and as I was etching closer to victory the cheers became louder and louder. It got a little distracting and so keeping my focus to win the last two points was tough as I've never played to a capacity stadium in SA before, I mean we talking about table tennis here it's not exactly a huge sport but when you have 500-600 spectators in a small space it can get pretty intense.
But, I'm glad I managed to stay focused and win the title in the end.
That sounds intense, and mad skills for keeping focus. For many of us ping pong is just some fun on a Friday night, however it's how you make your cheddar- a day job. We can't imagine it's all paddles and balls in between meals so can you run us through a day in the life of Luke the professional ping pong player.
I was one of a select few who received a contract from the South African Table Tennis Board (SATTB) and the SA Olympic committee (SASCOC) to train full time and travel the world to various competitions and events. My contract ended a few years ago, though I'm still involved in table tennis. These days I do a bit more coaching in our National academy and sports admin for SATTB which takes up most of my time. Having said that, when I was a full time athlete a typical day would look like this:
05:30 Wake up call and a snack
6:00-7:30 Session one: (alternate with gym)
14:00 Lunch
15:30-18:00 Session 2:
Luke, you've played countless tournaments and matches, besides your recent championship-winning match, which match will forever live in your memory and why?
That's easy, its actually two matches though: the first would be when I won my SA title for the first time, purely because for many years I lost to the same guy in the final and when I finally took the title after 4 years of trying- I told myself to savour the moment because it took countless hours of hard work and dedication.
The second would be when our team won a bronze medal at the All Africa Games in Algeria in 2007. It was the first medal in history for SA table tennis at the Games and to be a part of that team was a special occasion and an honour and most certainly a memory anyone wouldn't want to forget.
Make sure that when you're procrastinating next week you catch up with us for the second part of the interview.
#GETMEIN theme: "I'm a champion." - http://go.puma.com/getmein
Howzit Luke, thanks for putting your balls down to give us some of your time. You've just been crowned SA Champion, congratulations that's beyond epic. How does it feel to be numero uno, and what was the final match like?
Ah, thanks man. It's a great feeling, not many people can say they've been the best ping pong player in the country. It's something I'm very proud of because it took a long time - approximately 5 years to win it again after my first time in 2008.
The final match was very tactical, the crowd was quiet at the beginning and as I was etching closer to victory the cheers became louder and louder. It got a little distracting and so keeping my focus to win the last two points was tough as I've never played to a capacity stadium in SA before, I mean we talking about table tennis here it's not exactly a huge sport but when you have 500-600 spectators in a small space it can get pretty intense.
But, I'm glad I managed to stay focused and win the title in the end.
That sounds intense, and mad skills for keeping focus. For many of us ping pong is just some fun on a Friday night, however it's how you make your cheddar- a day job. We can't imagine it's all paddles and balls in between meals so can you run us through a day in the life of Luke the professional ping pong player.
I was one of a select few who received a contract from the South African Table Tennis Board (SATTB) and the SA Olympic committee (SASCOC) to train full time and travel the world to various competitions and events. My contract ended a few years ago, though I'm still involved in table tennis. These days I do a bit more coaching in our National academy and sports admin for SATTB which takes up most of my time. Having said that, when I was a full time athlete a typical day would look like this:
05:30 Wake up call and a snack
6:00-7:30 Session one: (alternate with gym)
"Multi-ball" which is basically someone feeding you a bucket of balls and you hitting them with the aim of perfecting your technique and footwork. You could hit around 1500-2000 balls on a good day.
8:00 Breakfast and shower
9:30-13:30 Attend lectures14:00 Lunch
15:30-18:00 Session 2:
Sparring and tactical training which would comprise of footwork exercises and various serve and receive drills.
19:00 Dinner time or if I had the energy I would hit the gym then have supper after 20:00.
Luke, you've played countless tournaments and matches, besides your recent championship-winning match, which match will forever live in your memory and why?
That's easy, its actually two matches though: the first would be when I won my SA title for the first time, purely because for many years I lost to the same guy in the final and when I finally took the title after 4 years of trying- I told myself to savour the moment because it took countless hours of hard work and dedication.
The second would be when our team won a bronze medal at the All Africa Games in Algeria in 2007. It was the first medal in history for SA table tennis at the Games and to be a part of that team was a special occasion and an honour and most certainly a memory anyone wouldn't want to forget.
Make sure that when you're procrastinating next week you catch up with us for the second part of the interview.
#GETMEIN theme: "I'm a champion." - http://go.puma.com/getmein
