Why aren’t I good at table tennis?

A response to Matthew Syed's theory of natural talent. [Plus a postscript on my primary school, secondary school and university friend Rabbi Jonathan Hughes]

[Image: Matthew Syed, Times columnist, former Commonwealth table tennis number 1 and author of Bounce. Retrieved from www.thetimes.co.uk/]

Well done to the West Indies! For the first time in 27 years, the men in maroon vanquished the mighty Australians. And in Brisbane too. Fortress Australia. For anyone familiar with the real beautiful game, the West Indies is a cricketing Federation of the many and varied English-speaking Caribbean nations. And among these islands scattered throughout the Gulf of Mexico, there is one that provides more than its fair share of the talent: Barbados. For such a small island, with such a small population, and with so few high schools, Barbados produces a veritable conveyor belt of super fast bowlers and swashbuckling batters. And although the West Indies may not currently be its 1980s cricketing heyday, by head of population Barbados is still the highly productive cricketing factory it always was. Bangladesh, with its 100 million plus citizenry of cricket-mad devotees, could never hope to match the output of the bajan homeland.

So how is it that Barbados, a tiny island nation, has a secondary school system so able to produce sporting greats. Is it natural talent? Is it the Bajan work ethic? Or it is the ecosystem of sporting greatness?

[Image: Jason Holder of Barbados and the West Indies. Caribbean Champions League]

Well there is another little Barbados in this world. The Sun may rarely shine. And the (freezing-cold) sea may be two hours distant.  But it is a hotbed of sporting greatness. It’s called Silverdale Road. A long, windy street in the quiet suburbs of a Southern English town known for insurance companies. In this innocuous locality, on the south-eastern edge of Reading, Berkshire, tennis table champion after table tennis champion has lived and been raised, the most well-known of whom is Matthew Syed, the former British and Commenwealth ping-pong number 1.  Mr Syed, since a Times of London columnist and writer on sports psychology, commented on this peculiarity in his bestseller Bounce. 

In the introduction to his book, he speaks of the sheer number of table tennis achievers from this one road. And he identifies what he says is the reason; that every single one of these champions went to the same primary school and had the same teacher: Peter Charters. As well as being a primary school educator, Peter Charters was one of England’s premier ping-pong coaches and chairman of the England selection committee. He made it his business to discover talent among the student body of Aldryngton Primary School and send them to the Omega TT Club. Here he ensured that Alison (Gordon) Broe, Karen Witt, Matthew Syed and many others played day in and day out until they reached superstar status. It is Mr Syed’s contention that it was the luck of going to this particular State school, the influence of Charters and the regime of practice that helped these young people fulfill their potential. Not natural talent.

There is just one hitch with this theory. I too grew up on Silverdale Road. I too went to Aldyngton School. I too had Peter - or should I say Mr - Charters as my 6th Grade teacher. And yet - you guessed it - I’m rubbish at table tennis! So is Matthew Syed - who I’ve heard recount his story in person in Mr Charters’ 6th Grade lessons - right?

[Image: Peter Charters, top left. National table tennis coach. Primary school teacher of Matthew Syed and the author. Chippenham Table Tennis Centre, 2013]