My Playing Career – A Summary!

My Playing Career

I started playing TT when I was 7 years old on the kitchen table at home. Both of my parents played and introduced me to the game as soon as I was tall enough. When I was 9 my Dad brought me down to his club in Deans Grange.

I never played in school, nowadays lots of players begin in school but I began in a club environment.

My first tournament was a Leinster Ranking tournament in Cuala Dalkey. I played in the Under 12 Div 3 and won promotion to the Super Division.

As my game improved, my Dad started to bring me to Irish ranking tournaments around the country. I can’t remember how many junior tournaments I won but there were quite a few.

In those days, there was a lot of competition, large entries and many players capable of winning on a given day, so any tournament win was a great achievement.

I played Interpros every year as a junior – U12,14 and 17 and then also at U21 and senior level also.

I played one Junior Europeans in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia (! that will show you how long ago it was) and it really opened my eyes to how far behind the rest of Europe we were, much more so than today, we have caught up a lot because there’s a more professional set up now.

As I moved from Junior to Senior level I never considered quitting the game as many of my peers did and as many girls still unfortunately do. I saw it as a welcome distraction from exams and study. I cut down on the hours but built it into my study schedule. For me it was a healthy departure from the books and I would recommend trying to keep up some level of play during exams years if at all possible.

In the early years of my Senior career my ambition was to win a senior ranking tournament and to eventually get selected for Ireland. I never won a senior tournament as a junior, there were too many really good senior players capable of winning the tournaments at that time. Nowadays it is common for juniors to come through and start winning senior tournaments form an early age but I was late starter! It wasn’t long though before I started winning and now I am proud to say I have won every Irish ranking tournament, all 4 provincial opens and the National Championships at least once each.

Of all these wins, winning my first National singles title was the sweetest. As was the case during my junior years, the competition at Senior level was tough, again there were many players capable of winning tournaments. This is why winning any title, but particularly a National title was a great achievement.

Finally at the age of 22 I got my first call up for the Irish team. It wasn’t just a Home Nations or a European League match but a baptism of fire at the World Championships in Sweden. There began my 13 year International career. I remember the feeling of excitement and of being star struck at my first World Championships, it was a very special feeling. There followed 4 more World Championships and 7 European Championships.

Some of the highlights from this time in my career include the Worlds in Tianjin, China with its packed stadia, hysteria all around and the need for police escorts to follow the buses.

The Worlds in Manchester, which was almost like a home championships, lots of people had made the short journey from home. It was lovely to have support for the team in the stands.

The Europeans in the picturesque ski resort of Courmayeur in the Italian Alps, topped off with a skiing lesson on the last day.

The Worlds in Qatar, staying in the luxurious surroundings of a 5 star resort with private beach.

As well as this I played in several Home Countries Championships and European League matches including one home match against Norway, which was special because my family were there and we won!

I also played Women’s British League – Ireland entered teams in those days and we played the Premier Div for many years. The closest we came to winning was joint top on points but we lost on game difference. We had some fantastic battles and some super matches.

Throughout my career I had to work hard to get good training. The club I belonged to since a child was open once a week so I needed to travel to other clubs and find other practice partners to supplement this. It didn’t come easy and after a long day at work, the last thing I wanted to do was to travel to the other side of the city for practice but it had to be done. My dedication and hard work paid off, if you don’t have dedication and put in the hard work, you will not achieve your potential.

Sometimes my dedication, competitiveness and will to win were my worst enemies. I lost matches because I wanted to win too much. I was and still am a passionate player and I have always found it hard to control my emotions on the table. When I look back now I wish I had been coached more on the mental side of the game and had learned how to channel my passion in a more positive way.

I freely admit that my greatest weakness was not my backhand, movement or anything else physical but my lack of mental toughness. The problem for me was two-fold – anger management and fear of losing. Anger management speaks for itself, learning to control the anger you may feel either towards yourself for playing badly or towards your opponent for playing well. Fear of losing can be very debilitating as you put yourself under so much pressure to perform and win. Even against players that you know you are better than and have always beaten, doubts start to creep in, what if…..

Learning how to suppress those negative thoughts is very important but not easy to do. Techniques such as positive thinking, mindfullness, visualisation and yoga can be helpful. I will explore some of these areas further in my Sports Psychology section.

Nowadays I am a coach who likes to practice and play without the pressure I used to feel when I was competing. I almost lost the enjoyment at one stage because I wanted to win so badly and feared losing so much. Nowadays I enjoy playing without this sort of pressure. As a coach I therefore very much understand how a player is feeling on the table, particularly when things are not going their way. I try as much as possible to keep the player relaxed and motivated.

Towards the end of my competitive playing career I reached a point where I reflected on my goals and ambitions. I had reached No 1 in Ireland, played for Ireland for 13 years, won every tournament and been national champion twice. Was there anything left for me to achieve as a player?

The one thing I had not done was play for a club abroad so I set about looking for options. I am a fluent German speaker so Germany seemed like the obvious choice. It did not take long for me to find a club in Hamburg SC Urania who were looking for two female players from outside Germany to join their team in the Oberliga Nord (equivalent of German 4^th Div). Myself and the number 1 female player in Norway were signed. It was not a fully professional contract but a semi-professional contract whereby we were flown over each weekend for matches and all accommodation and food costs were covered.

In our first season we won the Oberliga and were promoted to Regionaliga for the following year.

Oberliga was a good standard for me – I won over 50% of my matches. The step up to Regionaliga was a big one and although we recruited a strong player, we struggled to win. I remember playing a Russian ex-International in Berlin who had played in the Euro Championship finals only a few years before. Although we weren’t winning many games, the experience of playing these players improved my game immensely. It was great to play against some different players with no expectations instead of playing the same players at home all the time.

I definitely played the best TT of my career in these later years because of my decision to play in Germany.