PLAY TABLE TENNIS WIN TENNIS US OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

Emma Raducanu, 18 years old, won the 2021 US Open Champion on 11 Sept 2021, and became the first British female player to win a Grand Slam Singles Title since 1977. Emma is also the first qualifier in the US Open Era to win a Grand Slam Singles title with a $2.5 million prize.

The new tennis US Open champion honed her skills in activities from ballet to go-karting before concentrating on tennis, and Emma reaps the benefit of a multi-sports background.

Emma’s success does not begin with her exemplary attitude, intelligence, or work ethic – that came later – but something else entirely. One of the best things with Emma is that she was exposed to a lot of sports from a young age, and didn’t go too specifically into tennis straight away.

Emma was initially in ballet, and then her dad hijacked her from ballet and threw her into every sport: a glorious hodgepodge of golf, ballet, horse riding, skiing, basketball, table tennis and even go-karting.

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Emma was doing horse riding, swimming, tap dancing, basketball, skiing, table tennis, golf and, from the age of five to eight, she was go-karting. She started her very short go-karting career in a bus garage in Streatham before going to a proper track. From the age of nine she started motocross in a forest somewhere for a year. This was all alongside tennis. Especially, Emma went to China every year to visit her grandparents and had professional tennis training and professional table tennis training.

Research found that individuals who competed in three sports aged 11, 13, and 15 were significantly more likely to compete at a national level, compared with club standard between the ages of 16 and 18, than those who practised only one sport. Scientists increasingly believe that the Emma way is best, and they also have found that early specialisation and highly structured training can lead to lower motivation, burnout and potentially increased injury rates.

Acquiring skills in multiple sports, often via unstructured play, helps develop creativity and equips people better to handle fresh challenges later in their sporting life.

Such tales are not uncommon. A 2014 study that compared 52 German top footballers, including 18 from the national team, with 50 who played in the fourth to sixth divisions found the better players had enjoyed “more non-organised leisure football in childhood, more engagement in other sports in adolescence” and – yes – also specialised only at a later age.

Another Danish study, which looked at the differences between 148 elite stars in multiple sports – including canoeing, cycling, rowing, sailing, skiing, swimming, track and field and triathlon – compared with 95 near-elite athletes in the same disciplines, found a similar story. Specialising early worked less well than sampling.

AJH Sports/the STARS in Marsfield provides social and competitive tennis and table tennis sessions for all age’s players with all skill levels. The director and the master coach, Andrew Hill, is an accredited Level 3 Tennis Coach and Level 1 Table Tennis Coach.

AJH Sports/the STARS is a positive promotion platform to provide Kids TV Show in the community at shops and clubs and festivals, and it joins in every holidays at Sydney Olympic Park getting kids healthy, active and energised. Andrew is also the Director of Education, AATC. Tennis and Vice Chair of RBC Riverside Business Chamber.

AJH Sports/the STARS has 9 table tennis tables and 4 tennis courts, and it is the only venue in Sydney that offers both of tennis and table tennis for all ages and all levels.

Play table tennis, win tennis US Open championship. Emma did it, you can too.

David Lee and Michael Li thank Andrew Hill for his interview, discussion and support contributing to this article, and wish to gratefully acknowledge the 2021 US Open Tennis Championships - https://www.usopen.org