She is up there — in terms of age, experience and wisdom — of all the coaches that were involved in the Ultimate Table Tennis’ (UTT’s) 2024 edition. Born in the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1969, Elena Timina, a defensive player turned aggressive coach, has represented USSR and Netherlands – her home for well over a decade – and has been coaching various teams for a long time.
Having been involved in each of UTT’s five editions so far, Timina revealed her magic mantra for being a successful coach. Moreover, she served a word of caution to India’s women’s table tennis fraternity and also had a word of advice for maintaining the recent surge in performances in the international arena. Excerpts:
It’s been five seasons of Ultimate Table Tennis. How have you seen the league evolve?
The biggest difference is the level of Indian players. They have taken significant steps in the development of this league in five – actually more years because of course COVID was in between – so it was like seven years, I think, since the league started. In the first season in 2017, most of the Indian players were like underdogs. Now, they are sometimes more dangerous than international players and the results of Indian table tennis internationally speaks for itself. It’s just very big steps.
From a coach’s perspective, what is it that you plan and achieve in the three weeks you spend with the team?
OK, this is easy for me because I know exactly what I want. Every season I want the same. I want the team and me and the management to really enjoy ourselves and as a team. At the time of the annual player draft, I always pay attention to the character of players, not only the level of their skills. The characters have to fit together. Some human beings take things more seriously, some are a little bit lighter, so I want to have a balance in the team just for this purpose. I want us to be very happy and to become a family for these 25 days. Yes, it’s disappointing to lose in the semifinals but our team had already reached the happiness goal even before we topped the league stage. We really had a fantastic time. We were a small family.
Obviously the second goal was to get as far as possible. I think reaching the semifinal this year was much more difficult than to do it in all other seasons just because there were more teams.
You mentioned the quality of Indian table tennis. Are you surprised with the recent trend of India’s women paddlers overshadowing men in the international arena?
No, I am totally not surprised because the best Indian players – like Manika (Batra) and Sreeja (Akula) - have produced the best results. These players have mastered the specialised material (the long-pimpled rubbers primarily on their backhand and the art of twiddling it), so this is quite clear. They have exploited the advantage to perfection.
Elena Timina. | Photo Credit: Focus Sports/UTT
If I were responsible for Indian table tennis, the only thing I would worry about is the excessive usage of the rubber. If you see all the girls are playing table tennis in India – professional, semi-professional or little young players – maybe 80% are learning only this style of the game. In my experience, table tennis is very adaptive, so sooner or later, I will give it another 8-10 years maybe - everybody will be able to play against this difficult material and that is the danger.
If I were responsible for Indian table tennis, I would keep such players – the ones with slightly odd rubbers – but restrict them to maybe around 30 per cent and start to develop other underdeveloped areas of techniques or skills or footwork to start with. If both the faces are developed , it will be a much better scenario. It’s not about talent, I think the Indians are, in general, extremely talented. I understand the current trend of quick way to success and its concurrence. It is important to get good results quicker. But in long-term thinking, I think it’s dangerous.
Taneesha Kotecha of Bengaluru Smashers. | Photo Credit: Focus Sports/UTT
In that respect, what do you tell someone like Taneesha Kotecha – the junior-most player in Bengaluru Smashers who is trying to break the ceiling with the conventional style of playing with plain rubbers?
Just keep going on and keep working hard. Taneesha told me that her dream is to become the first Indian player ‘without material’ to break into the top-50 in the world. I can only say I totally support her and I hope she will manage to do that. I think it’s a very brave idea, but on the other hand, nothing is impossible. Many things look impossible till they are achieved for the first time and as soon as they are done, it looks like routine. I wish Taneesha and other girls like this the best.
You guided Goa Challengers to the 2023 title and you managed to get the Smashers – a new group of players – to top the group this time around. What is the secret of your success?
I have a lot of questions for myself as a coach. Really. I know there are many things that other coaches are doing better, but I am quite good at team building. I have always done it. I think I would be good at it not only in sports but even if I work in the business world, I would still be able to be a good team leader. Maybe because I am coming out of the Soviet Union environment, you know, where I was brought up with the idea that together we are stronger than we are alone. It is — in many cases – actually true.
As for this season, I think we were playing just too good in the league stage. The credit should go to the players and each member of the squad.
Do you think it’s time that possibly the UTT should think of letting the teams have the option of retaining coaches for the next season?
Retaining coaches! Yeah, that’s interesting. I have heard that there are thoughts about this. If you are lucky with a coach, with a good coach, you can keep him for a longer time, and then you are used to him and you know how he works. So there are advantages.
On the other hand, what if of the eight teams, six are happy with their coaches and they are going to retain their coaches and the other two are not happy and they have to be stuck with the same coaches they have? So there are ways to think it over and there is time also.
Published - September 12, 2024 12:04 am IST
