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THE EXPERT TABLE TENNIS PODCAST - EPISODE #27
You probably know Christian Ortner as half of Piing of Power, the guys who make table tennis videos for the ITTF, Butterfly and a host of other companies. He has been active in the online table tennis community for almost three years now and has justed started his own KZread channel, Mr Piingo.
What you probably didn’t know about Christian is that he hasn’t actually been playing table tennis for very long. He only picked up the sport about five years ago, aged 18, and didn’t start taking it seriously until 2012. That means he has had to struggle through all of the typical barriers to entry for adult beginners and forge his own path in the sport. That includes losing to hundreds of small children and OAPs!
What sets Christian apart from your typical adult beginner, however, is the fact that as part of his work he regularly “mingles” with the world’s best players and coaches. Very few hobby players get the chance to play with Michael Maze or ask Timo Boll for some advice! In today’s episode, we hear all about Christian’s experience of being a hobby player surrounded by professionals, and he shares some of the advice he’s received along the way.
In this episode you’ll learn:
- What on earth is “Mr Piingo”?!
- About the work Christian does for the ITTF
- What a typical day is like for Christian
- How he first started playing table tennis at age 18
- Some of the things he struggled with at the beginning
- The #1 tip Timo Boll gave him that changed his view of the game
- Stories from meeting other professional players
- Why Dimitrij Ovtcharov believes Ma Long is the best ever!
- The importance of using deception and “feints” in your game
- TOP TIP = Why you must never give up
- How to follow Christian and Mr Piingo
Thanks for listening!
Thank you so much for joining us for Episode 27 of The Expert Table Tennis Podcast with Christian Ortner. I feel like he was an ideal guest because he had a table tennis story that a lot of us can relate to (starting quite late and struggling to improve) but then at the same time he was able to drop in plenty of advice from some of the world’s best players such as Timo Boll and Dimitrij Ovtcharov.
I don’t know how much time Christian will have over the next few years to focus on improving his game (he’s a very busy guy) but I’m sure that if he continues playing as much as possible, and enjoying it as much as he clearly does, he’ll be shooting up the ratings and seeing some really superb results.
Thanks for a brilliant interview Christian!
And a big thank you to our sponsor - ttEDGE
Running and producing a weekly podcast costs money (not a lot of money, but I do have to pay out for hosting each money and buy equipment and tools). It also takes up quite a lot of my time (probably about 4-5 hours per episode if you include prep, doing the interview, editing and uploading it, and then promotion).
In order to make it all a little more financially viable I have taken the decision to have each episode paid for by a sponsor. The format of the show will remain the same, except that after the interview I will give you a very brief message from them, whoever it might be. It could be promoting a product or service. It might be making you aware of a special deal. Anything really. I hope you understand.
So please support the show and subscribe on iTunes, leave us an honest iTunes Podcast review, share this episode on Facebook or Twitter, or simply just mentioned it to a friend. I appreciate your help so much!
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