#11 – Istvan Moldovan: Motivation and Performance

The Expert Table Tennis Podcast

Istvan Moldovan was my coach on the B75 Summer Table Tennis Training camp that I attended in Denmark last summer with Sam. He is a very experienced coach, a qualified performance psychologist and has played table tennis at the highest level – he was part of the Norwegian national team for many years and achieved a world ranking around the #100 mark.

I wanted to get Istvan on the show to share his thoughts on the importance of fostering motivation in players and how to take responsibility for your own development and learning. I also wanted to pick his brain about a few other topics too and ask him about his master’s thesis; where he interviewed Jan-Ove Waldner and Jorgen Persson!

In this episode, you will learn a little about Istvan and his career in table tennis before we move on to some deeper topics and discussions. I find that Istvan and the whole team over at B75 have a refreshingly different view in regards to how best to develop and support table tennis players on their journey’s that puts the focus on the players and not the coaches.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How Istvan first became involved in table tennis.
• What Istvan achieved as an international player.
• Why he found himself drawn to sports psychology.
• What he learnt from interviewing Waldner and Persson for his thesis.
• The differences between the Swedish and Chinese attitude towards player development.
• Istvan’s philosophy for getting the best out of players.
• More about the B75 summer camp and the ethos behind it.
• What Istvan means when he talks about “technique freaks”.
• The importance of focusing on improving your competitive performance.
• Why you should begin to coach yourself.
• Some general advice for becoming a top player.

Links from this episode:

• Istvan’s World Ranking Archive
• Istvan’s International Results
• Istvan Moldovan Clinched Gold in 2014 Norwegian National Champs
• Istvan Moldovan (2011) The Fire That Burns From Within: Tales of Legendary Swedish Table Tennis Players (PDF)
• B75 Club Website
• B75 on Facebook
• Istvan Moldovan on Facebook
• Istvan Moldovan on LinkedIn
• Istvan’s Performance Consultancy Website (in Norwegian)

Thanks for listening!

Thank you so much for joining us. I really hope you enjoyed the show.

If you would like to email Istvan you can do so via sport.psychologist [at] live.com

There are now 11 episodes of The Expert Table Tennis Podcast. Download numbers are rising, but it would still really help us out if you could go and leave us an honest review on iTunes. It’s very simple to do and will help us to get noticed in the crowded world of podcasting. Please subscribe as well!

A big thank you to Istvan for joining me on this episode. I’ll have another interview for you next Friday. Have a good weekend.

The post #11 – Istvan Moldovan: Motivation and Performance appeared first on Expert Table Tennis.