Junior of the Month: Eric Finkelstein 

How old were you when you started to play, and how did you start?

5-6 or so years ago – when I was 8 or 9 – while on vacation.  My brother, sister and I begged our parents to let us go to the arcade room. They let us go, and they came along as well. Besides a bunch of arcade games, the arcade room had a dusty old table, as well as old $2 paddles. If you put a quarter in this machine, a low-quality ball would come out. After playing some arcade games, my parents played ping-pong (around 200 level). I kicked my dad off because I wanted to play. After about 10 games – using volleyball scoring! – I played my mom, and she won each time. (Shhhh!)   So I got my Dad to play me, and I beat him, so I began to really like it. (My dad was taking it easy on me, I would later find out.)

After a year or two of nagging, my parents bought a table for the holidays as “the big gift.” I thought it was awesome, even though I still couldn’t beat anyone in my family – my brother, sister, mom, or dad. I held the $1 paddle like a tennis racket since I started playing tennis a few years before that. Soon I was around the same level as my brother and sister (we had some intense matches back then), and better than mom but not dad.

Sometime in 1997 one of my friends told me “this female Olympian is giving ping-pong lessons and for much less than the Ashley’s” (a group of tennis teachers we got lessons from at the time). So, thinking I would be the best there, I came and found out that basically, I sucked. (The Olympian was Lily Yip.) But after a few months of clinics I was gaining on many of the others, but still hadn’t passed the 500 level – but I thought it was awesome. I waited for every Saturday where there were kids my age that could still crush me. Eventually, I became about the level of the weakest players (mostly 10-year-olds), and I learned about the New Jersey Table Tennis Club in Westfield. That’s when I really started playing, since it was the first time I’d seen serious table tennis. I remember getting beaten badly, especially in the league, which is how I learned how bad I really was.

Who were your coaches when you started? Who are your coaches now?

Originally Lily Yip. During her clinics; however, Roger Semple helped more individually, too. Now David Zhuang coaches me.

Who do you practice with, and how often?

I don’t think there is one person in particular that I get most practice. I’d often go to “the club” (as I call NJTTC) and either call a table or find someone to hit with.

I’d say right now I practice the most with Pan Lin (15 years old and over 2100), he’s great to practice with, he is one of the few people I actually PRACTICE with instead of simply games. When I say I play with lots of other people, “practice” usually means a match with maybe 10 minutes of practice and usually no drills.

Have you ever trained outside the U.S.? Where and when?

Recently (late March-early April) I went to a one-week training camp in Calgary. But besides Canada I haven’t trained outside of the U.S. yet.

What are your best titles, tournament results or rankings?

Hmm... Well I’ve won some local age and rating events but I suppose they don’t stand out too much. I remember being thrilled at the 1999 U.S. Open from winning the 1525 event!

Also I have each type of AAU Junior Olympic medals. But the one gold I have was a team event. I’m still waiting for gold in singles.…

In the previous Junior Olympics I received the Joel Farrell Sportsmanship Award. I think that was more important than winning a gold. Just looking at the list of others that received it amazes me!

How would you describe your style of play?

I’d say I’m a looper. My style is fairly normal.

What techniques are you working on to improve?

Even though my primary weapon is looping it is important I increase the speed – I can’t rely on the competition to have trouble with slow, spinny loops forever. Also my short game and backhand loop could use some work, but shhh!

Who is your favorite player and why?

At first my favorite player was Waldner, well... because everyone else loves him and I jumped on the bandwagon. And he still is one of my favorite players because of the many tricks he has, it makes watching him play more entertaining. But currently I like the way Lou Guozheng plays, I often go too high up with my playing arm when I loop, and he keeps his strokes so low.

Outside of table tennis, what do you like to do? Hobbies, sports, etc.

Actually I started tennis a few years before table tennis, and I’m about 3.5-4.0. I play tennis once a week and often I have people from table tennis telling me to drop tennis – but I don’t think I’ll do that soon. I played travel soccer up until two years ago and stopped playing travel (I still do rec.) because I missed so many games and practices from table tennis!  I also like the “stuff” most people my age do – Hang out with friends, talk online, go out. Often I’ll play a game of baseball when a bunch of friends get together.

Music is also a huge part of my life. I have over 1,300 songs constantly playing on my computer (even right now), and today when I played tennis with a friend, I burned a CD and blasted it in a boombox so I could have music when I played! Mostly I listen to punk rock and emo.

What are your table tennis goals?

I don’t really have a short-term goal. I’m still on the brink on breaking 2000. As an intermediate goal I’d hope to stay highly ranked in my age group and improve on it. My long-term goal is to make the 2008 Olympics – that might be more of a dream but we’ll see what happens.

How about your non-table tennis goals?

My number one thing is through hard work to make it to medical school to become a doctor. What kind? I haven’t thought much about that, but my reasoning is you can earn people’s respect while still getting a respectable income. Hey, it worked for my dad!

Anything else you’d like to say?

Yeah. You can say this is another long-term goal. I would never play if it weren’t fun. If table tennis was no longer fun then I don’t think I’d carry on just because of pressure or something else along that line. The reason I got started in the first place was how much fun I had. It seems silly to play a sport if you don’t even like it. My mom’s motto to me is “The day you stop having fun is the day I stop taking you to tournaments.” I couldn’t agree more with it because that’s why we all play the game – right?