Rio Olympic Updates. Meet an Australian table tennis star Heming Hu. Fom the garage to the table

Rio 2016: Heming Hu on what it takes to play for Australia in table tennis

By Nicole Mills

Updated 52 minutes ago

PHOTO: Heming Hu competes for Australia at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

If you've ever wondered what it takes to transform your table tennis game from a hobby to an elite sport, here's a look at one athlete's journey from the family garage to the Olympic Games.

Meet Australian table tennis star Heming Hu

He's 22 and lives in Melbourne.

His friends call him Huey, or Hu-dog, and he's about to compete in his first Olympic Games.

We chatted to him about what it takes to make it big in table tennis.

Heming was about 7 when he first picked up a table tennis racket.

"I started table tennis ... playing in my family garage," he said.

"My parents, before they migrated from China, used to play for fun whenever they had time.

"[I liked it because] it was one-on-one and I was a feisty little kid. The passion that came through when I won or lost, even against my own family, showed me that this was something I should keep going with."

Time to start taking it seriously

Hu started taking table tennis seriously about age nine or 10, but as a kid he wasn't always committed to the sport.

It wasn't until he was about 12 that a coach really inspired him and motivated him to take things to the next level.

"I started to think that I wanted to play this long term. I really committed to it," he said.

Meet the rest of the table tennis team

·         Melissa Tapper, 26, will become the first Australian to compete in both the Paralympic and Olympic games

·         Jian Fang Lay, 43, will become the second Australian woman to compete at five Olympic Games

·         Chris Yan and Sally Zhang will get married later this year

·         David Powell is one of five Olympic debutantes in the team of six

"At that time my biggest goal was I wanted to be a national champion in one of my age groups and I would be a happy kid forever. There was no thought of reaching the Olympic Games.

"I didn't really think that was possible until I was about 15 when they had the Youth Olympic Games.

"I was the red hot favourite to make it but in the end I got so nervous that I lost the qualifier by one point."

"I started to think I could make it to the real Olympic Games one day. [That loss] was so disappointing, it made me so hungry for it."

The pursuit of Olympic glory

While his biggest goal in recent times has been to make the Olympic team, Hu hasn't had the luxury of dedicating his whole life to that dream.

He is studying education and science at university and has three more semesters to go before he'll become a science teacher.

"I'm not a full time player, I'm also a university student," he said.

This means he often has to drop back to part-time study when big tournaments come around, like the Commonwealth Games, and the lead-up to the Olympics when he played most of a professional season in Sweden.

(Yes, Sweden. While Asia is still the powerhouse in table tennis Hu said Europe was becoming a major force.)

And in case you're wondering, no, he won't be taking his school books to Rio.

This semester is on hold so he can concentrate on the biggest competition of his life and after the closing ceremony he's heading straight to Germany for another European season.

 Balancing study and training

Hu said it takes a lot of discipline to fit in all of his commitments.

"Every day you have to get up early, then go to bed early so you can get up early and do it all again," he said.

"My goal this year has been to just practice as much as I can, once a day, twice a day if I can. It takes a lot of hard work.

"A lot of young players would train a couple of times a week and think 'I'm getting pretty good' ... but to be a good men's or women's senior player requires a lot of hard work.

"You have to love the game. It takes a lot of time, a lot of dedication, a lot of patience

Need some tips? Here's what Hu's training program looks like:

Most of the his training time is spend doing exercises on the table to improve reflexes and maintain technique:

"The reflexes are obviously very fast," he said.

"There's one method of training called multi-ball where one person goes down to one end of the table and just serves balls to you one after the other, really fast."

There's also lots of time in the gym doing exercises including lunges to help with short bursts of power:

"With such a quick, compact and fast sport like this ... you have to use so much effort in such a short time," Hu said.

"At the moment it's becoming more and more important for players to be stronger so they can keep up. The [International Table Tennis Federation] is trying to slow things down so it's up to the players to find ways to speed it up."

And before any competition there's time spent on tactics:

"Strategy is a very big part of the game because the game has got so many different types on spin," he said.

"There's so many different spots they can play the ball, everyone has their strong points and weak points. Some people will respond differently to different tactics."

And like most athletes, table tennis players need to keep an eye on their diet:

"What you eat is very important," he said.

Source: ABC News