Forget camping ping-pong: at student table tennis association Hyperion, balls fly through the hall at lightning speed

Anyone who associates table tennis with a wobbly camping table and a ball bouncing in all directions will be sorely mistaken at S.T.T. Hyperion. Here, the game is taken seriously – complete with backspins and beads of sweat. ‘Behind the table, you want to win. But if you lose and get handed a beer, that’s fine too.’

Student table tennis association Hyperion is no newcomer in Tilburg. The club has been around since 1980 but faded into obscurity for years due to a lack of active members and a board. That changed in 2018 when a group of enthusiastic students decided to revive it. Now, seven years later, the club is thriving: with weekly training sessions, monthly activities, social drinks, and tournaments, Hyperion is firmly back on the map.

That success is also evident during Wednesday evening training. In sports hall 2B of the university sports center, ping-pong balls are already flying past you even before training officially begins. Fourteen people are signed up for tonight’s session. Among those already playing, the focus is intense. Latecomers grab a paddle upon entry and get started right away.

Tonight, Ties Schalij (24) is leading the group. He has played the sport since his childhood and is now one of two table tennis trainers at the sports center. In addition to his lessons, he also serves as ‘table tennis commissioner’ on Hyperion’s board. In his notebook is the plan for tonight: lots of technical drills, followed by a few rounds of competitive play. All without a warm-up.

‘We’ll start with the butterfly today – that means one player hits the ball diagonally, while the opponent returns it straight,’ Schalij kicks off the training. Spread throughout the hall, everyone gets to work intensely, with little time for chitchat.

Nicknames

One thing that stands out right away: there are few women present in the hall tonight. 22-year-old Lia Kim is the only woman on the floor during the first hour. That’s not unusual, since there are only seven female members in the entire club. The five-member board is entirely male as well.

Two of those board members, chair Sven Dekker (22) and PR manager Joep van Pamelen (23), are busily working on their topspins and backhands in the middle of the hall. In addition to the Hyperion logo, their shirts also feature a nickname. According to ‘Jolly Joep’, the one who started the nickname initiative, it’s a tradition without any logic: ‘The nicknames don’t mean anything, as long as they alliterate.’

That’s not true for ‘Bunk Bed Sven’. He earned his nickname because his student room serves as a crash pad for the entire club after every Hyperion party. Because despite the intense focus many members display during training, they’re not shy about partying either. The annual Hyperion Cantus, organized since last year at café De Boekanier, regularly draws 70 to 80 students – quite a turnout for a club with just 36 members. ‘We just invite everyone we know,’ Sven laughs.

Beer

Besides the Hyperion Cantus, there’s a social drink after every training session, and every month they organize an activity that has nothing to do with table tennis. There’s also a bi-monthly Hyperion Open match, and the club participates in table tennis competitions in Tilburg.

But whether they’re as competitive in those matches as they are during training is up for debate. Treasurer Geert van Hoorn (24), a.k.a. ‘Genius Gambler Geert’, puts it like this: ‘Look, when you’re behind the table, you want to win. But if you lose and get a beer afterward, that’s fine too. It’s still a student association, after all.’

Meanwhile, trainer Schalij – also known as ‘Tiger Ties’ – calls for the final rallies: short matches in which players rotate until everyone has played against everyone else. And although the beers are already calling, the competitive spirit truly ignites. The ping-pong balls are now flying through the hall even faster than before.

_Advertentie.