Triple Paralympian David Wetherill – My Reflections on Table Tennis

The gradual realisation that I am approaching the twilight of my professional table tennis playing career has been a long time coming. Our bodies don’t get any younger and I feel like I have been clinging onto it for a while. But nothing could have prepared me for the feeling now the time has eventually come to wake up from such longstanding denial. It has probably been the most mentally challenging period of my life, certainly since I first properly picked up a bat at the age of 10. I started playing during a long rehabilitation period from a broken leg and I have overcome many further obstacles since then – from disability adversity and career threatening injuries to dealing with performance anxieties, high pressure situations and all the highs and lows that come hand-in-hand with the journey to competing at three Paralympic Games. This has been a whole new scary challenge to me.

For so many years table tennis has been my passion and my purpose, my release from physical pain, my reason to push through the blockades, to get fit and to stay fit, to de-concrete my bones and struggle up and out of bed in the morning. But recently it’s been doing more physical harm than good and my multiple epiphyseal dysplasia condition has gradually worsened over the years to the point where I have found it increasingly more mentally challenging. It’s never really been about the medals – but that’s not to say I haven’t wanted to win.

I’m addicted to getting better, to squeezing out every last tiny 1% gain, to having accountability and letting nothing stop the constant striving for improvement in whatever that may be, and to bringing all innovations and solutions together where ultimately collaborative team performance and results are the outcome. This has always been a huge motivation for me and when that gets a bit lost then things definitely start to become a little harder, irrespective of the level one may still be at or the medals one may still have the ability to win. Take that away completely and I can understand why many previous athletes have fallen into similar traps.

Thankfully, I know we can have lots to fall back on. I know being able to harness any attributes borne from a successful sporting career, paired with personal experiences and a well-rounded academic background, can naturally leave you not being short on transferable skills or paths to take. It can also leave you well-equipped to deal with anything that life may throw at you and for me that has been some solace to the hole which naturally has been left.                   

In hindsight, aside from any physical skills, I have A LOT to thank my life in table tennis for (other than the need for a double hip replacement)! I have developed a mental resilience, an adaptability and an understanding of myself.  I have accepted that I can’t do some of the things that I used to be able to do, or have never been able to do, but that I can do them in different ways and that sometimes I can do them better. I now have a curiosity to see what is possible but know that not everything will always go to plan, that self-doubts are not facts and that they are sometimes normal. I have learnt to accurately and truthfully evaluate a given situation or circumstance, to analyse based on process rather than outcome and to control what can be controlled. I have learnt how to respond to setbacks, how to optimise my performance, how to positively influence my perceptions and my emotions and to remain disciplined and logical under pressure, to take risks when risks are calculated and reasoned; I have learnt to do the right thing – nothing else matters.

That last reflection really resonates with me and has really helped me in recent years. For a long time it’s been about doing the right thing at any given moment, about sportsmanship, family and integrity, about keeping in mind the real purpose and importance of Paralympic sport and what really matters most. My needs and wants have changed and it’s really not about the medals at all. I

’ve always felt a wider responsibility – wanting to drive positive change and make more of an actual difference. This is the power of elite sport and I think people can sometimes lose touch with that. Where you’re more than just a table tennis player. Or more than just a Paralympian. Where it’s more than blind progress with little reason or purpose other than winning medals which otherwise mean nothing.

I feel very privileged to have been able to call it my job for so many years but the time has come where I’m ready to find a new passion, a new purpose and a new reason to get up in the morning, one where I can best put my values and attributes into practice, to learn and to grow, in an environment which is equally as suited and no less exciting, and one where I can feel like I can really make a difference.

I’m really looking forward to it.