“Open your eyes and see how the world of table tennis looks. Then decide accordingly. If you want your kids to reach their potential, an “it’ll be as it will be” attitude won’t suffice. It will be as you make it. What you decide.

When your level of ambition and the paths to your goals do not align with those of others, forge your own path. Not as an end in itself, but rather as a sense of purpose without compromise.”

It is Tuesday morning in August 2025 in Eslöv, a town located 40 kilometres south of Malmö. In the Blomsterberg Hall, Truls Möregårdh’s father, Carl, is giving a lecture to parents and children participating in the compass Summer Camp. It is an adequate venue, as the Blomsterberg Hall has been Truls Möregårdh’s home for table tennis ever since he and his family moved to Eslöv more than ten years ago. This was a big step and a good example of going your own way. Hovmantorp, where Truls was born and raised, and the local table tennis club in Växjö, some 30 km away, where he played before moving to Eslöv, could no longer provide an optimal training and competition environment for the 12-year-old talent. The facilities were insufficient and did not align with the long-term goal of becoming a world-class top player.

So the whole family moved to Eslöv, which is actually one of the best table tennis ‘greenhouses’ in Sweden, and in fact in Europe, with players and coaches of absolute top level and the men’s team playing in the Champions League. Most importantly, the club was founded on a family atmosphere created by the Andersson brothers: Thomas as chair, and Mattias and Peter as full-time coaches and leaders. The nice, warm sense of security that this environment provides, the trust it fosters and the fun it creates still has a strong positive impact on Truls, even though he has recently moved to an apartment in Malmö. In Eslöv, he has his social base — his family and closest friends — and he is an honoured hero. Around 8,000 people, about half the town’s population, gathered in the town square to celebrate and thank him after he won two silver medals at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Was it a difficult decision for the Möregårdh family to move to Eslöv? No, it was obvious and logical if you want your child to have the opportunity to become a world-leading player.

“Is Truls the product of the Swedish table tennis model?” Carl asks the audience in front of him rhetorically. “Not a bit,” he continues. “It’s simply because our level of ambition collided with theirs. We didn’t set out to make Truls the best in Sweden. From the very beginning, our references were becoming the best in Europe and the world. It’s no longer enough to practise three times a week and play some matches at the weekend, as the Swedish model stipulates.

Instead, we searched for cooperation with other stakeholders who share our vision, mainly the German table tennis rubber producer ESN and Truls’s brand, Stiga.”

ESN is involved through the ACE programme (Athlete-Centered Ecosystem), which supports Truls’s sporting needs and works closely with his brother and coach, Malte.

With a more global vision in mind, the family needed to know how much the Asian talents of Truls’s age group practised. How did they practise? They learned that the Asian youngsters practised a lot from a very young age — between four and six hours a day. They also found out that the training was quite monotonous and regular. They went to the Republic of Korea to find out for themselves. They concluded that Truls needed to practise more than the Swedish model stipulated, and that he should be encouraged to experiment and be creative in order to develop a playing style that was different from the Asian approach.

“It’s important to identify a talent’s X-factors,” Carl continued. “What is this kid’s unique selling point? With Truls, it was easy to see that he loved table tennis, and that he found deep joy in playing and watching it. He would play for hours every day with his brother Malte on the mini table in Malte’s room. Or when he played with his group at the local table tennis club. He also loved competing – and winning.”

From an early age, Truls knew deep down that to win, he needed to improve his skills, and that to do so, he needed to play a lot. To train. He loved this more than anything.

“When my wife Lena and I told the kids to do whatever they wanted for a few hours, Truls and Malte always went to the table tennis hall. They would even go after coming home from a local tournament and spend the whole day competing in different events.”

When Truls was nine years old, Carl realised that his coaching knowledge was no longer sufficient for Truls’s optimal development. He arranged for the coaches from the regional number one club to come to Hovmantorp to practise with Truls a few mornings a week. That led to a nice blend of individual work and training at the club in a group in the evenings. So, from an early age, Truls practised twice a day on some weekdays.

When Truls was 11 years old, Carl took another step. He hired Hu Weixin, a highly regarded Chinese coach who had previously been the personal coach of Ma Wenge, one of the world’s top handshake players in the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, despite Hu’s merits, Carl did not give him free rein.

“I told him firmly that there were two things he was not allowed to touch: Truls’ unique racket grip and his creativity. I regarded these two things as two other X-factors that allowed Truls to invent new strokes and find unexpected solutions to the challenges he faced at the table in his own natural way. As a Chinese person, I suppose Hu was surprised, but he respected the restrictions.”

When Truls started playing for the Swedish Youth National Team, he often didn’t attend the camps organised by the federation.

“The level was simply too low,” he said. “It was better to stay at home and practise with the Eslöv team. So we just went for the option that would be best for Truls’s development.”

This was not really applauded by the federation.

Fast forward to the latest seasons: as a top-five European player, choosing not to sign for a Bundesliga club is another example of them going their own way.

“Financially, it would be better to sign with a club, but a contract brings obligations and loyalty that restrict your freedom when preparing for major tournaments.”

The lecture is coming to an end. Some questions from the audience follow:

What can you say about how Truls practises?

“He has always practised in a very match-like way. He wants to have fun when he practises, and he loves to play matches, so regular table tennis is not his cup of tea.

Whether he’s doing footwork or match-like exercises, he works with irregular elements that can happen during a rally in a competitive game. His opponent’s thought process about how to win the point is always present during practice.”

Truls also puts a lot of energy into mastering variations in spin, pace and placement. Intense work with Spinsight, a tool that can measure spin, speed, placement and the height of the ball’s arc over the net digitally and therefore exactly, has been a big help.

In summary, here is Carl Möregårdh’s key message:

Have fun! Get a clear idea of what efforts it takes for a talented player in the world of global table tennis. Then align your actions to your findings. Define your players’ X-factors. Put extra effort into developing these to create originality in your player’s playing style that reflects his unique personality and character.

Train a lot, play a lot and watch a lot – and have a lot of fun!

And go your own way. Not as an end in itself, but rather as a sense of purpose without compromise.