Start them younger: Feng Tianwei wants to get pre-schoolers playing table tennis

SINGAPORE – Feng Tianwei was just five when she first picked up a table tennis bat in her hometown in Harbin, China.

Three Olympic medals later, the 40-year-old credits her foundation years with giving her a head start in a career that took her to the pinnacle of the sport.

Once ranked as high as world No. 2, she also won a world championship team gold and multiple medals at the SEA, Asian and Commonwealth Games.

Now, the former national athlete wants to give Singaporean children the same opportunity.

“I started playing at five and we hope to get kids exposed to table tennis at a younger age to cultivate their interest in the sport,” said Feng, who founded the Feng Tianwei International Table Tennis Academy (FTTA) in April.

“We hope to create a pathway for these kids and this will be a long-term project. We will have small games for kids aged between three and six and most importantly, we also want them to feel the joy of playing table tennis.”

On Oct 21, FTTA penned a two-year partnership with Preschool Market, an educational consultancy and social enterprise in the early childhood sector, to introduce pre-schoolers to structured sports training.

The initiative, Little Paddles, Big Potential, will kick off with 35 children from New Life Preschools who will train under FTTA coaches at the academy’s headquarters at The Sports Arina @ Jalan Kayu. They will attend three 90-minute familiarisation sessions to gauge their interest.

The two organisations have also committed a combined $10,000 in funding and in-kind services for the pilot launch.

On developing kids with potential, Feng added: “We have more advanced courses here catered to children aged between five and seven and even up to those in the higher age-groups (12 to 14).

“If we find that the child has the aptitude and potential to be nurtured, or if their parents are keen for them to pursue the sport further, then of course they can extend their lessons with us and we will provide them with a curated curriculum.”

While the partnership begins with table tennis, Preschool Market hopes to expand it to other sports like football, basketball, badminton and swimming in the future.

Preschool Market founder Cheong Sufen said the aim is to introduce children to sport at a younger age, and it is targeting 10,000 children over two years.

She said: “On the early childhood side, we have all along been doing non-sports programmes and when I attended Tianwei’s academy launch earlier this year, we discussed (instilling an interest) in young children.

“We work with almost 1,200 pre-schools through our ‘Start Small, Dream Big’ movement, and also there are good values in this programme that we want children to learn about and we will extend the invite to all our pre-schools.

“We will then talk to the schools to gauge the kids’ interest. We want to support them and so we are still hoping to find sponsorships to fund this.”

It also hopes to launch a nationwide mini-Olympiad for pre-schoolers in 2027.

Preschool Market’s chief strategy officer David Loh said that the mini-Olympiad will feature three to five sports in both individual and team events.

He added: “We will have zonal events and the zone champions will compete in a grand finale and hopefully in one year’s time, more people, not just the pre-schoolers, but also their parents, will be involved.”