By • Amstelveenz • Monday June 17, 2024 at 9:00 AM
Amstelveen – Last month, Amstelveen badminton player Robin Tabing, together with his mixed doubles partner Selena Piek, qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris this summer. The duo reached the semi-finals at the European Championships for mixed doubles and therefore they can no longer be traced in the qualifying rankings. In 2021, this pair also went to the Olympic Games in Tokyo and won various prizes at national and international tournaments. 30-year-old Tabing lives in Arnhem, where he stays close to the Papendal sports center.
Youth
‘My parents played, and still play, badminton at Badminton Association Martinus Amstelveen and my older sister (Iris Tabling, ed.) was also a fanatical badminton player at a fairly young age,’ Tabling begins. ‘When she played at BV Van Zijderveld and I always accompanied her to her training sessions, I always received a racket in my hands that I could fool around with and play with. At the age of five or six I was finally old enough to come and train too. Since then I have continued to play badminton.’ His parents are still closely associated with badminton. ‘They don’t play high, but they play a lot. My father runs Martinus Amstelveen in many ways. He is also manager of the youth selections of the Netherlands. My parents breathe badminton. They organize the National Championships and my father is in the organization of the Dutch Open. In the past, many battles took place within the family. At a certain point it got to the point where my sister and I started to beat my parents. That was a beautiful moment,” he laughs.
Selection
‘I was immediately a fanatic. Winning meant a lot to me and I also got very angry with myself if I didn’t succeed. That drive immediately took me very far. In the badminton world it works like this: if they find out at the club that you have talent, you can go to a regional training center. If that goes well, you can play for the national youth selection under 13. I was 11 years old when I achieved that goal. From that moment on I trained every day: on Mondays and Tuesdays at the regional training center, on Wednesdays at Papendal, on Thursdays and Fridays at the badminton club and at the weekend I played competitions. That was also the moment I stopped playing football for the Legmeervogels, something I always did on the side. But at a certain point it was no longer possible to combine that.’ ‘With the youth selection you meet once a week at Papendal,’ he continues. ‘That’s where I also met my peers. I trained with youth members who did not live around the corner. I think that’s a very good thing, because bringing together the best players in the country only makes you better.’ In the years that followed, Robin made significant steps in his sports career and was able to take home a few medals at unofficial tournaments. ‘But my first, really serious prize came in 2013, when I was 19. I then won silver in the mixed doubles at the European Youth Championships up to 19 years old. I can say that I was very proud of that. And still.’
Photo by Team NL
Papendal
At the age of 16, Tabing moved to Papendal. ‘Here I could train twice a day in combination with school. I attended the Alkwin Kollege in Uithoorn and they have always been very cooperative in supporting me in my sports career, but at a certain point the choice for Papendal became the most logical. At the Beekdal Lyceum in Arnhem I was able to take half of the lessons and at Papendal I was able to train a lot and better. I was sometimes even allowed to train with the seniors and that was of course very educational. I completed my pre-university education in Arnhem. I trained from 8 to 10 in the morning, went to school from 11 to 3, and then trained again from 4 to 6.’
He partly owes the move to Papendal to his sister. ‘She is three years older and actually walked the path for me first so that I could do it afterwards. There were no rooms available, but when she was able to move to a room towards the city, her room became available. Because she took that step, there was room for me. That has really been a big boost for me in my career. After living in Papendal for three years, I moved to the city. At the moment I still enjoy living in Arnhem. I continued to live here because this is my life. This is the training center, here at Papendal we have the best people and facilities for me.’
From single to double
Robin has been playing with a partner since he was fifteen. ‘We had a large youth team and when you went to a tournament, not all the boys were allowed to play. I also noticed that I was significantly better in doubles. And if there are parts that you are better at and where things are easier, it is better to choose that and continue.’ Tabling has been playing with the same partners in recent years, but that was quite a challenge in the beginning. ‘I have compromised a lot between partners. Just after junior high I was okay in terms of performance, but my real breakthrough came when I started playing doubles with Jelle Maas in 2017. That’s when we started winning tournaments and making progress. After two years I got the chance to play mixed doubles with Selena Piek (his badminton partner now, with whom he is also going to the Olympic Games, ed.). Her then partner got injured and I was allowed to jump into that hole to see if it worked. That turned out to be a bull’s eye. When Jelle stopped, I felt completely
specialized in mixed doubles and I make a good duo with Selena.’
From price to price
“I am most proud of the prizes of recent years,” says Robin. ‘Last year I became European champion with Selena and in 2019 we were the first Dutch people to win the mixed doubles during the Dutch Open. That was a historic moment. Those are two things that I look back on with a good feeling. Last March I reached the semi-finals of one of the highest badminton tournaments in England. You are talking about the most historic tournament in the badminton world. Phew, and what else do I have to my name? One quarter-final at a World Cup, the Olympic Games in Tokyo of course and four times bronze at a European Championship. It’s quite a list,” he laughs.
Olympics
‘The coming weeks will be all about preparing for the Olympic Games. There are two more tournaments that we will participate in and we have chosen the two highest: in Singapore and Indonesia. We do this purely to stay in the rhythm of the competition. The badminton selection in the Netherlands is not very broad and our training options are limited. The facilities are good, but in terms of sparring and opponents we lack some challenge. We like to play matches because that keeps us on the cutting edge. We often train with Danes and French at tournaments. We know them quite well and we always know where to find each other at tournaments. These weeks are therefore all about competitions and good quality training. Otherwise we wouldn’t have played any matches from April until the Olympic Games and that’s really too long a break.’ Tabling can’t wait for the Games to take place. ‘Selena and I have never beaten one couple from the top 8, but otherwise we have beaten them all. We know it can happen. I also know that badminton is very big in Asia, we saw that during the previous Games. The attention that badminton players receive and the pressure they experience is enormous. You see some succumb to the pressure. Our goal is to get through the group and to do that we have to surprise once. But I think we can. And then the trick becomes to continue to surprise. It’s there, we know that. It’s a difficult task, but not an impossible one. We are approaching the Games with confidence.’
This article previously appeared in the June edition of AmstelveenZ Magazine, number 89.
2024-06-10 11:54:51
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