[The French Revolution] Coach MOLIN tells the truth. “I’m not just a table tennis coach. I have to develop not only their brains but also their humanity.”

Vol. 3

Hitoshi Ueda, who plays in the Bundesliga, has also trained with the Lebrun brothers. He says their playful warm-ups and game drills, which could be called the “Montpellier style,” are unique: “The Lebrun brothers are famous for their original training methods, and for example, they’ll play table tennis while making the ball bounce twice. That unusual way of training actually has real purpose, and it really improves your feel for the game,” he says.

Mima Ito also went to “Montpellier” in October 2024 and enjoyed training there.

It’s neither China nor Germany nor Japan. Montpellier has something special.
＜December 2024＞ PHOTO Remy Gros

Nathanael MOLIN
Born July 6, 1986, in Dijon, France. He was part of France’s cadet and junior national teams, but stepped away from the top level at 22. He became interested in coaching around age 17 and coached the Lebrun brothers in their childhood. He officially became the brothers’ full-time coach in 2021, and from the 2023 European Games on, he served as France’s national team head coach. At the Paris Olympics, he won a silver medal in the Team Event.

Comments from Shunsuke TOGAMI

Shunsuke TOGAMI trained with the Lebrun brothers at a camp in Ochsenhausen in December.

“I actually joined the camp. The training methods are completely different, and the training time isn’t as long as in Japan, but the Lebrun brothers communicate with their coach Nathanael, and sometimes they even have pretty heated arguments. That doesn’t happen at all in Japan.

Sometimes their concentration breaks during practice, and when that happens they do playful mini-games, like games using reverse grip. I thought that was incredible.”

Idea 8 Why couldn’t you succeed at your first Olympics? There’s no reason you can’t. It’s important to listen to other people, but it’s also important not to listen to other people. Just believe in yourself and play your own table tennis.

● Weren’t the Players also swept up in the unique atmosphere of the Olympics?

MOLIN　People always say the first Olympics are nerve-racking. I don’t believe that. Everyone experiences their first international tournament, everyone experiences their first European Championships, everyone experiences their first WTT. What’s the difference? Why couldn’t you succeed at your first Olympics? There’s no reason.

What makes people fail is thinking, “I’m nervous, so I probably won’t do well.”

I want to say: don’t believe fixed ideas or superstitions. You should be able to succeed at your first Olympics, and at your first World Championships too. It’s important to listen to other people, but it’s also important not to listen to other people. Just believe in yourself and play your own table tennis.

When Felix won a medal in Singles, emotion rose up from deep in my chest. When I decided to become a coach at 17 or 18, my goal was to take Players to the Olympic podium. That had been my goal for 20 years.

But when it was all over, I think you realize that it isn’t the result that is wonderful, but the story that led to it. I don’t want to say success is only in the result; I want to say the process was what succeeded. The result only followed because there was a process that led to success.
I’m proud of the human side of the people surrounding Team Lebrun. How everyone worked together to lead them to success. The medal is nothing more than a result. If Félix had lost to Hugo CALDERANO in the match for the medal, I would have been disappointed. But that wouldn’t change how proud I felt. What mattered was the process, the daily training.

If your only goal is to win a medal, you can’t enjoy table tennis. Training for more than 600 days while chasing only results would just wear you down and exhaust you. A medal is only the result; you should look at the process. What did we actually do?