Forget about Dibbs, Marsh, Webb and even Moo Young. The best
Jamaican players of the modern era are Stephen Hylton and Michael Hyatt. No
other players have gotten the level of Caribbean, regional and world
recognition as have these two legendary players.
Probably the most charismatic, controversial and compelling
figure to emerge from Jamaica, I have been on many international tours with
Michael Hyatt and seen the level of respect he draws from his fellow
competitors.
I recently had a chance to speak with Mike on skype and I
have compressed our free flowing TT
enthusiastic conversation into the fit for airplay interview below….
Petermoo: Mike; what are you currently doing in table tennis?
Michael Hyatt: Nothing much. Every now and then I dabble in
table tennis every year for the last few years. I get the vibe, I train, I play
a few tournaments and that’s it. I get intense, I start training, lose some
weight basically I put in all the effort I can during this time. I get some
good results, get bored and then I quit.
When it gets to become work, I quit.
PM: Any results you want to tell me about?
MH: Last November I went to the PACRIM, I put in some good
training and played a 4 star tournament with my good friend Barney Reed, my
official training partner we won the mens doubles, we beat the Canadian pair
that actually played in the Olympics. Barney and I play some good doubles
still. We won the team tournament and in the singles, I got to the QF’s. I was
the only non-chinese to make it. 7 chinese and me in the quarter finals.
PM: Who you beat?
MH: I beat one of the Chinese who was rated over 2500 in the
16’s. This guy had taken down most of the Chinese guys who play for Canada. In the quarters I lost to the guy who won the
north American trials (Andre Ho).
PM: So you stil pkaying high level TT. Whats your current US
ratings?
MH: Im still above 2400 but I’ve had a couple of bad losses
too one of them to a 2300 player that lowered my own ratings a bit.
PM: To what do you credit your rise in standard to become a
good player? Going overseas?
MH: I think to get to the level I got to in TT requires 2
things; you have to be focused on becoming the best you can be I think players like you and me have
to believ in yourself and know that you want to be the best. Im always focused,
Ive never been involved in the sport without putting in the effort. Ive never
played without putting in the effort and training into it. So thasts one thing I
have always been focused.
The second thing though is that I came ffrom a very
iunstructurted environment in Jamaica to a very structured one in the USa where
I wa sin college. We trained in a very structured manner 5 days a week, played
tournaments at least twice a month, and so it was from a very focused and
structured environment at college I made my big improvements.
In any sport especially table tennis those two things alone
will take you very far.
PM: You are of course referring to your time at Anderson College in Teaxas. Who was your coach?
MH: A Swedish guy called Christean Lileroos for most of the
time.
That structured environment kept me rated over 2500 for 12
years!
PM: Which world class player was your model? Who did you
most admire among world class players?
MH: I would say JO Waldner was the player for me.
PM: I would have lost that bet. I thought you would have
said JM Saive.
MH: Why would you say that?
PM: For me , his spectacular lobbing crowd pleasing style
and antics, down to the very way he ways his shorts, I would have sworn that
was your idol.
MH: Actually, I would even say more Primorac than Saive. I
copied a serve from Primorac (a backhand serve) that for years, I was very
successful with. Even today people had a hard time with it.
But I got to give it to you on the Saive thing.
He’s a nice guy but I think just the natural exuberance of
Waldner. His confidence. Players who know me over the years, Garfield Jones,
Stephen Hylton, You played on the team also with me, you know I've never feared
anyone. I never felt I couldn't win and I take all of that from watching
Waldner.
PM: Mike, Ive seen
you beat some pretty good players. Of which victory are you most proud?
MH: I've beaten Matthew Syed (England) a couple of times, I’ve
beaten a lot of Chinese who play here in the USA, Jimmy Butler, Sean O Neill. I've maintained a top 10 USA rating for at least 10 years.
PM:And your worse defeat?
MH: (Laughs) One year I lost to Randy Fagan in the finals of
the nationals and Randy told me he had had a spliff before the match and I was
playing really well in the states! The guy made shots I could not believe.
PM: TT has taken you to some interesting places right?
MH: Many places, Ive played on the pro tour, Italian,
German, Swedish opens, 2 Olympic games, 4 Pan Am games, 3 world championships,
Japan Open. When I was younger I trained at the Butterfly dojo in Japan, lots
of interesting places.
PM: What equipment are you using now?
MH: I’m sponsored by this French company Cornilleau. I use
everything from them. Pilot advance rubber maximum both sides. Everybody says
tenergy but I think I’m pretty happy with my stuff.
PM: What other than TT are you interested in?
MH: Im into business. I work for a large Global IT company
so Im very involved with that. That’s kind of my passion.
PM: I discovered that there are two categories of players
those who can dance really well like Gavin Hylton, Dale Parham, Kane Watson and
myself …and those who cannot dance at all like Nigel Webb, Chris Marsh and Joseph
Dibbs. Where do you put yourself?
MH: (Laughs) I would put myself squarely in the cannot dance
category. There’s other things I do really well. All the time you guys spend dancing,
I spend honing my craft elsewhere. They don’t call me the ‘Flesh Prince’ for
nothing.
PM: Mike thanks for taking the time out to do this.
MH: Any time Peter.
