As of: 03/20/2022 5:01 p.m
by Hannah Bird
Table tennis has always been part of the life of the Ukrainian family.
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The hall is full. It is Friday evening. The club’s children and young people are trained on fourteen table tennis tables. Among them Dmytro Asieiev and his mother. The two have been there as coaches for a good week. He is one of the top players in the Oberliga team at SSC Hagen Ahrensburg. His homeland: Kharkiv in the Ukraine. The 25-year-old table tennis professional normally commutes between his home and Schleswig-Holstein. He was here for a game when the war started.
worried about the parents
Dmytro Asieiev, called Dima by everyone, speaks a little German and otherwise helps himself with English. For a long time he feared for his parents in Kharkiv. “My parents were in the epicenter of the war for ten days,” he says. “Every time they called, they told me about bombs falling nearby. I told them to take care of themselves.” He was on the Internet every minute, and he didn’t sleep for four or five days, says Asieiev. Then his parents decided to flee. They drove for six days from eastern Ukraine to Ahrensburg.
Missiles right in front of the house
Yaroslavna and Dmytro Asieiev give tips to young table tennis players.
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“We decided to flee when there was no electricity or water, and we had nothing to eat or drink,” says Yaroslavna Asieieva. “Several rockets landed right in front of our house, but fortunately they didn’t explode,” she says, showing photos on her cell phone. You can see three rockets that are half buried in the ground in the middle of a residential area. “That’s our house over there,” says the Ukrainian, pointing to the houses in the background.
Straight to the table tennis department
Yaroslavna Asieieva speaks no German and hardly any English. Her son translates for her and the others, and a teammate with Ukrainian roots also helps her with communication. She is also present at the interview. Dima’s teammates provided the family with an apartment. And mother and son have been training the children and young people at SSC Hagen Ahrensburg for a good week. Like this evening.
“Had to act fast”
“We had to act quickly when the war started,” says youth coach Erhard Mindermann. It quickly became clear that Dima would stay longer. “We said we integrate him and he coaches the youth.” In the beginning, the situation was very difficult for the Ukrainian player, Mindermann said. “He was constantly checking his cell phone to see if his people were still alive, if his family was still alive.” When he then said that his family had arrived in Ahrensburg, the youth coach said spontaneously: “Then your family can come to training tonight, then they can also play a bit of table tennis.”
It quickly became clear: “Playing a bit of table tennis” wasn’t going to be the end of it. After all, Dmytro Asieiev’s mother is a professional trainer herself and also discovered and encouraged her son. And so it started right away. “It was clear to me that she now needs something to distract her and give her self-confidence and support,” says Erhard Mindermann.
Mother and son like to play against each other
Yaroslavna Asieieva started playing table tennis at the age of seven and played in Italy’s first division. In Ukraine she works as a sports professor and teaches table tennis there. Mother and son still play against each other to this day. Also this evening. “That’s my mother, that’s my first coach,” calls Dima between the quick rallies. “I’m incredibly happy that my parents are here now,” beams the 25-year-old. “Now you are safe.”
As coaches in the points game
After training, there will be a league game against Krummesse in the large hall in Ahrensburg. Dima and his mother are there as a coach. “Time out,” the two call out again and again in between. Then the young players come to them and they give tips. Then everyone claps and the game continues. “I was very happy to come here. I like the club and think it’s great that the children and the coaches have welcomed me so warmly. And I’m very happy to be able to train here,” says Yaroslavna Asieieva.
“When I play, I forget everything”
The two train here in Ahrensburg three times a week. In April, Dima can even work as a coach at Bundesliga top club Borussia Düsseldorf. “When I play table tennis, I forget everything around me,” says Dmytro Asieiev. “Last weekend, for example, I had a league game and I was fully focused on it, that was good. I wasn’t thinking about Ukraine. Otherwise my thoughts are always there,” Asieiev continued. With the help of table tennis, the Ukrainian family wants to make a living and really settle in here.
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