The Untold Story of International Table Tennis — Life As A Paddler with Nishaad Shah
I held a Table Tennis racket for the very first time when I was 8 years old. For fourteen years, I pursued a goal with a single-minded determination: to represent my country. Aware of the discipline and focus required of me, my journey as an athlete has taught me lessons that continue to serve me well in every aspect of my life. Besides winning independent laurels, as captain, I successfully led teams to victory at various levels. These experiences taught me to perform in pressure situations, lead diverse teams, strategize and plan to create a path to achieve the goal. Training with athletes who were better than me, I learned valuable lessons in humility, discipline and perseverance.
I represented India at various International tournaments, including prestigious ones like the Asian Championships and the Global Cadet Challenge. I also won 2 Silver medals in Iran, which was the first time I won a medal representing my country. This was the time I realized I could take it up as a career and make it big, especially in a country like India where Table Tennis was on the rise. Being an athlete since I was very young, academics had always taken a back seat. Even though I was a bright student, I was always attracted to the lifestyle of a professional athlete.
Since I was a kid, I have always been prone to injuries. Be it my knee, shoulder, elbow, you name it. My elbow injury acted up due to excess stress and training, resulting in a tennis elbow. I had to quit playing and competing professionally when I was at the peak of my career, and could not find the confidence to start from scratch again. Hence, being an avid sports lover, I decided to stay in the sports world, but on the professional end, with the sole aim of giving back to the community and inspiring athletes in any way I could.
Post graduation, my first job was as a business development manager at a sports management company in Mumbai. I worked towards setting up academies and handled the marketing and events department along with a senior colleague. After working here, I realized the potential of the Indian sports industry. Since it is still a developing industry with a bright future, implementing ideas adapted by sports industries in other countries would be really helpful to accelerate the growth. It was tough to convince my folks and friends that a Sports Management degree would be a viable career option, especially in India, where finance and engineering are probably the two most pursued professions. But funnily enough, it wasn’t very hard to convince them when I got into Columbia University, where I decided to pursue a Masters of Science in Sports Management. I believed this experience would help me learn about the global sports industry better than I could anywhere else, especially with the experience of studying at an IVY League University. I can confidently say that I could not have asked for a better opportunity than this. It has been a great journey so far, with friends and colleagues from around the world, and learning from professors and executives at the top organizations in the world.
My career aspirations coupled with the globalization of the business provides both unique challenges and compelling opportunities. Hence, being a professional athlete and now an aspiring sports management professional, I have gone through a lot of ups and downs, but also learned from every experience. I look forward to seeing how the industry bounces back post the pandemic, and how I can contribute in any way towards making it bigger and more successful than it was before.
“Inside The Lab” features perspectives of community members and sports industry experts within both professional and collegiate sports.
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