He is the man behind, a major part of, the success of the Lebrun brothers. Nathanaël Molin, their coach in Montpellier and the French team, follows his players all over the world, lives every match on the bench behind the table, has to manage the emotions, the victories as well as the defeats, the complicated moments, like the positive ones, of Félix and Alexis Lebrun. And if athletes are followed psychologically to be helped in certain moments of their career, Nathanaël Molin is too. A tool, but above all an important desire in one's professional success. For RMC Sport, he spoke on this subject before the start of the WTT Champions in Montpellier this week.
“I don’t see why coaches wouldn’t be in the same boat” as athletes, recognizes Nathanaël Molin, the coach of Félix and Alexis Lebrun. If his players have psychological support, he also claims to need it. “I think it’s more of a strength than a weakness,” admits the Lebrun coach at the microphone of RMC Sport on the sidelines of the WTT Champions in Montpellier played from October 28 to November 2 (to be followed exclusively on the channels Twitch et YouTube RMC Sport.) “I don't know if it helps me or not, but it's a desire that I have. I don't know if it makes me better. I like to believe that when we try to develop personally, it can enrich us and make us progress”
Nathanaël Molin felt this need, this desire, in 2020, during the Covid crisis. “The choice I made was to work with someone completely outside” table tennis. A psychologist, near Montpellier.
“I had already done initial work with this person a long, long time ago, when I was still playing. And in fact, I wanted to start again, I said to myself why not, it was a good match. I tried to get back in touch 12 years later, and in fact, this person was ready to do it too,” explains the technician who was notably named coach of the year in 2023.
Sessions of one and a half or two hours
Obviously, with more than two hundred days in competition with Félix and Alexis Lebrun, all over the world, the meetings are far from regular.
“Frequency means there is no frequency,” smiles the coach. In five years, his needs and desires have evolved with this psychologist. “Because my life is no longer the same, because my needs are no longer the same, because our relationship is evolving. Right now, we are doing longer sessions, but much more spaced out. More like once every month and a half, two months. But on the other hand, it can last an hour and a half, two hours. Five years ago, it was more like 20 minutes, but every week.”
This personal moment is above all a discussion between two people, rather than real work on specific points. “For me, it's a relationship between two people on a subject, on a debate that can affect me, but not only that. Sometimes, I have questions or reasoning about other things. And then, there are things that are linked to my job, but not at all exclusively. There are also things that are very linked to my life, with the questions that I may have. We will say that the subjects are rich and varied, and not at all focused”, explains “Nath”, as his players call him.
A life “under emotion”
Obviously, when you take care of the stars of French ping, you have to have your head on your shoulders, manage your emotions… In just three years, Nathanaël Molin has experienced great moments of success, the Olympic medals at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, the bronze in singles with Félix and the bronze in the team, the titles of European champions in singles for Alexis, in doubles for the two brothers and in the team, but also the first final in the history of Félix in China Smash, equivalent of a Grand Slam… in short, so many moments of joy. But also moments of doubts, of questions.
“There are periods when we need to deliver more because we are in a life that is quite enough… (He hesitates) I don't want to say different because all lives are different, but I want to say under pressure. (He corrects himself) That's not even the right word. It's under emotion, I mean. A life which is under emotion with defeats and victories which are a bit of an emotional elevator. In these elevators, there are needs, I think, at times to unload.”
“When I compete in a series of competitions, I need a relief and to confront what I am doing to see if I am on the right path or not.
Before continuing: “So that someone passes the buck to me and tells me if I'm doing pretty well, if I'm slipping a little, if I could do better. Questioning is very important.”
His other psychological support: his loved ones
Other people are there to remind him of all this, or warn him: his loved ones. “I have a special relationship with my parents and I believe that, already, that alone is psychological work,” also admits Nathanaël Molin. “In fact, they are quite far from my world, in quotes. And that already allows me to have an outside perspective from people I trust. For me, the coach is the first mental trainer of an athlete. And for a coach, the first mental trainers are the direct entourage, whether wife, child, parents, very close friends. Thanks to all that, the coach feels “rather strong”. And I want to be even stronger.”
His job as a coach is “a job of passion, as we like to say”. With very little time for yourself, hence the importance of being accompanied, to clear your head in the middle of a busy schedule.
“There aren't really days, months, hours, years. It's almost all the time. The two days in the year when I shut off my brain are Christmas Day and maybe the next day. That's about it. And again, it depends on the year. We're there all the time and we're never there. There's a constant coming and going.”
The proof: a week ago, Nathanaël Molin and the French team became European team champions, a first in 27 years, but very quickly we had to turn this page. This week, Molin will be in the coaching chair at the WTT Champions in Montpellier, certainly at home, but the famous emotions, of playing at home, of having Félix as title holder, will have to be managed.
