Teqball is an amazing mix of freestyle, volleyball and table tennis (<-- seriously watch this). Invented in 2014, the sport is growing every year and has big ambitions - including becoming an Olympic sport one day.
Elisa Lanche is a true ‘renaissance woman’ with a football, excelling in freestyle, futsal, and teqball. As a child, Elisa discovered freestyle as a creative outlet. Years later, this led her to the dynamic new world of teqball. Rising quickly to join the French national team, she has since competed in top tournaments around the world.
In this interview, Elisa shares her unique perspective on teqball - from freestyle and her work with big brands to founding a teqball club, and the balancing act of coaching while pursuing her own growth as a player. It’s an exciting look at a sport that will likely be making some noise in the years to come!
The interview has been condensed and lightly edited for grammar and clarity.
[ How did you get involved in freestyle and teqball? ]
I practiced a lot of sports when I was young and I started football after all these sports but once I started football at 9 years old, I never stopped. At first, I was only playing with boys but later moved to a women’s club.
I started to do freestyle football on the side because I wanted to play football when I was alone at home! Freestyle football was amazing because it allowed me to be creative. Thanks to YouTube, I found tutorials to improve and it became a good combination when I was playing football on the field. The trainers were not very fond of these kinds of things though and I often heard, “put the ball on the ground!”
I never expected to develop to a competition level, I just wanted to enjoy myself and share my passion.
My introduction to teqball was more recent. In 2019, I saw the World Championships on TV. My mom called, “come here, it’s amazing, I’m sure you’ll like it”, I watched and it’s for me! It’s a mix between football freestyle and table tennis - and it’s competitive.
There was a problem though, it was very hard to find a table! That’s a problem in teqball. I wasn’t living in Paris at the time (and there were no tables around), so I called the president of Teqball to find out if they could send a table to my club - unfortunately, it was difficult at the time. I had already planned to move to Paris in 1 year, so I decided to be patient!
After I arrived in Paris, I finally started playing teqball. My first tournament went well and was a nice experience - with many people in front of the Eiffel Tower.
[ How did you go from seeing it on TV to the French National Team so quickly? ]
Thanks to my background in football and freestyle, I was very comfortable with the ball and the table at the start. Then, in the first month, I met one of the best players in France, Romain, and he asked me to play as his partner in mixed doubles. In one month, we trained like monsters and I improved very fast. At the next tournament, we did our best and because of these opportunities and a little luck and work, I became involved with the French team very quickly.
[ How do you train for teqball? Do you have a coach? ]
I am my own coach! - because of football freestyle, I know how to train alone. I know two coaches who've developed a club in the north of Paris and Mulhouse who’s starting to coach. I created a club in the south of Paris in September 2023 (with Sporting Paris) where I’ve coached some players and we meet to train and improve. It’s still the beginning and we don’t have all the tools yet but it’s a positive circle.
[ How did you end up creating a teqball club? ]
It’s a funny story, one of my friends was playing in a futsal club and she asked the club to ‘recruit’ me and ask me to join the club (the futsal team). I said ‘okay I’ll come but only if you let me coach teqball as well’. I was surprised when they told me, ‘Of course, we have tables too’. They had 4 tables at the club!
I started running training sessions last year. Many people have tried with me (not only in the club) and there are maybe 7 or 8 who come to every session. It’s difficult because we train very late from 11 to midnight and I coach and train at the same time so it’s hard to find a balance.
"I said ‘okay I’ll come but only if you let me coach teqball as well’"
[ Has teqball grown in popularity or availability since you started playing? ]
There are different ways to answer this question because for me it's not developed enough. It’s still very new though so we have time and there are some good signs. Thanks to the World Championships, we have good visibility on social media and in Paris you can find more and more tables too, so it’s starting to become better known.
Now when I talk to people about teqball, many of them say ‘oh, I saw something on Instagram about that’ or ‘I saw a table in a park’ - so it’s starting to grow.
[ Is there a league or do you only compete in tournaments? ]
The FNTEQ (National Federation of Teqball) is trying to create something like a league this year. But usually, we do tournaments around Europe. All the tournaments are on FITEQ, the website of teqball and we can register for each event.
Some of my friends compete in many tournaments but it’s difficult for me to get enough time to practice and I can’t just take days off from work (as a PE teacher) to go to a tournament so I usually just do the big competitions like the European Games and World Championships right now when they ask me.
[ Where does the funding for teqball come from? - e.g. from the creators - the company Teqball - or FA’s, etc? ]
I also ask myself this, so I can’t really answer!
For big tournaments, there is prize money for the top 3 for example. Although this year, at the World Championships there was no prize money at all. We just come to enjoy the moment.
I think this is a normal challenge for new sports but it’s also a problem for the development that there’s not much money.
[ Is teqball a close-knit community, especially at your level, or is it more spread out? ]
In France it's mixed. We are quite spread out. There are a few of us in Paris but most of the rest of the team is in the east in Mulhouse. When we play in international tournaments we get to know the teams from other countries. We’ve established good links with many teams and are happy to meet each other at tournaments. By now, we are like a teqer’s ‘family’.
"We’ve established good links with many teams and are happy to meet each other at tournaments ... we are like a teqer’s ‘family’"
[ Who is ‘best’ at teqball right now? ]
At the last World Championships, Thailand won 4 of 5 categories. Before, Poland, Romania and Hungary were the best - they’re still very good but Thailand has become very strong recently!
[ Freestyle football, while not a huge sport either, is quite far ahead of teqball in popularity and visibility - what could teqball learn from freestyle? ]
Freestyle is older, so it’s had more time and of course, they don’t need a table! Freestyle is very good at organizing big events and on social media. They also have people like Séan Garnier - who lead the sport and increase visibility. It’s also a sport that you can learn and practice at your house. The need for a table (and two people) is a problem for its growth.
We have a lot of freestylers in teqball and most of the skills help but it’s still separate. I’ve never seen a mixed tournament (freestyle and teqball). I think that would be a nice idea!
[ You performed freestyle skills for advertisements for some big brands - how did you find these opportunities? ]
Most of the time, they come to me on Instagram but I also have friends who work in photography or brands who ask me to join their project. Sometimes I also ask directly if they want to do something together.
It depends on what they want but usually I can just do whatever freestyle I want. With Canon, for example, the ad was for a new camera so they just needed to take pictures of something and thought a freestyler would be a fun way to do it - but the tricks didn’t ‘matter’.
[ Which sport are you most passionate about right now? ]
It depends on the season and my mood! With teqball, I’m playing because I like it but I don’t know if it will go somewhere - I’m also waiting to see how, or if, it develops. I would encourage everyone to try because it’s very fun - and you can improve very fast with some training, it’s not only about the professionals who are doing bicycle kicks in the air - it can be easy!
(besides teqball) In the winter I play futsal and in the summer I really like to play spikeball too. I mostly only do freestyle in my free time now when I want to do a sport without thinking. It’s much more of a hobby. Sometimes people - especially my students - ask to see tricks and it’s nice to show something!
[ What are you looking forward to in the future? ]
I want to enjoy and share my passion for sport. Create new connections and opportunities. As I said, I want to see where teqball is going but I still want to continue in the French team and keep improving my level. Maybe there will be opportunities in 2028 during the Olympics to show teqball to more people, I’d love to do this.