Secrets of Chinese Table Tennis
общие моменты по методологии подготовки китайских игроков.
2005 год
The
Secrets of Chinese Table Tennis…
and What the Rest of the World Needs to Do to Catch Up
By Larry Hodges and Cheng Yinghua
At
the recent World Championships, China swept all five events – men’s and women’s
singles & doubles, and mixed doubles. In fact, all but men’s doubles were
all-Chinese finals. And yet, a number of cracks were shown, especially on the
men’s side.
Denmark’s Michael Maze, after losing the first three games and falling behind
7-3 in the fourth against China’s Hao Shuai, came back to win. Maze earlier had
defeated Wang Hao very easily, 4-0. Czech Republic’s Petr Korbel led Ma Lin 7-3
in the seventh before losing that final game 11-9. Wang Liqin had to go the full
seven against Hong Kong’s Li Ching. Korea’s Moon Hyun Jung defeated Wang Nan,
who’d won women’s singles at the last three Worlds.
Yet, all in all, the Worlds were a demonstration of Chinese supremacy in the
sport.
So
what is the secret to Chinese table tennis … and how can the rest of the world
catch up?
Secrets of Chinese Table Tennis
The Chinese
National Team
The
Chinese team has more depth than any other team in the world. The primary
training center is in Beijing. The team is made up of 96 players – 24 men, 24
women, 24 boys and 24 girls.
Players are given “tryouts” early on, usually with trips to major tournaments in
Europe or elsewhere, to see how they do internationally. From this, the Chinese
judge if this player has the potential to become a star.
A
huge advantage China has comes from their depth. If a player on the national
team isn’t working hard, doesn’t do well internationally, or has technical flaws
hurting their progress, there is always another “hungry” player with potential
on the outside waiting to get in.
National Team
Selection
In
many countries (including USA), the national team is selected in a Team Trials.
This may be the fairest way of choosing a team, but it may not the best way to
develop a dominating team. According to Cheng, in most countries – including USA
– 90% of the training and team funding goes to “flawed players” who have no
chance of ever winning medals.
This is a true problem as a Team Trials fits most people’s notion of fairness.
Yet the players who make the team in such Trials usually do not match the
players with the greatest potential for winning medals. Often players in their
40s make the team over promising players under 22. Exhibit “A” is the current
U.S. National Team at the recent Worlds, chosen by Team Trials. Their ages were
46, 41, 41, 38, 37, 36, 34, 30, 19 and 18. (This is not to disparage the
accomplishments of those who made the team in the Team Trials, who earned their
positions.) Many of the top youth players in the U.S. just missed making the
team. Ironically, the youngest player to make the team, Han Xiao, age 18,
finished fifth, and only the top four spots are funded – so he had to pay his
own way, even though he was the top player of his age in the country. The
funding went instead to older players, mostly in their 30s and 40s. Players such
as Mark Hazinski (20, U.S. #1 under 22), Adam Hugh (17, U.S. #1 under 18 boy),
and Judy Hugh (15, U.S. #1 under 18 girl), did not go.
Was
this the fairest way of choosing a team? Yes. Was it the best way to choose a
team with the potential to develop into medal contenders? Probably not. Unless
they were top world-ranked players, Chinese coaches probably wouldn’t have
selected anyone over age 22. One option is to have either a separate “youth”
team made up of under 22 players who train as part of the national team. Many
countries already have these, but these players, along with older players who
can challenge the best players in the world, need to be the focus.
Training
The
Chinese train long and hard. Typically they do seven hours of training each day
– both table play and physical training away from the table. In the mornings,
they normally do physical training away from the table, and serve practice.
There is a morning and an afternoon training session, usually six days a week.
(Training includes both regular practice with a partner, and multiball training
with a coach. This is the same for most countries.) Some players play extra
practice matches at night or on off days. Players generally get 12 days off per
year, although they also get rest days after major tournaments (which often are
travel days).
They normally focus on training from November to April, and with more
tournaments the rest of the year. During Cheng’s years on the team, this was
more clear-cut, but now with the ITTF Pro Tour and various leagues, there is
more and more year-round competition.
Specialized
Practice Partners
One
huge advantage China has over the rest of the world is their practice partners.
Typically, in most countries, members of the national team train together.
However, in China, much of the training is with “professional” practice
partners. Instead of players always taking turns on drills, all the training
focuses on the one player. (This is especially helpful for the women, who
practice with male practice partners who are usually stronger then the women
players.)
Even more important, practice partners mimic the styles of opposing players. The
Chinese team includes practice partners who have developed their games to match
those of the best foreign players – men like Schlager, Samsonov, Kreanga,
Waldner, Saive, Chuan, Ryu and Oh, and women like Boros, Tie Yana, Li Jia Wei,
Liu Jia, Kim Kyung Ah, and Pavlovich. These practice partners study videos of
the player they are copying, and talk to players who have played them so as to
better mimic them.
According to Duan Xiang, a member of the Chinese Technical Committee of the
Chinese Table Tennis Association, “We have a lot of Chinese Samsonovs and
Waldners. Our players play against them every day and that makes the real match
day easier.”
Cheng spent much of his time on the Chinese team as a practice partner. During
his early years, he was told to copy Hungary’s Tibor Klampar. Later, when
Klampar retired, he was told to mimic Jan-Ove Waldner. Cheng even traveled to
Europe to watch these players live in tournaments, and would speak with players
who played them to get insight on their games and what made them so effective.
Those who watch Cheng now can see the mixture of Klampar and Waldner in his
game.
China’s Jiang Jialiang, a pips-out penholder, won the worlds in 1985. As the
1987 Worlds approached, it became apparent that his main rival would be Sweden’s
Waldner. And so much of his time training was with Cheng, who could mimic
everything Waldner did, from his serve and serve returns, to his forehand loops
and drives, etc. As the ’87 Worlds approached, they began playing many practice
matches, with the loser doing push-ups. Cheng won match after match, and after
each match would stand over Jiang as he did his push-ups, asking how he’s going
to win the Worlds if he can’t even beat him?!! The preparation worked; while
Jiang didn’t do so well against Cheng before the Worlds, he became so used to
the “Waldner” game that he was able to win the 1987 Worlds again.
Perhaps, if he’d practiced with players who mimicked the best Chinese, at the
recent Worlds Maze wouldn’t have fallen behind 3-0 to Hao Shuai, and been more
comfortable with Ma Lin’s game? Perhaps he was just getting used to Ma when the
match ended, as he did with Hao Shuai? (He lost the match 11-7, 11-6, 11-9,
11-8, showing he was getting closer at the end.) And the same thing to the other
match-ups between Chinese players and others?
Two-on-One
Practice Partners
A
common problem for the best players in the world is finding a strong enough
practice partner. During his prime, Waldner once quipped to the Swedish coach,
“When do I get to practice with someone stronger?”
China has more depth than any country, but even there, the best players are the
best players. Players like Wang Liqin and Ma Lin can’t find anyone better to
practice with than themselves. Or can they?
China has developed a way of doing this. Cheng was hesitant about even talking
about this, as this training method has been relatively secret, even to this
day. It is normally only used in closed training sessions as they prepare for
major tournaments. Cheng hinted that at one time, if he’d told “outsiders” about
this technique, he’d have gotten in trouble.
The
technique involves having two practice partners for one player. This is a
luxury that other countries can’t afford, but that China, with their playing
depth, can. Two practice partners are selected, one with a very strong forehand,
one with a very strong backhand (but also a good forehand), and they learn to
play together as a team. Together, they do drills with the best Chinese players.
With one player only playing forehand from the forehand side, and the other only
playing from the backhand side (favoring backhand, but also playing forehand
from backhand as top players do), suddenly they become a “stronger player” than
even Wang Liqin! And so even the best Chinese players are pushed to the limit,
practicing with these “stronger players.”
Mental and
Tactical Training
The
Chinese team meets at least weekly with sports psychologists. (This is common
practice in other countries as well.) One aspect that is probably different is
that these sessions are joint psychology and tactical meetings. This is linked
together as it takes proper mental training to execute proper strategies under
pressure.
The
Chinese team has a tactical support staff that develops these strategies.
According to Zhou Zuyi of the Shanghai Daily (May 7, 2005), “Insiders
give credit to the backroom staff that devote themselves to analyzing the
opponents’ games and developing new techniques and strategies. The technicians
work out a game pattern for each major foreign player, which is in turn followed
by training partners whose only job is to emulate different stars from around
the world.”
The Development
of a Chinese Player
Chinese children are tested at a very early age for sports skills. Those that
test well are often put into special sports schools. Cheng was tested at age 5,
and tested highly for racket sport skills, and so was put into a special sports
school. From age 5 to about 12, he was trained in both table tennis and
badminton. From age 12 on, he was essentially a full-time table tennis player,
dropping out of school to focus solely on table tennis. Most other top Chinese
players have similar stories.
Others come from regular schools. Essentially every school in China has a table
tennis team that trains regularly. In a country of 1.3 billion, that’s a huge
number of teams! According to the Shanghai Daily (May 7, 2005), “10
million players play regularly. These are players who are exposed regularly to
what high-level play is like, not the basement players that make up the masses
in the U.S. and many other countries.”
Chinese Technique
Some say China is good at table tennis only because of sheer numbers. There is,
of course, a degree of truth to this. However, as shown by Europe’s (especially
Sweden’s) rise in the early 1990s, and China’s decline, numbers cannot overcome
poor technique. In the late 1980’s/early 1990s, China was slow to adjust to
changing technique, sticking too long with most pips-out style games while the
rest of the world was changing to inverted looping, especially shakehand style.
China has learned from that experience, and now leads the world in this very
style. Wang Liqin was recently re-crowned as world men’s champion (he also won
in 2001). On the women’s side, Zhang Yining just won the Worlds; she was
preceded by Wang Nan, who won three straight. All three of these players are
shakehand loopers, and are probably the most emulated players in the world.
What happens in China is that the players with the best technique, talent, and
mental & physical skills tend to rise to the top. Where before some of these
players might have been kept out because they didn’t play the “right” playing
style (with most shakehand loopers relegated to becoming practice partners who
copied the European loopers, like Cheng), now they become regular Chinese team
members. Because there are so many Chinese players, they are loaded with skilled
and hard-working players. And so the best Chinese players tend to be the ones
with the best technique.
New
techniques are regularly coming out. Probably the most noticeable is the
“reverse penhold backhand,” best exemplified by Olympic Silver Medalist Wang Hao
and World Men’s Singles Finalist (and recently ranked #1 in the world) Ma Lin.
Historically, penholders use the same side of the racket for both forehand and
backhand. In the 1990s, a number of Chinese players began using the reverse side
of the racket to attack on the backhand, most prominently by Liu Guoliang (1996
Olympic Gold Medalist, 1999 World Champion), who used it mostly as a variation.
Ma Lin raised it to a new level, using it as a primary shot. Wang Hao raised it
to an even higher level, making it his primary backhand shot.
While Europeans pioneered backhand looping, the Chinese have developed
over-the-table backhand looping to a higher degree. Europeans like Klampar
developed this technique in the 1970s, but few others developed this style.
China did. Now Chinese players like Wang Liqin, Kong Linghui and Zhang Yining
are among the best in the world at this (along with Austria’s Werner Schlager
and Korea’s Oh Sang Eun).
Above all, Chinese players dominate with serve & receive techniques. Other
countries have closed the gap in serve techniques, yet most consider Ma Lin’s
serves the best among world-class players, and before him, Liu Guoliang’s – both
Chinese players. But it is return of serve where the Chinese really dominate.
Where other countries learn to return serves to neutralize the serve, the
Chinese return serves to throw opponents off and take the initiative. Ma Lin is
probably best at this, tying opponents in knots with his returns, but all the
Chinese players train many hours at this, and so have few peers at receive.
Outside China, Waldner may be the only one who can do this at the Chinese level.
There is another “secret” strength of Chinese technique, except it’s not really
a secret: they have the best basics. They spend huge amounts of time on the
“boring” basics, and so are nearly machine-like in their efficiency. You rarely
see a Chinese player miss an easy shot. Cheng said of his winning the USA
Nationals in 2004 at age 46 that most of his opponents simply didn’t have good
basics. (This is relative, of course – good basics at the world-class level are
pretty advanced for most of us.)
Challenging the Chinese: A
Formidable Challenge
The
result of all this training is that the Chinese tend to have the greatest
fitness (along with the Koreans), the best basics, and the best serve & receive
games. They often have the best techniques and strategy. And they have such
depth that they always have a new player ready if one falters. How can the rest
of the world challenge this?
There are basically two ways of attacking this problem. The first is simply to
match the Chinese in as many of their strengths as possible. The second is to
develop other strengths.
National Team
Other countries don’t have the depth the Chinese have. However, they can expand
their national team to include more players, especially younger, up-and-coming
players. One way is to allow the national team coaches to select promising
players to join the team. This only makes sense, however, if the team trains
together on a regular basis.
National Team
Selection
This is problematic as it probably isn’t feasible to switch from team trials to
the Chinese system of the coaches choosing the team. However, it is possible for
countries to put age limits on their team members who don’t have minimal world
rankings, or some version of this (perhaps only having the two top spots
completely open). It’s also possible to have youth or junior teams that train
with practice partners or national team members. Even this, however, would meet
with huge opposition, and may not be feasible.
Training
The
Chinese train nearly year-round together as a team. Few other countries do this.
Most European countries only get together a few times each year to train as a
team, as the players instead play in leagues, and train with their team in the
league. Many European countries get together for “Super Camps” before major
competitions, but again it’s only a few weeks per year. It can’t compete with
the best Chinese players training together full-time all year.
The
USA team gets together only a few weeks per year, if that. It’s simply not
enough.
To
match the Chinese, other countries need to focus on year-round training, not
just periodic training, combined with league-type play and competing in the ITTF
Pro Tour. One way of doing this is to simply have the teams train at the
location of the leagues, even if that means training in another country. If
countries combine their practice sessions, then the best players can train
together, and pool their resources for practice partners (see below) as well as
training center expenses. Otherwise, the best players in, say, Europe won’t get
to train with the best players, as the Chinese do (since many of the best
players are on the Chinese team).
1989 & 1987 World Champion Jan-Ove Waldner of Sweden attributes much of his
success to training in China. Those who wish to challenge the Chinese should
consider doing the same.
Practice Partners
Most countries don’t have the resources to have as many practice partners as the
Chinese. However, this is a must if they wish to challenge the Chinese.
Teams that are not among the best in the world need world-class practice
partners to help them raise their level. It’s nearly impossible for 2600 and
2700 players to become 2900 players unless they train with 2900 players.
Teams that are among the best in the world need world-class practice partners
that emulate players like Wang Liqin and Ma Lin. When Wang Liqin or Ma Lin
plays, say, Samsonov, they’ve been practicing with Samsonov-like players
regularly, and so they’re ready. Meanwhile, Samsonov has been practicing with
whoever he can get, meaning mostly weaker players, and none who really play like
Wang Liqin or Ma Lin. Anyone watching Michael Maze against Ma Lin in the
semifinals of the recent Worlds can see how uncomfortable he was against Ma’s
game. Most likely, two years from now he’ll be equally uncomfortable as he won’t
get to train against this style. Meanwhile, in China, there are players whose
main job is to play like Maze, and so Ma will be even more prepared.
It’s unlikely that other countries can regularly train with two practice
partners in the way the Chinese do, at least in the foreseeable future, but the
first step is just getting these practice partners. Surprisingly, the answer is
to go right to the source: China itself. China has a huge number of top players
who are not on the Chinese team, players who, if given the chance, would be
among the top 50 in the world or even better. Since costs in China are cheap
compared to most other countries (which is why USA was able to hire former
Chinese team members Cheng Yinghua, Huang Tong “Jack” Huang and Huazhang Xu as
practice partners in the late 1990s), they are affordable, if this becomes a
priority. Countries can pool their resources and hire practice partners – and
they can do so right from China!
Mental and
Tactical Training
Many countries already have meetings with sports psychologists. It might be a
good idea to combine this with tactical meetings, as the Chinese do.
Most countries have one or two coaches who develop most or all of the strategies
for their team (along with the players themselves). There are many top coaches
or former top players who can be brought in, often as volunteers, to help
develop tactics. For teams that can’t yet challenge the top players, they should
focus on the tactical and style development of their players. If they are at the
level where they can challenge the best teams, more toward specific strategies
against specific players becomes higher priority.
Developing
Players
Again, other countries don’t have the depth the Chinese have. They can, however,
close the gap with more grass-roots development. Germany, for example, has a
huge number of players due to their league system.
Where other countries can top the Chinese is in more match practice, especially
in competitive situations. A Chinese strength is their actual training. However,
many Europeans players have more effective match practice, due to the many
European leagues. This makes them “match tough,” and this allows them to be at
their best in big matches as they become used to developing flexible tactics for
their matches. If they are able to combine this with playing practice partners
who emulate top Chinese players, they can be even better prepared for the match
than the Chinese player, who may have more and better training, but not as much
match play in competitive situations against different players (since much of
their match play is in practice sessions against other Chinese players).
To
get this match practice, players can play in various leagues, such as the German
Leagues, considered by many the best in the world, as well as the ITTF Pro Tour.
This, combined with matching the Chinese in other aspects of their development,
can make them competitive with the Chinese.
Technique
Technique is an open thing, as you can learn the most modern technique by just
watching the best players. However, if you do it that way, you are always years
behind those who develop these techniques.
This is where careful planning of coaching methods becomes important. Teams need
to emulate the best techniques by the best players (both Chinese and
non-Chinese), and add their own techniques.
When Hungary defeated China to win the 1979 World Team Championships, they
dominated mostly on the strength of their flip returns of serves and backhand
loops. When Sweden dominated China in the early 1990s, they did so with their
shakehand inverted games with speed glue. In both cases, the Chinese were caught
off guard, and lost due to the new techniques.
USA
is also a good example here. In the modern sponge era, roughly the past 40
years, only two players have reached the top twenty level in the world – Dan
Seemiller (now the USA Men’s Coach) and Eric Boggan. Both copied the most
advanced techniques in the world, and added them to their own new techniques.
Both of these players played with the “Seemiller” grip, first developed at a
high level by Seemiller himself, whereby one side of the racket was used for
both forehand and backhand (sort of a windshield-wiper grip), with antispin
rubber on the other side as a variation. At the 1985 Worlds, four of the five
USA team members used this grip! (Dan & Rick Seemiller, Eric Boggan and Brian
Masters, with Sean O’Neill the sole shakehander.) The new technique help bring
USA to its highest level in four decades, where they could actually challenge
all but perhaps the top four countries in the world.
This doesn’t mean USA or other countries should start switching to the Seemiller
grip. It means that to really challenge the Chinese, other countries need not
only to copy their technique, but develop new ones, as the Hungarians and Swedes
did. Or, doing as the Chinese did by copying Klampar’s technique and improving
on it, other countries can improve or develop current techniques. Somewhere out
there are players using new techniques that few have noticed, but which may be
the next big breakthrough.
Europe already has one possible advantage of China, and that is their rallying
techniques. China may dominate at the start of the rally, but the Europeans, who
spend more time training their rallying techniques (primarily counterlooping),
and tend to use softer sponges (better for counterlooping) often have an
advantage here. This is something they can develop, if combined with tactics to
get into these types of rallies.
Conclusion
Challenging the Chinese in table tennis is a formidable task, similar to the
rest of the world challenging USA in basketball. A few years ago, USA basketball
seemed invincible, and now they are not. The Chinese are much more challengeable
now than USA basketball was, but it won’t be an easy task. Basically, it’ll take
a combination of matching Chinese strengths, while developing other strengths.
Can it be done? Yes. Will it be done? That remains to be seen.
The Authors
Cheng Yinghua, who is sponsored by Butterfly, is the current and
four-time U.S. Men’s Singles Champion. He was a member of the Chinese National
Team from 1977-87. He was the 1985 and 1993 U.S. Open Men’s Singles Champion,
along with many other national and international titles. When he won Men’s
Singles at the 2004 USA Nationals at age 46, he became the oldest ever to do so.
He is certified as a National Coach by USATT, the highest level. He was named
USATT Coach of the Year in 1996. He is a member of the USATT Hall of
Fame, and a full-time coach at the Maryland
Table Tennis Center.
Larry Hodges is editor of USA Table Tennis Magazine, a long-time coach and player, and author
of over 300 table tennis coaching articles and the book, Table Tennis: Steps
to Success. He is certified as a National Coach by USATT, and was named
USATT Developmental Coach of the Year in 2003. He is a member of the USATT Hall of
Fame, and a coach at the Maryland Table Tennis Center.
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