Every World Champion Has Flaws
This is a brand-new, technique-focused column, in a Q&A format. The mystery figures answering questions are two former national team players (both senior coaches) who’d rather not have their names disclosed. They just want a peaceful life, to sleep soundly, and not to become famous.
I (Heima) feel that sharing these technical insights with everyone is quite valuable. It’s also a complement to “Heima Talks Table Tennis.”
And so, the “Scaling the Heights” column was born.
My side-chopped balls feel like they lack spin, and my wrist seems too stiff.
When side-chopping, the first thing is mindset: don’t panic. Side-chopping should be very relaxed; the “tension” when receiving the ball is about one-fifth of an attacking shot. Because the position from which you receive has already squarely avoided the ball’s spin and power, there’s no need to generate more force. What you need to do is keep the wrist flexible and accelerate into the chop, so the return has quality.
Once you accelerate, you’re less prone to absorbing spin.
My wrist feels too stiff, and my power generation is always not smooth enough. How do I adjust?
This loop-drive you sent over only has weight and spin. It’s not a combination of weight, surge, and lift; the quality is a bit lacking, meaning the second-bounce acceleration isn’t obvious. Go up one more level and the opponent won’t even touch the ball.
You could say there’s almost no acceleration, which is a body problem. The body and the arm are disconnected: the body has already rotated through, while the arm is still behind receiving the ball. The body is too fast, the hand too slow. You need the body to be fast and the hand to be even faster, so the whole body’s force can converge together.
With the kind of ball you send, if the opponent can backhand counter-rip, you won’t have a second shot. If the body and hand can coordinate well and the force merges together, the opponent won’t get a quick counter-rip. At most they’ll block defensively, and then you can keep surging continuously. Because if the opponent wants to counter-rip, they have to close the bat angle. But if your ball’s second bounce can accelerate, the opponent either counter-rips into empty air or clips the edge of the bat.
Right now your body goes straight to the left, not forward, and the body is loose, with force not concentrated enough. There’s also the wrist matter: the wrist isn’t retracting.
Lin Gaoyuan’s forehand lethal quality has never progressed to the top level. What’s the reason?
Lin Gaoyuan emphasizes the backhand system, and when he gets to the forehand, his body habitually under-backswings, leading to an unsmooth stroke, with the bat not quite driving through, and the elbow slightly lifting. To add quality, the body’s backswing range on the forehand side needs to increase, but he’s a close-table, swing-speed type. If he changes it, he must step back a bit, which triggers new problems. Once the speed slows, the whole system is affected.
Every world champion has flaws; no one is 100 percent correct. It’s about how you bring out the strengths of your own style. Wang Liqin’s and Ma Lin’s backhands, Wang Hao’s speed, Zhang Jike’s continuity, Ma Long’s power, Little Fatty’s (Fan Zhendong’s) lack of close-table variation, Big Fatty’s (Liang Jingkun’s) consistency.
Overall, Lin Gaoyuan’s style of play is actually very advanced. His close-table counter-loop and counter-block are no worse than Boll’s, even better than Boll’s. Of course, when you’re fast at the table, the power is small, just like Liu Shiwen. What he trained from childhood is close-table swing speed, and close-table swing speed relies mainly on borrowing power; it can’t generate much force. Habits are hard to change.
If you had him step back a bit, the stroke could be bigger and the power could increase; that works too. But then the speed advantage in the first three balls would be gone. The power gained might be outweighed by what’s lost. At their level, there’s no changing it; they all know where their strengths and weaknesses are. We can’t observe pros’ movements and thinking from an amateur’s perspective; they’ve calculated the ratio of gains and losses.