November 25, 2000

Baoding Greatwall Automobile 2000-2001 International Table Tennis Championship Series

The international series of challenge matches between China and the rest of the world started on November 25, 2000. Promoted by Xu Shaofa, the ex-coach of the national team, this series will pit the best Chinese players against the best Europeans and the Koreans. Playing for China will be Liu Guoliang, Kong, Wang Liqin, Liu Guozheng, Ma Lin, and the younger players Hao Yingchao, Chen Junji and Xu Hui. The challengers will be Samsonov, Waldner, Persson, Schlager, Primorac, Kim, Saive and Korbel. There will be a total of 16 matches, with each player playing twice.

Liu Guoliang and J-M Saive played the first televised match in Baoding, China on November 25. Click here for the English article. Click here for some pictures from the match. Liu beat Saive in a hard-fought 3-2 victory, with scores of 10, -17, -21, 18 and 19. Yang Ying and Sun Jin played a second exhibition match, with Sun Jin picking up the 2-0 win.

For more pictures, go here. This page shows Saive practicing against young Chinese penholders from Beijing.

Xu Yansheng On The PenHolder Style

In an article reviewing the Olympics, Xu, ex-ITTF president and chief editor of Table-Tennis World, spoke about the penholder attack style. This translation is an excerpt of the original that appeared in the November issue of Table-Tennis World. Xu, by the way, is a penholder.

Which is the better grip, penholder or shakehand? The answer is still the same: either grip can reach the summit. Realistically, there are more problems with the penholder grip, so the shakehand grip has a relative advantage. This primarily shows up in the weakness of the backhand attack. Shakehanders can loop from the backhand, and can initiate attacks. In the past, the Chinese backhand smashes and the backhand blocks were very successful against the Japanese forehand-only style: it is like playing two hands against one. In the '70's, with the emergence of the European two-winged looping style, especially coupled with strong spins, our penholder backhand attack started to lose its edge. Our backhand techniques had almost totally disappeared, and our backhand accelerating (fast) blocks became much harder to execute. With our national team players using the decelerating (slow) blocks more, the younger players of our country followed their lead, and our traditional backhand blocks have regressed and become passive. Our strength became our weakness. In the past we played two hands against their one, and now they play two hands against our one.

In the Sydney Olympics, there are multiple reasons why Liu Guoliang lost to Waldner, and one of them is that Liu's backhand was too weak.

Opposite to that was Liu's match against Persson. In that match, Liu actively used his backhand blocks in rallies, and added his backhand looping technique. Those two techniques complemented each other well, increased the backhand ability, reduced the passiveness of the backhand, and produced a lot of opportunities for Liu's forehand. That was one of the main reasons why Liu won.

The backhand loop is a technique that we have been persistent in developing, even though it is not yet mature, and requires a lot more work. Liu's victory gave us some new insights. The penholder backhand problem can be solved. The penholder fast-attack style has to keep its traditional advantages, and continuously improved by adding new techniques.

Of special note is that although our backhand blocks have regressed, the Taiwanese players have made major improvements. Chinese-Taipei player Chiang Peng-Lung, using his size, can block with great speed and power close to the table, as well as executing explosive backhand jabs from mid-distances. That is very refreshing. I heard that the Taiwanese players have learned from our own Zhou Lanshun. Now we have to learn blocking from Chiang.

Story of Gao Jun

Gao Jun, former Chinese national women's team member, was doubles champion in the 41st Worlds and silver medalist in doubles in Barcelona. This article appeared in the November 2000 Table Tennis World, and was partly written during the Eindhoven Worlds and finished during the recent ENRON tour of the American table-tennis juniors in China. This is how Gao Jun tells her story:

In December 1992, I went to Las Vegas to play in the World Doubles Cup. There I met my husband, introduced to me by my friends. He was a Chinese computer engineer living in the US. Eleven months later, we decided to get married. In January 1994, I left the Chinese national team for America.

Before I knew my husband, I just finished the Barcelona Olympics. I was not thinking of retirement then; I felt I could still play, and I wanted to play in the '96 Olympics. I had given so much to table-tennis, and it would be regretful to leave now that I had a place on the national team. But my future husband said that if we lived so far apart, we would not know what might happen to our relationship. He said he understood my desire to keep playing, but that I had played for so many years. It was very hard work, with so much pressure. He said also that I could still play in the US, and it would be fun. Even though he urged me several times to leave, I still could not give it up.

After the 42nd Worlds, I felt that I would not get too much better even if I were to continue with the team. I had great chances in the tournament. Deng Yaping lost early, and I was the only Chinese in the semifinals. But I did not seize that opportunity, and I lost 0-3 to Chen Jing. I felt that my chances of winning a world title were diminishing. With my boyfriend's urging, and also because I was not the type that just has to win, I decided to get married. Everyone on our team was surprised. They did not expect me to get married so early.

Leaving the team and not playing table-tennis was a huge change in my life. Some players have a hard time accepting this change, but I adapted quickly. After I got married, I constantly dreamed of playing table tennis. I called Jiao Zhemin who was in Korea and asked her if that happened to her, and she said she had the same experience. That was really quite strange. When I was playing, I never played in my dreams. Now that I was not playing anymore, I dreamed every night that I was playing. Maybe that meant that subconsciously I still wanted to play.

The first few years in the US I did not really play, and I also did not want to idle at home. My father told me that I need to be independent, so that I could have self respect and the respect of others. So I found a job. My boss is a Chinese who also likes table tennis, and I have worked in his company ever since.

Now I lead a life just like everyone else in America. I go to work everyday, and I make dinner when I come home. I like this lifestyle, and I am relaxed and happy. I am a calm person, and I like to live a quiet life. I do not try to be the best in everything. Good enough is great for me. Of course I want to be number 1, but if I am number 2 or 3, I do not feel as bad as some other players.

I did not play in the first few years because I could not accept playing for a country other than China. Before I left China, there were some negativism towards ex-Chinese players representing other countries, and I did not want to be one of them. After living here for a while, I was told by many people that even though I played for the US, I would really be playing for myself, and proving that I could still play. In the beginning I only played in small tournaments, and did not want to represent the US. At the end of 1997, I got my green card (permanent resident status), and people started to ask me to play for the US team. I asked my family and my friends, and they said that the Chinese team was very strong, and I would not be a threat to them. So I agreed to play for the US.

After I resumed playing, I competed in some qualifying tournaments every year. When there are important tournaments, I would go; otherwise I would stay home and go to work. I feel that I am leading a richer life. I have played table-tennis since I was 5. Before I was married, table tennis was essentially my whole life. After I got married, I really missed that life, but I knew that I could not give up everything because of table tennis. Now I have my job, and I am also picking up table tennis, and I can experience the joys of both. This is a very good feeling. In the US, I have no pressure from table-tennis, and I seldom practice. I only play in competitions. I usually win in competitions, too, so you can see that the level in the US is very low. All the better players came from China.

This is the biggest difference between then and now: When I was playing for China, everyone was afraid of me. Now that I am playing for the US, I am afraid of everyone.

In sports, the US system is totally different from China's. Take table-tennis for example. China pays all the expenses of developing players, and in the US, one has to play for oneself. In the US table-tennis is not important, and most people think of it as a recreation and not a sport. In US schools there is no table-tennis. That is one of the reasons why the level is so low here.

In the US, everyone thinks that China is the strongest in table-tennis. I think that if the sport receives attention in the US, it could develop very rapidly. Soccer is a good example. But this could be a very long process. I have suggested to the USATT that it has to emphasize developing juniors. This (ENRON) tour is the first of its kind, and maybe this is a good beginning.

After I picked up the sport again, I have rediscovered the joys of the game. This is a sport that is not limited by age, and you could play as long as you want. From that perspective, I can say that I will never retire. I will play in the World Veterans tournaments, and maybe I will win a world title after all.

This is my third trip back to China. The country is changing so rapidly. The more I come back, the more I want to come back again. My love for China will never change.

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