On October 25, the recently regrouped national team coaches finalized the list of players to attend the Polish and Swedish Pro-Tour stops. Of the 12 players selected, 9 are younger than 20 years old, and 7 are less than 18 years old. These younger players are the ones the coaches will focus on developing for the next Olympics. The 6 men chosen are: Ma Lin, Liu Guozheng, Feng Zhe, Chen Junji, Zhang Ciao (sp?) and Xu Hui. The six women are: Zhang Yining, Zhang Yingying, Nu Jianfeng, Bai Yang, Ding Ying and Wang Tingting.
Chen Junji, Zhang Chao and Xu Hui are new national team members, and Chen has the best record among the three. 16-year-old Chen is from Sichuan, and plays a shakehands 2-sided looping style. He beat Kong in the warm-up tournament before the Olympics. He is on the 1st national team, and Lu Lin is his coach. Zhang Ciao from Guangdong is 15, and also plays a 2-sided looping shakehand style. He is with the 2nd national team, and is a prized pupil of coach Fang. Xu Hui is 17, and came from the PLA team. He plays an inverted penholder style, similar to Ma Lin's. He is in the first team, and coached by Han Hua who is also Kong's coach.
The oldest woman player is Niu, and she is only 19 years old. She has played internationally since 2 years ago. She was in the Chinese Worlds team last May, but because of the postponement and the reduction in the number of players allowed, she did not play in the Worlds. Nu is from Baoding in Hebei province, and plays a 2-sided looping shakehand style. Her serves from the stooped position are well-known. 18-year-old Zhang Yining is the best among the young players, and was runner-up in the Eindhoven Worlds. In abilities, she is at the same level as Wang Nan and Li Ju. 17-year-old Zhang Yingying from Jiangsu is the only penholder in this group, and she won the mixed-doubles world title with Ma Lin. At one time she was in the team for Kuala Lumpar, but got replaced by Sun Jin. 17-year-old Ding Ying is from Shantao in Guangdong province, and plays the chopping style with inverted on the forehand and long-pips on the backhand. 16-year-old Wang Tingting is from Baoding, and plays a chopping style also, but with inverted on both sides. The youngest player is 16-year-old Bai Yang, also from Baoding. She is a shakehander, with inverted on the forehand and pips-out on the backhand. She plays a style similar to Chen Jing's. Bai Yang beat Zhang Yining in the national championships this year to win the women's singles event.
These are not all the young players in the team. For the Italian Open starting on November 30, China will send a different group of players. Besides Kong, Liu, Wang Liqin, Wang Nan and Yang Ying, there will be the newer players Hao Yingciao (sp?), Liu Hun (sp?), Ge Yan (sp?) and Gao Hei (sp?). They will play internationally for the first time. This group will also play in the Denmark Open.
Starting this week, the coaches and the players will summarize the Olympics and develop a new training cycle. Then there will be personnel adjustments, meaning players will be added to the national team, and some older players will retire.
The Chinese national team regroups in Beijing, and the training center is once more a busy place. The Sydney Olympics seems like a distant memory, and Liu starts a tough daily training regimen. He is setting his sights on the Osaka Worlds, and the Athens Olympics in 4 years.
"Some say that I have reached the end, but I am not that pessimistic. I firmly believe that Kong and I will play in Athens. Without this belief, I will not train anymore. I know I still have potential. When there is potential, there is hope", Liu said decisively.
The change in ball-size is not a pyschological setback, but rather a great fit, as far as Liu, who loves challenges and explorations, is concerned. "I have only trained with the big ball for a week, and I feel good about it. I think the big ball will be more of an advantage to me", he said. From a technical point of view, the reduction in spin makes the pips-out penholder defense easier. "The opponent's loop is not as spinny, and that makes it easier to hit, with a higher success rate. Also, the opponent's pushes are not as spinny, so the pips-out pushes are not as disadvantaged as before". From a tactics viewpoint, the change in ball size has a big impact on the pips-out penholder style that relies on variations. "This is an advantage to me. At the end of the small-ball era, the Swedes have got used to my style and my serves. Now that we are using the new ball, their experiences are not applicable anymore. Because for sure I will add more variations to my game, and I will appear unfamiliar to them again".
Liu immediately realized the opportunities that the big ball presents. "Some said that the big ball is bad news for my style. I don't understand what is their basis for saying that. There are very few pips-out penholders, and I am the only one that plays at a very high level. I would think that I should be the most qualified to speak on this after I have extensive training with the big ball. Everyone is still new with the big ball, and it may take half a year before we 'understand' it. Can't we hold back our judgments until then? Coach Cai did not see any disadvantages in my style with the big ball, and neither did my coach Lu Lin". Also, becauseof the changes in approved coverings, Liu's rubber is no longer allowed, so he needs to switch to a new rubber on his forehand. All these make Liu less 'familiar' to his opponents. For himself and for his opponents, the new rubber will require an adjustment phase.
Liu also said that he will play in the Italian and the Denmark Pro-Tour stops, and there will be new faces with him. He thinks that these sub-18-year-old players should have more chances to play internationally. "When Kong and I were young, we basically played in Europe every year. Now that there is more marketing of the sport, the young players have fewer opportunities than we did". But Liu feels that the young players like Chen Junji , Xu Hei and Hao are still behind him and Kong in tactics and experiences. "These young players are quite a bit behind Ma and Wang, maybe a 3 to 5 point difference per game. They will not present any threat to Kong and me yet," Liu said frankly. "They may not be able to play for the team in Osaka, but perhaps in 2003, and maybe in 2004, they will emerge".
Added notes: The national team tested the players on IQ and "excitability", and Liu was the top scorer on both. Excitability is a measure of how players will perform in competitions. So it apears that Liu has both the brain and the heart.