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This year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese national table tennis team. It has achieved a brilliant record not only with many individual world championships but also with a clean sweep of the honours at the World Table Tennis Championships on three occasions in 1981, in 1995 and again in 2001.
The squad is now working all out to prepare for the coming table tennis events at the 14th Asian Games. These will be held from September 29 to October 14 in Pusan, South Korea. The national team’s head coach Cai Zhenhua is hoping for four or even five gold medals.
China’s third clean sweep was at the 46th World Table Tennis Championships in Osaka last year. It was at these championships that Adham Sharara, president of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) said, “The championships have become a national game as the Chinese players are just competing amongst themselves.” These remarks by the ITTF boss were made in the hope of “spurring the rest of the world to wake up and make a concerted effort to aspire to reach the level of China.”
Rong Guotuan took the gold in the men’s singles at the 25th World Table Tennis Championships in 1959. Since then though experiencing some ups and downs, the Chinese team has played a dominant role in world table tennis circles for over 40 years.
The statistics tell us that from 1926 up to the present day, the World Table Tennis Championships have produced 314 championship titles. Of these China has won 89.5, followed by Hungary (68.5) and Japan (47).
Since 1980 the Table Tennis World Cup has seen 38 champions with 21 of these coming from China.
In 1988 table tennis became an Olympic sport. Since then, 13 of the 16 gold medals awarded so far have come to China.
In the men’s team, 45 players have become world champions. Liu Guoliang alone has walked off with the top trophy 11 times.
The women’s team has also enjoyed striking success with as many as 41 players winning various championships across events in the Olympic Games, World Championships and World Cup competitions. Deng Yaping has carried off the first prize no less than 18 times.
It was really not all that long ago that table tennis was first introduced to China. In a relatively short space of time the Chinese team has made history. It has brought the sport to a pinnacle of success not just once but again and again so ensuring its continuing popularity in China.
Continuous Innovation
In the early 1960s, China developed a new mode of play, close to the table, featuring speed in attack and relying on a pen-hold grip. The Chinese game was characterised by a blend of speed, precision, power and variety. Neither Japan’s attacking style also using the pen-hold grip nor Europe’s long range defensive technique with the handshake grip was a match for the new style developed in China.
Later, the loop drive was invented in Japan. Europeans then coupled China’s fast attack with Japan’s loop drive, to develop their new attacking game. It retained the use of the handshake grip.
Confronted with the resurgence in Europe, China fought back with a dual strategy. A new bat with superior performance was introduced and the magic of spin was added to the equation. Now China had perfectly integrated the five key elements of speed, power, spin, loop and accurate placing. The advantage was soon regained.
In 1981 Chinese players swept the board with all seven titles at the 36th World Table Tennis Championships in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. “China has ushered in a new era in the history of table tennis,” commented a foreign news agency.
Then came a “two-pronged attack” mounted by players from both Europe and Asia. They had studied the Chinese game and learned from it. So China took the initiative once again. The loop drive was further improved and the handshake grip adopted.
Chinese teams have an enviable track record of keeping up with new developments and the timely introduction of new tactics built on existing strengths. Bold new ideas have been introduced to training methods. China has competed successfully not just in competition but in the long running and ever changing challenge to develop the winning style of play.
According to some sources, over the past century there have been 46 outstanding innovations in table tennis technique and equipment. More than half, in fact 27, of these have originated in China.
Innovations “made in China” have included: the forehand serve with backspin and with no spin; the close-table attack on both forehand and backhand with the pen-hold grip; the backhand serve with side and top spin; the serve on forehand or backhand from a high throw; and so on.
Success Through Unity
“Playing against a Chinese player, you usually have the feeling that you are facing the whole team,” a foreign table tennis player once commented. China’s strength lies in the very evident collective wisdom and energy which is brought to bear daily in training and which is harnessed for meticulous competition planning.
To beef up the physical power of members of the women’s team, coaches bring in male players for them to train with.
It is indicative of the dedicated and long-term strategic approach that some very talented players have been allocated as "top gun" trainers and have learnt to compete in the style of particular foreign aces. These unseen sparring partners have played a key role behind the scenes for many years.
To better prepare the players for the distractions of a live competitive arena, coaches will sometimes make all sorts of noise during training.
Chinese coaches make a careful study of the documented evidence and watch match videos over and over again. Once they have made a careful assessment of a particular opponent they are in a position to either select a “natural enemy” or send in a “dark horse” to catch the opposition unawares.
Over the years many foreign table tennis stars such as S. Bengtsson, I. Jonyer, T. Klampar, D. Surbek, Yang Young Ja, Hyun Jung Hwa, Yoo Nam Kyu, Jan-Ove Waldner, Jorgen Persson, Jean-Philippe Gatien, etc., have been well matched with their contemporary Chinese rivals on an individual basis. However these foreign players have tended to lack the backup of a strong team infrastructure. This is exactly where the success of the Chinese team lies.
Strength in Depth
According to statistics, China has a table tennis playing population of around 10 million. Over 30 thousand juvenile players receive formal training. Nearly 2,000 adult professionals and juvenile amateurs are registered with the Chinese Table Tennis Association. There are some 100 players between the national team and the national youth team.
This is a pyramid of talent based on open selection and competitive elimination. Players know that nothing short of total commitment can bring them to the peak of success of this competitive environment.
Patriotism a Pillar of Strength
Rong Guotuan was China’s first table tennis world champion in the men’s singles event. He started off working in Hong Kong. When Rong made up his mind to return to the mainland to play table tennis in 1954, the boss of the store he worked in strangely sought to make him sign a written statement of “repentance.” Rong’s robust retort was, “To be patriotic is not a crime; so what is there to repent?”
Since the Chinese team was established half a century ago, patriotism has been in the mainstream of its thinking. With the motto of “the honour of the country above all else” outstanding morale among the players has delivered a succession of notable successes.
The Chinese team has done even more than its regular work of raising national standards in table tennis and doing credit to the country in international competition. It has actually taken on an historical mission to serve as an ambassador for peace.
Ping-pong Diplomacy
The American table tennis team’s China tour in 1971 set the stage for Richard Nixon’s epoch-making Beijing visit the following year. Time magazine reported a “ping that was heard all round the world” as the subtle moves executed by the players in this “ping-pong diplomacy” moved backwards and forwards.
“Never before in history has a sport been used so effectively as a tool of international diplomacy,” said the late Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai.
Juan Antonio Samaranch, ex-president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) commented, “The ping-pong diplomacy that pushed forward Sino-US relationships in the early 1970s has vividly demonstrated the positive role that sport can play in promoting world peace. It can serve to strengthen the friendship and mutual understanding of peoples from all countries.”
In February 2002, US President George W. Bush made his second visit to China. When speaking to Chinese President Jiang Zemin, he recalled Nixon's Beijing tour that had grown out of the ping-pong diplomacy. President Bush said, “Thirty years ago this week, President Richard Nixon showed the world that two very different governments could meet on the grounds of common interest in a spirit of mutual respect.”
Going Overseas
Table tennis circles in China did not panic when confronted with the so-called “overseas legion” of Chinese players going to join foreign clubs in the 1990s. They quickly recovered from their initial surprise and drew the conclusion that more and more Chinese players going abroad would be beneficial to the international development of table tennis. In the words of ITTF President Adham Sharara, “China has a responsibility to make the sport grow worldwide.” Meanwhile it is hoped that having so many Chinese players overseas will help China to have timely knowledge of new trends in techniques developed abroad.
Asian Games to Be Unprecedented Test
“For this generation of trainers and players, the coming Asian Games in Pusan will be an unprecedented test,” said Cai Zhenhua, head coach of the Chinese team.
New rules have been introduced with effect from September 1 this year. For example there will now be 11 points to a game and services will not be concealed. Chinese players’ existing techniques and tactics will be severely constrained. Extant training methods have been disrupted.
Many players, particularly those from the men’s team, feel they will not be able to adapt to the new rules. For instance, 1996 Olympic dual gold medallist Liu Guoliang has retired from active competition to become an assistant coach, an early victim to the new rules. The move was announced following the contest between China and a World All-Star Team in Wuhan, Hubei Province, on August 14.
To make matters worse, Korean players can usually give a supernormal performance when playing at home. “They look stronger and tougher at home than many imagine. We lost to them at the Asian Games in 1986 and again at the Olympic Games in 1988. Both of these were held in South Korea. Besides, Korean players are well-known for their physical power and iron determination,” said Cai.
Despite all these difficulties, this highly competitive young coach has set a target of four or five gold medals for the Asian Games.
(china.org.cn, edited and translated by Shao Da, September 7, 2002)
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