OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Could you give your opinions,

compare table tennis styles of the european players and the chinese (asian) players such as about the difference of 1) playing styles, 2) tactics and
3) strategies

Are they just too different from each other?


metal monkey

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the re-evolution of war
Bty Gergely Palio Macro Era 42.5 Max DHS H2 Max

I wouldn't lump all Asian players together in the same box, considering that both Japanese and Korean players have a more European style of playing as shakehanders (minus the defenders), and the Japanese/Korean single-sided penholders are in a category of their own.

Here are some general comparisons, though, between Euro/Jap/Kor style shakehanders and Chinese shakehanders, and then Chinese penholders versus Jap/Kor penholders

Euro/Jap/Kor (shake)- Usually tending towards longer rallies, mixing up drives and loops a lot, more competent at mid-distance for looping, often strong close to the table, but with slower recovery times, much faster backhands that are closer in power to their forehands, not extremely powerful serves, decent footwork

Chinese (shake)- Much stronger in shorter points, looping much more than driving, better when close to the table (though still decent at mid distance), very fast recovery times, strong backhands but significantly better forehands, very strong serves, very strong third ball attacks, fast footwork

Jap/Kor (pen)- Best at rallies that are short to medium-long, very strong with both drives and loops, equally competent at close, mid, and long distance, fairly fast recovery times, extremely good footwork, strong and deceptive serves, strong third ball attacks, weak backhands for attacking, but very consistent for blocks and punches, very strong lobbing and fishing abilities, absurdly powerful forehands

Chinese (pen, assuming the use of RPB)- Best at short rallies, again tending more towards loops than drives, again best at close to the table, not too bad at mid distance, good footwork, good backhand loops but slow recovery times, strong forehands, extremely strong and deceptive serves, very strong third ball attacks, generally not as strong blocks, not very much fishing ability, some lobbing ability

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Jpen: Galaxy 982 juniper 8mm- Darker Provine Tension-50 2.2 or Tibhar Torpedo Soft 2.2
Shake OFF: Galaxy T8 ST- FH: Darker PT-50 2.2, BH: Juic Varites 1.5
Shake DEF: modified Joo- FH: Reactor Corbor 2.2, BH: Globe 979 1.5

oh how true that is mate, I love picking the 3rd ball, and although i should only be mid-close to teh table, i find playing long very easy. The power is good aswell. I actully cant decide about backhands because i find my backhand is realy tough to play, maybe becuas ei am a backhand heavy player, my pushed is on the BH




oh btw, off topic. hobbes, i kepted the pips on teh back of my rubber, aint gona use them much but theres no point taking them off

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aka Craig

Set Up: Butterfly Balsa Carbo X5 Stiga Calibra LT Sound and Butterfly Tenergy 05FX

The biggest difference to me is that the Europeans players play more "freely". The Chinese are lethal and really try to end the point within the first 3 balls. Europeans on the other hand have a much better allround ability, a very good example is Samsonov.

Well no point going into the specifics.

Best player in China at the moment would be Wang Hao IMO. His BH has improved to the point where its a second FH. His short game almost rivals ma lins, He's rallying ability is superior to europeans. Basically almost perfect.

Some say he has no defense, but why defend when your opponent can almost never attack you first ?

Best player in Europe at the moment...... no clue. Timo is on and off, Schlagers getting old, Dima is still too young. I wouldn't call Singapore and Japan as european but they have a few stars to watch for.

Gao Ning, Mizutani ,Yoshida Kaii.... seems to be shooting stars.

The Chinese can attack lower balls than the European players,making it very hard for the European players to attack first,the way it's going soon the European player will have to either change their aproach and use tacky rubbers or serve long balls to get a rally going straight away because they have no chance competing with the Chinese when they try the short serve short push game

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Xiom Control 3/ALL+
FH Andro impuls speed
BH sriver fx
Tibhar CTE

I really like Hobbes explaination. Way to go!

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Goof-off chopping bat
Gambler All Rosewood
Aurus Soft / Gambler GXL .6 sponge

Status - Out of Business Janitor/Babysitter

Heh, thanks. I actually did that in a rush to be the first to reply.

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Jpen: Galaxy 982 juniper 8mm- Darker Provine Tension-50 2.2 or Tibhar Torpedo Soft 2.2
Shake OFF: Galaxy T8 ST- FH: Darker PT-50 2.2, BH: Juic Varites 1.5
Shake DEF: modified Joo- FH: Reactor Corbor 2.2, BH: Globe 979 1.5

From my travels in China, I have discovered that every conceivable style of player can be found there. Long-stroked loopers, short-stroked loopers, hitters, blockers, choppers, J-pens, C-pens, short pips, long pips, you name it. It is impossible to generalize -- just when you think you can, some new unknown (to us) emerges on their national team and turns out to be awesome. The training system and the large number of very good coaches working with talented kids from the age of 5 for hours a day ensures they will always have talent. I have seen this diversity of styles even at the club level.

By contrast, most Europeans are two-winged loopers, with the rare chopper thrown in. Perhaps the thing that has caused them to lose ground relative to the Chinese is that the training systems aren't as good as they used to be, and they have fewer "weird" player than they used to. You don't see the likes of Kalinic or Grubba anymore, and here in North America we have not produced a Dan Seamiller or Eric Bogan anymore. (both of whom had very unusual styles). Part of the reason Waldner was so great was the many things he could do that were just not done by other players.

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Butterfly Viscaria Black tag
2.2 mm Nexy Karis M on FH and BH

LawOCG,

Kong Linhui was the classic example of someone you would call European in style. He was never a three-ball attack guy, but he could spin all day at mid distance, and he has some of the best footwork in the history of the game.

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Butterfly Viscaria Black tag
2.2 mm Nexy Karis M on FH and BH

my generalized opinion while the skills and tactics are close there are differences between euro and chinese (asian) attacking game.

European styles are generally perceived mostly mid-table, a battle of power, basically, it's trying to loop and smash your opponent to death.
Asians are more efficient at close table games with speed and spin being a factor. 3rd and 5th ball tactics is used by the asians, such as Ma lin, Ryu, Wang Hao.
And once the game opens up...... it becomes a contest of looping......

a lot of asian players would be at the disadvantage,

But in short game and serves, asians are clear winners,
Notably Ma lin/ Wang Hao.... while other Euro mostly use flips for set up purposes. Malin and Wang Hao's continuous attacks are just unparalleled to others.

_________________
the re-evolution of war
Bty Gergely Palio Macro Era 42.5 Max DHS H2 Max

I agree with most of this and appreciate you making the distinctions.

A couple comments: In general, Chinese penholders (like Ma Lin, rather than Wang Hao) are stronger at blocking than Japanese/Korean players with the exception of Chiang Peng Leung who is more a Chinese style player even though he uses a Japanese style blade.

I found my blocks became much stronger when I switched to Chinese style penhold from Japanese/Korean style though I'm still more an attacker like Toshio Tasaki than a traditional Chinese penholder.

The two strongest blockers in the game today, Gao Jun and He Zhi Wen are traditional single sided Chinese penholders with short pips.

While Japanese/Korean players are generally stronger at away from the table defense, Chinese penholders rarely back up that much so they don't generally need that skill set. So I don't see it as much of a weakness.

I also think Chinese style penholders have the edge in the receive, and Kong Linghui said as much a few years ago when he was interviewed about how to play a penholder. While Ryu, Kim and Chiang can blast the ball their recieves are not as tight as Liu, Ma and other Chinese players.

-- Andrew

Do you have an idea on why that is? Technique, material, type of game, training methods?

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Stiga AC WRB + T05(2,1)

First, the Chinese train more than anyone else, so their overall mastery is better.

Second, the wider spacing of fingers on the front with the Chinese penhold grip makes it easier to close the blade against heavy topspin.

Third, the shorter blade makes transitions to BH quicker and the heavier blade makes blocks more stable than with the lighter J/K blade.

It's possible that Wang Hao and Ryu Seung Min are exceptions to this. Wang doesn't block in a traditional penholder style, but more like a shakehander and Ryu has very strong blocks for a Korean player.

-- Andrew