OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Something very big has happened in a competition in Sweden this weekend. Harimoto Tomokazu went all the way to the final in the Elite-class, beating lots of really good players (who play in highest league in Sweden, like Viktor Brodd and Daniel Schaffer. Then he beat Omar Assar in quarter final and Jens Lundqvist in semi-final. This boy is 11 years old!
Here is his match against Jens Lundqvist:


In the final he lost to Eslövs Xu Hui (who recently beat Hou Yingchao and Gao Ning in CL). I think we will be seeing him again, perhaps at #1
Here are the results from the competition:
http://resultat.ondata.se/ViewClassPDF. ... 17&stage=5

In a blog in Sweden someone posted this that he had found from Googeling the boy:

”Let me explain. His parents are both Chinese professionals from Sichuan province. I believe his mom was Chinese national team. I’m not sure if his dad is Sichuan province team or Chinese national team.

Anyway, they moved to Japan now. Their son was born in Sendai, Japan and they began training him from the age of two. His name is 张智和 (Zhang Zihe). His Japanese name is 张本智和 (Harimoto Tomokazu). To find out more, just google the chinese characters I gave you.”

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very impressive I like his b/h flick,feel better about recent defeat to 12 year old

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More:http://www.ittf.com/_front_page/ittf_full_story1.asp?ID=38718&Competition_ID=2511&

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AMAZING!!!!

I never want to play this kid!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0zkq9Ja3E8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dARovqP9tT0#t=64

The final:


He also aims good:

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It is almost surrealistic... Hopefully he is guided well and he gets at least some elements of a more or less normal childhood/youth...

Maybe it is because of his limited lenght, but it looks like he takes the ball (esp. with BH) very quickly after the bounce...

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Amazing stuff really , age height, experience, 10000 hours all against him
but speed, fun, and taking chances and been well drilled for him

I look forward to seeing more

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Nothing like getting beat by an 8 year old to inspire confidence... Happens a lot in the U-1200s...

Iskandar

That is one of the most interesting TT stories I have ever seen!

THANKS!

Apparently his father (and coach) was barking at him for like an hour after he lost to another young (but a lot older than him) Japaneese player in another class (I think ITTF Cadet or perhaps Under 18). I guess he had some childhood an hour his last birthday perhaps, before heading off to his daily 4 hrs of practice...

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This fellow just beat Tan Ruiwu in a close battle. He is a very loud little fellow, but after the match point he was very quiet... not the funniest way to win...

http://cdn.laola1.tv/ittf/iframe/player ... mokazu_JPN

Since he won his group he will play in the main tournament in Poland. That will be very interesting to follow .

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they are taught to shout

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I was coaching a lot of our youngsters for a few years when I was competing a lot myself and that's actually a very effective way to turn a match around. There were a lot of occasions when my "pupil" were playing bad and not keeping enough focus. I simply told them to "shout" or "cho" or whatever we want to call it, as well as clinch their fist after each and every point they won, no matter how they won it (expect edge and net-points ofc) or how they felt about it. You would be surprised how many times this turned a match around, it got my pupil going and in the right mood as well as throw the opponent off a bit.

Some may argue it's a bit of gamesmanship but in my book it's a part of the game, as well as any other sport.

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He is facing Ma Long at table 2 soon! That will be rather interesting

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