Kees wrote:
Baal wrote:
I am not so sure there weren't/aren't more players like Huang in China we've never heard of. It seems unlikely he invented and developed the style on his own. There's probably a school of some sort of this, as in China this seems to be the case which all styles. It is true the style leaves little margin for error, but the same applies to single-sided styles (pips or inverted), so that is not unique to Huang's game. It is also true he wasn't very constant, but again the same applies to a lot of other professional players, even in the top 10, like Li Ching, or Ryu Seung Min for instance, or Michael Maze; maybe this has more to do with their personality than with their style.
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JH is the only guy in history who had any success with this style. There is zero margin for error. and he was pretty up and down in terms of how he played from match to match.
I am not so sure there weren't/aren't more players like Huang in China we've never heard of. It seems unlikely he invented and developed the style on his own. There's probably a school of some sort of this, as in China this seems to be the case which all styles. It is true the style leaves little margin for error, but the same applies to single-sided styles (pips or inverted), so that is not unique to Huang's game. It is also true he wasn't very constant, but again the same applies to a lot of other professional players, even in the top 10, like Li Ching, or Ryu Seung Min for instance, or Michael Maze; maybe this has more to do with their personality than with their style.
There is an interesting book by Daniel Coyle entitled "The Talent Code" wherein he dispels the perception that great talent is inborn. The truth is that great skill in any field such sports or the arts can be grown.The required elements are practice (lots, lots, lots and lots of them- repeat 1000 times
), masterful coaching, and ignition (or focus/determination).Thus, I believe that Johnny Huang's success in his style is not a fluke and can be replicated by others (dedicated enough and properly trained).
I agree with Kees that Huang was a product of a school in China that advocated the all pips style and he had received proper good coaching and training. Take note that in the 1970s and 1980 (Huang's era) , short pips style was still very much alive in China given the success of Jiang Jialiang, Chen Longcan, and Geng Lijuan. It is doubtful that Huang would have been able to develop into a world class level player all by himself without the help of coaches to guide him. Probably there were many other very highly ranked and skilled all SP shakehand players in China but Huang rose above all of them.
Huang was fortunate that the Chinese authorities granted him permission to leave and more importantly - to play abroad. I believe this was also due to the policy shift of Chinese table tennis in the late 1980s and the early 1990s to focus less on pips and adopt the shakehand grip and the inverted-rubber based European looping style in view of the sudden rise to success of players such as Waldner, Persson, and Gatien. The Chinese initially failed especially in the period 1989-1993 when Europeans took the world singles championships but China came back to sweep all titles at Tianjin in 1995 with a new breed of players like Kong Linghui, Liu Guoliang, Wang Tao, and Ding Song.
Whether another person, whether in China or elsewhere, in the future will be purposely trained and groomed to play in the shadow of Johnny Huang is highly doubtful, but the possibilities for world class level play of this style cannot be cursorily dismissed...