Ma Long's chop block

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Recently I've been trying to copy Ma Long's chop block with little success. Sometimes it works and most of the times it doesn't. Can you guys give me some advices about this shot? When I can do it? And how to do it properly?
I guess almost everyone know this shot but this is the shot I'm talking about (just in case...). Ma Long uses it very effectively.

 
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Ma Lin was even better at this type of shot - the look of bewilderment on the opponent's faces was priceless.

IMHO, Ma Long tends to make this shot when two conditions are true:

* the opponent makes a slow spinny, relatively shallow, topspin shot into ML's BH
* ML himself is out of position - because the topspin is not deep - to attack it properly
 
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Ma Lin was even better at this type of shot - the look of bewilderment on the opponent's faces was priceless.

IMHO, Ma Long tends to make this shot when two conditions are true:

* the opponent makes a slow spinny, relatively shallow, topspin shot into ML's BH
* ML himself is out of position - because the topspin is not deep - to attack it properly

I agree with you vvk1.

The concept of the stroke follows the same logic behind looping a long/shallow push. The push comes with backspin, we have to brush it faster than the rotation on the ball to put it on the other side of the table. So the ball comes to you with backspin, and comes back to the opponent with topspin.

When chop-blocking the ball comes with topspin, and goes back with backspin. So in order to do this move consistently, its easier to do it with slow and shallow topspins, due to the short stroke of a chop-block (you would have to do it extremely fast with fast and heavy topspins). Check this video of the Kenta's block which follows the same structure.


Ma Long's block follows the same essence, but players tend to chop-block always more perpendicular to the spinning axis, since the rotation strength decays when closer to the poles of the balls.

This mini-article from Table tennis masters pictures what I'm trying to say:
http://www.tabletennismaster.com/profiles/blogs/service-receive-secrets-from-japan

The article shows about the chiquita backhand receive, but the concept can be transfered to the chop-block.
 
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Ma Long's block follows the same essence, but players tend to chop-block always more perpendicular to the spinning axis, since the rotation strength decays when closer to the poles of the balls.

The article shows about the chiquita backhand receive, but the concept can be transfered to the chop-block.

I agree with you about this. In the video, Ma Long only chop block a right hander's FH (Zhang Jike, Ovtcharov, Fan Zhendong) or a left hander's BH (Timo Boll). Didn't notice this before. Maybe this is one of the reasons my chop block failed when I tried to do BH chop block against a left hander's FH.
But it seems Kenta's block doesn't follow the same spinning axis concept? He can block all spins with that same stroke, perhaps it's harder to do?
 
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This is an unique shot... for sure ML is the most creative chinese player...
 
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I agree with you about this. In the video, Ma Long only chop block a right hander's FH (Zhang Jike, Ovtcharov, Fan Zhendong) or a left hander's BH (Timo Boll). Didn't notice this before. Maybe this is one of the reasons my chop block failed when I tried to do BH chop block against a left hander's FH.
But it seems Kenta's block doesn't follow the same spinning axis concept? He can block all spins with that same stroke, perhaps it's harder to do?

If you take a look at 0:55 you can notice the contact is made near to the pole, rather than the equator line of the ball. He also does it extremely fast, giving a lot of hard time even to the CNT.

In addition kenta's chop-block is one of a kind, and even professional players can't do it like him. Most times, Ma Long's chop-block goes way too high, and the opponent tends to smash it, sometimes they miss or score. When kenta chop-blocks, the opponent reaction is just to either lift the ball or push it back.
 
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Ma Lin was even better at this type of shot - the look of bewilderment on the opponent's faces was priceless.

IMHO, Ma Long tends to make this shot when two conditions are true:

* the opponent makes a slow spinny, relatively shallow, topspin shot into ML's BH
* ML himself is out of position - because the topspin is not deep - to attack it properly

I agree, plus i think that in other cases he's trying to surprise the opponent with a rather unexpected shot.
 
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