China National Team Interview!! (Awesome)

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says editing a big TTD Team episode... stay tuned 👀

Dan

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Taken from the Table Tennis World, and originally posted here. Thanks to mytt member zeio for translating this

国手达人榜
China National Players Records Interview!!

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Photo: sina.com


Contest One: Techniques


Question(Abbreviated as Q): Whose serve is the spinniest?

Answer(Abbreviated as A): Ma Lin and Guo Yue.

Li Xiaodong, a Ma Lin supporter, goes: "Ma Lin's is relatively spinnier, and Jike is also pretty spinny. My first reaction was that Ma Lin has the spinniest out of anyone on the team."

Ma Lin himself is humble on that matter: "Pretty spinny as well, everyone's serve is about the same."

Zhang Jike agrees with Li Xiaodong: "Mine is the spinniest among shakehanders, and Ma Lin's among penholders. I'm confident, yeah?"

Wang Liqin picks: "Ma Lin and Chen Qi."

And so everyone settles on: "Ma Lin."


Q: Whose forehand is the most powerful, and whose loop has the most momentum?

A: Strength-wise: Wang Liqin and Feng Yalan.

Accuracy-wise: Ma Lin and Guo Yue.

Still Men's team first, Li Xiaodong answers in a serious tone: "It boils down to Ma Lin and Wang Liqin. Ma Lin's forehand is just too good, which is the type that is good at making attempt, active in initiating, abundant in variation, and fast in speed. Wang Liqin is the type that relies on actual strength. Ma Lin is the world's best at forehand third-ball attack, which "dips(once the ball touches the table)", is good at initiating but so-so in power, so his pace is quick and very active in initiating. Because his power is not big, he has this variance between light and heavy. He is the best technique-wise, and Wang Liqin(Da Li, Big Power) is the best fundamental-wise. I have reflected this clearly to Guoliang that the two best forehands in the team are Ma Lin and Da Li.

Both parties maintain their low-key attitudes.

Ma Lin: "Forehand-wise Wang Liqin has plenty of power and Chen Qi's power is also very big."

Wang Liqin: "Ma Lin's forehand has the best accuracy."

I(Li Xiaodong) remember former world champion Wei Chingkuang once said, he is most afraid of facing Liu Guozheng, implying that Liu Guozheng's forehand has a sound foundation. Zhang Jike agrees: "Liu Guozheng has the world's best forehand."

Phyical instructor of the men's team, Shi Hongfan, interprets with data the question regarding forehand power: "In terms of bench press, Wang Liqin and Zhang Chao has the greatest strength at roughly 106 kg(~234 lb), and Zhang Jike being at 101 kg(~223 lb). They bench press above 100 kg, and so their forehands have greater power."


Q: Whose backhand is the best?

A: Wang Hao and Cao Lisi.

"The king of backhand is Wang Hao among the penholders and Zhang Jike among the shakehanders. Though Ma Long is not the strongest, he is the most versatile and can go on both the offensive and defensive forehand- and backhand-wise. And of course it is not flawless when he is not playing at his best." -- Li Xiaodong

"Zhang Jike and Wang Hao has a good backhand." -- Wang Liqin

Whereas Zhang Jike and Ma Lin picks only: "Wang Hao."


Q: Who has the best touch?

A: Ma Lin and Fan Ying.

Li Xiaodong jokes: "Ma Lin has the best touch hand- and foot-wise!"

Ma Lin LOL: "Good foot touch? Meaning I play football(soccer if you are from America) well? I can't play well at all, but watching football is a different story!"

Zhang Jike's first reaction to hearing touch is Jun Mizutani(woah, that 7-game match back at World Cup 2010 in Magdeburg must still be haunting him. He went with Ma Lin instantly if it has to be from within the team."


Q: Who has the fastest footwork?

A: They are all quick. Among the nominated: Xu Xin, Wang Liqin, Wang Jianjun, Ding Ning and Feng Yalan.

Li Xiaodong: "Far away from the table Xu Xin is the fastest, and close to the table would be Da Li. Their footwork are quite fast. Xu Xin runs fast when he is mid-far from table but not fast close to table. Footwork is a controversial topic as everyone thinks he/she is faster. Xu Xin says once away from table I use the forehand only. Can any of you manage it? Wang Liqin fights back saying at Bremen I slipped, fell over and managed to climb back up to counter loop."

Ma Lin: "Xu Xin is the fastest."

Zhang Jike: "Wang Jianjun is fast. "Belgium national coach Wang Dayong once revealed that former national player Wang Jianjun, who once played for the Belgium club whatever-its-name, in a match against Oh Sang Eun of the Champions League, was so fast that he could only see a pair of red shoes sizzling around.


Q: Who plays the best irregular shot and improvised shot? Who plays the most divine shot?

A: Wang Hao, Ma Long, Guo Yue, Mu Zi, Chang Chenchen and Feng Yalan.

Li Xiaodong: "Wang Hao has many divine shots. You smash him a shot, he can drive it right back at you down-the-line, and this one happens a lot. In terms of improvising, Ma Lin is the best. His improvisation comes from the technique, and Wang Hao's improvisation is from his charisma, which simply amazes you. Ma Lin is the type that has an actually good touch.

And so Li Xiaodong concludes that -- Wang Hao, in terms of charisma and Ma Lin when it comes to improvising at will.

Ma Lin: "I don't play that many. It is very common. Wang Hao and Ma Long play a plenty of divine shots."

Zhang Jike: "Ma Long."


Q: Among the coaches who feeds the most horrifying multi-ball?

A: Liu Guoliang and Ren Guoqiang.

By chance Sichuan head coach Chen Hongyu at Li Xiaodong's office says: "Li Xiaodong has it the most horrifying, so much so that you can hardly sleep at noon(it is a habit in China, to a large extent) once you think of having to multi-ball in the afternoon and night." Li Xiaodong was Chen Hongyu's master back in the days.

Li Xiaodong shakes his head in denial: "That was the old days when I fed multi-ball, and is no good now. Currently Guoliang feeds the most horrifying multiball, especially irregular points where you are on the initiative. Liu Guoliang feeds a lot of aces, and keeps on swaying you. You look like a dumbass when you miss, when in fact you have been conned.(LMAO)

Wang Liqin and Ma Lin concur: "Coach Liu's multiball is no fun to receive, which has a relatively higher quality and has a pretty high quality in every shot. The quality is so much higher than training with single ball, and sometimes (we) fail to follow."

Zhang Jike insists on his own superintendent coach: "Xiao Zhan. His feed is so dazzling."


Contest Two: Physical Strength[/COLOR][/B]

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Q: Who plays football the best?

A: Qiu Yike loves playing the most, and Lei Zhenhua and Wang Jianjun, too. Da Li and Zhang Chao are about the same. Everyone is a bit of a rogue, and Qiu Yike is the best at that, and is especially good at bargaining. -- Shi Hongfan


Q: Who is the best at long-distance running?


A: The kids from second-string team are the best at long-distance running. Lin Gaoyuan, his stamina is quite good. -- Shi Hongfan

In the women's team Li Xiaodan has the best stamina, who finishes 3000 meters under 13m 01s. Second in line is Hou Xiaoxu at 13m 05s. Wen Jia at 13m 08s, and this was from a test in 2009. Guo Yue at 13m 32s. Li Xiaoxia at 14m 32s. As for 10000 meters Chang Chenchen, Li Xiaodan, Wen Jia and Wu Yang are not shabby. -- Chen Zebin


Q: Who performs best at sprinting?

A: Zhang Chao and Zhang Jike are best at sprinting, 100 meters in around 11s. Zhang Chao, Wang Liqin, Wang Jianjun and Zhang Jike get off the mark the quickest at roughly 3s 6. (Zhang Chao used to train in track and field before he picked up table tennis!) -- Shi Hongfan

As 10 meter shuttle run, which a test of agility, sees Liu Shiwen coming out at 10s 97. Squatting, a test for speed-power, shows that Guo Yue and Mu Zi are the quickest, Guo Yue at 10s 87, and Mu Zi at 10s 84. -- Chen Zebin


Q: Who has the best lower-body strength?


A: Wang Hao and Xu Xin has the best lower-body strength. There is this instrument that you pull up while seated with adjustable weights. Wang Hao, Xu Xin, Da Li are quite remarkable, managing over 100 kg. -- Chen Zebin


Feng Yalan and Guo Yan fare better on lower-body strength, reaching 27.5 kg. -- Chen Zebin


对抗三:生活篇
Content Three: Daylifes


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Q: Who has the best singing?

A: Lei Zhenhua and Wang Xuan.

Li Xiaodong: "Lei Zhenhua on the men's side, as far as it goes currently. Though Wang Liqin always gets sent out to sing, for his fame. Lei Zhenhua has a good voice, yet Wang Hao and Wang Liqin get all the chances. Under-appreciated would be the right word here.

Chen Hongyu: "Among the coaches Li Xiaodong is the best. No one has any chances once he sings." At the 2004 National Table Tennis Lunar Festival night, Coach Li performed the song "Santa Lucia" to everyone's astonishment.

Ma Lin: "Lei Zhenhua sings pretty well. I can sing OK I guess. I can sing pretty well after a little drinks."

Zhang Jike and Wang Liqin: "Lei Zhenhua."

Guo Yue, Liu Shiwen and Ding Ning: "Guo Yan, Feng Yalan and Wang Xuan."

Guo Yue adds: "Guo Yan and Feng Yalan sing well, Wang Xuan sings cute. Two styles!"

Li Sun: "Wang Xuan! 'Women are Tigers'!"

A certain year back the national team pulled a little night party after the closed training at Zhengding. Wang Xuan performed a singing while acting, the song 'Women are Tigers' gave acting head coach Cai Zhenhua and officer Wang of the Zhengding base a good laugh.


Q: Who has the best dancing?

A: On the men's side, none. On the women's side, Feng Yalan.

Li Xiaodong: "Ma Long and the likes want to train now."

Ma Long is training for real, and goofs around during physical training.

Li Sun, Liu Shiwen and Ding Ning: "Feng Yalan!" Firmly. (Feng Yalan's street dance is the real deal, full of hip-pop!)


Q: Any collectors on the team? Who has the most collections?

A: Yes and no.

Li Xiaodong: "Yes, a little bit. Xi Minjie used to collect Hetian Jade."

Ma Lin: "Not particularly into collecting. I collect houses."

Zhang Jike: "Wang Hao collects cards, all kinds of cards."

Li Sun, Xiao Weiqiao and the entire women's team: No one is into this hobby.

But when Li Meiduo interviews Guo Yan, she says something about she has quite a large collection(like digital pianos and all kinds of instruments)...


Q: Who is the most proficient at using computers and electronics?

A: Men's team jointly and Fan Ying.

Li Xiaodong: "All of them are not bad, Ma Long seems to be pretty awesome, and Chen Qi is pretty good at anything. I suspect these guys know how to program."

Ma Lin: "Everyone is better than I am. I am illiterate."

Li Sun: "Fan Ying is good. We(coaches) all go to her for help. It used to be Jiang Huajun, and her now."

Liu Shiwen: "Fan Ying! We all say Fan Ying is the customer service depot for the team's iPad, iTouch and iPhone. We go to her for help anytime we run into questions!"


Q: Who is the maddest reader?


A: Me.

Li Xiaodong: "I am the most frenzied."

Ma Lin: "I love reading the most, anything that I come into contact, history from 5000 years back. I am richer in knowledge."

Guess there will just be be one answer if this keeps on -- me.


Q: Who is a foreign language maniac?

A: Wang Liqin and Yao Yan.

Li Xiaodong: "Da Li, he is about the one who is more satisfactory and learns with a serious manner.

Ma Lin: "Not so good. The key is I am not good at speaking Chinese. I feel that since my Chinese is not good, I am not good either at foreign language."

Zhang Jike: "When it comes to foreign language, Wang Liqin yeah."

Li Sun: "Yao Yan. She can speak. She can answer whatever people asks her."

Ren Guoqiang:”Yao Yan not only is good at English, but also Japanese, Korean...!"

Ding Ning: "Yao Yan is good!" Liu Shiwen and Guo Yue concur.


Q: Who is the scholar of the team?

A: Li Xiaodong

Li Xiaodong: "Me? Haha! No way, I am most afraid when people call me a scholar. Scholar has to be a college graduate."

Ma Lin: "It depends. If it is about writing(as in composition) then it has to be Li Xiaodong and if speaking then Liu Guoliang."

Li Sun: "Everyone has talent. If not then how could one make it to the national team?"


Q: Who has the most beautiful writing?

A: Ma Lin.

Li Xiaodong: "No one is particularly good. What could happen if they can write well. Ma Lin's writing is the most attractive and readable. I haven't seen his writing before, but speaking of signatures, I can make out Ma Lin's, and the others' are like scribbling. Secondly the two characters "Ma Lin" shows he is decently skilled, the others' make my hair curl.


Content Four: "Men's team Special Treatments"


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Photo source: Reuters


Questions below are typically Li Xiaodong's own opinions, which serve as a good chance for this scholar to tease the Men's team.


Q: Who is the best(worst) blamer?


Li Xiaodong: Ma Lin is the best blamer who wants anything, and blames constantly when playing games with the second string team, and even to the point of hoping to gain an advantage on rules.


Q: Who is best at boasting/talking big?

Li Xiaodong: Ma Lin also happens to be the boldest. Xu Xin is good at that among the youngsters, but are sometimes too good for their own good, and they do it whoever they play with, and fail to deliver in the end.


Q: Who is the most modest before a match?

Li Xiaodong: Da Li is the most modest, and often thinks too big of his opponents and too small of himself. Same for Ma Long.


Q: Who is the one with eyes bigger than the belly?

Li Xiaodong: Ma Lin is the one. Wang Hao is also pretty greedy. And both of them have to go on a diet to keep up with the games. They used to eat anything in two big plates and ended up as little white rabbit, which can eat only greens, and don't dare think about eating meat at night or during the main course of a meal.


Q: Who is best at maintaining health?

Li Xiaodong: Ma Long is best at that. Four sessions a day. Don't smoke, don't drink, and don't stay up.


Q: Who has the most peculiar taste in the types of music they listen to?

Li Xiaodong: The typical team members all listen to pop songs. Somehow Wang Hao is now close to my style, who listens to acoustics. The other day he let me have a taste of it, all of them were acoustics with a bit of pop.


Q: Who is the wildest? Who has the most guts?

Li Xiaodong: Zhang Jike has to be. The harder it is to win the darer he fights, and even goes beyond what is necessary. At the Moscow WTTC Men's team final against Suss, he went overboard, making countless mistakes, and thank god in the end he found the pace. He is of the gutsy type. Wang Hao is also gutsy, though he failed to be at the two most important events('04 and '08 Olympics.) Ma Lin's guts is not big. He is of the self-taught type. Quite a bit of his techniques are nurtured rather. Xu Xin is gutsy and rebellious. At the "Penhold vs Shakehand Battle" early 2010 in Sichuan, Xu Xin and Zhang Jike played in a two-person comic talk show. In the show there was a line that goes "whether it be Shakehand or Penhold one has to get by us", when I wrote the script I said they have gone too far with the bluff and after the show to my surprise, the two of them made it at the first two stages of the Moscow Express trials. A bluff come true.
(About Zhang Jike, right after winning the WTTC 2011 in Rotterdam, Liu Guoliang in an interview describes him as a Tibetan Mastiff in light of his ferocious nature and how he ripped apart his jersey.)
Right after this, he gets his own channel on the youku site.


Q: Who is the most parsimonious?

Li Xiaodong: Everyone is quite a meanie. Guoliang is at the top. He doesn't want to let go of even one single championship title to others.

Awesome interview!! What were your best quotes from players? My personal favourite was from Ma Lin. "Not particularly into collecting. I collect houses."

---Oh yeah! Please share this thread with your friends on facebook using the link to the top of the article---
 
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@MrRothhaendle
True, they are rich.. Since TT is the no.1 sport in China, the top players must be well-funded (well, the word 'well' is actually underrating how they fund the top players).
Another reason why Ma collect houses is maybe because thats one of the Chinese dream (according to my tour guide)..

Too bad Ma could use the house but he cant own the house (in China you have the right to use but the nation have the right to own)
Correct me if Im wrong :)
 
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says Spin and more spin.
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"Q: Who is the most modest before a match?

Li Xiaodong: Da Li is the most modest, and often thinks too big of his opponents and too small of himself. Same for Ma Long."

"Q: Who is the wildest? Who has the most guts?

Li Xiaodong: Zhang Jike has to be. The harder it is to win the darer he fights, and even goes beyond what is necessary."

:)
 
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