Li Sun: It's Time to Shift Our Thinking of Ito

[zeio]

And forehead?

Ito's nicknames in China happen to be "big forehead," "bighead Ito," "bighead Mima."

 

[ttmonster]

May be this is a fallout of social media or may be its a culture ... but its time people stop ascribing nicknames based on physical characteristics ... its quite sickening and offending to the individual to hear FZD called as a fatty , Liang Jinkun called a big fatty and now Mima Ito being called this ... they are defined by their skills and now how they look

Ito's nicknames in China happen to be "big forehead," "bighead Ito," "bighead Mima."

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

May be this is a fallout of social media or may be its a culture ... but its time people stop ascribing nicknames based on physical characteristics ... its quite sickening and offending to the individual to hear FZD called as a fatty , Liang Jinkun called a big fatty and now Mima Ito being called this ... they are defined by their skills and now how they look

its not as bad as it sounds in english
I have a friend who has a very big head, and I asked him when I first met him what is his name, he said you can just call me big head....
lots of people have nicknames and its not offensive as in the way you are describing in english

 

[langel]

Ito's nicknames in China happen to be "big forehead," "bighead Ito," "bighead Mima."

Behind those nicks hides the fear of the "CNT's big nightmare", now she is the "boogeygirl" for all of them.
Many long-night training sessions are comming to fight the fear.

 

[ttmonster]

Thank you Tony for the context, but thats exactly what I was trying to say ... just because its become normalized over a period of time does not make it right, you know what I mean ...

its not as bad as it sounds in english
I have a friend who has a very big head, and I asked him when I first met him what is his name, he said you can just call me big head....
lots of people have nicknames and its not offensive as in the way you are describing in english

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Thank you Tony for the context, but thats exactly what I was trying to say ... just because its become normalized over a period of time does not make it right, you know what I mean ...

I know what you mean because I live in the west so I know you are just chasing something that you think is serious, but it is not
lots of chinese people have nicknames and a big portion of them are called by they nicknames and not given name
some times the nick name doesn't even represent a proper word

heck, even your western sports stars have nicknames, I don't see westerners saying that is wrong?

 

[Persistence TT]

I am just happy D-Queen did not pull out her injury drama like she did against LSW .. I guess it was just an open .. so she did not prepare her lines ..

well, one thing that somehow "Annoys" me about ding ning is that basicaly LSW threw that match away, it seem like ding ning actually won it. same case was in rio, LXX attacked carelessly and made just too many misses on relatively easy shots. DN probably the most consistent woman ever though, she keeps putting the ball back

 

[Free bird]

Ito Mima has a much more highbrow nickname, “the queen”, on Chinese tt forums.
Mima sent shivers down the Chinese TT establishment’s spine, no question about it. LGL has to feel lucky that this is happening now rather than two years later.

 

[Loopadoop]

Mima Ito's short pips - demo - red rubber

https://youtu.be/krTbdwXnjJw

 

[ttpshot]

I love how Ito is pretty much ignoring Japanese development system (not enrolling in Elite Academy and T league etc) but still performs the best. Haven't seen women's CNT beaten by non-Chinese consistantly since '91, exciting time indeed.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

I love how Ito is pretty much ignoring Japanese development system (not enrolling in Elite Academy and T league etc) but still performs the best. Haven't seen women's CNT beaten by non-Chinese consistantly since '91, exciting time indeed.

well Miu HIRANO beat 3 top Chinese players as well in the Asian Champs 2017.
DING / LIU are starting to get older as well, so slightly getting less faster. Not a lot, but at this level, very tiny things make a lot of difference. Their game also seems a bit struggling against the new styles, including the more aggressive men-like style of their younger teammates like WANG Manyu.

Tokyo 2020 is still 18months away. DING Ning should still be lined up as the defending champ barring injuries, just as was the case for ZJK, but the second slot is very much open. The one Chinese player who can do best against ITO will have a lot for her.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Clearly the Japanese investment of millions of dollars per athlete is paying off.
You guys are right, since when were the top CNT womens so vulnerable.
back then in the era of Deng Ya Ping, Wang Nan, Zhang Yining, these top players will loose one odd here and there to non chinese players
but wow, now your top CNT can loose on the trott... talking about the coaching corner not able to let the player adapt in time - 3 times in a row for the 2nd tournament in a very short time frame from 2 different Japanese players

Ito and Hirano is still young, Tokyo 2020 seems to favour them a bit more.

I don't think Ding Ning will make Tokyo unless she still has it next year, i think it could be a fight of 2 spots between the younger players

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

Clearly the Japanese investment of millions of dollars per athlete is paying off.
You guys are right, since when were the top CNT womens so vulnerable.
back then in the era of Deng Ya Ping, Wang Nan, Zhang Yining, these top players will loose one odd here and there to non chinese players
but wow, now your top CNT can loose on the trott... talking about the coaching corner not able to let the player adapt in time - 3 times in a row for the 2nd tournament in a very short time frame from 2 different Japanese players

Ito and Hirano is still young, Tokyo 2020 seems to favour them a bit more.

I don't think Ding Ning will make Tokyo unless she still has it next year, i think it could be a fight of 2 spots between the younger players

its about politics and sponsors, ZJK wasn't really 100% fit for RIO still he took the spot, [and made it to the finals but took "only" an equally Samsonov in semis], it was even worse for WTTC in 2017 but at least there were 4 other spots.

So if she stays at the current level of performance, history suggests Ding Ning would defend her title.

 

[ttpshot]

well Miu HIRANO beat 3 top Chinese players as well in the Asian Champs 2017.
DING / LIU are starting to get older as well, so slightly getting less faster. Not a lot, but at this level, very tiny things make a lot of difference. Their game also seems a bit struggling against the new styles, including the more aggressive men-like style of their younger teammates like WANG Manyu.

Tokyo 2020 is still 18months away. DING Ning should still be lined up as the defending champ barring injuries, just as was the case for ZJK, but the second slot is very much open. The one Chinese player who can do best against ITO will have a lot for her.

Yes, I believe in Hirano too, but Ito has done it in Japan Open this year as well as WTTC finals.
I always regarded Ito as Fukuhara 2.0 but never expected her to do this well.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

its about politics and sponsors, ZJK wasn't really 100% fit for RIO still he took the spot, [and made it to the finals but took "only" an equally Samsonov in semis], it was even worse for WTTC in 2017 but at least there were 4 other spots.

So if she stays at the current level of performance, history suggests Ding Ning would defend her title.

It will be a different ball game, as the womens team has never been so vunerable.
you have 2 kids that on a given day can take out the best 3 Chinese players on a trot

DN and LSW has aged, they need to play better in a years time to match up and coming others from China

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Yes, I believe in Hirano too, but Ito has done it in Japan Open this year as well as WTTC finals.
I always regarded Ito as Fukuhara 2.0 but never expected her to do this well.

I felt Hirano was more complete that Ito
Ito surprised me too this time round

 

[ttpshot]

I felt Hirano was more complete that Ito
Ito surprised me too this time round

I'm with you there. Hirano dominated CNT with better loops, serves and recieves I thought she'd perform consistantly against top players but how wrong I was. It forced me to respect CNT more as staying at the top is a lot harder than you think.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

Not sure its the right reason, but I've read or heard somewhere that the main tactical change against Hirano was to push long with heavy backspin and she is struggling with that: consistency down on those balls or easy balls to counter from this kind of play. She has yet to found the answer but if she does her natural strengths are not gone, so the CNT is still afraid of her I believe.
Hirano is also going through a slump and has lost her confidence. That could change again sometime in the future. I think she'll be back up in the rankings, give her some more time to work on her weaknesses.

 

[Loopadoop]

Last week they tried to jam Ito deep with balls. She handled those very well even in crucial situations.

 

[yogi_bear]

I do not think the younger cnt players can match ito or hirano. We have to accept the fact that dn and lsw are already aging.