I don't see trolling. Categorical judgments - yes, trolling - no
There is a lot that can be said here, but the disclaimer that past performance is no guarantee of future results applies here. Moreover, one of the things that is well known in table tennis amongst experienced coaches who have developed young children and why the Chinese have traditionally been hesitant to allow their younger talents to have international exposure, is that puberty is a critical time in developing a player's game, the physical changes can ruin what worked for a player prior so the career trajectory for a player is easier to discuss when you reference their games after the age of 16/17 for men. The issue in Harimoto's case is that no one was even doing what he was doing at 12‐14 so it is easy to just assume this never applied to him.
I agree with the caveat that writing off a 20 year old when even the greatest player of all time won his first world title at the age of 27 is a bit much. That said Ma Long and Fan Zhendong and other members of these great Chinese generation have had a consistency of good results not known in TT history (Waldner did not have anything like Ma Long's tour dominance). It is why I wonder sometimes whether these unrealistic expectations are tied more to just a naive view of what it takes to be as dominant as the CNT are or whether we are just dealing with one guy who can't see what most players who train at his level can see easily - that Harimoto wasn't a complete player and that he has to become a more complete player to approach his peak and who knows how that will end up, because the competition invest a lot of time into probing your every weakness.
Stop being such a hater. Jesus man, it's really getting old.
Im really not a hater. I was a fan of his and hoping for his achievements. I was living in Japan when he first brokeout. Every week i watched the endless documentaries and tv specials about his life and training and how he was the "chosen one"
We got a great match and event with compelling narratives on both the Boll side and Harimoto side. Boll coming back from injuries and unexpectedly wrecking good players in straight sets. Harimoto looking to play a different style with a very aggressive FH. And all you can think of is to talk about how Harimoto is such a loser. It's just a bad look man.
This was my favorite Boll match. Making a top 10 player look like he just didn't belong on the table.
Tbh, I don't see anyone here hyping up Harimoto and calling him the chosen one here in this forum. So we don't need to correct any misguided Harimoto lovers as far as I know. If you do encounter one, I can assure you that most people commenting in this thread (including me) will back you up in bringing them back to reality.
Harimoto almost won. He had leads in the sixth (9-5) and the 7th (7-5). Boll went on runs in both games to take it all. Togami is a better athlete but again looking at who Boll beat this week (Jang, Noshad, Lee Sang Su, Lin Yun Ju, Harimoto), there is no guarantee that Togami would have had better luck. Boll played a damn good tournament.
Yes, it's really surprising how Lin Yun Ju's FH even seemed to be weaker than Boll's. There's something about his positioning which seemed weird in the match and Boll seemed to be able to exploit by just repeatedly sending these spinny balls to his FH.
Not sure. Mitzutani seemed to be able to carry a mixed double's pair. Harimoto paired with Hayata, it seems like Hayata has been carrying the pair. That is somewhat weird. The male player should be stronger and open the attacks more. But Harimoto's game is based on countering.
