Liam Pitchford distressingly thin

[Vega]

Oh, gosh. It is hard to say without seeing him in person and actually knowing him for a year or so, so that you can tell if he has really lost a dramatic amount of weight and/or looks unhealthy or if it is just him. We all weigh different amounts at different times of day. After 3 or 4 hours of matches you might actually be 3-8 pounds lighter depending on if you lost a lot of water and burned a lot of calories and did not replenish during the tournament. But that would just mean you need to drink and eat after the tournament. I know many athletes try to replenish during a tournament between events, but you cannot always do it fully. So, without really knowing him, it is hard to say if it is normal for him or if he has lost to much weight for real, or if he has even lost any weight. Pictures, or seeing someone from far away do not tell the whole story.

For sure you're right, I dont know him personally.. But I was right beside him (and not after a long tournament but during warmup before the match) and my reactin and the one of several people aside was that he looks really really skinny.. I've not seen him before so I guess he has always been like this and it's just his body style but if you just see him you cant get around thinking that it's perhaps a few kilos too less..

 

[scylla24]

he doesn't look too bad to me, at least from the picture. Like someone said earlier, being thin is very advantageous in table tennis. You can change directions and move more quickly. I remember in the Xu Xin reportage video XX's coach one portion talks about how XX is way too fat and needs to be like 10+ pounds thinner, which from a normal person's perspective seems a bit strange since XX is already pretty thin looking, especially for his height, but in table tennis terms, apparently his coach still preferred for him to lose some weight. The actual upper body strength required for table tennis isn't that great, since its more about timing and position when you hit the ball. You legs are the only portion of your body that benefits a great deal from having a good deal of muscle. ZJK for example, has a pretty thin upper body, but insanely huge thighs....

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

For sure you're right, I dont know him personally.. But I was right beside him (and not after a long tournament but during warmup before the match) and my reactin and the one of several people aside was that he looks really really skinny.. I've not seen him before so I guess he has always been like this and it's just his body style but if you just see him you cant get around thinking that it's perhaps a few kilos too less..

This is what I would say. Some people are naturally really thin and have a high metabolism and have trouble gaining weight. For an athlete that has to do the training it would take to get to Liam's level, he would be in serious trouble if he was not trying his best to satisfy his nutritional needs. The training regimen required to get to the level Liam is at demands him to burn a huge number of calories. It also requires vitamins, minerals, certain specific amino acids, the right amount of carbs, the right amount of protein and the right amount of essential fatty acids and the right amount of fluid replacement for what he loses during training and match play. I am sure that part of his training regimen entails his getting that nutrition his body needs in order to keep up with his training.

With someone who starts out on the ultra-thin side like Liam, it is probably more important to keep that side of things in mind than for most. He has always been quite thin. That is sort of how he is. But if he was purposely trying to lose weight and not getting the right nutrition, his performance would drop considerably and there is no way he could keep up with his training or play at the level he does play at. So lets hope it is just that his metabolism is so high that it is hard for him to keep on the pounds with all that his training regimen involves. If that is his natural metabolism added to all those footwork and multiball drills, then he just needs to keep trying to give his body as much nutrition as he can. If he is starving himself because he wants to look MORE like Twiggy


then England will lose a great prospect until he gets back on a useful nutritional program.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

In more simple terms, Liam might be fine just how he is. But of course, only he and his coaches would really know.