If you are the CNT boss, what would you do?

[TimoGnoll]

I must say I do not envy CNT-Mens team. For years European players + rest of the world got a lot of reps against Ma Long and Fan Zhendong, people adapted to this very peak of Chinese TT and even the industry followed with Hybrid rubbers. There are multiple playstyles developed to counter Chinese way of playing. Look people like Truls, Calderano, Lebruns etc. I think since XU XIN every CNT player plays very similiar, so it is not anything new for the opposition. They had to introduce a lot of fresh faces recently and it is almost impossible to be next Ma Long or Zhendong. These people they posses something that others don't. I don't count Chuqin because he was around earlier, but his only support is Shidong. As much as I adore Liang Jinkun for his personality and highlights ;] I don't see him reaching top3. Xiang Peng seems like a very good prospect, but needs time. Lin Gaoyan is nowhere to be seen. The insane pressure also doesn't help achieving results. I feel like they may not bounce back from this, especially when the others feel the blood in the water.
Back to the topic - my solution would be:
-Let players be more loose with their game and outside the game.
-Allow to introduce some more "cheese" and flair into their game.
-Add mental coaches, because pressure is insane atm.
-Allow different rubbers to be used? Because I feel like they are forced to play with DHS.
-Less reps, shorter training, but more breakdown of how International players play.

 

[PoppaChubby]

I must say I do not envy CNT-Mens team. For years European players + rest of the world got a lot of reps against Ma Long and Fan Zhendong, people adapted to this very peak of Chinese TT and even the industry followed with Hybrid rubbers. There are multiple playstyles developed to counter Chinese way of playing. Look people like Truls, Calderano, Lebruns etc. I think since XU XIN every CNT player plays very similiar, so it is not anything new for the opposition. They had to introduce a lot of fresh faces recently and it is almost impossible to be next Ma Long or Zhendong. These people they posses something that others don't. I don't count Chuqin because he was around earlier, but his only support is Shidong. As much as I adore Liang Jinkun for his personality and highlights ;] I don't see him reaching top3. Xiang Peng seems like a very good prospect, but needs time. Lin Gaoyan is nowhere to be seen. The insane pressure also doesn't help achieving results. I feel like they may not bounce back from this, especially when the others feel the blood in the water.
Back to the topic - my solution would be:
-Let players be more loose with their game and outside the game.
-Allow to introduce some more "cheese" and flair into their game.
-Add mental coaches, because pressure is insane atm.
-Allow different rubbers to be used? Because I feel like they are forced to play with DHS.
-Less reps, shorter training, but more breakdown of how International players play.

This will never happen, this is what europeans do because they think TT different, they think tactics, variations in speed, spins and placement, like Alexis Lebrun does, and also Simon Gauzy. The Asian are more into powerplay, counter topspins duel, they can't handle snakes for example, specially Lin Gaoyuan and FZD couldn't too.

Alexis and Simon have caused many troubles even to Fan Zhendong with those kind of tactics, and LJK only survived to Simon's french flair, he really took some scars. The only one that is more previsible is Felix, cos' he's a Wang Hao clone, Wang Hao being the head coach it's easier for WCQ. But still, LSD makes an inferiority complex vs Felix.

 

[PoppaChubby]

Before that, KOR is their biggest problem. Felix has lost to them left, right and center in 2025. FRA will break down if Felix is broken through like Moregard, as Alexis has a very poor record in MT and Gauzy is pretty much stuck in 3rd singles because of that.

Felix had problems this season to adapt to his transforming body, he said after France's ETTTC win that he came to play more mid distance like he did vs LSD and WCQ the last 2 times they met. That's why he also lost some games here and there vs meant to be weaker players, like Eddy last sunday in the Final. He will now focus on coming back nearer the table, then it will be game over again for anyone, WCQ excepted of course.

 

[Shine]

This will never happen, this is what europeans do because they think TT different, they think tactics, variations in speed, spins and placement, like Alexis Lebrun does, and also Simon Gauzy. The Asian are more into powerplay, counter topspins duel, they can't handle snakes for example, specially Lin Gaoyuan and FZD couldn't too.

Alexis and Simon have caused many troubles even to Fan Zhendong with those kind of tactics, and LJK only survived to Simon's french flair, he really took some scars. The only one that is more previsible is Felix, cos' he's a Wang Hao clone, Wang Hao being the head coach it's easier for WCQ. But still, LSD makes an inferiority complex vs Felix.

The Asians have selected for a style that wins.
Noticed how it's the guy with less flair among France top 3 leading the pack. It's not rocket science.

 

[zeio]

WTT CS Montpellier 2025
MS R16
JWJ 3-2 LYJ (8) (-2, 10, -8, 6, 6)
Coton (WC) 2-3 LYJ (8) (-4, 8, 9, -9, -4)

WS R32
CIC 0-3 Polcanova (-9, -9, -9)

2024/10/30

Exactly 11 months later, things are looking rather grim...

LYJ is losing where he didn't before, let alone the Stone-Shattering Plan that is not going anywhere...
KCJ looks set to join the team tryout...
Feng Yi-Hsin traded his appendix for 2 points at World University Games but still not enough in WTT events...

CIC is making visits to the hospital again...
Any other women usable?

China Smash 2025
MS R32
Uda 3-2 LYJ (11) (9, 6, -8, -10, 8)

Year	EventName	Stage	Sub-Event	Round	Player A	Player B	Games	Result	Winner
2024	WTT Star Contender Bangkok 2024	Main Draw	MS	QuarterFinal	LIN Yun-Ju (TPE)	UDA Yukiya (JPN)	11:6 14:12 11:3	3 - 0	LIN Yun-Ju
2023	WTT Star Contender Goa 2023	Main Draw	MS	R16	LIN Yun-Ju (TPE)	UDA Yukiya (JPN)	11:4 11:6 11:8	3 - 0	LIN Yun-Ju
2022	WTT Contender Zagreb 2022	Main Draw	MS	R16	LIN Yun-Ju (TPE)	UDA Yukiya (JPN)	15:13 8:11 11:7 11:7	3 - 1	LIN Yun-Ju
2017	Asian Junior & Cadet Championships Asan 2017	Main Draw	JBT		LIN Yun-Ju (TPE)	UDA Yukiya (JPN)	11:2 11:7 11:7	3 - 0	LIN Yun-Ju
2016	ITTF Junior Circuit Golden Hong Kong Junior and Cadet Open Hong Kong 2016	Main Draw	JBS	R16	LIN Yun-Ju (TPE)	UDA Yukiya (JPN)	11:7 11:9 10:12 11:9 11:4	4 - 1	LIN Yun-Ju
2016	ITTF Junior Circuit Golden Hong Kong Junior and Cadet Open Hong Kong 2016	Main Draw	JBT		LIN Yun-Ju (TPE)	UDA Yukiya (JPN)	11:1 9:11 7:11 13:11 15:13	3 - 2	LIN Yun-Ju
2014	ITTF Junior Circuit Premium Chinese Taipei Junior and Cadet Open Taipei 2014	Main Draw	CBS	SemiFinal	LIN Yun-Ju (TPE)	UDA Yukiya (JPN)	11:8 11:9 11:4	3 - 0	LIN Yun-Ju
2014	ITTF Junior Circuit Premium Hong Kong Junior and Cadet Open Hong Kong 2014	Main Draw	CBT		LIN Yun-Ju (TPE)	UDA Yukiya (JPN)	13:11 11:8 11:8	3 - 0	LIN Yun-Ju
2014	ITTF Junior Circuit Premium Korea Junior and Cadet Open Yeosu 2014	Qualification	CBS		LIN Yun-Ju (TPE)	UDA Yukiya (JPN)	11:6 9:11 10:12 11:4 10:12	2 - 3	UDA Yukiya

Year	EventName	Stage	Sub-Event	Round	Player A	Player B	Games	Result	Winner
2025	Europe Smash - Sweden 2025	Main Draw	MS	R32	LIN Yun-Ju (TPE)	TOGAMI Shunsuke (JPN)	6:11 5:11 10:12	0 - 3	TOGAMI Shunsuke
2023	ITTF-ATTU Asian Championships Pyeong Chang 2023	Main Draw	MS	R16	LIN Yun-Ju (TPE)	TOGAMI Shunsuke (JPN)	11:1 11:4 11:9	3 - 0	LIN Yun-Ju
2023	WTT Champions Macao 2023	Main Draw	MS	R32	LIN Yun-Ju (TPE)	TOGAMI Shunsuke (JPN)	11:9 10:12 7:11 11:9 11:4	3 - 2	LIN Yun-Ju

《WTT25:中國大滿貫》世界球王更替的一年之後，林昀儒領軍年輕世代重返北京出征 (<WTT25: China Grand Slam> A year after the world champion changed hands, Lin Yun-ju leads the younger generation back to Beijing for the competition)
https://www.sportsv.net/articles/122489

 

[passifid]

The Asians have selected for a style that wins.
Noticed how it's the guy with less flair among France top 3 leading the pack. It's not rocket science.

Is this a joke?
The player with the best H2H against chinese is Alexis not Felix. Further to this the current olympic silver medalist is the european with the second most flair (after gauzy ofc).

The winner is the one who uses their skills to make the opponant engage in rallies that end with their loss. No more no less. Sometimes it's the insurmountable skill of a robotic kill machine and other times it is a player who you cannot stop their creative flow.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Is this a joke?
The player with the best H2H against chinese is Alexis not Felix. Further to this the current olympic silver medalist is the european with the second most flair (after gauzy ofc).

The winner is the one who uses their skills to make the opponant engage in rallies that end with their loss. No more no less. Sometimes it's the insurmountable skill of a robotic kill machine and other times it is a player who you cannot stop their creative flow.

when CNT topic is bought out, you can see which 2 forum members loves to derail it and make it confusing.

zeio is on a mission to talk about other countries, yet he is numb about CNT players failing in the first round in the on going champions.

Shine, i'm not sure what he is on about.

 

[zeio]

CTTA put the talent survey out to tender on 10/28.

中国乒乓球协会关于公开征集竞技体育后备人才调研合作单位的公告
https://www.ctta.cn/xhgg/qttz/2025/1028/669077.html

如何看待中国乒协公开征集后备人才调研？
https://www.zhihu.com/question/1966886908807350013

乒协这是啥意思呢，调研啥呢
https://tieba.baidu.com/p/10168415919
呐尼兜 21-25年，这个时间段很有意思
IP属地:云南来自Android客户端36楼2025-10-29 19:51收起回复
(From '21 to '25. The period is quite interesting)
lianerawy: 回复 贴吧用户_GyGAeN3 :主要还是对141任期人才的摸底吧
2025-10-30 09:06回复
(It's mainly about assessing the talent pool during LGL's term)
贴吧用户_GyGAeN3: 回复 lianerawy :说了奥运梯队建设，奥运就那两三个名额，有什么好人才摸底的，人才摸底看比赛成绩表一拉就出来了，就冲着21到25年只强捧一个人上奥运合理不
2025-10-30 09:55回复
(As stated, the construction of the Olympic echelon, but there are only two or three spots for the Olympics. What's the point of identifying good talent? You can easily find them by looking at competition results. It's clearly about whether it was reasonable to forcibly push only one person [put all your eggs in one basket] to the Olympics between 2021 and 2025?)

 

[Shine]

Is this a joke?
The player with the best H2H against chinese is Alexis not Felix. Further to this the current olympic silver medalist is the european with the second most flair (after gauzy ofc).

The winner is the one who uses their skills to make the opponant engage in rallies that end with their loss. No more no less. Sometimes it's the insurmountable skill of a robotic kill machine and other times it is a player who you cannot stop their creative flow.

Who cares about best h2h against Chinese? Franziska has a good head to head against Chinese too, What difference has that brought to his game against the rest of the world ?
When I say the player leading the pack, I mean the top player in the team based on performances and world ranking, that's Felix.
The glitter of Alexis' so called "best h2h" is basically a win against Fan and Liang. He's met Wang only once if I remember correctly and lost. Hopefully his "skills" show up when it counts so he can confront WCQ more, and then let's see how that "best h2h" looks like.

 

[Shine]

when CNT topic is bought out, you can see which 2 forum members loves to derail it and make it confusing.

zeio is on a mission to talk about other countries, yet he is numb about CNT players failing in the first round in the on going champions.

Shine, i'm not sure what he is on about.

I'm not supposed to dance to your talking points lao Tony. This is an open space for discussion.

 

[zeio]

I'm not supposed to dance to your talking points lao Tony. This is an open space for discussion.

It puzzles me why someone would present them as a question asking others for counterpoints...

 

[zeio]

Who cares about best h2h against Chinese? Franziska has a good head to head against Chinese too, What difference has that brought to his game against the rest of the world ?
When I say the player leading the pack, I mean the top player in the team based on performances and world ranking, that's Felix.
The glitter of Alexis' so called "best h2h" is basically a win against Fan and Liang. He's met Wang only once if I remember correctly and lost. Hopefully his "skills" show up when it counts so he can confront WCQ more, and then let's see how that "best h2h" looks like.

Alexis (like Franziska) wasn't even on the list of MS players by strength for consideration.

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/topics/wtt-finals-fukuoka-2024-11-20-24.35221/post-498423

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

FZD is still one of the best players in China.
he just beat WCQ 4-2 in the SF of the Chinese national games.

 

[IB66]

FZD is still one of the best players in China.
he just beat WCQ 4-2 in the SF of the Chinese national games.

I watched Yuan Licen v LSD, LSD won 4-1.
What surprised me was what appeared to be lack of spectators, lack of noise etc especially for a semi final match.
I haven’t been following these games, so maybe the amount of spectators was much higher for the earlier rounds?

This raises another question - is table tennis losing its popularity in China compared to 10yrs/20yrs ago?
This could have a knock on effect with the amount of talent coming through and therefore choice and standard of players available.

Perhaps this and the fact that other countries are producing a higher standard of opponents is making things look slightly worse from the Chinese perspective. I say slightly worse because they still appear to be pretty dominant overall.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

I would put Ma Long back in the team

 

[IB66]

I would put Ma Long back in the team

But does ML want to be back in the CNT? And can his body take the punishment?

 

[IB66]

Esn been around since 1990s
I wonder what is the first hybrid out there.
Butterfly had a few when I was a kid
Tackifire was an improved version to some other model

Tackiness D & C being the earlier rubbers that had some tackiness from BTY

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

I watched Yuan Licen v LSD, LSD won 4-1.
What surprised me was what appeared to be lack of spectators, lack of noise etc especially for a semi final match.
I haven’t been following these games, so maybe the amount of spectators was much higher for the earlier rounds?

This raises another question - is table tennis losing its popularity in China compared to 10yrs/20yrs ago?
This could have a knock on effect with the amount of talent coming through and therefore choice and standard of players available.

Perhaps this and the fact that other countries are producing a higher standard of opponents is making things look slightly worse from the Chinese perspective. I say slightly worse because they still appear to be pretty dominant overall.

spectatorship in China is loosing grounds, that is a certain.
a chinese coach told me, after arrival back from my French trip, so that is about 10 days ago,

I was talking about Pro A and how a match against the Lebruns, can the host club make a good 5 digit income from ticket sales.

The chinese super league, we see it is as full, but he said, the truth is, about 2/3 of the tickets were given away for free.
he said, if they didn't do that, they won't be able to fill the stadium.

We then talked about that it is fan chasing spectators now, and if it isn't your fan playing, there is no incentive to be there to watch others. and the Chinese coach said the European club model where it is "club fans", where it could be few generations supporting the club, is something really special.

I know in the older ITTF days, the local organizing committee would bus in soldiers or school kids (in uniform) to fill those ITTF stadiums, but those stadiums are way bigger than WTT one's today.

 

[PoppaChubby]

spectatorship in China is loosing grounds, that is a certain.
a chinese coach told me, after arrival back from my French trip, so that is about 10 days ago,

I was talking about Pro A and how a match against the Lebruns, can the host club make a good 5 digit income from ticket sales.

The chinese super league, we see it is as full, but he said, the truth is, about 2/3 of the tickets were given away for free.
he said, if they didn't do that, they won't be able to fill the stadium.

We then talked about that it is fan chasing spectators now, and if it isn't your fan playing, there is no incentive to be there to watch others. and the Chinese coach said the European club model where it is "club fans", where it could be few generations supporting the club, is something really special.

I know in the older ITTF days, the local organizing committee would bus in soldiers or school kids (in uniform) to fill those ITTF stadiums, but those stadiums are way bigger than WTT one's today.

Since ages, and starting in its history mainly in the darkness of its Middle Age with the Inquisition blocking any progress, cities in the same country fighting against each others in support of the House of king/Queen they feel was more legit than the other. Europe has always been like that: brutal, violent, live or die was the motto.

It was litteraly Game Of Thrones, and it was THAT brutal, THAT violent.

Duels were created to avoid civil wars, but it mostly always resulted in civil wars though. The Last duel depicts a true story of the last judiciary duel.

It translated into sports for many reasons: England have invented many of todays sports and some of those were brutal, like rugby, and americans from british descent like Paul Naismith invented basketball, that can also be a brutal and violent sport that is mainly based on dominating your opponent by size and also by force.

There were many battles between cities of the same country in the Middle Ages, in France for example there were conflicts between the House of Valois, The House of Orléans ally of the House of Armagnac, and the House of Bourgogne that was an ally of the british House of Lancaster. Name it as it is: civil war, war of thrones.

It's been like that everywhere in Europe, and it's still remaining: the crunch between France and England in rugby because of the old 100 years War. Those countries are allies since only WWI, the US and France have been allies since way before that. The civil wars in Yugoslavia also.

If you add to history a league system with relegations and promotions, there's way more spice to it: live or die remains the motto. But when you are relegated to the inferior level league, you can still be promoted the year after if you win that championship, and then you can get your revenge, we know many examples of that, rivalries between football clubs in England for example, or between european clubs. That went a bit too far with the Liverpool's hooligans in the Heysel Stadium disaster in Brussels in 1985.

The tiniest area where you feel you belong to being your own town, village, city, sports in Europe became a challenge between villages, towns or cities: PSG/OM, Real Madrid/FC Barcelona clasico, or even only between neighborhood of the same city: Panathinaikos vs Olympiacos, both in Athens. And when you look back to the Greek Antiquity, it was like that: neighborhood and cities fighting against each others because of their allegiance to Houses.

That's why there are many different generations filled in the same arena or stadium supporting their club's team.

It's something that creates that feeling of belonging, a feeling that does not exists in leagues with no relegations/promotions or franchises created artificially in the NBA for example: Seattle Supersonics disappearing to become OKC, Oklahoma City Thunder: how can you feel that you belong to a team that got out of your city to be named differently in another one thousands of kilometers away ? impossible.

The Chinese games or CSL are like the NBA: franchise are created and players never belong to the same team the year after. You don't see that in Borussia Dusseldorf, with Timo for example that always played there. You don't see that in Bruille where the Coton bros. will always belong too, or Montpellier with the Lebruns. It's more than being french: it's a city you belong to, when foreign players go to the Montpellier WTT Champions, they don't face France only, they face the ANMTT "Alliance Nimes Montpellier", an alliance between 2 cities in the south of France. That's why it's that hot in the arena.

 

[IB66]

spectatorship in China is loosing grounds, that is a certain.
a chinese coach told me, after arrival back from my French trip, so that is about 10 days ago,

I was talking about Pro A and how a match against the Lebruns, can the host club make a good 5 digit income from ticket sales.

The chinese super league, we see it is as full, but he said, the truth is, about 2/3 of the tickets were given away for free.
he said, if they didn't do that, they won't be able to fill the stadium.

We then talked about that it is fan chasing spectators now, and if it isn't your fan playing, there is no incentive to be there to watch others. and the Chinese coach said the European club model where it is "club fans", where it could be few generations supporting the club, is something really special.

I know in the older ITTF days, the local organizing committee would bus in soldiers or school kids (in uniform) to fill those ITTF stadiums, but those stadiums are way bigger than WTT one's today.

I also think that since China ‘opened its doors’ to players and coaches from other countries alongside the modern technology / media available today, coupled with the amount of tournaments - both in regard to playing the Chinese players more (and the detrimental physical impact on players) has increased other countries abilities to learn coaching methods, analyse match play and technique and increase their players performance levels and therefore wins against Chinese players.

What would I do if I was CNT manager -

well I wouldn’t take on the role!!!

Being captain of a local league team (not club, just running a team for the club) is stressful enough!! Players availability, time keeping, their own management abilities can be an issue!!
This week we played a match, which was due to start at 7.45, by 7.50 I was the only player in my team there!! I chased up to see where they were - no answer.
I had to play 1st even though I’m the weakest player. I started playing and couldn’t concentrate - my mind was thinking where the hell are they!!! They arrived at the end of the 3rd game - I lost easily, this set my mental state for the rest of the match!!!