Classic Matches

[Metaxa]

Table tennis is therefore one of the few sports in which the ‘winner’ cheers exuberantly when their opponent misses a ball.

 

[J-fed]

Table tennis is therefore one of the few sports in which the ‘winner’ cheers exuberantly when their opponent misses a ball.

This was completely unethical and against etiquette when I was a kid. When did this change?

 

[Amaken23]

Along with Aleksandar Karakasevic, Desmond Douglas and Oh Sang Eun, those 2 are what I modeled my more all-round/controlled attacker left handed game after
Love the old, back from the table exchanges....those big movements make it looks far better on TV.

 

[J-fed]

 

[NextLevel]

Play before people started visiting the bicycle shops for tire glues...

 

[Amaken23]

Right handed pen-holder whose son was left-handed shakehand player....how more opposite it can get ?

 

[tokatci]

This is a real classic. Yes Schlager's free hand isn't what you'd coach but what a killer. I am sure they'd both adapt well and compete in this era.
Anyway, let's celebrate some classic old skool matches. I can't wait to see Grubba, Waldner, Ma Wenge, Tibor Klampar and more. Not Appellgren please. He is too sublime.

Excuse me but I don’t see any obvious problem with Schlager’s free hand that would warrant such a comment. On FH loops he very actively pulls his left shoulder in a mostly standard way, while the arm itself never deviates too far away from the center of gravity and does what it is supposed to do: nothing. Incorrect coordination of the left arm usually manifests itself in the player losing balance. Schlager has extraordinarily good balance. I am puzzled. Can you please elaborate?

 

[J-fed]

Excuse me but I don’t see any obvious problem with Schlager’s free hand that would warrant such a comment. On FH loops he very actively pulls his left shoulder in a mostly standard way, while the arm itself never deviates too far away from the center of gravity and does what it is supposed to do: nothing. Incorrect coordination of the left arm usually manifests itself in the player losing balance. Schlager has extraordinarily good balance. I am puzzled. Can you please elaborate?

It's just pretty unique the way it hangs there. It looks like a result of talent more than coaching is all I meant. He's awesome.

 

[J-fed]

Along with Aleksandar Karakasevic, Desmond Douglas and Oh Sang Eun, those 2 are what I modeled my more all-round/controlled attacker left handed game after
Love the old, back from the table exchanges....those big movements make it looks far better on TV.

I once gave Saive and the Belgian team a lift to Heathrow airport after a match in England. They were very nice and he signed my bat handle. Des Douglas too. He used to coach occasionally in my hometown by invitation. Such a nice chap. He was definitely many kids TT hero when we were growing up. He was the only player we knew really.

 

[NextLevel]

It's just pretty unique the way it hangs there. It looks like a result of talent more than coaching is all I meant. He's awesome.

Look at Bojan Tokic amongst others. It was common and standard before someone came up with the idea that it was something especially important for technique to make the free hand active. That's what I was hinting at that it is something overblown when a world champ can do without it the way some push it. Schlager is already doing the important thing in rotating his body with the hips and legs etc.

 

[tokatci]

It's just pretty unique the way it hangs there. It looks like a result of talent more than coaching is all I meant. He's awesome.

I see, thanks! I agree. Very smart player. Also his 2003 QF against WLQ was a tactical masterpiece.

 

[J-fed]

Look at Bojan Tokic amongst others. It was common and standard before someone came up with the idea that it was something especially important for technique to make the free hand active. That's what I was hinting at that it is something overblown when a world champ can do without it the way some push it. Schpager is already doing the important thing in rotating his body with the hips and legs etc.

Well this is great news for me. My free hand is increasingly idle.
Now I have Next Level confirmation that I can continue with my flair based play style.
Unless coaching juniors of course. Then I’ll be all orthodoxy.

 

[J-fed]

I see, thanks! I agree. Very smart player. Also his 2003 QF against WLQ was a tactical masterpiece.

Yes. I haven’t watched him much but even from this I can see he was a real monster of the psych game too. Very committed.

 

[piligrim]

 

[chandyrandy]

maybe its presumptuous to call it a classic already but I think Tomo vs FZD at 2024 Olympics is already a classic!

 

[NextLevel]

maybe its presumptuous to call it a classic already but I think Tomo vs FZD at 2024 Olympics is already a classic!

For me classic matches are mostly celluloid ball matches, probably with speed glue or traditional rubbers etc. Plastic ball is modern. But I guess maybe the thread is just for great matches from all periods.

 

[Metaxa]

Along with Aleksandar Karakasevic, Desmond Douglas and Oh Sang Eun, those 2 are what I modeled my more all-round/controlled attacker left handed game after
Love the old, back from the table exchanges....those big movements make it looks far better on TV.

Stellan Bengtsson introduced me to table tennis (because he’s left-handed too) when we were 16, after we’d seen some footage of it on the news, and because, shortly afterwards, in 1977, we went to watch the World Championships in Birmingham.

Saive will always remain my idol because of his incredible dynamism on his forehand and because we were lucky enough to play against him three times there in 1980 and ’81.

 

[J-fed]

For me classic matches are mostly celluloid ball matches, probably with speed glue or traditional rubbers etc. Plastic ball is modern. But I guess maybe the thread is just for great matches from all periods.

Yeah. Why not. I’ve already seen Sora and Truls in some barn burners.
That one where Truls won the (Singapore?) Smash with the most outrageous really of an already next level match gotta count as a classic.
Let’s go.

 

[J-fed]

This was a really crazy time in TT. John Hilton winning the European title due to the black black combination bat. Absurd that they could still do that in 81. Stellan remained positive.
He was the prototype for Appelgren imo. If you watch some of his other matches vs attackers he was very Appeling.

 

[J-fed]

In this match he plays that style in general but at 1:50 he turns attacker and there's an absolute classic lob/smash battle.