ZhangLei on MaLong's injury: Very serious, may affect 2020 olympics.

[G_ZHANG]

MaLong's injury: Very serious, may affect 2020 olympics.

Zhang Lei is CTTF vice chairman, Beijing Team's headcoach, and MaLong's former Coach. He gave an interview on Ma Long's injuries:



"Malong's injury is very serious, very. Now I start to worry that he may not be able to join the 2020 Olympics.
"Not only knees, he has injury on wrist and waist. It is probably due to too many tournaments last year. "
"Because ITTF's rules change on rankings, he has to join more tournaments, Nearly without resting. And after thosem, he also played in the premier League for 3 month. These all worsen the injuries."
"He has not been training recently, all focus on recovery. So it's a question whether he can recover from injury, or even if recover, will he be able to keep the atheletic feel."
"His training in Shenzhen in the next month is very importment, but whether he can join the WTTC in April, is still unknown. "


In the mean time, Malong retweet the Kobe film, emphasizing on Mamba Mentality -- Never fear, constantly try to be the best version of yourself.

 

[drunix80]

First ZJK and now ML. I would attribute loss of these stars squarely on ITTF. Changing the ball and then changing ranking rules to play more on the pro tour !! I still hope ML can still make it through but at his age , it is difficult,especially when after comeback, the only thing you want is gold in Olympics and nothing less.

 

[729B2]

Sad =( he is so interesting to watch =( guessing soon Xu Xin maybe join them?

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Its not only the Chinese that are breaking down.
Every top country have players that are bandaged together to keep going

ITTF Athlete commission should really fight back about the silliness of jeopodising players health for ITTF commercial gains

 

[zeio]

 

[Dr Evil]

Possibly the two greatest players of all time knocked out by injuries. End of an era. Or maybe the beginning of an incredible dual comeback ending in a final confrontation for Olympic gold.

 

[zeio]

 

[eduardo1995filipe]

Possibly the two greatest players of all time knocked out by injuries. End of an era. Or maybe the beginning of an incredible dual comeback ending in a final confrontation for Olympic gold.

I don't believe that ZJK come back again, but a "mature" ML vs ZJK Olympic final would be perfect!

 

[FruitLoop]

First ZJK and now ML. I would attribute loss of these stars squarely on ITTF. Changing the ball and then changing ranking rules to play more on the pro tour !! I still hope ML can still make it through but at his age , it is difficult,especially when after comeback, the only thing you want is gold in Olympics and nothing less.

It's just as much on the Chinese national team not looking after his physical preparation well enough. He still played and almost all TT players do, way less than tennis players which is a much more physically demanding sport overall.

 

[Atas Newton]

Timo began struggling with injuries right after the new system's introduction, Dima declined massively. Guess that's on CNT too. The system's just idiotic and it was obvious since the beginning. Tennis players are injured ALL the time, it's not a sport to look up to.

 

[FruitLoop]

Timo began struggling with injuries right after the new system's introduction, Dima declined massively. Guess that's on CNT too. The system's just idiotic and it was obvious since the beginning. Tennis players are injured ALL the time, it's not a sport to look up to.

That's on the German team. Also Timo is 37. Some tennis players are injured all the time, many are not. Federer wasn't injured for over a decade at one point.

Samsonov is playing at 42.

The amount of tournaments they play per year after the new rules is still tiny compared to other sports.

They need to prepare better physically. I have seen lots of footage of their strength training and they train with poor form and many useless exercises just for example.

 

[BlueScr33n]

I don't see how his injuries are due to too many tournaments. Last year he won the german open and the china open. He lost in the quarterfinals at the japan open and the round of 32 at the bulgarian open. Meaning he played 4 open tournaments last year. He of course also played at the Team World Cup and World Championships. Those are 6 international tournaments. Calling 6 tournaments "too much" is ridiculous. His injuries are simply due to his age and his long career. He has been in the top 10 since 2007 I believe. That is more than 10 years on the very highest level of the sport. He has dedicated 20 years of his life to the sport. 20 years with lots and lots of training, exercise and competitions. It is normal for the human body to show some wear after such a long time. This is also not a unique disposition of table tennis. This stuff is happening in all kinds of sports. Sports have become a lot more professional in the last few decades, with more and more practices and competitions with higer intensity. Now I haven't checked any statistics on this, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if the amount of injuries sustained by football players for example have increased significantly in the past decades. Same goes for a lot of other high intensity sports, e.g. see all the injuries of tennis players. We are reaching the limits of the human body. It is simply not made for such prolonged intense exercise.

well that is my opinion anyway.

 

[NextLevel]

Timo began struggling with injuries right after the new system's introduction, Dima declined massively. Guess that's on CNT too. The system's just idiotic and it was obvious since the beginning. Tennis players are injured ALL the time, it's not a sport to look up to.

Timo has struggled with injuries throughout his TT career. In fact, this is one of the better periods of his career.

 

[FruitLoop]

6 tournaments where he averaged probably 3 hours or so on court in total. So 18 hours PER YEAR of tournament play. That's less than one grand slam final run for a male tennis player. Meanwhile he puts in 6 hours a day training probably but that couldn't possibly be the problem it must be the massive demands of tournaments.

 

[NextLevel]

I don't see how his injuries are due to too many tournaments. Last year he won the german open and the china open. He lost in the quarterfinals at the japan open and the round of 32 at the bulgarian open. Meaning he played 4 open tournaments last year. He of course also played at the Team World Cup and World Championships. Those are 6 international tournaments. Calling 6 tournaments "too much" is ridiculous. His injuries are simply due to his age and his long career. He has been in the top 10 since 2007 I believe. That is more than 10 years on the very highest level of the sport. He has dedicated 20 years of his life to the sport. 20 years with lots and lots of training, exercise and competitions. It is normal for the human body to show some wear after such a long time. This is also not a unique disposition of table tennis. This stuff is happening in all kinds of sports. Sports have become a lot more professional in the last few decades, with more and more practices and competitions with higer intensity. Now I haven't checked any statistics on this, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if the amount of injuries sustained by football players for example have increased significantly in the past decades. Same goes for a lot of other high intensity sports, e.g. see all the injuries of tennis players. We are reaching the limits of the human body. It is simply not made for such prolonged intense exercise.

well that is my opinion anyway.

I agree with your opinion. Part of it I think is overuse of the body and another part is the inflammation caused by the powering of the body repeatedly with carbohydrates. But we will see how some of these things change over the coming decade.

 

[NextLevel]

It's just as much on the Chinese national team not looking after his physical preparation well enough. He still played and almost all TT players do, way less than tennis players which is a much more physically demanding sport overall.

I am not sure I agree that high level TT is less demanding than high level table tennis. The movements are very different and I suspect that TT is far more debilitating on the joints. I know people who have stopped playing TT and gone back to tennis and their knees and joints feel much better again. The speed of TT just forces you to do very unnatural things.

 

[Atas Newton]

That's on the German team. Also Timo is 37. Some tennis players are injured all the time, many are not. Federer wasn't injured for over a decade at one point.

Samsonov is playing at 42.

The amount of tournaments they play per year after the new rules is still tiny compared to other sports.

They need to prepare better physically. I have seen lots of footage of their strength training and they train with poor form and many useless exercises just for example.

Samsonov isn't playing a lot, he's not affected by the new system, but his ranking is. Fed is a one off. Timo had no problems when he was 36. And if two top teams are seemingly to blame, you know it's the system that's f'd up.

 

[FruitLoop]

I am not sure I agree that high level TT is less demanding than high level table tennis. The movements are very different and I suspect that TT is far more debilitating on the joints. I know people who have stopped playing TT and gone back to tennis and their knees and joints feel much better again. The speed of TT just forces you to do very unnatural things.

I disagree, you could not play tennis, just to use you as an example. They put in vastly more miles at a higher intensity. It's harder on both the aerobic/anaerobic system and on the joints in terms of forces. The forces around the elbow when serving alone is more than a table tennis player would experience on any shot, nevermind knees on hard courts etc.

 

[FruitLoop]

Samsonov isn't playing a lot, he's not affected by the new system, but his ranking is. Fed is a one off. Timo had no problems when he was 36. And if two top teams are seemingly to blame, you know it's the system that's f'd up.

Timo had many problems in his early 20's nevermind now. No I don't know the system is ****ed up by requiring players to play a tiny handful of tournaments a year. Quite the opposite. Also Samsonov is playing as much as Ma Long.

 

[talbon]

It's the flipside of being one of the top dogs in LGL's CNT. Surely they get worried about your health, but after repeatedly abusing, breaking and stitching your body in the first place. Of course ML is responsible for his own body and his ambitions, and he did make it to the top.

Anyway, wish he recovers. Hopefully he gets to play and enjoy some more great table tennis.