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China just has a superior training system. It comes at a cost to the players who don't make it but it will produce the best players in the world. The players start young, can play 6-8 hours a day, have great coaching and an abundance of practice partners. No other country can come close when...

You wouldn't like being in America much then. For some, the rating is the be all and end all of everything. Even when picking a coach, the vast majority of American players will pick the coach with the highest rating rather than say a good track record of helping players improve. If I were...

One fact people might be overlooking about "2000 rated players" is that they might not be telling the truth about their rating. All the time in the club people ask me to train and then spout off some rating. More often than not what they say and what their max rating was, are two different...

NextLevel is spot on with his analysis. I think table tennis is more like speaking a language than playing a typical sport. Something happens and you must instantaneously react in the correct manner. How many people do you know that learned a second language as an adult and speak perfectly...

Hugo's dad is a PE teacher as well I think. If you are going to try, good luck. One important thing to remember is your improvement will not be linear. When you learn a new tactic you might actually play worse for a while until you get used to it and perfect it. The important thing is to put...

I should be clearer. When the coach said decent level of playing, he meant Chinese National Team level of playing, not necessarily world champion. There is quite a bit of difference.

Never let anyone place limitations on what you can and cannot do. That is up to you. With that being said, if you want to be a pro it is not going to be easy. Most pros started playing anywhere from 2 to 6 years old and at a certain age they are playing 6-8 hours a day, 6 days a week. They...

Also, the CNT women only care about one thing: beating other women. I have practiced with many province team players and a few women on the national team. It is pretty standard that they prefer to play with women because the spin, speed and rhythm of the game between the genders is different...

There is a dramatic difference in the level of abilities of the men and women on the CNT. How do I know? Because I have personally asked members and ex-members of the CNT the question "What happens when the men play the women in practice?" The men have to spot the women points to make it fair...

My first coach insisted on wrist usage for every shot. She was fairly well known in China and one of the kids she coached became world champion in the 80s. When I went to China to train, the coach there hated wrist usage on the loop. H A T E D it with a passion. I would get lectured to when...

This is true. The Chinese are just that far ahead of everyone else. Back in the 90s on the CNT, the top guys would spot the best women 7 in a game to 21. Now the men spot the women 3-6 depending on who is playing. One thing about the CNT women players is that they find holes in people's...

The Olympic selection changes are not good nor fair. The Americans with the highest world rankings automatically get to go under the new criteria. In the past a player had to be in the top 16 to be automatically selected. Also in the past the world rankings actually meant something. Now, as...

The whole ranking system is kind of a scam. If you play in a weak region, you get a huge boost in your world ranking. Kanak places well in two Pan Am events and then gets a world cup invite because of this. If you calculate those points, Kanak is already ranked 43 in the world or so with 5...

The world rankings are, for now at least, fairly meaningless.

Even if you came to the USA and could guarantee that you will win every single tournament you play in, and that is a big IF, making a living will be difficult. Maintaining your level will also be difficult as it will be hard to find enough good players to practice with you 6 or so hours a day...

She is still going ahead with her lawsuit. From my understanding, as it stands now, for each Gender the USA will send the highest world ranked player, the winner of a trials tournament and if the USA can have 3 athletes, the third will be picked by the High Performance Director. Chen wants all...

From the angle, it looks like it was the chopper's (Li Jian) point. One thing about Li Jian is that he is an extremely honorable player. I once saw him serve into the net (in a very spectacular way) on purpose after he broke the ball on the previous shot and the point was declared a let. He...

In a few years? How long have you been playing? I know people who played as kids and trained like maniacs never to break 2200. I also know a guy who was in his late 20s never rated higher than 2050 who eventually broke 2450. Right now you are 1500, just keep playing and don't worry about...

Things are starting to get interesting: https://www.gofundme.com/yjf8r-table-tennis-fair-play?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fb_co_campmgmt_w&fbclid=IwAR1zpSxnJ_WU8LhQbD9MvYMy9PiSFiKjKWQpWQYr_O8G44NO0xsRvcI9cbM

Also if the trials were fair and the team was determined through competition, I could say whatever I want to. However because one person gets to pick the vast majority of the team I have to walk on eggshells with what I say because I do not want to cause problems for potential players who might...