Hello again everyone and welcome to episode 7 of the TableTennisDaily podcast. In this episode we are joined alongside current world number 7 Marcos Freitas. Marcos currently plays for Pontoise Cergy in the French pro A division with former podcast guest Kristian Karlsson as well as Tristan Flore and Jian Jun Wang. Marcos is captain of the Portuguese men's national team, the team that won European team championships in 2014.

We talk to Marcos about his career and how Portugal are so successful with very little resources. Marcos then gives invaluable, extremely detailed information about how different training styles and hard work have taken him to the world top ten. We also ask about his various equipment in which he had some gave some extraordinary insights and discussed his trip to the butterfly factory in Japan where there was parts of factory that even he wasn't allowed into due to tenergy production secrets. We really hope you enjoy this podcast full of fantastic tips and thoughts from one of the worlds greatest players.

We would also like to give a big thank you, personally, to Marcos for giving up such a large amount of time to speak to us as we know he is extremely busy. It's great to see these great players and experts really giving back to the fans. Here's the podcast.

<iframe style="border: none" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/4104068/height/360/width/640/theme/standard/autoplay/yes/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/no-cache/true/" height="360" width="640" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe>

Breakdown of the podcast

00:00 Intro
01:01 Marcos talks about about how much he currently trains.
01:30 Marcos talks about how he got into table tennis. You
02:05 How good was Marcos at a young age?
02:30 Thoughts in talent.
04:00 Juggling school with training.
04:55 Portuguese table tennis and moving to Germany.
06:20 Current state of Portuguese table tennis.
08:29 Marcos's time at the Werner Schlager academy.
11:10 Some advice from Marcos that he has learnt from top coaches.
12:36 Day to day training for Marcos and most important aspects of training.
14:30 Regular vs Irregular training and more advice for less experienced players.
16:10 Good exercises for regular practise.
18:00 Marcos's take on serve practise.
20:00 What makes a great serve.
22:00 Multi ball.
24:27 Strength and conditioning.
28:45 Dealing with nerves.
29:56 Winning European team championships in 2014.
33:06 Playing Chinese players.
34:37 Ma Long.
36:18 Would training with the Chinese National Team take you to their level?
37:00 Europe vs China, is the standard getting closer?
38:12 Potential of Marcos playing Chinese super league.
39:09 Visiting Butterly HQ In Tokyo. (secret production)
40:48 Marcos's current equipment and bat setup.
41:48 Are rubbers always the same?
42:28 Chinese National Team Hurricane rubber that only Chinese national team have access to. MUST LISTEN!
44:20 Plastic ball.
45:30 TableTennisDaily member/social media questions.

If you would like to save or listen to the podcast on itunes, search TableTennisDaily in the itunes store.

What do you think about Marcos's opinions on the world of table tennis?
Thanks for listening!
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Member
Dec 2014
285
340
986
Great stuff! By far the best one yet!

Marcos shares much deeper personal observations and more detailed answers and analysis than previous guests. He clearly lives, breathes and exists in and for table tennis. His ideas come across as very well thought through, honest and straight-forward.

But don't get me wrong, I'm not saying other guest were shallow. It's more likely a combination of his personality, that the quality of questions have improved and that the interview format has matured.

Keep it up the excellent work! It's great to see. And to listen to!
 
Last edited:
Isn?t there a chance that some populations in China have through long time evolution and adaptation developed faster reaction times ?
It is a fact, scientifically proven that different populations bodytypes are in general suitable for different sports. For example black athletes with West African ancestry are better at sprinting (more fast twitch muscle fibers) and worse at swimming (high bone density causing them to sink).
Why no one even talks about this scenario?
Apart from that, another great interview, and you are indeed getting better!
 

Dan

says editing a big TTD Team episode... stay tuned 👀

Dan

says editing a big TTD Team episode... stay tuned 👀
Well-Known Member
Administrator
Aug 2010
7,079
4,755
16,880
Read 72 reviews
Aaaaaaah, I've been waiting for this for sooooooo long time, immediately tuned in!

Glad you enjoyed the podcast! :)

Awesomeness. Absolutely LOVED this interview. Marcos is a top player, and top bloke - great honest answers, never tried to sidestep the q's - he answered everything directly. Great q's Dan

Agreed he was really talking from his heart, i learned a lot of interesting things. Thanks for listening!

Great stuff! By far the best one yet!

Marcos shares much deeper personal observations and more detailed answers and analysis than previous guests. He clearly lives, breathes and exists in and for table tennis. His ideas come across as very well thought through, honest and straight-forward.

But don't get me wrong, I'm not saying other guest were shallow. It's more likely a combination of his personality, that the quality of questions have improved and that the interview format has matured.

Keep it up the excellent work! It's great to see. And to listen to!

Thanks brabhamista, you can really tell everything Marcos does and thinks goes into table tennis. A genius! Thanks for all the questions you have sent to us that has really helped. Glad you liked the podcast! :)

You guys are definitely getting better at interviewing

Thanks Anchorschmidt!

Thank you. As good as always!

Stay tuned for next weeks raazzz!
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Member
Oct 2015
77
108
260
Read 4 reviews
Isn?t there a chance that some populations in China have through long time evolution and adaptation developed faster reaction times ?
It is a fact, scientifically proven that different populations bodytypes are in general suitable for different sports. For example black athletes with West African ancestry are better at sprinting (more fast twitch muscle fibers) and worse at swimming (high bone density causing them to sink).
Why no one even talks about this scenario?
Apart from that, another great interview, and you are indeed getting better!

Defintely an interesting point, however I think as China have only been dominating since the 1980/90's I don't think it's a case of them being better adpated to dealing with ball speed better. Especially as they don't dominate all sports where having fast reaction times are essential, F1, tennis, Lacrosse, squash etc.. Would be an interesting study though.
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
Oct 2014
12,272
17,728
44,267
Read 17 reviews
I have heard about a study where a buzzer sounds and participants had to press a button and Asians were faster.

???????? ??? ?? SM-G355HN ??? ??????????????? Tapatalk

Were this true, it says little about the particular skills and talents of one individual vs another, and it is not like the Japanese and the Koreans are also dominating table tennis like the Chinese are. It makes sense here to look for environmental contributions. The status of table tennis in China and the government supported competitive structure are obvious ones, but the effect of equipment is not that hard to test and review. Freitas is not the only one who has made these comments about the Chinese rubber either. Even I right now, when I test MX-P and Tenergy 05, I can see that one just generates more spin with my strokes and my blockers tell me the same thing. At least T05 is commercially available.
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Member
Dec 2014
285
340
986
Isn?t there a chance that some populations in China have through long time evolution and adaptation developed faster reaction times ?
The way I see it: No, there's no chance of that.

Just faster reactions does not make a great player. Table tennis is just to complex a sport and I think to explain success in table tennis in terms of genetics is just too simplistic. A player needs to hone a much larger skillset to get to the top, IMHO.

If we presume genetics do explain it, we run into trouble immediately. How do we explain the 15-20 years in the 80's and 90's when the Swedes were at the same level as and sometimes greater than the Chinese? Did their genetics suddenly evolve to a higher level for one generation only and then regress again in the 00's in some kind of temporary genetic re-alignment? (Sure, it could possibly have something to do with Chernobyl, but I really don't think so. :p ) The evolution of genetics spans more than a generation, and it takes centuries or millennia to develop.

No, in my view, the success of the Chinese is mainly down to training methods, superior research into the sport, financial support, well-developped infrastructure, etc.

Still, your question is interesting :)
 
Last edited:
We are talking about odds here, the fact for example that Asians are shorter than Europeans doesn?t mean that any given European would be taller than any Asian. It means that if we measured all Europeans and calculated the average height it would be more than Asian average.

When we are talking about genetics we aren?t talking about huge differences but at the cutting edge of the sport, at the very best level the slightest thing can determine who wins and who looses.

And about 80?or 90?I bet that at 60?, 70?there were much less table tennis tables in Europe than China explaining the lower level of Chinese.

Last but not least I suggest we should talk about populations(and I¨m sorry to have talked in post above about Asians) because take for example Africa. East African body type is radically different to west African. One has good Marathon runners and other has good sprinters.
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
May 2015
3,238
3,924
27,424
Read 5 reviews
Sorry Dan, for answering to a thread-hijack.

@Squareball, i agree that on the highest levels the smallest details can make a difference, but the other stuff you wrote?
Sorry to say, but IMHO that's really bollocks, man.

In germany we had an idiot, who actually even was austrian, who's also been thinkin' of the superiority of genetics or race. We all know where that lead to. So please understand that i deny to follow this way of elitary thinkin' and instead try to find a different and more solid explanation.

I think it's mainly a mindset thing. The chinese are very disciplined and focused when it comes to practicing things and are also very good in creating the right surroundings and infrastructure.

Doesn't matter if Martial Arts or Tabletennis.
E.g. just take a look at the shaolin monks. Whatever they practice, they practice it very determined....
Same goes for TT.
Look how disciplined they train from very early age. Shaolin monks used to do that too.
Some people say tabletennis is sort of like high-speed chess, but i think it's more like chessboxin'.
A mixture of chess and boxin' :)

In the late eighties and nineties the chinese sent one player to sweden to learn about speedglue-play which was very dominant that days.
In the 70's the japanese were very dominant.
So i really think you're on the wrong path.
You also find determined practicing in Europe or elsewhere, but the chinese are simply more people and hence can pick from a bigger pool of players than any other nation...

Now back to topic:
Amazing Interview once more, Dan. One can really hear some improvement. Lookin' forward into the future.
 
Last edited:
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
Oct 2014
12,272
17,728
44,267
Read 17 reviews
We are talking about odds here, the fact for example that Asians are shorter than Europeans doesn?t mean that any given European would be taller than any Asian. It means that if we measured all Europeans and calculated the average height it would be more than Asian average.

When we are talking about genetics we aren?t talking about huge differences but at the cutting edge of the sport, at the very best level the slightest thing can determine who wins and who looses.

And about 80?or 90?I bet that at 60?, 70?there were much less table tennis tables in Europe than China explaining the lower level of Chinese.

Last but not least I suggest we should talk about populations(and I¨m sorry to have talked in post above about Asians) because take for example Africa. East African body type is radically different to west African. One has good Marathon runners and other has good sprinters.

I am not saying that genetics has no role in this discussion, but it is not in the way you are analyzing it. IT seems to me that you are new to these arguments and don't really understand them.

I am saying that if you look at Marcos Freitas, and you look at Ma Long, you cannot use genetics to explain why Ma Long is better than Marcos Freitas in the way that you are doing so. IT doesn't matter whether the probability of Quadri Aruna is 1/1000,000 and the probability of Ma Long is 1/10,000, they are who they are today. It is if you want to explain why tjere are 20 Quadri Arunas but 60 Ma Longs that population genetics can help you. Again, it does nothing about individuals, and it is individuals we are speaking about here. Samsonov is not going to be explained by genetics.

It is also the hardest place to start, so it is better to start by looking at things you can actually test, rather than looking at things you cannot test and then just claiming that this is the answer and then not being able to do anything about it. You can use population genetics type analysis to argue that there is a difference between China and Sweden, but even then, you would run into the arguments that Brahmista made that just less than 30 years ago, and many players on those teams haven't had children, things were pretty much level between Asia and Europe.

The only way you could really measure genetics is by giving Ma Long and Marcos Freitas clones and then seeing how well the clones perform. Otherwise, you can't tell whether it was genetics or experience for each particular trait you claim is influenced by genetic superiority. Good luck with that. The clones would have to be able to show that whatever you measure in the trained athletes is largely a result of the unexposed genes which is fairly hard to measure.

So in the absence of tests, what has been pointed out is that EVERY Chinese player is using a rubber on the forehand that other top players cannot use. So let's address this first. This you can actually test and analyze. If you want to test the idea that Ma Long has better genes than Freitas, good luck with that.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Suga D
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Member
Jun 2013
98
67
222
Even I right now, when I test MX-P and Tenergy 05, I can see that one just generates more spin with my strokes and my blockers tell me the same thing. At least T05 is commercially available.[/QUOTE/]

Hi NL, which of those is spinner? And what about Big Dipper compared to both?
 
Sorry Dan, for answering to a thread-hijack.

@Squareball, i agree that on the highest levels the smallest details can make a difference, but the other stuff you wrote?
Sorry to say, but IMHO that's really bollocks, man.

In germany we had an idiot, who actually even was austrian, who's also been thinkin' of the superiority of genetics or race. We all know where that lead to. So please understand that i deny to follow this way of elitary thinkin' and instead try to find a different and more solid explanation.

I think it's mainly a mindset thing. The chinese are very disciplined and focused when it comes to practicing things and are also very good in creating the right surroundings and infrastructure.

Doesn't matter if Martial Arts or Tabletennis.
E.g. just take a look at the shaolin monks. Whatever they practice, they practice it very determined....
Same goes for TT.
Look how disciplined they train from very early age. Shaolin monks used to do that too.
Some people say tabletennis is sort of like high-speed chess, but i think it's more like chessboxin'.
A mixture of chess and boxin' :)

In the late eighties and nineties the chinese sent one player to sweden to learn about speedglue-play which was very dominant that days.
In the 70's the japanese were very dominant.
So i really think you're on the wrong path.
You also find determined practicing in Europe or elsewhere, but the chinese are simply more people and hence can pick from a bigger pool of players than any other nation...

Now back to topic:
Amazing Interview once more, Dan. One can really hear some improvement. Lookin' forward into the future.
First of all, I didn't talk about superiority of genetics nor race. The things I stated about different African populations have been scientifically proven. I don't see how saying that X population has developed Y characteristics through evolution process is racist.

The discipline, focus and determination of this people is the most obvious explanation and probably the truth. But why saying so isn't racist?

I think people in Japan left the agricultural way of life sooner than in China which I think didn't have many table tennis tables or players back in the 70'. Of course I am not from Japan or China so I could be wrong. Also explain why you don't think this to be the case ? I found this in wikipedia: In the 1930s, Edgar Snow commented in Red Star Over China that the Communist forces in the Chinese Civil War had a "passion for the English game of table tennis" which he found "bizarre".[SUP][12][/SUP] On the other hand, popularity of the sport waned in 1930s Soviet Union, partly because of promotion of team and military sports, and partly because of a theory that the game had adverse health effects.[SUP][13][/SUP]

Chinese are indeed a lot of people for sure but comparing to the rest of the world their pool is 4 times smaller and has many good players compared to its pool.

Lastly, I don't think calling ones opinion bullocks will help us analyze, we are not enemies here it's a forum so that we discuss table tennis things and probably be friends. Like the NY meet up, I really enjoyed following through the pics :) !
 
Last edited:
I am not saying that genetics has no role in this discussion, but it is not in the way you are analyzing it. IT seems to me that you are new to these arguments and don't really understand them.

I am saying that if you look at Marcos Freitas, and you look at Ma Long, you cannot use genetics to explain why Ma Long is better than Marcos Freitas in the way that you are doing so. IT doesn't matter whether the probability of Quadri Aruna is 1/1000,000 and the probability of Ma Long is 1/10,000, they are who they are today. It is if you want to explain why tjere are 20 Quadri Arunas but 60 Ma Longs that population genetics can help you. Again, it does nothing about individuals, and it is individuals we are speaking about here. Samsonov is not going to be explained by genetics.

It is also the hardest place to start, so it is better to start by looking at things you can actually test, rather than looking at things you cannot test and then just claiming that this is the answer and then not being able to do anything about it. You can use population genetics type analysis to argue that there is a difference between China and Sweden, but even then, you would run into the arguments that Brahmista made that just less than 30 years ago, and many players on those teams haven't had children, things were pretty much level between Asia and Europe.

The only way you could really measure genetics is by giving Ma Long and Marcos Freitas clones and then seeing how well the clones perform. Otherwise, you can't tell whether it was genetics or experience for each particular trait you claim is influenced by genetic superiority. Good luck with that. The clones would have to be able to show that whatever you measure in the trained athletes is largely a result of the unexposed genes which is fairly hard to measure.

So in the absence of tests, what has been pointed out is that EVERY Chinese player is using a rubber on the forehand that other top players cannot use. So let's address this first. This you can actually test and analyze. If you want to test the idea that Ma Long has better genes than Freitas, good luck with that.
I agree in many things but I am not talking about the podcast Ma Long discussion but the China dominance podcast discussion and that Fh rubber plays a role. Listening to it I thought I should raise this possibility which I think you agree could be part of the story. But indeed the Fh rubber theory is interesting as well, and the mysticism around it, with Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Marcos Freitas opinions, empower it further (But we have to consider they haven't tried it).

Whether it is easier to prove one or the other I don't know. I would like to hear the opinion on the rubber matter of a forum member that I remember has good knowledge of physics Pnachtwey .
 
Last edited:
Top