Ask Timo Boll a question on the TTD podcast!

Question for Timo:
1.Do you boost your rubbers?

2.Who's harder to beat? Ma Long or Zhang Jike?

3. What's the weight range of your blade?

You have a fairly unique looping technique with lots of use of the wrist - how did you develop/evolve it?

You said in a recent interview that your rubbers are available to everyone. Is this really true? Some people say that pro rubbers are sent by the manufacturer in batches and hand picked by the pros, so that the pros use much harder rubbers than what is commercially available. Or that pros get rubbers from the center of the produce rubber cut and this rubbers are higher in quality...

What specific aspects of your game do you wish were better so that you could compete better with players like the top Chinese (backhand blocking, forehand flicking etc.)

How does one get better at generating spin - what specific drill would you recommend?

MaLongPower said:

This an invention of the Trainer Helmut Hampl called "Druckpunkttechnik" (tl: pressure point technique).
It is a controversial technique even in DTTB. Patrik Franziska uses it too.

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Baal said:

It would be interesting to hear Boll's take on this.

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@MaLongPower: Good One.
This is really interesting. I also hope Timo can elaborate on this.
I personally know a few players who have practiced under Helmut Hampl, like Christian Dreher, Jochen Kaiser, Philip Butterfass, Tobi Beck, Thomas Keinath or Arash Momeni, but none of them ever mentioned that term in front of me. Sounds like a well kept secret.
I know the term 'Druckpunkttechnik' from Martial Arts and others, though. First time I hear this related to tabletennis.

Well anyway, here are my questions:

Firstly i'd like to ask Timo what he thinks would be necessary to uplift the image of tabletennis in europe away from a playground activity more to a professional sport.

2nd) since his Game is based so much on rotation, shouldn't on major events the best P-Balls available be used instead the ones from the company that sponsors/pays most?

Last question: if the top players were forced to use non boosted standard equipment does he think the world Ranking list would look different?

All the best, strength and health to him for the Olympic Games and the Future.
Thanks a lot for bringing us so many beautiful moments in tabletennis.

You can see the use clearly when Timo is receiving with the forehand. The indix finger is pointing upwards and is planted in the middle of the backhandrubber. This allows much more control while flicking and pushing. The downside is you need to adjust the grip afterwards.The grip in generel needs to be really lose and relaxed(racket pointing upwards in the starting position). Timo also has a special made thicker straight handle on his ALC which makes adjusting eazier.

Here is the reference form the book:Timo Boll My China

My Questions to Timo are:

Why is there such a lack of talents between 17-22 in germany?

Why aren t Franziska and Walther catching up with you and Ovcharov? Lack of motivation?Training in China required?

In what kind of direction table tennis is evolving in the future? More backhand dominant ?
Werner Schlager in the mytt interview("Beginning of a new Age") and Jörgen Person in the ttd podcast mention that there is less variation in the sport.Basicly every player uses just serve, backhandflick receive and counter-spin close to the table.
They regret that the sport is loosing versatility

Timo, many top players have huge swings on the serve action. But your serve is extremely compact, though you generate tremendous spin. How can you do that?

What is the most important thing for you when it comes to equipment?

Pro Tenergy? Is there such a thing?

What is the hardest sport in your perspective?

What do you think about the ball change?

Out of the top 4 Chinese players, who do you think you will have the highest chance of winning against them, and why?

What is your happiest moment so far in your career, and what is your immediate next goal in table tennis?

With table tennis, you get to travel to many places for competitions, what is your favourite city in terms of travelling / sight-seeing (not talking about achievement wise)?