New 2016: Zhang Jike - Rio Olympic Training!

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I don't know for sure but observing him for quite a while my guess is he has that Agassi syndrome. He has some kind of a love hate relationship with the sport and thats what makes his reactions so difficult to read .
I agree , you could see that he had a permanent smirk on his face when LGL was showing him the forehand loop, and imagine he is the head coach.
We don't know the reason for the smirk. And , ZJK was thrown out of the team for disrespecting the coach not too long back , so he definitely has a history of bad behavior by chinese cultural standards.

But what I like about the guy is that he is a rebel, and he has guts. Its not easy to come back twice to the CNT after being thrown out, its not easy to make most of whatever chances he has got to win big titles , so he definitely deserves a lot more credit that he gets, especially after that ridiculous gaffe ITTF did with his kicking ad boards, the most punishment was to either ban him from playing a couple of tournaments or giving him a last warning, taking away the prize money and then going on and on about the decision in social media was in bad taste. But I guess its the kind of relationship that ZJK wants with the sport, and thats what keeps the fire in the belly going.

from the looks of the above video, he is definitely looking a lot sharper and there could be trouble in ma long's paradise if ZJK can reach the final injury free ...

Whatever they were talking about when it came to the heavy forehand loops on the serve, he didn't seem pleased with it.

I can't quite place it, but ZJK just has this permanent look of dissatisfaction, perma-pissed mimique. I bet he's a nice guy tho :D
 
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I think he is telling JK to not go too much down. And take the topspin right off the bounce.
My guess. I don't know chinese :)
 
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Of course, that my guess too ... but you cannot help but be inquisitive when you see Cai Zhenhua and Liu guoliang showing Zhang Jike technique ...
I think he is telling JK to not go too much down. And take the topspin right off the bounce.
My guess. I don't know chinese :)
 
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Of course, that my guess too ... but you cannot help but be inquisitive when you see Cai Zhenhua and Liu guoliang showing Zhang Jike technique ...


why not? cai produced LGL kong linghui etc and LGL produced ML WH ZJK etc , of course everybody learned the basics in their provinces, but there is always room for technique refining. You could see ZJK was doubtful in the beginning but later somehow seems to accept what LGL was telling
 
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For me it was really interresting to watch the attitude that ZJK has during LGL showing him stuff.
But look at him how it changed, when the other guy came. Cai Zhenhua?
Well it was like - Okay, this one is here, now I have to really listen and do what I have to do.
It was like he has very little respect for LGL but huuuge respect to Cai.
Watch the video, you will see it. Watch whole energy that came from ZJK during LGL and the change after Cai came in..
 
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I saw that too ... its more like , come on you are short pips penholder why are you try to to show me a shake hand stroke .. for LGL .... but Cai is the deputy Director of State General Administration of Sports and the president of the Chinese Football Association, the Chinese Badminton Association and the Chinese Table Tennis Association, so ZJK has to t show respect . That part I get, but I was more interested in what actually they are telling ZJK , I think , that he is dropping his paddle and thats why he is not able to adjust to different balls ... but just wanted a confirmation if some mandarin speakers take an interest....

on second thoughts it might well be along the lines , they never show me anything , now that this is a video that is going to get released everybody is here ... with ZJK you never know whats going on inside his brain ..
For me it was really interresting to watch the attitude that ZJK has during LGL showing him stuff.
But look at him how it changed, when the other guy came. Cai Zhenhua?
Well it was like - Okay, this one is here, now I have to really listen and do what I have to do.
It was like he has very little respect for LGL but huuuge respect to Cai.
Watch the video, you will see it. Watch whole energy that came from ZJK during LGL and the change after Cai came in..
 
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I saw that too ... its more like , come on you are short pips penholder why are you try to to show me a shake hand stroke .. for LGL .... but Cai is the deputy Director of State General Administration of Sports and the president of the Chinese Football Association, the Chinese Badminton Association and the Chinese Table Tennis Association, so ZJK has to t show respect . That part I get, but I was more interested in what actually they are telling ZJK , I think , that he is dropping his paddle and thats why he is not able to adjust to different balls ... but just wanted a confirmation if some mandarin speakers take an interest....

on second thoughts it might well be along the lines , they never show me anything , now that this is a video that is going to get released everybody is here ... with ZJK you never know whats going on inside his brain ..
For me it was really interresting to watch the attitude that ZJK has during LGL showing him stuff.
But look at him how it changed, when the other guy came. Cai Zhenhua?
Well it was like - Okay, this one is here, now I have to really listen and do what I have to do.
It was like he has very little respect for LGL but huuuge respect to Cai.
Watch the video, you will see it. Watch whole energy that came from ZJK during LGL and the change after Cai came in..

Well that explains a lot to me!
Because I really thought when Cai came in, that.. it was like Zhang became smaller..
That Cai has to be a big one in China. Now your words confirmed it :)
So - even though Zhang is a rebel, he knows where to stop ;)
 
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I think LGL care about him a lot. They might had/have some problems, but he is LGL's own tt child. And LGL wants the best to him.
At 3:02 the problem was that ZJ's first backhand was a punchblock without much topspin (the second also was more like a powerdrive than loop), so it isn't the most efficient way. They are perfectionists.
I don't see ZJ being unrespectful with LGL. He understand what's wrong at the first time, but LGL wanted to show him, what didn't succeeded that well. ZJ smiled on that. They are like a family, so no problem. But with Cai is different, show no attention and seriousness would be totally impolite.
 
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I saw that too ... its more like , come on you are short pips penholder why are you try to to show me a shake hand stroke .. for LGL .... but Cai is the deputy Director of State General Administration of Sports and the president of the Chinese Football Association, the Chinese Badminton Association and the Chinese Table Tennis Association, so ZJK has to t show respect . That part I get, but I was more interested in what actually they are telling ZJK , I think , that he is dropping his paddle and thats why he is not able to adjust to different balls ... but just wanted a confirmation if some mandarin speakers take an interest....

on second thoughts it might well be along the lines , they never show me anything , now that this is a video that is going to get released everybody is here ... with ZJK you never know whats going on inside his brain ..


playing with short pips doesnt have anything to do with it. Its about understanding technique, LGL was a crappy rally player but he understands technique and knows how to show, as for Cai yeah all of this is true, he is even "feared" by the players as they are simple soldiers and he is something like a general, since they have military systems in everything

p.s. besides LGL wasnbt just another short pips players ,he brought innovations in the game . Especially on serving
 
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playing with short pips doesnt have anything to do with it. Its about understanding technique, LGL was a crappy rally player but he understands technique and knows how to show, as for Cai yeah all of this is true, he is even "feared" by the players as they are simple soldiers and he is something like a general, since they have military systems in everything

p.s. besides LGL wasnbt just another short pips players ,he brought innovations in the game . Especially on serving

Exactly this. You can't compare a person as player and as coach. I think since LGL is head-coach of chinese men Team, they have won every big tournament. It seems like he has a huge knowledge about the sport and how to play every ball perfectly, even though he hasn't play this "perfect" technique himself.

I just like how the top chinese players are training like machines with the best techniques but LGL always shows them something to improve. I think they are never 100% satisfied with their performance.
 
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Guys, please read my previous posts in the same thread, I was trying to guess what was going through ZJK's mind when he was smirking as LGL was showing him the stroke.

I was not criticizing or comparing anybody ... there is no question about ZJK, LGL or Cai Zhenhua's credentials , but personally I thinkg LGL has brought a lot of progress may be more than Cai ...
 
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The thing I noticed the most in this video was the choice of opponent/training partner. Lefty shakehand. Definitely not an accident.

I also wonder what was being said. Maybe the audio was taken out. I think to understand what was being said, one might have to watch the recent matches against Hao Shuai and Chen Chien An to understand why they think ZJK gets into trouble with his approach. It's kinda hard to believe that ZJK'S approach is really deficient but I also suspect that ZJK really believes in his spin and sometimes takes forehands later than he should if he had say Ma Long's approach.

But this is just blind me trying to make sense of what I see.
 
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In the XX's olympic video a few people translated XX advice to ZJK and they are definitely preparing him for koki niwa and chen chien an . I dont know about hte olympic seedings but assuming on the world ranking if everything goes smooth he will face koki in round of 16 and maybe chen chien an earlier
 
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+1 @NextLevel : He totally does that and with his bad back he seems to be avoiding any wide forehand forehand exchange. We saw how they made him start using his forehand flick more to stop him from moving so much. I also noticed the choice of training partner , same as what they put him up against in the warm up match , Hao Shuai and he got run over ...

My guess is also that they are asking him to judge the ball better and if possible flick it , if not , loop it earlier and not wait for it to come out because with the predisposition you said it takes the flip out of the equation and he might end up pushing it or make a lame loop. we have seen a that his opening loop does not have the same bit as with the celluloid ball and it gets counter looped more now.

@TTFrenzy : Now you got me curious , where is that translation, if you please ... ?

In the XX's olympic video a few people translated XX advice to ZJK and they are definitely preparing him for koki niwa and chen chien an . I dont know about hte olympic seedings but assuming on the world ranking if everything goes smooth he will face koki in round of 16 and maybe chen chien an earlier
 
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check the comments below


Eddy Wong
Xu Xin: Niwa Koki..... and Chen Chien An, they are good are back hand flick (when close to table), they are all speedy player. (Xu is analysing to Zhang to be alert to the back hand flick when face left hand player, maybe it is because Zhang losed to Chen previously, and also losed some points for this type of defence of fore hand )?
 
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