German table tennis fading away?

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Hi guys

I remember in or around 2010-2011 Germany had 5 top 20 players with Boll, Ovtcharov, Suss, Baum and Steger. Now still two players, Boll and Ovtcharov. But it seems like Germany is not producing any new talents, like France and Sweden are doing. Do you think in maybe 10 years, when Ovtcharov is almost 40, the German glory will be gone? Or will they stand up and produce many new talents? I don't know what is going wrong there at the moment. Anyone any insight?
 
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Hi guys

I remember in or around 2010-2011 Germany had 5 top 20 players with Boll, Ovtcharov, Suss, Baum and Steger. Now still two players, Boll and Ovtcharov. But it seems like Germany is not producing any new talents, like France and Sweden are doing. Do you think in maybe 10 years, when Ovtcharov is almost 40, the German glory will be gone? Or will they stand up and produce many new talents? I don't know what is going wrong there at the moment. Anyone any insight?
true dat
 
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I think that Franziska is doing pretty well, he played great table tennis at WTTC 2015. Unfortunately, he had some injuries a while ago. I hope that he will bloom and climb the rankings. Maybe Duda, Walther and Filus will progress as well. It looks like a generation gap, not like the lack of talent to me.
 
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The sport is healthy in Germany. Someone will emerge.
 
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Hi guys

I remember in or around 2010-2011 Germany had 5 top 20 players with Boll, Ovtcharov, Suss, Baum and Steger. Now still two players, Boll and Ovtcharov. But it seems like Germany is not producing any new talents, like France and Sweden are doing. Do you think in maybe 10 years, when Ovtcharov is almost 40, the German glory will be gone? Or will they stand up and produce many new talents? I don't know what is going wrong there at the moment. Anyone any insight?

Good observation so far. Your questions are not so easy to answer and quite a few people in Germany at the DTTB (Deutscher Tischtennis Bund = German tabletennis Association) are quite concerned about this as well, so you're definitely not far from right.

Of course one could say, compared to other Nations were still doing pretty good but still it could also be much much better.

IMHO The time period you've been writing about has been exceptionally good for Germany and i think it has actually been the best period of Germany ever, so it actually doesn't make a lot of sense taking that time as a reference.
See, i can remember times when things were different. In the pre-Timo-Boll-era Germany wasn't as good as it is now. Germany had a few good players every once in a while but none have EVER been as good Timo is.
Most succesful German Player up to then was Eberhard Schöler and that was waaaaaaaayyyy back. And second best was Jörg Rosskopf whose best WRL position was No#4.
Actually winning the Gold medal in the WTTC 1989 in Doubles came pretty unexpected to some.
You must understand to that time (end of eighties - early nineties) many German players were looking up to Swedish tabletennis, hungarian tabletennis, Yugoslavian tabletennis and a few more.
So compared to pre-Boll-era were still doing good.
But you're quite right if Dima gets old there doesn't seem a lot players that could follow his path. But certainly i could be wrong here.
Franziska can be in the top 30 if he stays healthy.
Mengel has been playing very inconsistent and some say his win over Wang Hao was just a lucky shot.
I could be wrong but i don't expect very much from Patrick Baum as well.
Filus, Walther and Duda have reached their max level which was actually better than many would have expected. And Dang Qiu isn't there yet.
Now looking at the following generations there's not a lot in sight. We would have to see how good Gerrit Engemann, Dennis Klein and Jannik Xu will develop and Kay Stumper is still a bit young.
But if we keep Dima in mind, i would say: anything is possible!
[Emoji2]
He's been proving so many people wrong. Not very many had high hopes in him since he didn't have the talent and fine touch as Timo Boll, but he's a working horse who kicked all non-believers in the nuts by reaching this high in WRL.
So yeah, i would say it's not all bad...
 
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Suga is right. Last few years have been the best time ever for Germany. When I was a kid growing up, in the days of Alser, Johansson and Bengtsson, and even after that, I never really thought of Germany as a major power (West Germany in those days). Certainly not in the same league as Sweden or most of the eastern bloc countries like (then) Yugoslavia or (then) Czechoslovakia, or Hungary or (then) Soviet Union. But of late they have been producing a lot of great players and the sport is so healthy down to the deepest grass roots, so it is hard to see why more great German players won't emerge.

I guess things cycle. Sweden has had some down years. Of course only 9 million people there, but a ton of tradition. You don't produce a Waldner or Persson every generation but maybe they ought to continue to produce a bunch of Peter Karlssons? Maybe they are starting to bounce back now.
 
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I have a lot of sympathie for Baum, and feel really bad for him that he lost his dad the way he did, but he is throwing everying away since that incident... So, he should get back to work, he still has 10 years of great table tennis in front of him if he finds himself again at the top of his game (fit, not chubby like in his latest video's). Life doesn't get better by itself.

And i really miss Suss, with his game, he was the perfect third player for Germany. And Franziska still has some progress to do, but he doesn't believe in himself enough, I think. He could be Top 20 otherwise, not top 10 I guess. And Duda did not reach his maximum, the guy is only 22 years old. Filus and Walther have reached the maximum I think, as did Mengel.

But France is now producing so many good players, it is u believable. And okay, maybe 2010 is crazy as a reference, they were really like China in Europe for several years. But, I am optimistic about the future of Europe, many new talents arising
 
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I think one must realise a Waldner, a Boll/Dima, a Chuan CY etc are all considered super athletes.
They don't come around every generation.

The Chinese "par" is set way too high, and for one to get to that "par" is already damn good.
For one to get above that par imo is considered a super athelete

It is not because these countries are not producing good players. They are
But not every player can become super athlete
It is the same in China, lots of "tier 2" A team players that can't make it into the top 20
 
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At least Germany still wins medals. South Korea has declined rapidly since the retirement of Ryu Seung Min and Oh Sang Eun; two excellent players who, with Joo Se Hyuk, formed a daunting team with wildly diverse styles. The resurgence of Japan didn't help matters much, either. Because of these factors I foresee them remaining as the #4 ranked team, or lower, for the time being.
 
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Like others, I love to see Germany(or any other European country) keep producing strong players.
What are the budgets and numbers of the junior players in Germany in recent years? Have there been siginificant cut? I know that countries that are performing strong in past few years have spent lots of resources into high performance dept(even Calderano is a product of Rio money).

But even if money/system/resource is in place, it still doesn't guarantee a chamipion player. I saw huge surge in playing numbers and budget for Japan TT association for the past 10 years but we still haven't found top 10 rankced player after Mizutani. So it could just be bad luck.
 
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Most countries have at least one star who they depend on heavily in team events. Most likely Harimoto will one day inherit the mantle from Mizutani. With their abundance of strong supporting athletes the Japanese men are in good shape. The women, on the other hand, are doing even better. With Miu Hirano, Mima Ito, Kasumi Ishikawa, and perhaps Ai Fukuhara, they'll be a solid number 2 for a long time to come.
 
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its true but still germany is good in sports so you never know when we will see a new talent
 
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