Hi all,
Just want to know what everyone thinks is the best table tennis style in the ABS ball era.
Two words for ya: Tomokazu Harimoto.
Of course, that's a simplification. There's no such thing as
the best table tennis style.
- Not all players are equally skilled in every aspect.
- Technical development, game experience and the changes that come with age also matter a lot.
- Tactics are also crucially important. Boll chose for more variation in speed and spin, and overcame close-to-the-table Harimoto.
- Adaptation counts. Styles encounter other styles; if you're playing close-to-the-table and overpowered by another close-to-the-table hitter, changing styles (second-position powerloops; fishing style; aggressive third-ball; messing with the pace; lobbing; ...) may work out better.
Two-winged loopers are probably the dominant style now, and I think that two-winged looping did creep op to the table a bit with the advent of the polyball. Yet there are strong players still with a distinctive style, including powerful, versatile defenders close to the absolute top - Joo Saehyuk, Giotis Panagiotis, Ruwen Filus, Shiono Masato, Yuto Muramatsu, Ri Myong Sun, Li Jie and of course Kim Song-i. I really like to see her games.
Variety being the spice of life, many have lamented the relative monomany (lack of diversity) in modern table tennis. Although there may be lesser diversity than there used to be a few decades ago even now there is still quite a bit left.
Where are the Zoran Kalinices of yore? The Dragutin Surbeks, the Andresj Grubbas, the Desmond Douglasses, the Mikael Appelgrens, the Guo Yuehuas, the Ma Lins, the Liu Guoliangs? Well, we have Vladimir Samsonov, Stéphane Ouiache, Koki Niwa, Timo Boll, Tristan Flore, Xu Xin as well as the probably more "typical" Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, Dimitri Ovtcharov, Jun Mizutani, Aleksanr Shibaev, Lee Sangsu and so on.
TL;DR There is more than one style even now, and that's a good thing.