Watching pros makes you better, and we should watch women players

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I watch a lot female table tennis because I support the Japanese players but also because I believe I have more to learn from them than from the men.

As I'm well in my 40s now I have changed my style from all FH when I was young to a more balanced game always trying to stay close to the table like most women.

So that's more the game played by girls than by men. I have adjusted my training and my technique for that shortening all my strokes especially the BH.

My models are the Chinese players like LIU Shiwen or Miu HIRANO.

Pro men play a game which is way too different from what I play
 
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Yes, it was some years ago when I started watching women play more than I had in the past. I really concentrate a lot on how they move their feet.

Table tennis is choreography
. You have to learn where to put your feet to move in the most efficient way possible. And women are incredibly efficient.
 
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It is interesting. From a logic standpoint, I agree with all the points about what is positive about women's TT and why it should be good to watch. But it really is not as interesting to me to watch despite all that.

Well, in the end it's all a matter of personal taste and preferences,
but I remember talking to Tanja Krämer about women's TT a while ago after a coaching session and she basically said the same like you.
She said something like that the typical stereotype female tabletennis with hopping around and highspeed backhand to backhand exchanges with little to no spin just isn't her cup of tea.
She said that she respects it but just prefers playing differently and also prefers watching male power spinners.

And this coming from a woman who really knows a bit about tabletennis!!

Now one could go around and say:
Big deal, who is she??
Well, she's been and still is one of Germany's top female tabletennis players since quite some time now.

All of this is also probably one of the reasons why she has a man [Mathias Bomsdorf] as her main practice partner.
 
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Most attractive I think are longer fast topspin exchanges away from the table.

They happen more in the mens game but there are also many quick kills or errors which are not good to watch.

Women are more longer rallies then men probably which is good but you rarely see those spectacular kreanga style topspin rallies.

Both have their advantages. Male highlight videos are better than female but in a real male match a lot will be third ball kill, third ball into the net, repeat which is not good to watch. Women will have less of that and more rallies but also less amazing shots.
 
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As amatures, we can say we do not like the typical womens style of play, but when we face a woman who is our level and can play a very strong consistent error free game of that style they tend to kill a lot of men players their level doing that - killing with consistency egging the men to go for macho man winners when it is lower percentage.
 
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As amatures, we can say we do not like the typical womens style of play, but when we face a woman who is our level and can play a very strong consistent error free game of that style they tend to kill a lot of men players their level doing that - killing with consistency egging the men to go for macho man winners when it is lower percentage.

Often kids of tend to play like that as well.
 
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I remember Tanja with a different last name from over a decade ago. SugaD, you have accurately described her LASTING abilities. She really brings it.

You're totally right. Good one.

FTR
Her birth name was Tanja Hoffmann, then after marriage to Andreas Hain promotion manager JOOLA her name was Tanja Hain-Hoffmann, then after divorced from Andreas Hain and marriage to Achim Krämer her name's now Tanja Krämer.
 
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Well, in the end it's all a matter of personal taste and preferences,
but I remember talking to Tanja Krämer about women's TT a while ago after a coaching session and she basically said the same like you.
She said something like that the typical stereotype female tabletennis with hopping around and highspeed backhand to backhand exchanges with little to no spin just isn't her cup of tea.
She said that she respects it but just prefers playing differently and also prefers watching male power spinners.

And this coming from a woman who really knows a bit about tabletennis!!

Now one could go around and say:
Big deal, who is she??
Well, she's been and still is one of Germany's top female tabletennis players since quite some time now.

All of this is also probably one of the reasons why she has a man [Mathias Bomsdorf] as her main practice partner.

Germany has a history of producing female players like that. Nicole Struse comes to mind.
 
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Germany has a history of producing female players like that. Nicole Struse comes to mind.

Interesting. Haven't seen it that way yet. You're right. Thank you.

Actually Sabine Winter doesn't play that close to the table game too. That rally at 6:05!
[Emoji15]

I wonder if they were mostly practicing with boys or if they were purposely coached that way.

Nevertheless Zhang Yining's game is as complete as it could be.
Thanks for sharing.

As a spectator, I can appreciate the close to the table bang bang kind of game. It can certainly be effective in men's division too. But I totally hate playing it.

I used to struggle against those type of players as well, but then someone told me to vary the spin from pure topspin, sidetop to pure sidespin and also vary the placement a lot and move them from close to the net balls to long balls to the baseline, and that seems to give those players a real hard time and has really helped me a lot.
 
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Play slow high and vary spin. Take one step back and just bring balls back.There is some video of Jorgen Persson playing Ding Ning in Chicago in 2012. Not real serious play but not exactly an exhibition either. She basically had no chance against him since he is too smart to try to beat her by being quicker from close in.

A former coach of mine (and US national champion) told me a story about going to train in China for 6 months. When he got there the coaches thought he sucked (he was about 2450 at the time, so by their standards he was terrible). So they made him play with the girls. He was angry and embarassed. Even worse, the girls were beating him! He said it took him about three weeks to a month before he figured out how to beat them (by slowing down, keeping the ball on the table and staying in balance). Only then did the coaches spend any time with him and let him play with the males. He was about 19 at the time. Later he acheived a rating of 2700+. I think he could have gotten better if he had decided to live in Europe continuously. That is the only way an American can get better than that.

Interestingly, he told me that playing with the girls developed his game a lot because it pointed out many of his weaknesses.
 
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Not a great fan of the bang bang backhand style either, and I think that the difference between the two Ding/Hirano encounters was Ding's refusal to play predominantly the BBBH in the second one. Watching the Ding Ning/Sun Yingsha match, the final of the Chinese Open, is very rewarding. Sun is very likely the future of Chinese women's table tennis, and is able to play the versatile, all court style like Ding Ning. Her only weakness is limited experience. I suspect that within a very few years, more women will be playing like that, to compete in the top ranks.
 
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Great post! I have often thought watching women is a bigger help than watching men. Different but when I played golf quite a bit I also thought watching women golfers was more helpful than watching the men since there game is closer. And completely of topic but my wife played a lot of volleyball and she likes watching women's volleyball better because the points are longer, I also like watching women's volleyball better but for completely different reasons:) This could be a personal thing but watch the very fast pace women's Tt game address (if I'm honest) my personal Weaknesses which is recovering and body positioning for the next shot and really I began thinking this after playing high lel players with excellent ball quality. I do watch more men's matches and players but I often think about how unrealistic it would be for myself or anyone I know to pull off consistently the shots top men players are doing. I'm pretty tall and I don't play right at the table like the women do but seeing the shorter compact swings I think for me is often a better model to try and emulate.


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do not be deceived by what you watch on tv. a friend of mine who played in the world championships have played against a top female player and said that even though what you see on tv seems weak, their counter loops are very spinny and fast compared to a regular high level player that are not world class.
 
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Actually, over the last years when Tanja´s club Busenbach faced Kolbermoor in the Bundesliga, as a fan of power table tennis and spin variation you wouldn´t miss a thing, let alone a man.
Tanja (with excellent service variation and spin game) along with Jessica Göbel (a both sided power player) against Sabine Winter and Kristin Lang (formerly Silbereisen), who has one of the most beautiful over the table spin backhand techniques I have seen so far.
No hopping, no high speed countering, no little girl squeaks. Just four women playing real cool table tennis.
 
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I post there, because I feel it fits the women's TT theme.
Li Xiaoxia played a match against Ren Hao, who's a superleague player and as far as I see, he is a common training partner for Ma Long.


As you can see, LXX beat him. The level gap between genders is pretty small, though top men probably would beat every women. A good footage of Ren Hao training match with ML.

 
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