says
editing a big TTD Team episode... stay tuned 👀
says
editing a big TTD Team episode... stay tuned 👀
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This article translation has been done by MYtt member Opinari over at mytabletennis.net
Hi all, for fun and to hone up on my Chinese, I'm translating the cover article in last month's Table Tennis World magazine.
The article is named "Ma Long: A Neverending Book", which the reporter has split into seven "chapters". Whenever I have some free time, I'll try to translate another chapter for all to enjoy. Just to note, the translation will be a bit loose for readability's sake and I've added some words to make it flow better (for example, the title of the article would literally translate to "Ma Long: An Unending and Continuing Tome").
Ma Long: A Never-Ending Book
Author: Chen Sijing
Photo by: Qi Dazheng
First Chapter: Silence
Facing the failure to achieve his heart's goal, Ma Long met his failure with silence. The final between Zhang Jike and Wang Hao had just ended and his teammates who had watched the final were leaving to call for rides back to the hotel. He alone remained standing quietly by the edge of the playing field, motionless, just staring at the table.
When you read the "book" of Ma Long, your first impression will be that Ma Long is like a quiet child. Even when flush with excitement after win, his responses to reporters are curt and short. One wonders if his independence at such an early age gave him this air of silence.
Several years ago when Guan Hua-an [Note: One of Ma Long's first coaches] was interviewed, he told one of the first stories he remembered about Ma Long. At a large table where everyone seated was noisily talking and eating, Ma Long sat there silently playing a handheld videogame, never getting a word in edgewise or making any fuss.
When Ma Long was young though, he would not only cry when he lost, but would snatch his paddle up and hound his opponent to ask for another game - he had to win it back. As he grew up though, this personality seemingly disappeared. Now when he loses, Ma Long willingly and silently faces his loss alone.
Ma Long has let drop before though that he sometimes cries after losing a match. Perhaps when one dwells so long on the loss, it's easier for the tears to flow. Afterwards of course, Ma Long's not the one to admit to anything. He'll just vaguely say, "I was just dumbfounded, didn't do anything, wasn't thinking of anything."
Last year, after he made off with the gold medal in Men's Singles for the Asian Games, he let his guard down and bared some old scars. He said: "I'm finally now, no matter what, a singles champion in a major tournament." Beforehand, Ma Long's greatest achievement had been limited to a doubles gold medal at the Chinese National Games, so he constantly worried that his achievements were the butt of everyone's jokes. For Ma Long, normally so silent, to painstakingly say something like this reveals just how unbearable it was for him.
After the Asian Games though, Ma Long's achievements gradually became silent as well. At the beginning of the year, he attended two Pro Tour opens. At Qatar, he lost 0:4 to Xu Xin and then at Dubai, 2:4 to Wang Hao. In neither tournament was he the champion.
During the closed training sessions to prepare the World Championships at Rotterdam, Liu Guoliang made the team implement "devil" training and sought to challenge jet lag itself. First, they waited until midnight before starting the training. Players would then sleep at 2:00am and then get up at 5:00am to prepare for 7:00am matches. Not only that, the opponents for each match were specially selected by the coaches, forcing the team members to play the players they had the most trouble with.
Ma Long's opponent was Yan An. He lost. Even worse, Liu Guoliang called him aside to have words with him one on one.
"At that time, I was uncomfortable playing against Yan An and Fang Bo. In order to jolt us, Coach Liu treated our normal practice as a competition. Slowly but surely, through our training we found the jolt that we needed. For half a month after the closed training session, I was pretty much constantly trying to train with Fang Bo and Yan An, these young players against whom I play a bit awkwardly. I experienced this mixed sensation. I really didn't want to lose to these young players, but at the same time, it was really uncomfortable playing them. Just everyday I trained like that. In the end, it might have rubbed off and made me a better player mentally."
But when he arrived at Rotterdam, Ma Long still could not break out.
During the singles competition, Ma Long was always calm. Of course, there's no way to tell whether he was actually calm inside, but it's as he says. For Ma Long, whether nervous or calm, he keeps it inside of himself, showing nothing to the outside world. Since he was ranked fifth in the world, if he wanted to get his first chance to enter the Olympics, he had to win the tournament. This was the unspoken, tacit understanding between him and Qin Zhijian. [Note: Qin Zhijian is Ma Long and Xu Xin's coach.]
Ma Long has always wanted to become World Champion since he was young, but then was the first time you could really feel an imposing air all about him. Qin Zhijian said, "That's the killer spirit."
Ma Long lost 2:4 to Wang Hao, but felt that he gave everything and played very well considering. Qin Zhijian agreed with him.
Although he lost, Qin Zhijian could see the progress: "When he's playing and he faces the possibility of winning or losing and other difficulties, he's no longer as overcautious as he used to be. When there's pressure from the score, he also appears much calmer than before. In the past, he played better when leading, but would fall apart as his opponent caught up. I feel at Rotterdam, he's already shown what he's learned from the closed training sessions. Whether it's his technique or his mental game, he's made progress, so I'm not one bit dissatisfied with him."
Qin Zhijian did say though, "The only thing is that last time at the World Championships at Yokohama, he also lost to Wang Hao. After a loss, one should still learn from the experience."
So having failed to meet his heart's goal, Ma Long still relies on silence to face the loss. After the final between Zhang Jike and Wang Hao, when all of his teammates are calling for rides to return to the hotel, he stood there alone - doing nothing, but standing there silently, staring at the table.
Ma Long doesn't admit that he acted like that afterwards, perhaps out of embarrassment or perhaps because at that time his mind went blank - he can't recall what happened then.
"Not getting into the finals was quite a regret for me. It's as if I was actually seeing my chances of playing in the Olympics getting further and further away from me."
Ill keep you updated for the second chapter guys
Hi all, for fun and to hone up on my Chinese, I'm translating the cover article in last month's Table Tennis World magazine.
The article is named "Ma Long: A Neverending Book", which the reporter has split into seven "chapters". Whenever I have some free time, I'll try to translate another chapter for all to enjoy. Just to note, the translation will be a bit loose for readability's sake and I've added some words to make it flow better (for example, the title of the article would literally translate to "Ma Long: An Unending and Continuing Tome").
Ma Long: A Never-Ending Book
Author: Chen Sijing
Photo by: Qi Dazheng
First Chapter: Silence
Facing the failure to achieve his heart's goal, Ma Long met his failure with silence. The final between Zhang Jike and Wang Hao had just ended and his teammates who had watched the final were leaving to call for rides back to the hotel. He alone remained standing quietly by the edge of the playing field, motionless, just staring at the table.
When you read the "book" of Ma Long, your first impression will be that Ma Long is like a quiet child. Even when flush with excitement after win, his responses to reporters are curt and short. One wonders if his independence at such an early age gave him this air of silence.
Several years ago when Guan Hua-an [Note: One of Ma Long's first coaches] was interviewed, he told one of the first stories he remembered about Ma Long. At a large table where everyone seated was noisily talking and eating, Ma Long sat there silently playing a handheld videogame, never getting a word in edgewise or making any fuss.
When Ma Long was young though, he would not only cry when he lost, but would snatch his paddle up and hound his opponent to ask for another game - he had to win it back. As he grew up though, this personality seemingly disappeared. Now when he loses, Ma Long willingly and silently faces his loss alone.
Ma Long has let drop before though that he sometimes cries after losing a match. Perhaps when one dwells so long on the loss, it's easier for the tears to flow. Afterwards of course, Ma Long's not the one to admit to anything. He'll just vaguely say, "I was just dumbfounded, didn't do anything, wasn't thinking of anything."
Last year, after he made off with the gold medal in Men's Singles for the Asian Games, he let his guard down and bared some old scars. He said: "I'm finally now, no matter what, a singles champion in a major tournament." Beforehand, Ma Long's greatest achievement had been limited to a doubles gold medal at the Chinese National Games, so he constantly worried that his achievements were the butt of everyone's jokes. For Ma Long, normally so silent, to painstakingly say something like this reveals just how unbearable it was for him.
After the Asian Games though, Ma Long's achievements gradually became silent as well. At the beginning of the year, he attended two Pro Tour opens. At Qatar, he lost 0:4 to Xu Xin and then at Dubai, 2:4 to Wang Hao. In neither tournament was he the champion.
During the closed training sessions to prepare the World Championships at Rotterdam, Liu Guoliang made the team implement "devil" training and sought to challenge jet lag itself. First, they waited until midnight before starting the training. Players would then sleep at 2:00am and then get up at 5:00am to prepare for 7:00am matches. Not only that, the opponents for each match were specially selected by the coaches, forcing the team members to play the players they had the most trouble with.
Ma Long's opponent was Yan An. He lost. Even worse, Liu Guoliang called him aside to have words with him one on one.
"At that time, I was uncomfortable playing against Yan An and Fang Bo. In order to jolt us, Coach Liu treated our normal practice as a competition. Slowly but surely, through our training we found the jolt that we needed. For half a month after the closed training session, I was pretty much constantly trying to train with Fang Bo and Yan An, these young players against whom I play a bit awkwardly. I experienced this mixed sensation. I really didn't want to lose to these young players, but at the same time, it was really uncomfortable playing them. Just everyday I trained like that. In the end, it might have rubbed off and made me a better player mentally."
But when he arrived at Rotterdam, Ma Long still could not break out.
During the singles competition, Ma Long was always calm. Of course, there's no way to tell whether he was actually calm inside, but it's as he says. For Ma Long, whether nervous or calm, he keeps it inside of himself, showing nothing to the outside world. Since he was ranked fifth in the world, if he wanted to get his first chance to enter the Olympics, he had to win the tournament. This was the unspoken, tacit understanding between him and Qin Zhijian. [Note: Qin Zhijian is Ma Long and Xu Xin's coach.]
Ma Long has always wanted to become World Champion since he was young, but then was the first time you could really feel an imposing air all about him. Qin Zhijian said, "That's the killer spirit."
Ma Long lost 2:4 to Wang Hao, but felt that he gave everything and played very well considering. Qin Zhijian agreed with him.
Although he lost, Qin Zhijian could see the progress: "When he's playing and he faces the possibility of winning or losing and other difficulties, he's no longer as overcautious as he used to be. When there's pressure from the score, he also appears much calmer than before. In the past, he played better when leading, but would fall apart as his opponent caught up. I feel at Rotterdam, he's already shown what he's learned from the closed training sessions. Whether it's his technique or his mental game, he's made progress, so I'm not one bit dissatisfied with him."
Qin Zhijian did say though, "The only thing is that last time at the World Championships at Yokohama, he also lost to Wang Hao. After a loss, one should still learn from the experience."
So having failed to meet his heart's goal, Ma Long still relies on silence to face the loss. After the final between Zhang Jike and Wang Hao, when all of his teammates are calling for rides to return to the hotel, he stood there alone - doing nothing, but standing there silently, staring at the table.
Ma Long doesn't admit that he acted like that afterwards, perhaps out of embarrassment or perhaps because at that time his mind went blank - he can't recall what happened then.
"Not getting into the finals was quite a regret for me. It's as if I was actually seeing my chances of playing in the Olympics getting further and further away from me."
Ill keep you updated for the second chapter guys
