The End of Euro-Jap Table Tennis Is Sealed

Image posted by CCTV 5 Reporter Zhou Dao on her Weibo


http://www.ctta.cn/xhgg/qttz/2018/0927/184197.html

中国乒乓球协会公告
2018-09-27 15:26 中国乒乓球协会

　　为进一步深化体育改革，确保2020年东京奥运会各项备战工作的顺利进行，以改革“保备战、促备战、强备战”，中国乒乓球协会将进行实体化改革试点。为积极稳妥推进协会实体化改革进程，经研究，成立中国乒乓球协会第九届委员会换届筹备工作小组。

　　中国乒乓球协会副主席刘国梁担任工作小组组长并主持协会工作。中国乒乓球协会副主席雷军担任工作小组副组长，成员为柳屹、刘威、王励勤、张雷、秦志戬。

　　特此公告。

　　中国乒乓球协会

　　2018年9月27日

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China Table Tennis Association Announcement
2018-09-27 15:26 China Table Tennis Association

In order to further deepen the reform of sports and ensure the smooth progress of the preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the China Table Tennis Association will carry out a pilot project of materialization reform with the reform of "secure preparation for war, proactive preparation for war, and strong preparation for war." In order to actively and steadily promote the process of materialization reform of the association, after considerations, the preparatory working group for the transition to the 9th committee of the China Table Tennis Association has been established.

Liu Guoliang, vice chairman of the China Table Tennis Association, will serve as the team leader and preside over the work of the association. Lei Jun, vice chairman of the China Table Tennis Association, will serve as the deputy head of the working group. The members consist of Liu Yi, Liu Wei, Wang Liqin, Zhang Lei and Qin Zhijian.

You are hereby notified.

China Table Tennis Association

September 27, 2018

Oh, I was in the middle of fixing that. It should read "the preparatory working group for the transition to the 9th committee of the China Table Tennis Association has been established."

Here's what the reform is about. Basically, table tennis associations from around the world have the final say. Not the case with China, the CTTA is merely a rubber stamp, above it there is a Table Tennis & Badminton Sports Management Center that has de facto power. The Management Center is a state agency as opposed to a civilian organization that's typical of associations. Now with Gou Zhongwen in office, things are changing. The CTTA will be granted de facto power instead. The Badminton Association, Basketball Association, Volleyball Association, and others in China have undergone similar changes. Like Yao Ming who is in charge of Basketball matters now, LGL will be in charge of this transition for table tennis.

Excerpts taken from the interview with LGL. Make do with the machine translation by Google.

"乒乓球协会是试点，姚明带领篮球改革做得非常好，这次重新回归和以往还是有很多不同，现在到了协会很多是新鲜的事务，现在配合中心把职能更好的转换，不仅是在备战上，乒乓球有乒乓球的特点，不管是什么改革，还是以备战为主体，协会真正实体化后要做出自己的功能和效益，在深化改革的前提下压力还是很大的。"

"协会实体化改革过程中有很多新的东西需要摸索和改进，对于乒协来说还有两年的东京奥运会备战是重中之重，此外，实体化改革还要为社会做贡献，乒乓球运动群众基础广，成绩也比较好。"

"目前国乒在大赛上的成绩还是处在领先地位，但是过程中有一些起伏，新老交替，与以往不同的是多了一项混双，在这个项目上还没有完全把备战的战略投入到实际当中，混双牵涉到男女队，而且只有一队选手能够参赛，保险系数是最小的，是乒乓的第一块金牌，尽管备战奥运会有很多经验，但备战混双奥运还是第一次，有很多未知的东西。"

"亚运会比赛一直在关注，小将的表现非常好，年轻队员得到了很多参赛机会，在亚运会上年轻队员的技术水平和奥运冠军不相上下，但还需在世界大赛上得到更多检验，取得成绩欣喜之余还是要保持清醒的头脑。"

"已经一年三个月没有来球馆了，但是来到球馆依然很亲切，像回家一样，这两天已经睡不着了，会有一些忧虑，尽管对球队很熟悉，但是还是有很强的忧患意识，不能拿以前的经验套用现在的备战，更多看不到的隐患如何在两年中如何把战略布局完成。"

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"The table tennis association is a pilot. Yao Ming has done a very good job in reforming the basketball. This time there is still a lot of difference between the return and the past. Now many of the associations are fresh, and now the center is better to convert the functions, not only in preparation. On the table tennis, there is the characteristics of table tennis. No matter what reforms or preparations for the main body, the association must make its own functions and benefits after real materialization. Under the premise of deepening reform, the pressure is still great."

"There are many new things in the process of materialization reform of the association that need to be explored and improved. For the Table Tennis Association, there are two years of preparations for the Tokyo Olympics. In addition, the substantive reforms must contribute to society, table tennis. The sports masses have a broad base and good results."

"At present, Guoping's performance in the competition is still in a leading position, but there are some ups and downs in the process. The old and the new are alternated. What is different from the past is that there is more than one mixed double. In this project, the strategy of preparing for the war has not been fully invested. In practice, the mixed doubles involve the men’s and women’s teams, and only one team can compete. The insurance factor is the smallest. It is the first gold medal in Ping Pong. Although there is a lot of experience in preparing for the Olympic Games, it is the first time to prepare for the mixed Olympics. There are a lot of unknown things."

"The Asian Games competition has always been concerned, the performance of the youngsters is very good, the young players have got a lot of opportunities to participate in the game, the young players in the Asian Games technical level and the Olympic champions are comparable, but still need to get more tests in the world competition, When you are happy with your achievements, you still have to keep a clear head."

"I haven’t been to the arena for a year or three, but I’m still very kind to come to the arena. Like going home, I’ve been unable to sleep for two days. There will be some worries, even though I’m familiar with the team, there are still I have a strong sense of urgency, I can't use the previous experience to apply the current preparations, and how more hidden dangers can be achieved in two years."

It's all written there. Now your turn to do the homework. Go figure it on your own.

I understand it's hard for non-Chinese speaking members to understand, but folks in China get it.

OK, folks are hung up on LGL coming back, and if he'll be coaching. It's greater than that.

Take badminton for example. The scene could be described as a warring states period now, with the rise of Japan, Spain, India, Chinese Taipei and the re-emergence of Denmark, along with traditional teams such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Hong Kong. Yet, just several years back, China was crushing the competition. How did that happen?

Basically, after becoming the 1st and only country to sweep all 5 gold medals, with 2 silver and 1 bronze at London Olympics, many of the players should have retired, but Li Yongbo, the equivalent of LGL, decided to hold on to them and capitalized on their fame and commercial values. They would often appear on TV shows, ads and whatever. Before long, they started losing. At the Rio Olympics, the coach and player were caught arguing on the court during the technical timeout. In the end, China took home only 2 gold medals, 0 silver and 1 bronze. Later on, it was revealed internal management problems had long been an issue among players and coaches. Not long after Rio, Li Yongbo retired from head coach of the badminton team.

However, the harm has been done. It's too late. Japan, Spain and India have already established themselves. To give you a rough idea.

Carolina Marin of Spain - singles gold at World Champ in 2014, 2015, and 2018, gold medal at Rio Olympics
Pusarla Sindhu of India - singles silver at World Champ in 2017 and 2018, and silver medal at Rio Olympics
Nozomu Okuhara of Japan - singles gold at World Champ in 2017, and bronze medal at Rio Olympics.

Notice there's no Chinese woman on the Olympic podium. The men's side is not that better off, either.

Viktor Axelsen of Denmark - singles gold at World Champ in 2017
Kento Momota of Japan - singles gold at World Champ in 2018

Medal tally for Asian Games 2018 last month
MT - China, Indonesia, Japan/Chinese Taipei
WT - Japan, China, Indonesia/Thailand
MS - Indonesia, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia/Japan
WS - Chinese Taipei, India, India/Japan
MD - Indonesia, Indonesia, China/Chinese Taipei
WD - China, Japan, Indonesia/Japan
XD - China, Hong Kong, China/Indonesia

Back to table tennis, similar to Li Yongbo, LGL took advantage of the fame after Rio in much the same way. His negligence of Japan and Kong Linghui's problematic management of the women's team led to Miu Hirano winning at the World Cup and the ATTC. At this point, things were panning out more or less the same way it did for badminton.

What's worse is that after KLH's departure, LGL was forcibly removed without any apparent reason. Though he was quoted saying he could retire after Rio but sometime later said he didn't want to go into politics, which was the career path for Cai Zhenhua. He probably saw that coming. Either way, in the 1 year and 3 months without him, opinions that China's dominance is in decline have popped up more and more. The limited success enjoyed by Germany, Japan, and South Korea support that notion. LGL has said before that China is so strong because they have the world's best coaching team. Koki Niwa has mentioned multiple times that Chinese players have this aura around them. For a while, China lost both and appeared vulnerable. You could sense the entire team was in disarray.

But with LGL's return now, that fear of China will be reinforced. It's hard to imagine he will make the same mistake again. That's what I mean by the end of Euro-Jap table tennis. And people in China see that, too.

ZhouZhekai said:

To be fair, i would argue that period of vulnerability also existed before 2016 Olympics, and especially before the Golden Generation of Ma Long, Zhang Jike, Xu Xin, Fan Zhendong, and it is a return to a normal level after a dominance by these four athlethes not seen before to that extent of one country.

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Many in China would argue the golden generation belonged to WLQ, MLin and WH, instead. Together, these 3 literally kept the new wave of hope at bay(Boll, Samsonov and Chuang Chih-Yuan were touted as the new "3 Tigers" back around 2003 before the re-emergence of South Korea) and left not just Europe but the rest of the world in the weakest state ever when they passed on the baton to the current generation after WTTC 2011. A case in point, 6 of 8 quarterfinalists were from China, with Boll being the only European, that ultimately prompted the ITTF to reduce the quota per association from 2013 onward.

jawien said:

Zeio, so at one point you say LGL was removed from his position for no apparent reason (presumably political) and on the other hand you seem to suggest "the vulnerability period" started because "similar to Li Yongbo, LGL took advantage of the fame after Rio in much the same way. His negligence of Japan and Kong Linghui's problematic management". So which one is it? If in fact LGL did a charm, so why is he coming back and why such a hype ...

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This is the gulf between China and Europe. I don't have the patience to list out every detail in chronological order here. Just enjoy the next 2 years leading up to Tokyo Olympics. It's gonna be a thrill.