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Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of Kanak , his attitude , his perseverance and his love for the game. I have watched him grow in the last 6-7 years in the bay area and at some point he used to train on the next table ( 2-3 years back ) ... in fact a couple of months back he was training in the next table and it was a spectacle to watch his power and speed . We got chatting a little bit when he was doing his cool down exercises and he even complimented me on one particular point with my opponent where I got a spinny trickle on my far forehand back with an impromptu chop .. it was one of my happiest moments.. kudos to him and his parents .. he is still the same humble , soft spoken kid with limitless love for the game !! .. so don't count him out yet .. I saw some rude comments around him an decided to ignore them because most people like to play macho on the internet without any idea on how much work, sweat and tears these players put in behind the scenes ...
There should be no doubt around his mental toughness , for people who have not followed his matches, he has remarkable grit and stamina to turn the tables on the opponent .. if you have doubts check out his finals from Olympic qualification against Canada and the Nationals a couple of years back .. you will know what he is capable of mentally ...
Now, when you are somebody's supporter you want him to grow and become better .. and I have the same feeling . What I saw was that Kanak was going for blocks , and punches on the backhand for the entire game. I want to see him loop on the backhand more, somehow I feel he is seeing the ball a little late on the backhand and is taking it more on the left shoulder than the middle , I am sure his coaches would be working on this or I may be completely wrong on my assessment , what do we know of International Level Table tennis ? I just felt that if his idol is who he says, that is Chuang Chi-Yuan he should try to take a leaf out of his book and start playing more backhand close to the table loops. These juniors are only going to get stronger and in future he will have trouble if he cannot initiate attacks from the backhand more ..
There should be no doubt around his mental toughness , for people who have not followed his matches, he has remarkable grit and stamina to turn the tables on the opponent .. if you have doubts check out his finals from Olympic qualification against Canada and the Nationals a couple of years back .. you will know what he is capable of mentally ...
Now, when you are somebody's supporter you want him to grow and become better .. and I have the same feeling . What I saw was that Kanak was going for blocks , and punches on the backhand for the entire game. I want to see him loop on the backhand more, somehow I feel he is seeing the ball a little late on the backhand and is taking it more on the left shoulder than the middle , I am sure his coaches would be working on this or I may be completely wrong on my assessment , what do we know of International Level Table tennis ? I just felt that if his idol is who he says, that is Chuang Chi-Yuan he should try to take a leaf out of his book and start playing more backhand close to the table loops. These juniors are only going to get stronger and in future he will have trouble if he cannot initiate attacks from the backhand more ..
Kanak was ranked #2, and has competed well against his peers on the junior circuit. People who focus think the ranking is biased underrated him but I never once doubted that his seeding was deserved. In the end, matchups matter and seeding based on performance reflects that.
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