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You’re ridiculously dumb famI think this OP is just a TROLL topic. Ridiculously dumb!
[...] Table tennis is a complicated sport where most of the secrets are revealed only when you are at the same/similar level and stand on the other side of the table ... for the rest of us mere mortals its an exercise in futility.
or may be the rubber technology and technique has improved to the point where they don't have to swing that hard ? ... this the exact point I was trying to make .. does not matter "how they look" ...
I have a suspicion that someone (probably working for CNT or JNT) does have some hard analytics data to quantify it in terms of speed/spin/error %/FH win % or something similar, but this is not readily available, right? And if we don't, then it's just arguing whether green color is 'better' than blue, or perhaps that C. Ronaldo is 'better' than Messi (I don't have opinion on either question).
Maybe you meant it the other way TTMonster, but I find this idea quite upsetting to be honest with you : ) I mean if I was a total layman, didn't play the game and barely watch it, it might be true. But if I'm being involved, practice once or twice a week and watch most of the tournaments on a regular basis - can't agree here. Of course I never faced Ma Long and there's a big chance I never will, but I had a taste of what o proper shot looks like and what it takes to execute it properly. I've seen Ma playing against the number of opponents. The rest is my (or should I say ours) modelling, approximation and imagination. And isn't this how the world works? Isn't it i.e. how the science is done in some sense?
Might superficially agree here ; ) But this is exactly why I prefer Asian or Chinese philosophy of this particular stroke, than Euro/Jap style. The latter one relies too much on the rubber ability to generate spin and speed. Asian style is more physically demanding, but leaves you more room for a variety. It's like a difference between automatic and manual transmission.
Also great point Pgpg, but even this guy with those statistics would not know everything ... The stats would always be incomplete in some sense. He would have to know from what position the stroke was played, what was the spin on the ball, it's velocity. And even knowing this, they would probably have to add what type of body transition the player had to make, and so on ... what I'm trying to say is that the "stroke" would always be entangled into the game in some sense and not that easy to be extracted in a "pure" form. So I think, we are here in the business of a philosophy a little ...
The definition of the perfect fh will always change and I think with the new balls it might be changing in front of our very own eyes ...
Well der echte you can see it vs choppers. Even Karakasevic and Kreanga run to the forehand mostly vs choppers. Also Schlager!
I mean all your post, just wanted to save some space : )Nice post @jawien .... I think you are sometimes vacillating between the "perfect forehand" and the "best forehand" ... to give you an extreme example in tennis Roger Federer has the perfect form but Del Potro owns the "Hammer" .. you know what I mean ? same in table tennis .. perfect form does not always mean the best .. perfect form means its beautiful to watch and its a very efficient implementation of the technique ... []
Different players have different forehands which means they will work better Vs different people. The best forehand off the bounce attacker is different than the best forehand power looper vs attackers or forehand Vs defenders etc. It's complicated but we know the answer isn't some obscure lowly ranked player because they wouldn't be lowly ranked.