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FZD has really been struggling in the CSL lately. He seems to be out of shape mentally.
Really? In that Calderano defeat he seemed simply outgunned. That must have been a shocking new experience.
One of the things I think with the subject is that, it is a bit problematic and odd that people look at the sport from the lens of National Team instead of players.
I like to see good play. When two players are competitive with each other, I like to watch. When one player is significantly better than the other, it is not as interesting to watch. I feel that is the case with lower levels as well as the top levels as long as the players in the match can play. So, even with decent club level players, if there is a match that is a good contest and you are not sure who is going to win for a decent amount of the match, it can be fun to watch.
But of course, when two of the best players in the world are playing against each other, and they are fighting toe to toe, that is quite often epic and poetic.
If you remove the idea of national teams and which country/team a player is from, the issue in this thread becomes much less of an issue. In Tennis they don't spend countless hours talking about which country a player comes from. The players that stand out, stand out. Their nationality may be mentioned on occasion. But it does not become a central focal point. Nobody is talking about how Serbia is so good regardless of how good Djokavic is.
This has to do with how table tennis is structured as a sport. But I just try to ignore it and like to watch good matches. When a match is an obvious blowout, which does happen a lot in TT, I am not sure it is worth watching.
Why are there so many blowouts at the top levels? Because TT is a game of levels. If you are one or two levels above someone you are playing, you can beat them easily and the win can look bad or ugly. And the players at the very top are really just fundamentally so much better than everyone else. They are trained right from a young age and have thousands of more hours of table time with good coaching and superb fundamentals. So, it makes sense they are better. But I don't really care what country they are playing for. I know. But I try and watch the play rather than watching the flag.
I guess it depends on the type of person you are. I personally find it interesting and exciting whenever someone wins against someone from the dominant nation. It's not something you see very often and it shakes things up. We see most of the time the top chinese players steamroll almost any foreigner they play against, so it's a breath of fresh air whenever we see otherwise, at least for me.See I agree I don't know why people look at nationality. I'm personally from America and I don't even know any famous players from here but I like watching TT to look at the players and their amazing skill which is how it is usually in most sports. I don't know whats the odd culture in TT to where people actually care about nationality.
See I agree I don't know why people look at nationality. I'm personally from America and I don't even know any famous players from here but I like watching TT to look at the players and their amazing skill which is how it is usually in most sports. I don't know whats the odd culture in TT to where people actually care about nationality.
FZD has really been struggling in the CSL lately. He seems to be out of shape mentally.
That maybe true, but I've noticed FZD is transitioning to a new style. Before, he would bend his body in unnatural ways to execute powerful shots close to the table. Now, he is doing much less of this. I believe he is realizing that he aggressive style is taking too much toll on his body, particularly his lower back (with all the bending). FZD is now attacking less, and instead he incorporates more techniques to control and surprise his opponent. For example, in his recent CSL match with Ovtcharov, he did three chop blocks intentionally. He chop blocked in the match with Yan An too. This is a sign that FZD is evolving from plain fast & furious to a style with more variety. Whether this is good for him or not remains to be seen.
I guess it depends on the type of person you are. I personally find it interesting and exciting whenever someone wins against someone from the dominant nation. It's not something you see very often and it shakes things up. We see most of the time the top chinese players steamroll almost any foreigner they play against, so it's a breath of fresh air whenever we see otherwise, at least for me.
It's not a TT thing. It's a sport thing. Even in eSports it's a thing.
I wrote a post exactly about the flag thing last year.It is not ONLY a TT thing. But it is not something that is in all sports. It is in futbol with the World Cup. It does not seem to be the case in Tennis which is an international sport and people are not thinking quite so much about what country the players play for.
These are 2018 major tennis tournament finals: In the first two videos, the nationality is not listed next to the name of the player in the score. Nationality may be mentioned. But it is not something that is fully focused on.
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So, even while nationality is mentioned and present in tennis, people are not focusing on which national team won the final. They are more focused on which PLAYER won or was in the final.
Leaving team competitions aside, in TT I think it would help people's ability to enjoy the sport if, in tournaments the fans focused a little more on the players and a little less on the nationality. It is just my opinion. But, I do hope it helps some of the people who get stuck on feelings about China's dominance in the sport.
...I don't know if people have noticed, but the ITTF has stopped putting national flags/country codes next to player names on livestream/TV broadcast for the World Tour since India Open 2017, which was in February. They do it only for the WTTC and World Cup now.
In an interview in Mar 2017, Frank Ji talked about how the national identity in China is actually a hindrance to the global development of table tennis.
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"Sports like football and basketball use the market-economy approach, and for the market in China, their own models are more mature in all aspects. Table tennis, OTOH, is dominated by China, but we value national glory more than commercial development, which has hindered the development of business value for the sport around the globe" said Ji Wenyuan. "As the rest of the world becomes weaker and weaker, that'll also hurt us. Hence, the reform is systems engineering. Seamaster is also willing to work with the ITTF to build the system together."
I wrote a post exactly about the flag thing last year.
https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...g-Announcement&p=237010&viewfull=1#post237010