Unusual Ranking Fact - Ma Long

Awesome!
Ma Long always be my Best Player

Haha this is so amazing I have to laugh about this

Is this what they call overkill? haha

That actually makes sense. If you think about it. The CNT as well as other Top 10 players are of the highest caliber. They are all able to beat each other and most certainly the rest of the world, but the CNT just has a much higher percentage than the rest of the players. These are the levels of play I would rate based on continents and a few countries.

China - is at a class of their own. Sure you even have Ma Long who's even higher than the average CNT players or even higher than some of the highest CNT players, but they're clearly at the top.

Timo - is above the levels of Asia and Europe because he has a style that specifically positions him there. He is the player who is best knowledgeable at beating the CNT players. There are very few players who have in the Modern Era beaten CNT players on a good ratio basis.

Asia - is clearly next in line with producing high level players. You have Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan all of which take up the rest of the top 20 in the World.

Germany - Then you have quite a few top 20 German players that are also at a level much higher than the rest of Europe.

Europe - There are a few other countries that have top notch players in the top 20, but fail to reproduce those players. Still the levels of play is very competitive, but below the above levels of play. It's no wonder China does so well as they have only to fear a few players from each level where as Europe must take into account everyone above them.

Pacific Islands & India - Players from India, Australia and New Zealand and many of the islands in that area of the world all rate at much higher levels than the remaining because their records speak for themselves. They actually have systems in place and produce players that are of a much higher caliber than the remaining regions. This is most likely because of their close proximity to the Asian countries that are quite high on the list.

North America - While not high on the list their ability to produce top juniors speaks for itself.

South America - Again with out systems in place they don't produce high level players, but certainly have a good immigrant population that are starting to produce better systems.

Middle East & Africa - These areas are obviously the least organized and produce average level players, but fail to produce them in high quantity.

Maybe you shouldn't look at it that way, but in percentage? I don't actually know how they make the rankings

Rankings are usually based in tournaments played then with wins and losses. This is just an example, but it's how the ratings are processed for matches between 2 players within 250 ranking points of each other. Really it's only meant for the highest level of play, but as the U.S. has a lot of fluctuations that isn't the case. Based on the scale here each player is rated at the level of which is judged from a coach. So if an unrated player comes in and beats say a 1500 rated player, but loses to a 1600 rated player they would set the rating to around 1500-1550. Then after the all the wins and losses are recorded they can adjust the starting rating accordingly. At the international level I believe the ratings start based on the highest players you've beaten. If you beat say a 2000 rated ITTF player and lose to a 2100 ITTF rated player you would start at around 2000. If you however lose to an 1800 rated player, upset the 2000 rated player and also beat another 1800 rated player you would start at around 1800 and then adjust from the ITTF scale similar to that of the one below.

[Rating Difference] [Expected Result] [Upset Result]

00-12 8 8
13-37 7 10
38-62 6 13
63-87 5 16
88-112 4 20
113-137 3 25
138-162 2 30
163-187 2 35
188-212 1 40
213-237 1 45
238 and up 0 50

Another unusual statistic:

You may or may not be aware that percentage of Right:Left handed people in the world is 93:7
This surprised me a great deal when I first learned it! The reason is because in Table Tennis there are many more left handers than 7% of players.

I had a look at this month's world rankings and found the ratio to be 69:31 which is over 4x the normal percentage of Lefties!

The lefties are taking over

Waiting for this guy to reach the top 100
http://www.ittfranking.com/cgi-bin/ttplayer.cgi?number=103585&lang=0&format=detailed

It is actually not weird, since the players in the top-10 have so many points, the margins are not comparable to 100+. If you are 100+ you will maybe barely ever make it to the main draw, while top-10 players reach the quarterfinals at least most of the time. The difference in points allocated is just too big to make the comparison. As Filip said, it would be better to compare the differences in percentages, to give a more realistic view on this.

TT Guru said:

Another unusual statistic:

You may or may not be aware that percentage of Right:Left handed people in the world is 93:7
This surprised me a great deal when I first learned it! The reason is because in Table Tennis there are many more left handers than 7% of players.

I had a look at this month's world rankings and found the ratio to be 69:31 which is over 4x the normal percentage of Lefties!

Click to expand...

Great stat Matt

TT Guru said:

Another unusual statistic:

You may or may not be aware that percentage of Right:Left handed people in the world is 93:7
This surprised me a great deal when I first learned it! The reason is because in Table Tennis there are many more left handers than 7% of players.

I had a look at this month's world rankings and found the ratio to be 69:31 which is over 4x the normal percentage of Lefties!

Click to expand...

really nice

That actually makes sense to me because many right handers in sports in general choose or are taught to compete lefty because in general left handers are more rare and therefore have an advantage. A righty who fights south paw is a very dangerous type of fighter. A lefty hitter in Baseball is in general 2 strides closer to first base. A lefty in Tennis provides more easier service and tactically provides more opening forehands on service. In TT it's the same as there are far less lefties to play than righty's giving them the ideal tactical mindset to play in a match.

Barney Reed Jr., is a righty who was taught to play lefty because of the advantage it gave him.

It is said that Mizutani is also a righty who was taught to play lefty by his father.

Xu Xin too, I guess.
If I remember correctly, his coach saw him having more power with the left handed shots.

WiWa said:

It is said that Mizutani is also a righty who was taught to play lefty by his father.

Click to expand...

Whoa whoa wait what!!??

Thanks for the info WiWa
Thats amazing.. and shocking!

WiWa said:

It is actually not weird, since the players in the top-10 have so many points, the margins are not comparable to 100+. If you are 100+ you will maybe barely ever make it to the main draw, while top-10 players reach the quarterfinals at least most of the time. The difference in points allocated is just too big to make the comparison. As Filip said, it would be better to compare the differences in percentages, to give a more realistic view on this.

Click to expand...

TT Guru said:

Another unusual statistic:

You may or may not be aware that percentage of Right:Left handed people in the world is 93:7
This surprised me a great deal when I first learned it! The reason is because in Table Tennis there are many more left handers than 7% of players.

I had a look at this month's world rankings and found the ratio to be 69:31 which is over 4x the normal percentage of Lefties!

Click to expand...

Wow incredible stat! I wonder if this is similar with Tennis? ^_^

I wonder what causes this,,,, coincidence or...?

JustAlt said:

Xu Xin too, I guess.
If I remember correctly, his coach saw him having more power with the left handed shots.

Click to expand...

Interesting, I wonder if Xu Xin trained with his right hand he would still be World class (World number 5)?

WiWa said:

It is said that Mizutani is also a righty who was taught to play lefty by his father.

Click to expand...

Thanks WiWa.. someone needs to interview all the left handed players in the top 100 to find out why there are so many. Maybe its because left handers are different and rarer as some members have suggested