Adam Bobrow vs Lin Gaoyuan...

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I have come to accept his commentary, which has improved. But I sure dont want to watch him play!
 
Adam was totally destroyed.

I am surprised Adam couldn't handle at all the topspin of LGY when drilling, because LGY wasn't trying to go too hard as well.

You know, I expected him to have trouble against the topspin, since they probably wouldn't play that way if it wasn't tough to deal with. But I am impressed with just HOW out of control it was, he wasn't missing by a few inches, it was flying all over the place.

And to think LGY isn't particularly well known for his away from the table play, people known for their forehand power like ML and FZD must have INSANE power on their topspins.
 
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for me it's not a problem that Adam Bobrow gets destroyed, that should be expected when you play against no 3 (and he is definitely a very very good player). For me it seems that Adam Bobrow lost the ability to play seriously and give his 100% due to "goofing" all the time...
It's actually his playing style. Sure, the lobbing action always triggers a reaction like: nah, this is only toying around. But we shouldn't forget that it can be part of all these strange playing styles that are possible and also successful in table tennis.

Just rewatch Michael Maze most dramatic comeback and watch "goofing around" destroy a whole table tennis career: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h3TfWvuIqG4&feature=youtu.be

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Yes, there can be players who win matched by going into voluntary lobbing and so on... but in general, that's not an optimal strategy (meaning that's a loosing strategy in the longer run against players of ~similar abilities), because if that wasn't the case, everyone would try to start defensive lobbing forcing the opponents into smashing instead of playing topspin to topspin game.

It worked (and works) well for Adam Bobrow because his main goal is to entertain and he is playing against weaker players and players who are not used to his unusual style (especially to his jaw dropping snake shots which are awesome). But if he comes against a good player and actually want's to win and not to entertain, it seems he can't switch to more optimal topsin to topspin game as he is so used to his lobbing and snakes
 
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for me it's not a problem that Adam Bobrow gets destroyed, that should be expected when you play against no 3 (and he is definitely a very very good player). For me it seems that Adam Bobrow lost the ability to play seriously and give his 100% due to "goofing" all the time...
If you think lobbing is goofing..
Just watch the second episode of TTD team video ;)
 
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yep and he will score 2 or 3 spectacular points against a good player in a match, to put in a video, and lose largely the match

:) Everybody looks like word beaters in editing.

Reading a few comments "Adam goofing around." Well 2 things.

1 - Yeah because he's playing the #3 ranked player in the world. It doesn't matter how he approaches it.
2 - And even more so, what people take as Adam goofing around is actually his style. And he fishes & lobs just about as good as I've seen. You have to at least appreciate his feel to get so many balls back on the table. That's not easy. Anyways, if Adam played a more traditional game, he wouldn't play as well. His strange style is part of his weapon and done on purpose. So to me, he isn't goofing around. He's just playing his game.
 
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Sure, if Adam played a more traditional TT style, and had trained for it instead of training for doing snakes and lobs, he'd be ranked 200 points higher, but then nobody would watch his videos
Yeah, and Matthias Falck would beat Ma Long had he learned a "proper" forehand. C'Mon. (-;

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Sure, if Adam played a more traditional TT style, and had trained for it instead of training for doing snakes and lobs, he'd be ranked 200 points higher, but then nobody would watch his videos

You don't sound like someone who has played a really good lobber in good lobbing conditions. Trust me, Jun Mizutani didn't just lob for nothing.
 
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I've played a lot of good lobbers. But I've never played against someone who could win just by lobbing who could not beat me easily playing the "normal" way.

btw all things being equal, I'm a bit better than players around my level against lobbers because I have a rather good FH smash. I see a lot of better players than me who can't smash at all, they just drive / topspin back those high balls. Its safer, but its much easier to get back for the lobber. The best player of our team is like 1.5 levels above me (at least ? - its very very difficult for me to beat him), he cannot smash at all ! i've seen him struggle indeed against a good lobber.
 
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I've played a lot of good lobbers. But I've never played against someone who could win just by lobbing who could not beat me easily playing the "normal" way.

btw all things being equal, I'm a bit better than players around my level against lobbers because I have a rather good FH smash. I see a lot of better players than me who can't smash at all, they just drive / topspin back those high balls. Its safer, but its much easier to get back for the lobber. The best player of our team is like 1.5 levels above me (at least ? - its very very difficult for me to beat him), he cannot smash at all ! i've seen him struggle indeed against a good lobber.
I have played quite a few guys whose main weapon against me is their lobs. The key thing is that they mess around with your level of practice against lobbing and they play different spins to mess with your timing. I have a decent forehand smash too but I appreciate the difficulty created by being forced to play to a different timing.

Sometimes people prefer to play slower so I really don't think you have played someone whose true strength is lobbing. The extra time to defend enables their consistency. If they played close to the table they would have to match their reaction time against yours. But with distance they get to play with your ability to time a ball that isn't coming directly into your paddle. Bobrow has good serve and thirdball variation but saying that people would be stronger not lobbing is like saying that people would be stronger not chopping.
 
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