What Made Timo Boll SO GOOD?

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I read the Chinese made extreme efforts to beat timo when he came up like training non top prospects to play like timo and work as a sparring partner to figure him out. That is a big advantage the Chinese have, they usually hide their top prospects until they are 17-18 (with a few exceptions) but the rare non Chinese prodigies get studied early on since they are featured.

Harimoto has the same problem, he was a YouTube hit at age 12-13 which was good for his sponsor contracts but meant the Chinese were studying him since he was 12 thinking about plans to beat him, maybe even creating harimoto clones as sparring partners.

The Chinese did respect and fear young timo but they spent tons of money and time to find ways to beat him and figured him out. Same likely will happen with harimoto too, there are only like a handful of non Chinese guys that the Chinese fear so they can focus on those few guys and figure out strategies to beat them.

The Chinese players however usually just come up, play at the top for 5-6 years and then get replaced by the next wave so there is not as much time to figure them out as there is for the top euro players who tend to be at the top for 15+ years (waldner, samsonov, boll all played well till age 40 which almost no Chinese does).

Spend all the money and time you want to figure out Timo, don't worry you won't beat him. Same with Harimoto. It is important to place things in context. The analysis of opponents does explain aspects of Chinese dominance, but the skill level of the players is far more important. The best players in China are studied all the time by their coaches in league matches and when they play each other and it is not as Ma Long or Fan Zhendong or Xu Xin lose all the time internally, but miraculously become unbeatable internationally.
 
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Comments by CNT players on why Boll kept coming up short at the WTTC and Olympics, less than 4 months ahead of Beijing 2008.

https://sports.sohu.com/20080411/n256214607.shtml
国乒热捧波尔为头号劲敌 一软肋阻止其奥运爆发
2008-04-11 08:59

  当欧洲以及大洋州等地方的乒乓球奥运会预选赛落幕,北京奥运会乒乓球参赛阵容日渐清晰。近日中国乒乓球男队主教练刘国梁在谈到国乒在奥运会上的主要对手时,他没有提上届的奥运会冠军柳承敏,也没有提最近几个月风头正劲的白俄罗斯名将萨姆索洛夫。刘国梁认为波尔依然是最值得我们提防的对手。不过曾经在关键比赛中击败过波的几名国乒选手都认为,波尔关键时候球风偏软,这是他在大赛上取得好成绩的主要障碍。

  几年前德国国内的一家体育杂志做了一期关于波尔的报道,题目是《13亿人的对手》。的确,乒乓球是中国人的国球,乒乓球在中国至高无上的地位,是旁人难以撼动的。瑞典名将瓦尔德内尔在90年代前后与中国乒乓球队数代高手连续抗衡,被乒乓球发源地的欧洲认为是一段佳话。当老瓦离去之后,自然欧洲就需要一个出色的新秀来接过老瓦的大旗,2003年,欧洲人选择了波尔。但波尔刚登上世界第一的宝座不久,就遭遇了数名国乒非主力的连续冲击。

  2003年在法国巴黎举行的世乒赛上,踌躇满志的波尔在男单第二轮里出人意料地被刚刚18岁的四川小将邱贻可淘汰。那场失利直接让波尔陷入了长达近两年的低迷期,而邱贻可则名声大躁,风光一时。事后邱贻可回忆说:“波尔当时太紧张了,对于一些关键球的处理明显没有底气,我采用搏杀的战术,让他很怵。”2005年上海世乒赛,本是错过了雅典奥运会争冠的波尔证明自己的好机会,但遗憾的是在1/8决赛中他被另一名国乒黑马刘国正挡在八强之外。刘国正回忆当时那场比赛时说:“波尔性格比较软,到决胜局关键球的时候,他先是发了一个长球自己失误,我就明显感觉他的身体基本都是软的,果然我集中精力加快进攻速度,立即就追平比分,并反败为胜。”

  当然,波尔留给大家的不仅是他自己失败的苦楚。2005年下半年的男乒世界杯上,波尔连续战胜王励勤、马琳、王皓三位顶尖的中国好手,获得最终的冠军。虽然那距离现在已经有两年多时间,但波尔在欧洲乒坛的地位依然很值得我们关注。国乒主教练刘国梁认为,不能以为最近一段时间波尔在国际赛场上战绩不太好就忽视他。他说:“波尔即使状态不太好,我还是认为他的威胁性不逊色于萨姆索洛夫。”由于伤病等因素的困扰,波尔最近缺席了许多比赛,包括今年2月最重要的奥运模拟赛——广州世乒赛,在欧洲赛场甚至德国国内赛场,波尔不断被别人击败的消息不断传来。但哪些才是真相,哪些是这位性格有些内向、甚至怯弱的欧洲高手故意释放的烟雾弹?波尔非常勤劳刻苦,对乒乓球技术的转钻研精神,值得我们任何一位一线高手学习。

  刘国梁最佩服波尔的,就是他在欧洲那种教练水平以及训练水平都不太好,连陪练都难找到两个的地方,能好几年连续保持非常不错的竞技状态,是需要很顽强的毅力和天赋的。在竞技体育最残酷的对决中,像波尔这样勤奋又不失天赋的选手,或许真是国乒最值得留意、最值得研究的对象。(红星耀)
CNT Touts Boll as No. 1 Rival - One Weakness Obstructs His Olympic Outburst

Sohu Sports News - As the Olympic qualifiers in Europe and Oceania came to a close, the lineup for Beijing Olympics became increasingly clear. Recently, the CNT men's head coach Liu Guoliang spoke about the major opponents for the Olympic Games. He did not mention the last Olympic champion Ryu Seungmin, nor did he mention the popular Belarusian Samsonov that has been all the rage in recent months. Liu Guoliang believes that Boll is still the most worthy opponent to watch out for. However, several CNT players who had beaten Boll in key matches all believe that Boll's game tends to falter when it gets tight, which has been the main obstacle to his getting good results in major tournaments.

A few years ago, a certain German sports magazine made a report on Boll, titled "The Rival of 1.3 Billion People". Indeed, table tennis is the national sport of China, and the supremacy of table tennis in China is difficult for others to shake. Sweden's renowned player Waldner contended with several generations of CNT players in the 90's and is considered a legend in Europe, where table tennis originated. After Waldner left, Europe naturally needed an outstanding rookie to take the floor. In 2003, the Europeans chose Boll. However, not long after Boll had ascended to the throne of World No. 1, he was met with consecutive impacts from several non-core CNT players.

At the WTTC 2003 held in Paris, the aspired Boll was unexpectedly eliminated by the Sichuan young gun Qiu Yike, who was just 18 years old, in round 2 of the men’s singles. That defeat directly plunged Boll into a slump of nearly 2 years, whereas Qiu Yike made a name for himself. Afterwards, Qiu Yike recalled that "Boll was too nervous at the time, and he obviously had no confidence in the handling of some key points. I used the all-out-reckless tactics that got him very frustrated." At the WTTC 2005 in Shanghai, which was the perfect chance for Boll to prove his worth after the Athens Olympics, but unfortunately he was blocked by the other CNT dark horse Liu Guozheng from the quarterfinals. Liu Guozheng recalled that match and said: "Boll has a relatively soft character. When it got tight in the final game, he missed a long serve first. I obviously felt that his body was essentially soft. Sure enough, I picked up the pace, immediately tied the score, and made a comeback."

Of course, Boll has left everyone with more than just his own sufferings of failure. At the Men’s World Cup in the second half of 2005, Boll defeated Wang Liqin, Ma Lin and Wang Hao, three top Chinese players, to win the tournament. Although it has been more than 2 years since then, Boll's status in European table tennis is still worthy of our attention. Liu Guoliang, head coach of CNT, believes that he cannot ignore Boll's recent record in the international arena, saying "even if Boll is not in good shape, I still think he is not inferior to Samsonov." Due to injuries and other factors, Boll has recently missed many competitions, including the most important Olympic simulation tournament - WTTC in Guangzhou. In Europe and even in Germany, the news that Boll has been defeated by others keep coming through. But which ones are true, and which ones are smokescreens deliberately released by the somewhat introverted and even timid European players? Boll is very hard-working. The spirit of studying table tennis techniques is worth learning for any of our top players.

What Liu Guoliang admires most about Boll is that his coaching and training levels in Europe are far from the best, where it is difficult to find sparring partners, and to maintain a decent competitive state for several years requires very strong tenacity and talent. In the most brutal battle of competitive sports, a talented yet hard-working player like Boll may be the most noteworthy and worthy subject of research for the CNT. (Red Star Shine)


 
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He has used this blade to reinvent his shots into a perfect blend of spin and speed, made for quick receives on the spin, landing the ball deep on the table and to come out attacking on the counter
 
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