Why do Asian tt players mature earlier than Europeans?

I guess the answer would be stricter regime (I mean sports rigoristic training). Consider reading this article.

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...opeans-Actually-More-Talented-in-Table-Tennis

Feel like the only obvious reason would be that they start to train earlier and for more hours. So Europeans need to become older to get in all the hours. Feel like Europeans almost is more talented since they probably have trained much less hours and probably with not as good conditions as the Chinese and some can still compete with them?

I believe it is more or less discipline, and stricter regime. During a international tournament in Sweden for youths, I saw a Chinese coach have a serious, and strict, talk with a younger chinese player; it ended up with the chinese kid running away crying. If a Swedish coach would do this, there would definitely be consequences from this.

The talented TT kids will be going to full time TT academies and skip regular school all together. Yes this way they are more TT mature earlier than same age kids of other countries.

With the amount of high level players in china, japan and south korea, it is easy to understand the importance of being exposed to these levels at an earlier age. That is aside from the level of training.

I agree with above that there are culture differences. Would be interesting to hear about bad mental health in Asia. Seem to be alot of pressure.

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"Asian players mature earlier"

Kim Kyung Ah, Han Ying, Shen Yanfei: "Hold my baby"

Fu Yu 39
Han Ying 36
Ni Xialian 56

hleett said:

The talented TT kids will be going to full time TT academies and skip regular school all together. Yes this way they are more TT mature earlier than same age kids of other countries.

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A friend of mine who was in that system until he was 14 (on a junior provincial team in China) described it to me as "being sent to table tennis prison". He was released when they decided he wasn't good enough. It was only after he came to the US and was at the university here that he actually discovered that TT could be fun. Even now though he doesn't play much.

Probably the only thing like it here is women's gymnastics, which I've always thought verges on child abuse (and at the US Team camp was ACTUAL abuse, the perpetrator will never get outofprison, but for years complaints were ignored).

Li Jiao 42
Li Jie 31
Hu Melek 26(too young!)

Li Jiao 41
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AFLC8SgQLg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69fV7E8LcqY

Li Jiao 38
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIeMFJ488ow

Baal said:

A friend of mine who was in that system until he was 14 (on a junior provincial team in China) described it to me as "being sent to table tennis prison". He was released when they decided he wasn't good enough. It was only after he came to the US and was at the university here that he actually discovered that TT could be fun. Even now though he doesn't play much.

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It is really depressing. The amount of Chinese players who have been through this system who loathe the game is shocking. The ones who aren't lucky enough to get released but also not good enough to move onto the national level have it pretty rough too - the provincial team will have a large degree of control over their life and their future becomes set.

I think the loss of the enjoyment factor and brutal training regime is in fact the main factor.

But I think given the thread seems to be in the topic of not just why they mature faster, but why they seem to peak earlier. Then in addition to this, also because younger players are also going through the same system as the older players have gone through. Only more refined, and with some of what your generation might have included as 'innovations', as just for the younger generation 'basic skills' you need to have.

So once you are past your physical peak, the very systems that made you successful have been slightly improved, and are now churning out young players who train on all the things you know how to do, except they started learning them and integrating it into their game at a younger age, and they are physically, still yet to reach, or are at their peak. The very system that pushed you to your best, is now your biggest competition, it knows everything you know, and is working on fresher canvasses with a new iteration of the technique used to make you.

I wonder how old the OP is? Try looking up the age of those European players when they won the WTTC and World Cup in the 80s and 90s. Also check out the players at Seoul 1988. Boll would've been just another player back in the days. Take Samsonov, for example, who actually peaked really early. He reached the singles final at the WTTC 1997 at the age of 21, after getting past 4 CNT players - Ma Lin(R32), Wang Liqin(R16), Ding Song(QF), Kong Linghui(SF, defending champion), to meet Waldner. At the Atlanta 1996, he was 2:0(21 pts, best of 5) against Wang Tao in the QF when the power went out, twice!

The reason you feel Asian players mature and/or peak earlier is just because Europe has been in this weak state for over a decade. There has hardly been any new blood to replace these "uncles". Europe as a whole was historically the strongest from the 80s to mid-90s and could go toe to toe with China when all those legends were in their 20s. China was arguably the most dominant from 2005 to 2011, because of Beijing 2008. CNT players are also maturing and peaking later now because their overall strength is actually WEAKER now, despite still being dominant. Ma Long was playing on one leg at the World Cup 2019 and only Harimoto and Lin Yun-Ju managed to beat him. There was a Tieba thread some 2 weeks ago asking why the young guns are having trouble making a name for themselves now and from the replies I could tell many of them are too young to know what they're talking about.

zeio said:

Li Jiao 42
Li Jie 31
Hu Melek 26(too young!)

Li Jiao 41
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AFLC8SgQLg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69fV7E8LcqY

Li Jiao 38
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIeMFJ488ow

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Don't forget Li Fen in Sweden. Unsure when she lost (if she's ever lost) her last match in our league. I just check 19/20 and her stats were 13-0, 18/19 9-0.

Her Swedish wikipedia article says that she went 118-0 between 2002-2005.

Zeio as usual makes great points. Somebody should remind me, are there ANY really young German players worth keeping an eye on? Swedish?

Baal said:

Zeio as usual makes great points. Somebody should remind me, are there ANY really young German players worth keeping an eye on? Swedish?

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I guess that Truls is not "really young" any more but Waldner always holds him in very high regards in interviews. Some people say that David Björkryd will be our next star. He will be playing in the second highest league at the age of 14 this season.