How is the women's game different from men?

[blahness]

Bernie is a quite spinny player too

To be fair, all of the top women players play with a lot of spin these days. In fact I think there some of Miwa Harimoto's topspin loops and it looks like it is even spinnier than certain players on the men's side....

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

• Oh my! Oh Gosh! Golly!
• Gozo often slaps / hit / smash / drive.
• Gozo often serve long and fast and then slap / hit / smash / drive.
• Gozo plays like a girl.
• Give me a minute to gain my compusure... I am having a gender identity issue right now!

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Bernie is a quite spinny player too

My fav Euro Female player. Just love watching her spin all day; she makes looping look so easy.

 

[Dominikk85]

Bernie is a quite spinny player too

I also read a report that annett kaufmann also scores very high on spin measurements.

However I think on average women hit flatter. We see that in tennis too.

This is kinda logical when you think about it. Spin and speed is a zero sum game, batspeed of the player is either going into translation or rotation of the ball. That means less spin the ball is going faster and more spin it is going slower off the bat.

Since women are a little weaker they will use a flatter hit to generate comparable or at least close to comparable ball speed. If they played too much spin the ball goes slow and with the plastic ball slow spin isn't so great.


The men however have excess strength, if they hit flat that will hit past the table so they can (and need to) put on a lot of spin on top of the fast ball.

I think us rec players probably still underrate the spin of those top women, they might play flatter then the men but even those flat close table hitters from Japan still have a lot of spin compared to an average rec player, just less then the top men have.

 

[Heming Hu]

speed and spin is NOT a zero sum game. If you blocked for xu xin or Zhang jike, you would quickly realise their balls come at you with speed and spin at the same time. Yes, they can exist seperately. But it does NOT mean that if you get more of one, you automatically get less of the other.

its simply not true. Even some credible people have said something like this in the past that if you get more spin, you get less speed, etc. But its simply not true. Marcos Freitas once said it but playing against HIM, you realise there are many times where he'll hit a shot at you and it'll come with incredible spin and power at the same time

Women don't get as much spin as men, due to having less strength. Yes, I wrote that correctly with no typo's. The more wrist speed and use you can generate on a ball at one given moment of impact, the more spin you get. Maybe in match play women go end up hitting shots that on average, travel through the air faster. However, I can guarantee you that on average, if Men and Women went into a contest to see how fast they could hit a table tennis ball, men would win no question. Provided there is no consequence for missing or not, the only measure being ball velocity.



Obviously this is a diverse topic. However, after decades coaching, I created a formula for spin

Spin = (Speed that the ball and rubber meets) x (amount of time the rubber and ball spends together)

I talk about these things in way more detail on my FREE skool community for those that want to see me prove it and talk about way more in depth discussions of fixing club level players' problems https://www.skool.com/pingpong

I also read a report that annett kaufmann also scores very high on spin measurements.

However I think on average women hit flatter. We see that in tennis too.

This is kinda logical when you think about it. Spin and speed is a zero sum game, batspeed of the player is either going into translation or rotation of the ball. That means less spin the ball is going faster and more spin it is going slower off the bat.

Since women are a little weaker they will use a flatter hit to generate comparable or at least close to comparable ball speed. If they played too much spin the ball goes slow and with the plastic ball slow spin isn't so great.


The men however have excess strength, if they hit flat that will hit past the table so they can (and need to) put on a lot of spin on top of the fast ball.

I think us rec players probably still underrate the spin of those top women, they might play flatter then the men but even those flat close table hitters from Japan still have a lot of spin compared to an average rec player, just less then the top men

 

[staysmart]

Obviously this is a diverse topic. However, after decades coaching, I created a formula for spin

Spin = (Speed that the ball and rubber meets) x (amount of time the rubber and ball spends together)

Physics already have a formula for friction that generate spin: Ffrict = µ • Fnorm

These forces are mainly affected by the surface texture and the amount of force impelling them together. Let's say the force is proportional and varies mainly depending on the speed that the ball and rubber meets, given the weight of the ball and racket are almost the same for all players. The µ depends on the surface of the rubber. Anti friction rubbers will generate, given the same hitting speed, less friction and less spin than spiny rubbers.
There are a lot of guys here that really know physics and can elaborate.

I would say that once he has chosen a racket to play with (weight and rubber are fixed), the player can vary the spin only by the speed and angle of the hit.

 

[Dominikk85]

speed and spin is NOT a zero sum game. If you blocked for xu xin or Zhang jike, you would quickly realise their balls come at you with speed and spin at the same time. Yes, they can exist seperately. But it does NOT mean that if you get more of one, you automatically get less of the other.

its simply not true. Even some credible people have said something like this in the past that if you get more spin, you get less speed, etc. But its simply not true. Marcos Freitas once said it but playing against HIM, you realise there are many times where he'll hit a shot at you and it'll come with incredible spin and power at the same time

Women don't get as much spin as men, due to having less strength. Yes, I wrote that correctly with no typo's. The more wrist speed and use you can generate on a ball at one given moment of impact, the more spin you get. Maybe in match play women go end up hitting shots that on average, travel through the air faster. However, I can guarantee you that on average, if Men and Women went into a contest to see how fast they could hit a table tennis ball, men would win no question. Provided there is no consequence for missing or not, the only measure being ball velocity.



Obviously this is a diverse topic. However, after decades coaching, I created a formula for spin

Spin = (Speed that the ball and rubber meets) x (amount of time the rubber and ball spends together)

I talk about these things in way more detail on my FREE skool community for those that want to see me prove it and talk about way more in depth discussions of fixing club level players' problems https://www.skool.com/pingpong

In a vaccum I definitely think it is a zero sum game. When you want to hit a ball as hard as you can you would slap it flat.

When it comes to hitting a ball on the table it obviously isn't a zero sum game, because you can't hit a zero spin ball with maximum speed or it will fly long.

That means pro men players need to hit with a lot of spin to get it on the table and they will hit it very hard and spinny because they have a lot of batspeed.

But still when they would just smash a ball flat against a wall it would be faster than it they hit l topspin but obviously smashing a ball into a wall doesn't make much sense in table tennis

 

[Marc!_]

I think women's games have more variety since they don't generate as much power as guys. For example, pips are more common.

 

[KTableTennis]

I think it’s that men use their rotational force more than women. Women tend to stay centered with the table

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

I think it’s that men use their rotational force more than women. Women tend to stay centered with the table

10-20 years ago maybe
now, women also use rotational force

 

[KTableTennis]

10-20 years ago maybe
now, women also use rotational force

Oh. I think I just watched the few players that might still do that though

 

[joshmak10]

Oh. I think I just watched the few players that might still do that though

And those players usually won’t beat the players who do use rotational force.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

My fav Euro Female player. Just love watching her spin all day; she makes looping look so easy.

Come on, we all know the REAL reasons she's your favourite player

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[Matt Hetherington]

For the most part, earlier ball timing, more compact shots close to table and also many of the women’s players are much more likely to cover 2/3 with backhand, so a lot more backhand across the middle of the table in rallies than in the men’s game