I Spent 3 Weeks with Full The Chinese National Team

[Matt Hetherington]

I have sat on this for a long time (years), but since I am trying to make more long-form content I wanted to share. I tried to think of things I observed which could actually help people to think about the way they coach and train, and what their perspectives and focus points are during their training. I hope it at least has some things to either re-affirm ideas you may already have, or some new ones to adopt.

 

[Tyce]

Thanks Matt, top stuff. I especially love the part that makes clear that they don't really have to work on technique anymore. Not because they are special, but because they already put in 10.000 hours of technical practice when they were young.
People seem to keep thinking that they can skip that step, because it looks like the CNT doesn't do it either. Just like they think they can skip straight to fast, powerful professional gear.

As an amateur, with certainly no good technique, I think my best training sessions would cover a technical aspect for maybe half an hour in pure form, and then evolve into matchplay where you're encouraged to apply what you just covered. For example, you can only score with a BH loop, or counters give double points, basically anything can be converted into gamified, randomised practice.

For most beginners and intermediates, this is an effective training framework. When you go beyond that, you just put less time in the pure technical aspect and more into application. It makes sense!

However, lots of intermediate players just skip the technical part completely and play practice matches only, without intention. Sometimes due to lack of guidance, sometimes lack of interest. It's often considered weird if you have been playing for over 5 years and still want to improve. Apparently it's not possible to learn beyond that point once you stagnate, that's it.

 

[mamedium]

i believe this was when CNT came to the US for a diplomatic occasion? and their women team played Zhou Xin Kumar Nick Tio am i correct?

they did not train/ practice anything. JUST multiball. we did not learn anything but to see how they did multiball and probably that was it…

 

[Tyce]

i believe this was when CNT came to the US for a diplomatic occasion? and their women team played Zhou Xin Kumar Nick Tio am i correct?

they did not train/ practice anything. JUST multiball. we did not learn anything but to see how they did multiball and probably that was it…

If you watch the video Matt kind of explains the entire point of why that is

 

[Matt Hetherington]

Thanks Matt, top stuff. I especially love the part that makes clear that they don't really have to work on technique anymore. Not because they are special, but because they already put in 10.000 hours of technical practice when they were young.
People seem to keep thinking that they can skip that step, because it looks like the CNT doesn't do it either. Just like they think they can skip straight to fast, powerful professional gear.

As an amateur, with certainly no good technique, I think my best training sessions would cover a technical aspect for maybe half an hour in pure form, and then evolve into matchplay where you're encouraged to apply what you just covered. For example, you can only score with a BH loop, or counters give double points, basically anything can be converted into gamified, randomised practice.

For most beginners and intermediates, this is an effective training framework. When you go beyond that, you just put less time in the pure technical aspect and more into application. It makes sense!

However, lots of intermediate players just skip the technical part completely and play practice matches only, without intention. Sometimes due to lack of guidance, sometimes lack of interest. It's often considered weird if you have been playing for over 5 years and still want to improve. Apparently it's not possible to learn beyond that point once you stagnate, that's it.

Yes there's definitely a foundation level of technique that you NEED, but I think a lot of players see the Chinese players and try to chase technical perfection when they have nowhere near the number of hours to invest into that.

I always used to see parents talking about Ma Long this, Ma Long that, my kid needs to make this technique closer to Ma Long's in this drill blah blah. And then they are doing 2 hours a week with a coach and one group session and think they can emulate techniques that were built from training for thousands of hours. They get very stuck in repetitive technical training and then are surprised when they can't win in tournaments because
they actually have no game sense or ability to adapt their techniques under different conditions.

Definitely a big fan of bringing gamification into many different training drills!

 

[Matt Hetherington]

i believe this was when CNT came to the US for a diplomatic occasion? and their women team played Zhou Xin Kumar Nick Tio am i correct?

they did not train/ practice anything. JUST multiball. we did not learn anything but to see how they did multiball and probably that was it…

Yes back in 2019. They do plenty of table drills, but they are more focused on gameplay elements, the number of regular drills you see is less frequent. I think also because of the needs of a closed training session they are able to use multiball to create a greater volume of repetitions for different shots and scenarios, footwork etc. Most of the time when it was two practice partners together it was much more match scenario focused.

 

[Archosaurus]

I think even as a relatively beginner player, you should still do mostly specific training and not so much one-point endless hitting. It's objectively proven to produce faster learning and stronger technical ability in other fields.

There's just not a lot of point in practising to do something in a mediocre way that you're comfortable with. Once you can hit the ball on the table consistently then I feel like you kinda need to start being specific. Of course many players only train 3-5 hours a week and mess around for 80% of it, so they never reach that stage in the first decade or two.