Olympics 2012
- Thread starter Dan
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Actually I think I will change my vote from Ma Long to Xu Xin. I don't even know if they will choose him to represent China, since they now only allow two players from each country, but when I really consider it, Chinese training has really reached a level where they have perfected it down to a science. Everyone on the team trains insanely hard, and receives the same top notch training, so ultimately what will make the difference is not really the training, but things you can't really change, and in this regard I am talking about different advantages in a player's body.
When you look at the last generation of Chinese top players, WLQ stood out head and shoulders above the rest of the team, even though the rest of the team still were able to overwhelmingly beat non-Chinese players. I mean Ma Lin, and Wang Hao were all incredibly well trained, what made the difference I think and what allowed WLQ to beat even those two, was the fact that body-wise he just had a combination of reach and speed that you don't see often. I mean look at Samsonov, he has the same reach as WLQ, but he looks like a turtle in comparison. His arm speed, his footwork, all his movements just are so much slower in comparison with WLQ. And then those who are actually faster than WLQ in reaction rate, don't have the height, so they don't have as good of an angle for shots as he does, and they don't have his reach.
Xu Xin is the only one I see of any player atm who has the same kind of advantages. His height and speed are amazing. The angle he gets on his forehand shots are so insane because he has the advantage of being taller, and having good footwork, and playing penhold. I think ultimately the ceiling for Xu Xin is higher than Ma Long's, and therefore if he is able to reach that ceiling, he will be even more unstoppable. And since he plays penhold, his short game will be better than Ma Long's, which is crucial since it means he will usually be able to attack first. And once he does, his shots are too spiny and too powerful to get back on a consistent basis.
When you look at the last generation of Chinese top players, WLQ stood out head and shoulders above the rest of the team, even though the rest of the team still were able to overwhelmingly beat non-Chinese players. I mean Ma Lin, and Wang Hao were all incredibly well trained, what made the difference I think and what allowed WLQ to beat even those two, was the fact that body-wise he just had a combination of reach and speed that you don't see often. I mean look at Samsonov, he has the same reach as WLQ, but he looks like a turtle in comparison. His arm speed, his footwork, all his movements just are so much slower in comparison with WLQ. And then those who are actually faster than WLQ in reaction rate, don't have the height, so they don't have as good of an angle for shots as he does, and they don't have his reach.
Xu Xin is the only one I see of any player atm who has the same kind of advantages. His height and speed are amazing. The angle he gets on his forehand shots are so insane because he has the advantage of being taller, and having good footwork, and playing penhold. I think ultimately the ceiling for Xu Xin is higher than Ma Long's, and therefore if he is able to reach that ceiling, he will be even more unstoppable. And since he plays penhold, his short game will be better than Ma Long's, which is crucial since it means he will usually be able to attack first. And once he does, his shots are too spiny and too powerful to get back on a consistent basis.
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nice explanation, but Xu's rpb is too weak at the moment, he has to improve his backhand
I mean you say it is too weak, but in actuality, its at least decent, and plus he is so fast and has such good footwork that even despite its weakness its not even really that big of a detriment to his game, because he is able to step over to his forehand for most of the shots. And his forehand I would say is already better than Ma Long's. He consistently beats Boll and Mizutani and Samsonov, the only people who have a chance to beat Chinese players. This is despite having a "weak" backhand. And in truth, its not really that weak, its just that he prefers his forehand so much that we don't really see it that often, and because his footwork revolves so much around moving to the forehand, when he does have to use his backhand he isn't in as good of a position to use it as say Wang Hao who's footwork places him in a better position for his backhand.
I think watching the Chinese internal competition that they did to see who would represent the team for the World Team Championships, we saw that when Xu Xin plays at his top level his shots are just a higher quality, and better angle, and more unpredictable than Ma Long's. It's why he won the first round of the qualifications.
Besides even if we say his backhand is that big of a detriment atm, thats why there is still about two years for him to improve it.
I think watching the Chinese internal competition that they did to see who would represent the team for the World Team Championships, we saw that when Xu Xin plays at his top level his shots are just a higher quality, and better angle, and more unpredictable than Ma Long's. It's why he won the first round of the qualifications.
Besides even if we say his backhand is that big of a detriment atm, thats why there is still about two years for him to improve it.
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editing a big TTD Team episode... stay tuned 👀
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editing a big TTD Team episode... stay tuned 👀
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your posts are fantastic!! its a great read thanks!
Your totally right,, i think Xu Xins capabilities are so high!! his forehand when he hit its full power is just out of this world!! he has better reach and angle as you say! I personally think it will be him and ma long to completely dominate the world in a few years... even tho Ma Long is now
D Zhang Jike is also up here but i think he can only go so far,,, Xu Xin has more in him i belive...And is it true? only 2 players are selected for the Olympics from each country now?
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this time it can be a tough competition between ma lin , ma long , and timo boll ... because all of these 3 players are in good shape and their game is going higher and higher each and every day.. i voted for timo but i think ma long is far better than timo right now
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