Standard-Modern-Two Wing Looping-3rd Ball attackers without anything special!

[gordonluvsu]

This is my personal list of players that can largely be identified by the following criteria:

Its mostly about right handed male players.
In most of these, the player is average / above average
In none of these they are outstanding, exceptional, special or excellent.

• Forehand / Backhand Loops
• Blocks and Passive game
• Service - Receive and Over The Table - Game
• Footwork

Their playstyle is build around:

• 3rd-Ball Attacks,
• Looping any Ball that is coming long
• Flipping half of the opponents serves
• 3-5 service variations that they use regularly
• Blocking 1-2 loops of their opponent
• Keeping ( almost ) the same strategy throughout
• Overall very predictable
• Very 1-Dimensional

What describes them:

• Little to no variation in tactics or strategy
• Little to no changes in service receive game in a match
• Their moves are very predictable
• No deception, surprises, specialties or anything of that sort
• Boring to watch ( most of the time)
• Will likely lose to a ( top 3) Chinese player without posing a challenge to them
• Will likely lose to a top 20 non-chinese player that is not of this kind
• Can win or lose to any other player of this kind, most of the time a matter of form on that day and how much they practiced
• ( Probably ) Trains really hard and puts in the effort, but not the right things
• Has nothing exceptional that could make him stand out and give him some sort of advtanage

What annoys me about this:
Its not personal about the player or anything like that.

• Incredibly 1 Dimensional game-play that is boring and NOT fun to watch, unless its fast and long rallies
• Very simple and not very sophisticated thought processes ( at least to me ) in their game
• They are often considered "good" players, because they play in tournaments and are high in ranking
  • Im not saying they arent good, but they are just a breed of a lot of practice drills and time in the training hall without any personality
• Almost no personality in their game, you could exchange their names and looks, and you wouldnt be able to tell them apart
• They DONT WIN ANYTHING MEANINGFUL ( most of the time )
• They are not really contenders to any of the top 20 players that are not of this kind
• It seems as though many more of these kind of players are being "produced" and are growing up into this modern pseudo-top level scene of TT
• Nothing seems to be changing in this regard and it makes the scene dull and uninteresting ( for me )

It might seem a little controversial and extreme, but I had this on my mind and I wanted to get this out of my head.


Some players that I can think of right now that are of this kind:
Anton Kallberg
Omar Assar
To an extent, the Koreans, but they are often more different and special in some regards.
Most Players that are not in the top 3 of their country.
Almost all of the U19 rising players.


What are your thoughts on this.

All rights reserved under copyright of "My Own Opinion" ©.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

seems like you have been spying on me too

 

[blahness]

This is my personal list of players that can largely be identified by the following criteria:

Its mostly about right handed male players.
In most of these, the player is average / above average
In none of these they are outstanding, exceptional, special or excellent.

• Forehand / Backhand Loops
• Blocks and Passive game
• Service - Receive and Over The Table - Game
• Footwork

Their playstyle is build around:

• 3rd-Ball Attacks,
• Looping any Ball that is coming long
• Flipping half of the opponents serves
• 3-5 service variations that they use regularly
• Blocking 1-2 loops of their opponent
• Keeping ( almost ) the same strategy throughout
• Overall very predictable
• Very 1-Dimensional

What describes them:

• Little to no variation in tactics or strategy
• Little to no changes in service receive game in a match
• Their moves are very predictable
• No deception, surprises, specialties or anything of that sort
• Boring to watch ( most of the time)
• Will likely lose to a ( top 3) Chinese player without posing a challenge to them
• Will likely lose to a top 20 non-chinese player that is not of this kind
• Can win or lose to any other player of this kind, most of the time a matter of form on that day and how much they practiced
• ( Probably ) Trains really hard and puts in the effort, but not the right things
• Has nothing exceptional that could make him stand out and give him some sort of advtanage

What annoys me about this:
Its not personal about the player or anything like that.

• Incredibly 1 Dimensional game-play that is boring and NOT fun to watch, unless its fast and long rallies
• Very simple and not very sophisticated thought processes ( at least to me ) in their game
• They are often considered "good" players, because they play in tournaments and are high in ranking
  • Im not saying they arent good, but they are just a breed of a lot of practice drills and time in the training hall without any personality
• Almost no personality in their game, you could exchange their names and looks, and you wouldnt be able to tell them apart
• They DONT WIN ANYTHING MEANINGFUL ( most of the time )
• They are not really contenders to any of the top 20 players that are not of this kind
• It seems as though many more of these kind of players are being "produced" and are growing up into this modern pseudo-top level scene of TT
• Nothing seems to be changing in this regard and it makes the scene dull and uninteresting ( for me )

It might seem a little controversial and extreme, but I had this on my mind and I wanted to get this out of my head.


Some players that I can think of right now that are of this kind:
Anton Kallberg
Omar Assar
To an extent, the Koreans, but they are often more different and special in some regards.
Most Players that are not in the top 3 of their country.
Almost all of the U19 rising players.


What are your thoughts on this.

All rights reserved under copyright of "My Own Opinion" ©.

Hard disagree - no one makes it to world top 20 without being extremely good in some areas with their own special weapons.

 

[Gozo Aruna]

This is my personal list of players that can largely be identified by the following criteria:

Its mostly about right handed male players.
In most of these, the player is average / above average
In none of these they are outstanding, exceptional, special or excellent.

• Forehand / Backhand Loops
• Blocks and Passive game
• Service - Receive and Over The Table - Game
• Footwork

Their playstyle is build around:

• 3rd-Ball Attacks,
• Looping any Ball that is coming long
• Flipping half of the opponents serves
• 3-5 service variations that they use regularly
• Blocking 1-2 loops of their opponent
• Keeping ( almost ) the same strategy throughout
• Overall very predictable
• Very 1-Dimensional

What describes them:

• Little to no variation in tactics or strategy
• Little to no changes in service receive game in a match
• Their moves are very predictable
• No deception, surprises, specialties or anything of that sort
• Boring to watch ( most of the time)
• Will likely lose to a ( top 3) Chinese player without posing a challenge to them
• Will likely lose to a top 20 non-chinese player that is not of this kind
• Can win or lose to any other player of this kind, most of the time a matter of form on that day and how much they practiced
• ( Probably ) Trains really hard and puts in the effort, but not the right things
• Has nothing exceptional that could make him stand out and give him some sort of advtanage

What annoys me about this:
Its not personal about the player or anything like that.

• Incredibly 1 Dimensional game-play that is boring and NOT fun to watch, unless its fast and long rallies
• Very simple and not very sophisticated thought processes ( at least to me ) in their game
• They are often considered "good" players, because they play in tournaments and are high in ranking
  • Im not saying they arent good, but they are just a breed of a lot of practice drills and time in the training hall without any personality
• Almost no personality in their game, you could exchange their names and looks, and you wouldnt be able to tell them apart
• They DONT WIN ANYTHING MEANINGFUL ( most of the time )
• They are not really contenders to any of the top 20 players that are not of this kind
• It seems as though many more of these kind of players are being "produced" and are growing up into this modern pseudo-top level scene of TT
• Nothing seems to be changing in this regard and it makes the scene dull and uninteresting ( for me )

It might seem a little controversial and extreme, but I had this on my mind and I wanted to get this out of my head.


Some players that I can think of right now that are of this kind:
Anton Kallberg
Omar Assar

Gozo

To an extent, the Koreans, but they are often more different and special in some regards.
Most Players that are not in the top 3 of their country.
Almost all of the U19 rising players.


What are your thoughts on this.

All rights reserved under copyright of "My Own Opinion" ©.

I have taken the liberty to add GOZO into the list.
Gozo is just like these nameless marines. We are trained in the academy by the same methodology by the drill sergeant, cookie-cutter method. Some of the terms that are hurled to me by the more creative old timer include:
1. Gozo, you play like a robot, give us some variety.
2. Gozo, you are like a open text-book. Your game is so straight-forward.
3. But lil'poor SOD me, know not much better. I am trained like this. I don't know any better.
4.

My answer to all my detractors, it is because my coach told me to.

 

[NextLevel]

This is my personal list of players that can largely be identified by the following criteria:

Its mostly about right handed male players.
In most of these, the player is average / above average
In none of these they are outstanding, exceptional, special or excellent.

• Forehand / Backhand Loops
• Blocks and Passive game
• Service - Receive and Over The Table - Game
• Footwork

Their playstyle is build around:

• 3rd-Ball Attacks,
• Looping any Ball that is coming long
• Flipping half of the opponents serves
• 3-5 service variations that they use regularly
• Blocking 1-2 loops of their opponent
• Keeping ( almost ) the same strategy throughout
• Overall very predictable
• Very 1-Dimensional

What describes them:

• Little to no variation in tactics or strategy
• Little to no changes in service receive game in a match
• Their moves are very predictable
• No deception, surprises, specialties or anything of that sort
• Boring to watch ( most of the time)
• Will likely lose to a ( top 3) Chinese player without posing a challenge to them
• Will likely lose to a top 20 non-chinese player that is not of this kind
• Can win or lose to any other player of this kind, most of the time a matter of form on that day and how much they practiced
• ( Probably ) Trains really hard and puts in the effort, but not the right things
• Has nothing exceptional that could make him stand out and give him some sort of advtanage

What annoys me about this:
Its not personal about the player or anything like that.

• Incredibly 1 Dimensional game-play that is boring and NOT fun to watch, unless its fast and long rallies
• Very simple and not very sophisticated thought processes ( at least to me ) in their game
• They are often considered "good" players, because they play in tournaments and are high in ranking
  • Im not saying they arent good, but they are just a breed of a lot of practice drills and time in the training hall without any personality
• Almost no personality in their game, you could exchange their names and looks, and you wouldnt be able to tell them apart
• They DONT WIN ANYTHING MEANINGFUL ( most of the time )
• They are not really contenders to any of the top 20 players that are not of this kind
• It seems as though many more of these kind of players are being "produced" and are growing up into this modern pseudo-top level scene of TT
• Nothing seems to be changing in this regard and it makes the scene dull and uninteresting ( for me )

It might seem a little controversial and extreme, but I had this on my mind and I wanted to get this out of my head.


Some players that I can think of right now that are of this kind:
Anton Kallberg
Omar Assar
To an extent, the Koreans, but they are often more different and special in some regards.
Most Players that are not in the top 3 of their country.
Almost all of the U19 rising players.


What are your thoughts on this.

All rights reserved under copyright of "My Own Opinion" ©.

How Omar makes this list is completely beyond me and how no CNT players are on this list given the criteria shows a bias somewhere, just not exactly sure why it is so transparent. Kallberg is clearly a machine, but he is a very special kind of machine with amazing speed, which for me is special to watch. Omar should legit be in the NBA, yet he is often looping balls at knee height, that in itself would get some kind of award if table tennis was a rich sport. But you are entitled to your opinions for sure.

 

[SofaChamp]

Kallberg is an incredibly skillful player, not one dimensional at all. Also, he just beat LJK at the almost highest stage and he's inside the top 15 at the moment.

Have you ever seen his fake pendulum serve where he actually hits the ball with his BH rubber?

As for Omar Assar, sorry but if you think he fits your generic description then I would politely say you don't really watch a lot of table tennis. His energy and passion always makes for amazing points.

 

[SleepyMaster]

Welcome to the reality of the sport, it’s not a blockbuster popcorn movie, where everything and everyone had unique personalities and unique strategies. Pro players came for the win and the paycheck and that’s it. So they do what it should be done for a win.

And the reality is no matter how “talented” you are - hard practice and dedication will win over talent, if talented one doesn’t work really hard. The stars are can be born and shine only when talent, discipline, right coaching and hard work are combine together - and that is a rare exceptions in many sports. Most of a pro are hard working guys, that are trying their best to feed their families and that’s it.

 

[Manto76]

I'm puzzled by your argument. You made a case for a subset of players being, essentially, 'the same' with no differentiation—even to the extent that you'd not be able to tell them apart if you exchanged their names and looks.

And then, after all that, you were able to name only two players.

In other words, you were only one player away from your described subset being a single player—which would, by definition, be the maximum differentiation possible.

A curious argument indeed.

 

[SofaChamp]

I'm puzzled by your argument. You made a case for a subset of players being, essentially, 'the same' with no differentiation—even to the extent that you'd not be able to tell them apart if you exchanged their names and looks.

And then, after all that, you were able to name only two players.

In other words, you were only one player away from your described subset being a single player—which would, by definition, be the maximum differentiation possible.

A curious argument indeed.

Yeah, whilst reading the description my general thought was 'CNT, A,B and probably also C but I don't know any of them'. And then supposedly it's Anton Kallberg and Omar Assar that make up this list of boring players.