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Correct, he hasn’t played in U21 since Bulgaria Open in August 2018.
So you’re right about the shift in focus. But I also think that it was difficult for JNT to use the same gradual progression for JNT with Harimoto seeing that he was already very competitive at senior events 2 years ago (like winning the 2017 Czech Open and making deep runs in other senior tournaments at that time).
Lin has been getting a lot of hype this year - very well deserved, I might add
Whether he is a bigger talent than Harimoto and has greater potential remains to be seen. Given that Harimoto has also had a meteoric rise over the last few years, I’d say it’s near impossible to judge how both of them are going to develop going forward.
Much of the debating about this exact issue - the future potential of Harimoto and Lin or other young players like Möregård - also seems to be clouded by heavy bias especially for/against Harimoto.
No matter what, I am personally very thrilled about the state of international table tennis at the moment:
- the new World Ranking system has meant that the top players are playing more tournaments now, which means that we get to see an unpresidented number of top level matchups. It also means having to play more matches and travelling more, so it can be hard to perform at top level at every tournament/match and may have contributed to the large number of upsets that we’ve seen this year
- a number of YOUNG male and female players are now posing serious threats (or potential threats) to the CNT dominance.
- the CNT are still the best, but not at all unbeatable anymore. All core CNT players have suffered one or several defeats to foreigners this year. The CNT B/C-team players are getting to play many more international tournaments now than before, but they are not yet good/stabile enough, so quite a lot of them are losing out in the really strong qualification events. So now many “foreign” players have beaten one or more Chinese players in 2019 which should make them and others a lot more confident when facing a CNT opponent next time.
- below the top CNT top players we now have a really large group of international players who are pretty much able to beat each other on any given day. I exaggate, I know, but the results this year have generally been quite unpredictable with many upsets.
When you put these things together, you get a lot of really STRONG tournaments with a great sense of EXCITEMENT and UNPREDICTABILITY
I don’t know about all of you, but I love and cherish it
Actually, he would be higher ranked in the old system because the strength of who he had beaten (plenty of CNT members, Dima multiple times) would be driving his ranking, not where he has placed in events.
Maybe, but now Franz needs to work even harder. It's easy to get complacent after some success but now he really needs to step on the gas pedal with his practice and match structure. Best would be if he could get into CSL and meet world class players more often. If you don't have anyone to push you to bring out your potential it's never gonna become a real level. My old boss would always say after an employee in his group made a sell with a high order value (work in sales) that "now you've reached a new lowest level" to push us forward, and it works, for those who wanna make it work
just saw the match, how did WCT win by luck? Did he have a string of nets and edges? - didn't see that. As for misplaying - isn't that part of the match?
I just can't imagine any Chinese provincial player doing Harimoto FH.Yeah yeah yeah, I knew both Harimoto's parents were players from Sichuang provincial team. I said CNT, the emphasis being Chinese NATIONAL Team. That being said, Harimoto probably didn't listen to his father's coaching on FH strokes.
No, it's not a JNT FH neither. Both Mizutani's and Niwa's FH are biomechanically efficient (even if Mizutani's FH is quite ugly), which makes Harimoto's weird FH even more incomprehensible.
Much easier said then done though, at least Harimoto couldn't.
The part about using his legs is right. I'm more worried about the kid's excessive arm and shoulder movement.
The correct/efficient way to do FH stroke is have your elbow relatively fixed next to your body. The forearm swings freely with the body's rotation when the right leg (for right handed players) pushes the hips to provide power for the rotation. This way, the arm, the body, and the legs work cohesively together to complete each FH stroke. Once you master this, you can gradually let your entire arm swing like a whip with body rotation. Your arm and shoulder should be relaxed, because your arm and shoulder aren't the main provider of power for FH stroke.
If you look at Mizutani's FH stroke, his FH is an extreme opposite example to Harimoto's. Mizutani keeps his elbow too rigidly fixed to the side of his body. He doesn't let his forearm swing freely with body rotation. This rigidity decreases Mizutani's FH power, but increases control, consistency, and recovery speed. This explains why Mizutani can stay in topspin rallies for a long time and get almost any shots back on to the table.
Harimoto's arm and shoulder don't work together with his legs. His elbow isn't sync'ed to his body rotation. He has too much arm movement. This is why he has slower recovery on FH strokes and more inconsistencies. This is also why Harimoto has to resort to flat hitting more frequently than other players.
You are welcome on the FH lesson.
