Who's your favorite penhold player?

[chrisdarkfury]

Who's your favorite penhold player?

 

[chrisdarkfury]

I like Xu xin style...

 

[herblord3]

i go for ma lin...

 

[Matt Hetherington]

Liu Guoliang, he's quick and efficient AND Chinese National Coach lol

 

[chrisdarkfury]

thats right, xu xin is improving

 

[iTT]

Xu Xin for his RPB and extremely fast footwork.

 

[chrisdarkfury]

hi

Xu Xin for his RPB and extremely fast footwork.

I agree with that

 

[RPBguy]

wang hao and xu xin!!!!!!!!!!

 

[scylla24]

For me, it is definitely Ma Lin. Ma Lin over the course of his career has reached a level of play that simply epitomizes what a good penhold player should be. He is getting older, but when he was in his prime and at his quickest, his combination of amazing serves with his utter mastery of the short game made his 3rd ball attack orientated game unstoppable for everyone but Wang Liqin. The things that make a good penhold player are good serves, good footwork/speed and amazingly versatile forehand, and mastery of the short game, and in terms of these things, no one mastered them all better than Ma Lin. It's why even now, despite being slower and not having the advantage of the reverse penhold backhand, he still beats Wang Hao more often than he loses.

Despite the fact that during most of his prime he was kind of in the shadow of WLQ, he still represents for me probably the most legendary penholder, think of how much he would have won if WLQ wasn't in the picture!

 

[Charlie]

For me, it is definitely Ma Lin. Ma Lin over the course of his career has reached a level of play that simply epitomizes what a good penhold player should be. He is getting older, but when he was in his prime and at his quickest, his combination of amazing serves with his utter mastery of the short game made his 3rd ball attack orientated game unstoppable for everyone but Wang Liqin. The things that make a good penhold player are good serves, good footwork/speed and amazingly versatile forehand, and mastery of the short game, and in terms of these things, no one mastered them all better than Ma Lin. It's why even now, despite being slower and not having the advantage of the reverse penhold backhand, he still beats Wang Hao more often than he loses.

Despite the fact that during most of his prime he was kind of in the shadow of WLQ, he still represents for me probably the most legendary penholder, think of how much he would have won if WLQ wasn't in the picture!

Ma Lin overall basicly everything scylla said

 

[Rantrave]

For me, it is definitely Ma Lin. Ma Lin over the course of his career has reached a level of play that simply epitomizes what a good penhold player should be. He is getting older, but when he was in his prime and at his quickest, his combination of amazing serves with his utter mastery of the short game made his 3rd ball attack orientated game unstoppable for everyone but Wang Liqin. The things that make a good penhold player are good serves, good footwork/speed and amazingly versatile forehand, and mastery of the short game, and in terms of these things, no one mastered them all better than Ma Lin. It's why even now, despite being slower and not having the advantage of the reverse penhold backhand, he still beats Wang Hao more often than he loses.

Despite the fact that during most of his prime he was kind of in the shadow of WLQ, he still represents for me probably the most legendary penholder, think of how much he would have won if WLQ wasn't in the picture!

This. +100. Though i don't think he didn't win because WLQ was that dominant, id like to put it down to Ma Lin's own mental strength. During his younger days, when the going got tough, he tended to crumble. He's improved on that aspect a lot nowadays.

Moving on, Xu Xin is my current fav player. He just needs to work on his RPB just a bit more and he'll be unstoppable. Kim Take Soo is another legend, one of the best forehands ever, great footwork and dexterity but above all hands down THE BEST traditional penhold BH i've ever seen. The power and accuracy he get's in is BH shots is just incredible.

Wang Hao is a player i don't particularly like, maybe its his character or his annoying "Chos", but there's no denying his importance in TT, specifically Penholder history. His RPB is better than a lot of SH players. Hao is a true RPB pioneer and atm possesses the best RPB in the world. Its the future for Penholders and Hao will always remain as the Penholder who popularized it.

 

[Rantrave]

Xu Xin for his RPB and extremely fast footwork.

No offence, but i find that weird. Xu Xin is one of my fav players, he's got an awesome forehand, one of the best right now, if not the best and his footwork is fantastic. But his RPB is lacking, he's improved on it, but its not as good as it can be. Wang Hao and Ma Lin are ahead of him in that dept.

 

[TTOski]

Xu Xin and Wang Hao!

 

[iTT]

No offence, but i find that weird. Xu Xin is probably one of my fav players, he's got an awesome forehand, one of the best right now, if not the best and his footwork is fantastic. But his RPB is lacking, he's improved on it, but its not as good as it can be. Wang Hao and Ma Lin are ahead of him in that dept.

Sorry but i disagree with that. Xu Xin's RPB is definitely up to standards and is used in his game very well. Obviously Wang Hao is ahead of all penhold holders with this shot but actually i think Ma Lin's RPB isn't technically as good as others.

 

[zookato]

I like Xu xin style...

 

[scylla24]

No offence, but i find that weird. Xu Xin is probably one of my fav players, he's got an awesome forehand, one of the best right now, if not the best and his footwork is fantastic. But his RPB is lacking, he's improved on it, but its not as good as it can be. Wang Hao and Ma Lin are ahead of him in that dept.

I will have to agree with iTT. For all out purpose, yeah, Xu Xin's RPB isn't nearly as good as Wang Hao. However, for his game, it is absolutely perfect. It's designed to just be almost a reactionary shot. He hits it right after the bounce mostly, so it gives other players very little reaction time. It's not supposed to be flashy or amazing, it just is supposed to serve its very specific purpose, which is to give opponents so little reaction time, that all they can do is hit it back, which then gives Xu Xin time to walk around to his forehand. When someone has such an insanely good forehand as Xu Xin does, to use and rely on his backhand more, like Wang Hao would actually be a detriment for him right now. Maybe when he gets older he can put more time into developing it, but at the moment his rpb is what it needs to be. If you watch his games, even against Boll, his rpb isn't really a weakness at all. He actually wins more points either from it, or from what it sets up than many people give it credit for.

 

[markog99]

Xu xin and ma lin.

 

[Rantrave]

I will have to agree with iTT. For all out purpose, yeah, Xu Xin's RPB isn't nearly as good as Wang Hao. However, for his game, it is absolutely perfect. It's designed to just be almost a reactionary shot. He hits it right after the bounce mostly, so it gives other players very little reaction time. It's not supposed to be flashy or amazing, it just is supposed to serve its very specific purpose, which is to give opponents so little reaction time, that all they can do is hit it back, which then gives Xu Xin time to walk around to his forehand. When someone has such an insanely good forehand as Xu Xin does, to use and rely on his backhand more, like Wang Hao would actually be a detriment for him right now. Maybe when he gets older he can put more time into developing it, but at the moment his rpb is what it needs to be. If you watch his games, even against Boll, his rpb isn't really a weakness at all. He actually wins more points either from it, or from what it sets up than many people give it credit for.

For sure, like i said, it WAS a weakness a while back. But he has definitely made improvements to it and it can be even better than it is. Having a properly good RPB will help him in the long run. You can only run around to forehand shots all the time for so long.

 

[malong1]

For me it's Ma Lin and like a lot of the above reason on him, I just wanted to add that for me he is the best all-around penhold player and was one of the players who amazed me with his quickness.

 

[iTT]

For sure, like i said, it WAS a weakness a while back. But he has definitely made improvements to it and it can be even better than it is. Having a properly good RPB will help him in the long run. You can only run around to forehand shots all the time for so long.

There is no reason for him to 'improve' his RPB any more as it fits into his game fine as it is. And for someone like Xu Xin who is very confident in forehand to forehand loop rallies, he shouldn't be trying to change his style of play at all. I don't think his forehand will ever hold him back, plus he's doing very well at the moment isn't he and it looks to continue.