Why do Zhang Jikes Movements Look so clean?

[Emin]

Ive been watching more of Zhang Jikes Matches recently.
I was always Aware of his fluidity in movements and ability to make things Look much easier and more effortless, compared to almost every other Pro TT Player.
And now I wanna really understand how he does it and implement some of it into my game.

First of All, yes his technique and form were partially the reason for his injuries, which is why we should take it carefully.

Some of my ideas:
- Lack of bigger upper body and torso rotation, which puts more load on the Rest of his body, but it Looks Really smooth
- Incredible lower body athleticisism and strength, especially calves, quads and probably feet
- Very little unnecessary or overexaggerated movements, with every body Part, especially his footwork and overall range of motion, maybe some of the movements would have been necessary to prevent stiffness and/or injury?
- Entire body in sync

This Match was the last one I Watched and it made me pay more attention to it:

What are your thoughts?

 

[longle]

as I observed, he has the strongest legs muscles, more than anyone in CNT. So he can minimize the upper body power as you analyzed. And he unleash the force using his wrist as the contact point, like a penholder.

That style can bring explosiveness but also put much strains on the lower body and the wrist, that led to him injured a lot. With the new ball being heavier, his body could not keep up.

 

[ttarc]

Have you already seen Zhang Jike's multiball sessions?

(crazy speed and footwork starts around 11:05)


No references as far as I can see but Wikipedia writes: "When Zhang Jike initially joined the national team, the coaches were apprehensive about his forehand technique and thought about changing it completely. But Xiao Zhan, the then personal coach of Zhang Jike, noticed the explosive technique of his forehand and backhand strokes and instead retained them."

Zhang Jike - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[NetProphet]

as I observed, he has the strongest legs muscles, more than anyone in CNT. So he can minimize the upper body power as you analyzed. And he unleash the force using his wrist as the contact point, like a penholder.

That style can bring explosiveness but also put much strains on the lower body and the wrist, that led to him injured a lot. With the new ball being heavier, his body could not keep up.

He certainly has incredible strength and physique but the reason his movements look so clean and effortless is because of decades of intensive training of his technique, anticipation and lightning reactions.
He did have injuries later in his career but this is not due to the 0.3g added weight of the ball but more just what happens from overtraining and then age catching up with him.
I am certain that if he had more recovery time in his career and was allowed to manage his body in a better way then his injuries would have been far less frequent. It's a shame because I always think he missed his absolute peak because of this.

 

[riemsesy]

new ball heavier?
The mean mass of the celluloid balls was 2.742 ± 0.007 g, and that of the plastic balls was 2.726 ± 0.008

 

[longle]

He certainly has incredible strength and physique but the reason his movements look so clean and effortless is because of decades of intensive training of his technique, anticipation and lightning reactions.
He did have injuries later in his career but this is not due to the 0.3g added weight of the ball but more just what happens from overtraining and then age catching up with him.
I am certain that if he had more recovery time in his career and was allowed to manage his body in a better way then his injuries would have been far less frequent. It's a shame because I always think he missed his absolute peak because of this.

maybe it does not affect much on amateurs levels, but 0.3g is a lot if taken into account the intensity of the pros training+tournaments. also maybe he didn't take time to rest because of his playful nature

 

[banbekas]

I wonder if that slight increase in weight really matters or not to pros. Nothing really changes with the ball changes.
Ma Long was still dominating back then minus the final.
Zhang Jike was still destroying people left and right when it mattered.
Fan has always bee like this.
Europeans are still chasing CNT's tail.

His injuries are simple, it happens to all athletes. As they aged, these people's bodies can't hold it anymore. All athletes have destroyed their body to reach the optimal performance, IMHO. Same goes for ZJK.

 

[dingyibvs]

ZJK's motion looks clean because he doesn't backswing much with his body. Power still needs to be generated through the core, of course, so by having a smaller motion he needed to accelerate his core quicker, which means he puts more force/strain on his core.

 

[NetProphet]

new ball heavier?
The mean mass of the celluloid balls was 2.742 ± 0.007 g, and that of the plastic balls was 2.726 ± 0.008

If I remember correctly the old 38mm balls were limited to 2.5g and the new ones must weigh between 2.68 and 2.76 grams to be ITTF approved.

 

[Emin]

To the ball discussion:
No the weight itself doesnt make the difference, but it increased its demands on the player.
The fact that it is more difficult to put power / energy into the ball means that your muscles and tendons need to make up for it.

To the topic:
ZJK also doesnt swing through as much as others, meaning he stops his movements more drastically.
Kind of like you do with wrist snapping, but in a slower and more progressive way with his core and legs.
Everybody does it in a way, but his "snapping" / stopping of the movement is more extreme.
I think in Karate its called "Kime" .
He uses a lot of energy to slow down the movement instead of letting it swing longer.
I tried it out and:
it looks cool, feels smooth and
it is more demanding and puts more load on my body.

Ill work on implementing some of the things, specifically footwork and getting in position.
My legs and calves are one of my stronger points and I could feel it gives me an advantage.

 

[Egon]

ZJK legs look the same as those of a horse. There is so much strength in them, and at the same time the torso is dry and sculpted. It is so easy for his strong legs to carry this light and inertia-free torso. It all looks so easy, but this is the result of many years of hard training and genetic inheritance.

 

[Metaxa]

I was lucky enough to see Zhang Jike live in Rotterdam for the world championships in 2011. The set of legs (especially upper legs > quadriceps) that had could be compared to fast ice skaters or prof-cyclists. Impressive!

 

[riemsesy]

I believe you

 

[ttarc]

I believe you

Maybe not
2016 Qatar Open Highlights: Zhang Jike/Fan Zhendong vs Koki Niwa/Maharu Yoshimura (Final)

I was lucky enough to see Zhang Jike live in Rotterdam for the world championships in 2011. The set of legs (especially upper legs > quadriceps) that had could be compared to fast ice skaters or prof-cyclists. Impressive!

Seeing these players live vs on YT is even more impressive. Some of the small adjustments/movements are just too fast/small.

 

[NetProphet]

I believe you

He certainly didn't skip legs day at the gym 😳

 

[WingTT]

The original video is the right camera angle to see how the pros amazing technique works.

 

[banbekas]

To the ball discussion:
No the weight itself doesnt make the difference, but it increased its demands on the player.
The fact that it is more difficult to put power / energy into the ball means that your muscles and tendons need to make up for it.

To the topic:
ZJK also doesnt swing through as much as others, meaning he stops his movements more drastically.
Kind of like you do with wrist snapping, but in a slower and more progressive way with his core and legs.
Everybody does it in a way, but his "snapping" / stopping of the movement is more extreme.
I think in Karate its called "Kime" .
He uses a lot of energy to slow down the movement instead of letting it swing longer.
I tried it out and:
it looks cool, feels smooth and
it is more demanding and puts more load on my body.

Ill work on implementing some of the things, specifically footwork and getting in position.
My legs and calves are one of my stronger points and I could feel it gives me an advantage.

Exactly by how difficult is it to put more force on plastic ball? Because if that is the case then Ma Long should have retired along with ZJK. H3 and Tenergy were meant for celluloid ball but those two reign supreme even till this day. The ball change is so insignificant you might as well say nothing changes.

Eh, I modeled my game after him. Short swing and snappy follow through. Is it more demanding for my body? Not really. I feel like it's easier to play TT following his style. Easier to lift backspin and better recovery. My body feels fine after training. Leg days are way more demanding than ZJK's techniques.

 

[NextLevel]

Exactly by how difficult is it to put more force on plastic ball? Because if that is the case then Ma Long should have retired along with ZJK. H3 and Tenergy were meant for celluloid ball but those two reign supreme even till this day. The ball change is so insignificant you might as well say nothing changes.

Eh, I modeled my game after him. Short swing and snappy follow through. Is it more demanding for my body? Not really. I feel like it's easier to play TT following his style. Easier to lift backspin and better recovery. My body feels fine after training. Leg days are way more demanding than ZJK's techniques.

Depends in what you modeled, Zhang Jike uses his upper arm out of sync with the body more than most modern forehands. With spin on the celiuloid ball, it was easier to get away with that, but with the plastic ball power requirements, it just placed much more pressure on technique.

 

[pingpongpaddy]

I played most of my career with cell 38, and of course by now I have adapted to bigger plastic ball.
I suppose there is some theoretical difference of spin, but as every individual opponent is very variable in that department it wasn't a particular difficulty.
What really was an important difference was the way the bigger ball decelerates and falls in front of you making it harder to use energy of opponents ball in the counter hitting game. For me the solution was to play a little closer to the table and play nearer the bounce in order tho achieve the same penetration. The pros I have spoken say something along those lines.
One complained that the change slowed down his climb up the ladder, as he had recalibrate his 3rd balll game.

However the thing I miss most in the modern game is 5 serves even though I think there are aspects of the 11 point game which are good for the game as a spectacle

 

[Chang]

I read somewhere that Zhang Jike also had problems with vertebrae resulting in lot of back and neck pain.