totally disagree. Sounds like a different understanding on the trend of table tennis development. Playing far from the table makes the rally look interesting but it means you cannot hold the ball near the table, you need to step back and thus give a relative weak return. Certainly men's players are playing better, not just because of footwork or strength. The sense of handling a ball, aggressiveness, and short ball skill are all better.
Li xiaoxia's style is the most advanced now in women's team. Since the time of Wang Nan, a topic has been proposed that women should play with men's style, that is, perfect combine of power, speed, spin and ball placement(here the speed means continuity between last and next attack). Wang did good at placement and spin, her style is playing with brain, but her power is not enough. The style you speak of is a typical Zhang Yining, whom has a steady defence especially on the backhand side, always having one more hit than you to win. Zhang Yining once tried to change her way of playing but did not success, which led to her low ebb in 2006 and 2007. After retiring, she admitted women playing with men's skill is not right choise for herself. She returned to the old way and developed an effective forehand sudden onslaught to come back to her victory. Guo Yue is a victim of this plan, the training damaged her body badly, but she is still a perfect double player because of good first-three-hit and quick change in placement.
Liu Shiwen has the best continuous attack (speed), but her power is relatively weak, like an emmagee. And Li Xiaoxia is an emmagee a little slower but with cannon power in every single shot.Ding Ning is defensive style player, Zhang Yining's heir to beijing's tradition, as they are members of Beijing Team. The difference is, Zhang defends near by the table, Ding used to entangle her opponents at a far distance. Now Dingning is
undergoing a change for her style, standing nearer to the table, improving active attack. So far, the result is not ideal. Two defects of Ding Ning are forceless muscle and amateurish footwork (I fear many times that she could fall to the ground when saving a ball).
Li's power, spin is the best in women player,that means her single shot is of high quality, thanks to her inborn strong body. In the early career, she did do a lot of blocking and pushing especially when returning a serve and had some faults on fore hand. After years of shaping she prove her continuous forehand attack, playing more cleverly. So I think she has done rather well in the four-aspect integration. Back and fore hand
are both strong.
Using back hand or fore hand depends on your opponents. You should find their weakness.For example, in the final of National Game, Li Xiaoxia found Chen Meng's back hand is not weaker than her(if not stronger), so she mainly used forehand to beat her. In spite of that, she still manage to make progress, showing new weapons in every big game. That is, in London--forehand fast topspin with sidespin placed in the right angle swerving out of Ding Ning's forehand reach. In Paris, backhand flick twisting forearm and swishing her wrist(invented by zjk) to beat Liu Shiwen. In Anshan (National Game), continuous forehand storm crashing Ding Ning's back hand defence, and flipping a short topspin on the table to play actively against Liu Shiwen during the short ball back and force.
Li Xiaoxia has a slow looping with really high topspin at the endline, forcing other women players step back from the table, but fast looping with lower arc is more common attack. In men's game, you seldom see this slow looping, nearly all the topspins are fast looping.In men's style, Zhang Jike and Fan Zhendong can be classed as near-table player, killing within one or two shot, relative better back hand. Ma Long's power is smaller but have a good continuity (speed), and rely on much of his fore hand. Xu xin is far-table penholder with one side attack. I think Zhang and Fan represent the future trend. Kill fast if you can. Counterlooping with many shots may look good, but isn't helpful in winning a game. That doesn't mean we won't have an exception, but we haven't seen it by now.
Women player still have a lot to learn from men player. But it is certainly an era of power.
Bench press record:
two best in men's team:
Wang Liqin 106kg
Zhang Jike 101kg
women:
Feng Yalan 65kg
Li Xiaoxia 60kg
Liu Shiwen 55kg
Ding Ning 35kg
the average of women is about 45kg
