Zhang Jike - The story so far

[Dan]

Awesome video made by youtuber CrawSpecificated on the story of Zhang Jike so far

Whats your view on the story of Zhang Jike so far? Will he go all the way to be one of the greats like Kong Lingui?

 

[Romina]

Zhang Jike has all the qualities to become like Kong Lingui but he will have to work so hard to keep a high level for a long time.
By the way, at what time does Super League begin on Wednesday?

 

[lgreggs]

Awesome video!

 

[WiWa]

Great vid, awesome job!!

 

[Spieler2010]

In my opinion Zhang Jike is the best player of all time. I can not imagine, how he should lost a big tournament. His playing style is very complete. His services are very good and he is the most athletic player I've ever seen. But I am very suprised, that he looses so many matches the last days...Ma Lin shouldn't be a problem for him normally.

And sorry...my english isn't very well.

 

[chughtai]

man hes a great player but if injuries strike him then it would be a problem to him

 

[WiWa]

Every player can lose matches, no matter how good they are. It is not always the one who is seen as the one with the highest quality play that comes out victorious. That is what makes sport exciting But I agree that it feels like Zhang has something on him that other players don't have. He is boss.

 

[Tricon7]

In my opinion Zhang Jike is the best player of all time.

Are you kidding?! He won the World's Singles once, never won the World Cup, the Olympics gold medal, or the China Open, and he's never been ranked world #1, and you're ready to rate him the best table tennis player who's ever played the game? He beats out Waldner, Guoliang, Liqin, Gue Yuehua, and others? Really?

 

[WiWa]

@Tricon7
Best player of all time doesn't have to be determined by titles. Schlager won a WTTC, Boll and Samsonov never did. It doesn't necessarily make Schlager better. I think he just means the way Zhang plays is in quality better than he has seen before. This is not weird, since as the game develops, it will take more skill to become the worlds best. So the current best player could easily be the best player ever in terms of skill, but you can never really compare it. If Waldner would have his prime now he might do worse than back then. Every time has its own legends.

 

[madamada]

i love zhang jike! esspecially how he got kicked out of the chinese team when he was 14

 

[madamada]

* and then he had to train as hard as he could to get back in it and to win the world championship. he inspires me so much i cant describe it

 

[Rhydian]

Zhang Jike is an amazing player.
If he keeps up working hard and if he hasn't many injuries, then the future looks good for him.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

I Love the Zhang Jike plays as well. I think he still needs to work on shifting from backhand to forehand. But he has gotten a lot better at it. And once he has turned to his forehand his forehand is now pretty amazing. Six months ago it was not. But I agree with Tricon7 in a way. WiWa, I get what you are saying but putting someone forward as the best player of all times is not a small thing. That kind of title should be reserved for someone who has done it all and has won consistently over an extended period of time. Someone who is playing great today but does not maintain that or gets passed by other players may not even be the best player of their own time. But Jike is an amazingly innovative player. The way he uses the backhand banana to receive serve, and how deceptive that shot is, how much spin it has on it, and how it is hard to tell if he is putting sidespin, inside-out sidespin or straight topspin on the ball is very hard to tell for the opponent. And that he can take any serve anywhere on the table and attack it with the backhand, put it anywhere on the table, and not be out of position for the next shot is simply amazing. You might be able to say that he has the best receive of serve skills of anybody, ever. But only time will tell if he can become the best player ever.

 

[YosuaYosan]

His style is similar to Kong Linghui, a complete allround play..
Yes, he has the potential to be an all-time great, but I don't know if he can work it out.. Yet..

 

[Rhydian]

The future will tell us
Anyway, I think that if he doesn't play at a high level now and show that he wants to go to the olympics, then it will be hard for him to get chosen because Ma Lin is on fire, Ma Long too and Wang Hao also ^^ (and so on and so forth ^^)

 

[WiWa]

It is true, you can only really say that after his career in fact. But I still think you should not overrate titles in that. However Zhang is still young so yes, he can still go the good or the bad way. I don't believe that you can say one person is the best of all time, so I always interpret is as like the biggest possible compliment to the given player. I mean you can be an amazing player, but if there are one or two players in your era that are outstanding but a little less than you, it is harder to get all the titles and such a players dominance may last shorter. But I never take that title literally. You just can't compare times. They had different balls, different bats, speed glue and so on. You just can't compare.

 

[Rhydian]

Yes WiWa, you're completely right.
We cannot compare players from now with players from the past. Everything was different: blades, rubbers, tables, balls, shoes, clothes,...
A player can be outstanding during his whole career and be the best one during his prime time, but not the best of all the time.
You just can't compare. (this last sentence is copyright protected by WiWa and I got his permission )

 

[WiWa]

Hehe, it's my line of the day yeah ^^