Haha of course no one said that. They just felt that way and supported their arguments with Xu Xin and Joo Se Hyuk (examples that didn't work at all).
You’re fighting a ghost at this point — literally inventing arguments I never made. They weren't the best examples, I admit, but it went right over your head. For the third time: my point was never 'you can’t disagree with pros.' It was that flat-out dismissing the statements of someone like Zhang Jike — without acknowledging the depth of his experience as well as achievements — just reeks of arrogance. The guy knows what he’s talking about. Disagree all you want, but if you’re doing it without comparable insight, perspective as well as achievements, don’t expect to be taken seriously. It lacks basic respect, self-awareness, and just makes you look like another loud keyboard warrior. This is an EJ-heavy community after all 🤣
Oh, you are so full of it. You mean that everyone here doesn't know who Zhang Jike is? Or you mean the reason why we are discussing his statements is because we don't know who he is? No one who disagreed with hin said that the forehand focused table tennis is not athletic. The points that were brought up were that 1) the backhand oriented style being criticized had beaten all the teammates and lots of high level opponents. 2) the player being criticized for such play-style was 19 years old and that likely explained much more about what happened than his style. 3) just about everyone at the top level plays a balanced game and selects shots according to their ability. Which of these arguments were dismissals of ZJK's experience? Why is it that his more nuanced answer today, while still claiming LSD needs to improve his footwork and forehand, acknowledges all the stuff that was brought up?
I fall into every "trap", TT is fun.
Totally fair points — and thank you for putting it across reasonably without influence of emotion. That’s refreshing, honestly. I agree that valid knowledge and facts should ground discussions. My issue was never with people having differing views or constructive criticism, it was with how some replies came off as dismissive rather than analytical — especially towards someone with the background of Zhang Jike.
It's not like Ryu never beat Ma Lin or Wang Liqin either.The fact remains that his results against Boll/Samsonov were better compared to Ma Long despite playing against them closer in their primes.
And what about Noshad Alamian?
Can you cite the statistics you are using to argue that WH had a better head-2-head vs Boll/Samsonov than Ma Long? I'm not disputing Wang Hao's play by the way. I am just arguing that he was more backhand oriented than most players at his time and that he had tremendous success playing that way. Obviously he had a great forehand, but he definitely wasn't a footwork champion who tried to bring the forehand all the time.
He lost to Samsonov only once in a small tournament in 2008 in like 17 encounters starting from 2002.Against Boll if we exclude the 2005 World Cup when the Chinese team was jet lagged because they went to Belgium straight after their National Games,he never lost any important match to him.
your stats are spot on.
Did you ever hear the story that Wang Hao was supposed to play the first match in the 2010 WTTTC final but didn't?
he is a special case, with medical condition
yes, but I am saying, that Kreanga is fine doing top spin rallies away from the table with his backhand. most times, majority of players will be only doing forehand away from the table.
post 22 said it, I also said it in post 24 and 56.
Saive was always FH-oriented and his BH was only of moderate level, especially in his run-up to the top. That was also the reason why he did not like playing against left-handers but armed himself better against it over the years by improving his BH. His way of playing was therefore very intense and cost him a lot of strength, a bit similar to Hugo but Hugo does have a much better and more powerful BH than what J-M ever had.
The reason he lost to Gatien in 1993 was Gatien's fast serve down the line.They weren't any lefties in the Belgium Team to train against.He was pretty even against him but Gatien had an edge in terms on mentality.
