Chinese Technique

Some say China is good at table tennis only because of sheer numbers. There is, of course, a degree of truth to this. However, as shown by Europe's (especially Sweden's) rise in the early 1990s, and China's decline, numbers cannot overcome poor technique. In the late 1980's/early 1990s, China was slow to adjust to changing technique, sticking too long with most pips-out style games while the rest of the world was changing to inverted looping, especially shakehand style. China has learned from that experience, and now leads the world in this very style. Wang Liqin was recently re-crowned as world men's champion (he also won in 2001). On the women's side, Zhang Yining just won the Worlds; she was preceded by Wang Nan, who won three straight. All three of these players are shakehand loopers, and are probably the most emulated players in the world.

What happens in China is that the players with the best technique, talent, and mental & physical skills tend to rise to the top. Where before some of these players might have been kept out because they didn't play the right playing style (with most shakehand loopers relegated to becoming practice partners who copied the European loopers, like Cheng), now they become regular Chinese team members. Because there are so many Chinese players, they are loaded with skilled and hard-working players. And so the best Chinese players tend to be the ones with the best technique.

New techniques are regularly coming out. Probably the most noticeable is the reverse penhold backhand, best exemplified by Olympic Silver Medalist Wang Hao and World Men's Singles Finalist (and recently ranked #1 in the world) Ma Lin. Historically, penholders use the same side of the racket for both forehand and backhand. In the 1990s, a number of Chinese players began using the reverse side of the racket to attack on the backhand, most prominently by Liu Guoliang (1996 Olympic Gold Medalist, 1999 World Champion), who used it mostly as a variation. Ma Lin raised it to a new level, using it as a primary shot. Wang Hao raised it to an even higher level, making it his primary backhand shot.

While Europeans pioneered backhand looping, the Chinese have developed over-the-table backhand looping to a higher degree. Europeans like Klampar developed this technique in the 1970s, but few others developed this style. China did. Now Chinese players like Wang Liqin, Kong Linghui and Zhang Yining are among the best in the world at this (along with Austria's Werner Schlager and Korea's Oh Sang Eun).

Above all, Chinese players dominate with serve & receive techniques. Other countries have closed the gap in serve techniques, yet most consider Ma Lin's serves the best among world-class players, and before him, Liu Guoliang's "both Chinese players. But it is return of serve where the Chinese really dominate. Where other countries learn to return serves to neutralize the serve, the Chinese return serves to throw opponents off and take the initiative. Ma Lin is probably best at this, tying opponents in knots with his returns, but all the Chinese players train many hours at this, and so have few peers at receive. Outside China, Waldner may be the only one who can do this at the Chinese level.

There is another secret strength of Chinese technique, except it's not really a secret: they have the best basics. They spend huge amounts of time on the "boring" basics, and so are nearly machine-like in their efficiency. You rarely see a Chinese player miss an easy shot. Cheng said of his winning the USA Nationals in 2004 at age 46 that most of his opponents simply didn't have good basics. (This is relative, of course " good basics at the world-class level are pretty advanced for most of us.)
Practice Partners

Most countries don't have the resources to have as many practice partners as the Chinese. However, this is a must if they wish to challenge the Chinese.

Teams that are not among the best in the world need world-class practice partners to help them raise their level. It's nearly impossible for 2600 and 2700 players to become 2900 players unless they train with 2900 players.

Teams that are among the best in the world need world-class practice partners that emulate players like Wang Liqin and Ma Lin. When Wang Liqin or Ma Lin plays, say, Samsonov, they've been practicing with Samsonov-like players regularly, and so they're ready. Meanwhile, Samsonov has been practicing with whoever he can get, meaning mostly weaker players, and none who really play like Wang Liqin or Ma Lin. Anyone watching Michael Maze against Ma Lin in the semifinals of the recent Worlds can see how uncomfortable he was against Maze game. Most likely, two years from now he'll be equally uncomfortable as he won't get to train against this style. Meanwhile, in China, there are players whose main job is to play like Maze, and so Ma will be even more prepared.

It's unlikely that other countries can regularly train with two practice partners in the way the Chinese do, at least in the foreseeable future, but the first step is just getting these practice partners. Surprisingly, the answer is to go right to the source: China itself. China has a huge number of top players who are not on the Chinese team, players who, if given the chance, would be among the top 50 in the world or even better. Since costs in China are cheap compared to most other countries (which is why USA was able to hire former Chinese team members Cheng Yinghua, Huang Tong 'Jack'Huang and Huazhang Xu as practice partners in the late 1990s), they are affordable, if this becomes a priority. Countries can pool their resources and hire practice partner.