Chien an Chen took down Koki Niwa

I was amazed after watching the match. An unknown face that can out-anticipate Koki Niwa. I immediately went on a search to learn about this guy from Taiwan. I found a documentary of him here.

very good documentary, very good kid, very good player. Now that I know a bit about him I will always root for him. It's really cool that he was able to get into that program. I hope he goes far.

it says in the video he was world junior champion on 2008. what event? singles?team? i doubt it's singles because i think they hold that every odd year...

how can he be? its an even year...shouldn't wjttc be a team event in 2008?

so wjttc singles event is held every year?

popperlocker wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtHVLEVsUL0&feature=related I was amazed after watching the match. An unknown face that can out-anticipate Koki Niwa. I immediately went on a search to learn about this guy from Taiwan. I found a documentary of him here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG9I-wW7tNU

unknown??   he s former junior world champion

for knowledge's sake can anyone make a list of the junior champions from 2000-2011? tnx

World Junior Championships are held at the end of every calendar year and always include both team and singles/doubles. They started in 2003.

Results can be seen here (see bottom left):
http://www.ittf.com/ittf_stats/stats_by_event.htm

The Chinese rarely send their best juniors of the age group. Typically, they send 15 or 16-year olds to compete against 17 or 18-year olds from other countries. Some win anyway (Ma Long, Ding Ning...) others don't.

(Of course age is controversial in the case of Chinese players, and their real age may be higher.)

amateur wrote: The Chinese rarely send their best juniors of the age group. Typically, they send 15 or 16-year olds to compete against 17 or 18-year olds from other countries. Some win anyway (Ma Long, Ding Ning...) others don't. (Of course age is controversial in the case of Chinese players, and their real age may be higher.)

Maybe they send 15, 16-year old because they are actually 17, 18...you need to add at least two years to Chinese tt players' age, China only add some years to divers and gymnasts

dingyibvs wrote: atv wrote: amateur wrote: The Chinese rarely send their best juniors of the age group. Typically, they send 15 or 16-year olds to compete against 17 or 18-year olds from other countries. Some win anyway (Ma Long, Ding Ning...) others don't. (Of course age is controversial in the case of Chinese players, and their real age may be higher.) Maybe they send 15, 16-year old because they are actually 17, 18...you need to add at least two years to Chinese tt players' age, China only add some years to divers and gymnasts Assuming that were true, why would it matter?  Why don't they send 17/18 year olds who are really 19/20 year olds?  Also, if the Chinese really do understate the ages, wouldn't we see the gap between Chinese players and the rest of the world get narrower as they get older?  I mean, if a TT player peaks at age XX, then a Chinese junior would have 2 less years to reach his peak than a foreign player of the same listed age, no?  So how come the gap only gets larger?

My fist assumption was just kidding, players' real age is a "don't ask, don't tell" situation.

I think most top pros will reach their peak at age of 25 to 29 and last several years with exception of LGL and very few other talents. Understated age will give players two more years but last shorter after, my point is that before 32 it is an advantage, but after 32 they seem not performing as well as a 32+ player should be, so in CNT there aren't many 32+ players in a very good form

Both malin and wlq have been in CNT for around 15 years, wlq has been dropping since 2008 when he was 30, malin's last epic show was WTTC moscow when he was 30, put two more years on each they all start falling at 32

igorponger wrote: Niwa lost the match solely due to the plastic balls being in use at the U21 event. He made a fatal mistake of entering both Junior's and Man's events at a time. He has not had time enough to get his play fit in to the specific ballistics of the plastic balls. Koki Niwa is nowdays the world's most promising starlet to crash all the Chineses down in near future, seeing that his inner stamina and combative spirit are beyond human. He is called "predator" and "assassin" in Japan. I believe in Niwa's ultimate supremacy in our sport far above anyone's else.

Predator is an awesome alias :)

igorponger wrote: Niwa lost the match solely due to the plastic balls being in use at the U21 event. He made a fatal mistake of entering both Junior's and Man's events at a time. He has not had time enough to get his play fit in to the specific ballistics of the plastic balls. Koki Niwa is nowdays the world's most promising starlet to crash all the Chineses down in near future, seeing that his inner stamina and combative spirit are beyond human. He is called "predator" and "assassin" in Japan. I believe in Niwa's ultimate supremacy in our sport far above anyone's else.

The biggest reason I think is the chinese national team system. Other countries simply do not have a system of feeder teams, coaches, etc etc who have all been there, done that, and produced multiple dominating champions. The chinese know exactly what is needed to produce a consistently good world top player, and they have many players to choose from, and I suspect they even know what to look for in a young player if he/she is to achieve greatness. At the moment they basically lead the world in understanding and developing high level TT techniques.

Perhaps in the future, some other country can come up with some amazing innovation (not wierd style (Maze lobbing) or stupid trick (Japanese comedy serve) that works for 3 months, Im talking about proper solid innovation like the development of looping) and be able to dominate for a few years until the chinese (and everyone else) catches up (unlike pips days, i think the chinese will change much faster this time, no more stupid stubborness). We shall see!

The other thing is that the chinese mens style seems to require more refinement, physicality and muscle to play (but is slightly better in the end i.e. higher ceiling), so maybe the juniors cant quite pull it off yet. Of course, the aim is to produce consistent top players. Nobody cares about junior world champs.



Edited by Vassily - 08/29/2011 at 4:53am

LGL is an evil genius. Thank god there is no more LGL or Sahara will go berserk and really start changing the rules. What you see now from Sahara is nothing.