'Chinese looping' before China....

chronos wrote: A perfect example, and I am very curious to see a clip before the 2000s showing something remotely resembling it: 1:00 minutes here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-8ECXb9n9w

I thought that was the normal way to finish those balls with the FH. Theres not that many pre-2000 videos around on the net, but I vaguely remember seeing Kong do it in that fantastic butterfly training video.

Edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVKYtB-Ezug at 2.30 is a slightly sideways version? Im sure Ive seen him do a better one. LOOK AT THAT ELEGANCE, none of that energizer-bunny stuff of today, it brings a tear to my eye.

I also vaguely remember a chinese coach showing me that shot, and he was trained pre-2000 (early 1990s was his peak?). Ive always characterized it by that odd moonwalk backward step. Or are you talking about a version without that backward moonwalk step.

The problem is that you have to be fast enough to do it (against evenly matched opponents), so it requires a certain minimum footwork level, and you also need to be standing far around the BH to make it worthwhile. Its easier for the chinese because they loop with their arms further out and are often more FH dominant, so they stand further to the BH in the first place. The alternative is to BH it I guess?

Maybe in the past someone like Gatien might have done a similar shot, but he would probably have done a more compact swing, without committing so fully.

As regarding the other BH over the table power shot, I think thats relatively new. Again, you need to be fast enough to get there to really wind up. In the old days maybe people try to hit it, or try to just brush it back without really killing them. I suspect the 40mm ball and the glue ban may have been a factor, since there is time to do it, and it is also necessary to do it to get the killing power.

As regards chinese vs euro, I suspect most amateurs just take a swing, adjusting their arm for distance. Of course further from the body has more power where possible, but if you need to actually make the extra distance, eg if its a ball going down the BH third of the table, running across to the BH side, hitting, then running back doesnt seem worth it to me.

The euro pro loop looks more ugly than the chinese one IMO, but that might just be footwork deficiencies.




Edited by Vassily - 06/20/2011 at 5:30am