China Dominating

They all mostly use the penhold grip...

i think having a penhold style is not the key of success. the key is their determination . someone playing from the age of 5 years and giving 6 hours a day to it, he will definitely become Ma lin and Zhang Jike :)

i have been to china a couple times, and i can say that table tennis there is *MUCH* more popular there than anywhere else i have ever been.  i hadn't yet started playing table tennis at the time of my visits in 2000 and 2004, but it was impossible not to notice the popularity, and penetration of the sport.  there was considerable coverage on television (live matches, as well as analysis, and instruction), and concrete tables in almost all public parks and outside apartment complexes.  with somewhere around 20 million competitive players, and probably hundreds of millions of recreational players, there is a lot of talent to draw from.  additionally, because it is so popular, there is considerable pressure to perform, so that raises the levels of players and coaches.  finally, with the structure of their society, and their dedicated sports schools, promising players and coaches have a government-supported means to completely immerse themselves in table tennis, for the majority of their lives.

in short, to me it is more remarkable that the chinese aren't more dominant!

It's a shame Australia isn't as Table tennis crazy as the rest of us, but at the least the clubs are great! The advantage is that there isn't that many australian tt players so you could rise quickly quickly through the ranks. not that it's not going to be diffcult, just not as diffcult as the chinese level.

I don't think it's as simple as knowing "chinese-only secret method". I believe every competent coach knows the theory. It is just the implementation of the theory that is problematic. Just like agriculture. Sure, you don't need to do agriculture to have good fruits/vegetable: by chance, there will be some. But if you do practice agriculture, you can be sure of the amount and quantity of the supply.

China is successful in this regards. They promote the sports while other countries just "enjoy" the success of occasional successful TT players. There is simply little or no support for TT players.

Enjoyable blog-video guys.

Have either of you read Bounce by Matthew Syed? He tries to dismiss the myth of the "talent" theory of excellence and talks about hours of purposeful practice. He's keen to make the point that "just practice" won't make a difference; it's both quality and quantity of practice that makes successful players.

I think that's one thing that the Chinese have always done well, and that the rest of the world are only now catching up to. I believe it was the Chinese that first had the idea of Multiball for instance.

I read somewhere that they dedicate "practice players" to analysing and imitating the style of non-Chinese table tennis players so that the top Chinese players can practice against, for example, a replica of Timo Boll's style and characteristics. In addition, the very top players will play against practice duos - two players that have played as a team for a number of years, where one plays the forehand shots and the other plays the backhand. This allows even the world number one to play against "better" opponents, as that's one of the best ways to improve.