Modern Table Tennis Techniques

Alois, 

I was watching a video on the history of table tennis.  It's very interesting to me because back in the 1930s we see a game that is more like regular tennis.  Foot work was not as much involved, obviously the game was slower (though some like Viktor Barna had a very fast powerful flick, and even Marty Reisman had a powerful forehand.  We can also still see fast attacking rallies even in the old days).  Forehand drives were done more with an arm action, where today we see the whole body involved in the motion.

My question is basically when did we start seeing our modern game come into play?  I noticed that the Western players tend to play more of what I like to call the "gentlemen" style.  There's an elegance to it almost like they are sword fighting, keeping the ball in play, trying to spot a weakness.  Not much moving around, the power comes more from the arm rather than from the whole body.  Sometimes you chase the ball, but for the most part its almost like a cat and mouse game.

But then I saw this:
https://youtu.be/vDhhg4C8f74?t=1147

Notice how he plays against the Asian (please forgive me but I could not tell from the narration whether he was playing against someone from Japan or China).  Here we can clearly see something more akin to the technique we see today coming from the Eastern countries and this is before the 1950's!  I notice the Asian has a penhold grip.  It seems to me that with a penhold grip it requires you to move your body to make the shot.  But I was very surprised to see someone from the 40's playing like Ma Lin!  I expected something more like Viktor Barna.

Sorry for the long post, but this is all very interesting to me.  The debate always goes that Hiroshi Sato changed the game of table tennis with sponge rubber in 1951.  Maybe the equipment changed, but I don't see the techniques themselves change, especially since the above video showed that fast attacking play and techniques like we see today were in use even in the 1940's.  I had no idea that people played like that that early in table tennis history.

Any insight or discussion on this?

Hi Sergio,

I love this type of footage.  The game had its own beauty in those days.

As far as I can tell that footage is from the 1959 World Championships because he mentions that he loses int he final to the first Chinese World Champion.  That was Rong Guotang in 1959.  Therefore this is after Hiroji Satoh and his “sandwich” rubber of 1952.

Did I mention I love this footage!