Dr. Zhang Xiaopeng, a leading researcher in the world of table tennis, has listed technical innovations in Chinese table tennis:

From one side to two sides

The year of 1995 was a watershed¹ in the technical development of Chinese table tennis. Since the 40th world championships in 1989 in which Swede Jan-Ove Waldner won the men's singles crown, Europeans started to accept the Chinese concept of "using forehand attacks as a major weapon, hitting the ball early and taking the initiative in offense²", and witnessed the maturing of an extremely aggressive style represented by Frenchman Jean-Philippe Gatien, Belgian Jean-Michael Saive and German Jorg Rosskopf.

Around 1995, Chinese learned from the successes and defeats of penhold attackers Jiang Jialiang and Chen Longcan and handshake attacker Teng Yi, producing a secret weapon, represented by Kong Linghui, to deal with Europeans.

While making full use of their forehand power, European players failed to mend their weaknesses, especially in backhand. That made them technically³ unbalanced and gave Chinese opportunities to catch up.

Since Jiang, Chen and Teng called it quits, Chinese had fear for heavy loops and long rallies by Europeans. They knew Gatien and his likes had weaknesses but they didn't have the ability to turn the tables.

In the early 1990s, the Chinese were jolted⁴ awake by a fact that they were disadvantageous in long rallies against South Koreans and Swedes. After realizing the problem, Chinese coaches stressed the importance of forehand attacks and taking the initiative. They urged players to expose backhand loopholes of then top players like Saive and Gatien by attacking their forehands and pressuring backhands. Chinese regained⁵ the dominance in 1995 by clean-sweeping all the seven world titles.

In terms of third-ball attacks and attacks on serves, Chinese had gradually switched from the use of one side to two sides. From the 36th to 39th world championships, while most Europeans were struggling in dealing⁶ with Chinese serves and receives, Waldner, his teammate Jorgen Persson and Gatien had found effective ways to deal with deep returns by Chinese. At that time, Chinese top players Jiang, Chen and Teng could hardly control the table once they lost the initiative in attacking. Defeats were inevitable⁷ in the 1991 and 1993 world championships. In the 1995 championships, a new generation of Chinese players - Kong Linghui, Liu Guoliang, Ma Wenge and Wang Tao - appeared and they all could attack with two sides of the racket. Then started an ensuing decade of China vs. World.

Quality of shots

Since the 2000 World Cup, the table tennis world has focused on the quality of every shot. Chinese have enriched their tactics by adding the change of attacking directions to the traditional way to attack the ball early. Europeans have added more spin to their play and learned from Asians on speed.

The introduction of the 40mm ball in 2000 had prompted both Europeans and Asians to ponder over new styles and tactics. The quality of backhands is even more important.

Kalinikos Kreanga of Greece and Werner Schlager of Austria have perfected their backhand skills, while South Korean Ryu Seung Min has developed a better and stronger backhand block.

Chinese players, while honing every technical aspect, have developed into two major schools. Ma Lin, Wang Liqin and Liu Guozheng are more dangerous with killer⁸ forehands. Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui are balanced in offense and defense⁹ and have very good connection between shots.The ITTF adopted the use of the 40mm ball over the 38mm ball in 2001 for all table tennis competition worldwide, affecting players in different ways.

The new ball took a sting out of Liu's serves and attacks as the Chinese penholder crashed out of the quarterfinals in the 2001 world championships. Thanks to the new ball, Kreenga, Ma Lin and Chuan Chih-Yuan have more or less improved their play.

When it comes to short balls, either Chinese or non-Chinese players have a new understanding of placement shots. They have no dead corner and can attack from every spot of the table. That was unimaginable 10 years ago. Another innovation is that players now dare return backspin long and then switch from defense to offense. Pips-out attackers and choppers

The pips-out penhold style has been in decline since the retirement¹⁰ of Olympic and world champion Liu Guoliang while the defensive¹¹ play has revived with the appearance of Joo Se Hyuk (South Korea), Kim Kyung Ah (South Korea), Chen Weixing ( Austria), Lin Ju (Dominican Republic) and Viktoria Pavlovich (Belarus).

Nowadays, defensive, pips-out penhold and pips-out handshake styles have little room to develop and many people have discouraged their children from these styles. It takes twice time to become a defensive player because one has to practice both chops and attacks.

In theory, the pips-in penhold still has a bright future although in the Chinese team Wang Hao and Ma Lin are the only promising¹² players in this style. Japan had more penholders than any other country but it dropped this style in a belief that it would never catch up with South Korea, which has produced two penhold Olympic singles champion.

Pips-in penholders have strong forehand and weaker backhand. They tend to heavily favor their forehand. The obvious strategy for handshakers would seem to be to exploit their weaker backhand, but since many penholders display superb footwork, this is not as easy as it might seem. To work their backhand, you need to move the ball around, especially out wide. Do this in random¹³ fashion so they can't predict where you will direct the ball next. Chinese invented a unique penhold style with which one can drive and hit with the reverse side of the racket. It seems South Koreans have mastered this style too and will train more such players.Physique and Rules

Table tennis is a highly technical sport that tests every aspect of a human body. Obviously, being in good physical shape is important to play at one's best level, and can be the difference between two players with the same technical ability. Moreover, we see many players' form and footwork degrade after several matches on a tournament day, causing them to make mistakes they normally don't make. Better conditioning would help these players maintain the footwork required to play their best.

A table tennis player should improve his or her stamina¹⁴, or aerobic¹⁵ conditioning. Bicycling, swimming, for example, are all great methods of aerobic exercise. Jump rope has an additional benefit, beyond building stamina, to some degree it also simulates the footwork needed and works the muscles needed for quick movement in table tennis. Besides improving stamina, one should also train those muscles used in table tennis. Exercising all muscles is important for overall health, but for table tennis we especially recommend exercises that focus on the legs and abdominals.

Chinese researchers have recently switched their attention to the rules of competition.

After the 11-point scoring system and no-hidden service rule were introduced, people have paid more heed¹⁶ to taking chances at the beginning of the competition. Statistics shows that 85 percent of the players who first reach the five-point mark turn out to win the set.

The reforms by the ITTF are aimed to evenly develop table tennis in the world and make the sport more of a spectacle. The 11-point system requires athletes to have a strong mind, get into game quickly and make full use of their strengths. New methods of mental training are needed and we should no longer baby-sit our players in tediously long training sessions. As a front-runner in technical innovations, the Chinese team has tried to make their daily training more like real competition.