The following observations are of course my personal view and do not claim to be the “truth”!
Here comes Johanna Parker (England):
Strengths:
good consistant defending on both back and forehand
good physical fitness and footwork
good occasional surprising smash with backhand anti-topspin rubber (I suppose)
good forehand smashing on high pushes
Weaknesses:
Forehand: No variety of forehand serves, no forehand countertopspin, but what is worse: no topspin on long pushes into her forehand
Backhand: Not to twiddle and occasionally putting heavy chop with the sticky rubber is a disadvantage and makes pushes and defense balls coming back from her too predictable
Both backhand and forehand serves could be improved and get more versatile.
too often taking the ball with the backhand side from her forehand side corner, often without need and also thus preventing a topspin or smash with her forehand
during the rally she is “hopping/wipping” without any need thus occasionally preventing herself from reacting quickly when in the “wrong” position of the “hop”
Suggestions:
First things first: She absolutely needs to practice heavy forehand topspins on long and choppy pushes down her forehand. If the opponent can rely on her not attacking when playing pushes the opponent gets more and more confident and relaxed being able to pick and chose the right moment for attacking.
Diversify serves! Both on backhand an forehand with both antitop and pimples in. Rubber inside serves should be short, choppy or with heavy side or topspin. Antitop serves should be fast, long, surprising and into different corners of the table.
Twiddle the bat in order to confuse the opponent about the underspin in your chop!
Maybe try to practice countertopspins with the forehand from far behind the table with a lot of sidespin.
Maybe consider changing from antitop rubber to more dangerous long pimples. Antitop, even the modern ones, are a bit “old school” (if I dare say so) and one can not really get to the top of the ITTF ranking with this material. The choice of long pimples you can adapt to when having played with antispin for a long time is much greater nowadays than it was by the time Joanna did decide to go with antispin.
The following observations are of course my personal view and do not claim to be the “truth”! Here comes Yuto Muramatsu (Japan):
Strengths:
good physical fitness, very good footwork
great variety of forehand serves
very good forehand topsins as well against pushes as against topspins
good backhand defending with short pips (as far as I know) creating a great variety of spin (heavy chop and “floats”) making it hard for the opponent to read the spin and react accordingly.
Weaknesses:
forehand defending often too high. Often gets punished by smashes or very fast topspins.
backhand defending is too high when trying to return a slow short and spinny topspin as you can see perfectly in the game against Jian Zhang (Polish Open 2012)
not using the advantage of the short pips very often: Blocking aggressively slow tospins down his backhand.
Suggestions:
Should also practice backhand serves
Should try to block more often with the backhand short pips
If you use short pips to defend with the backhand you have to make long movements with your arm in order to keep the ball low. This becomes more and more difficult when you go up in the ITTF-ranking because better players play faster and harder topspins and you won’t have time enough for making long movements. So Muramatsu should consider trying out choppy and awkward long pips in order to be able to defend low and with heavy chop. Now he is one of the few able to use his wrist a lot when chopping with the backhand. If he uses dangerous long pimples I think he will be one of the very top defenders soon.
The following observations are of course my personal view and do not claim to be the “truth”!
Here comes Viktoria Pavlovich (Belarus)
Strengths:
good physical fitness, good footwork
very versatile style: twiddels the bat thus using pimples out to defend on forehand as well as on backhand. Also pushes with heavy chop with pimples in from the backhand side.
good solid forehand smashes against high pushes or slow topspins into her forehand
good occasional blocking or smashing with backhand using the long pips.
solid defending on both forehand and backhand, also well placing the balls into extrem backhand and forehand of the attacker.
Weaknesses:
backhand defending often goes up too high thus risking of getting punished by smashes or fast topspin winners from the opponent
forehand defence is choppy always (both pips in and out)
long pimples seem to be too “boring” when defending against heavy topspin. There is not enough backspin in the defence with these pimples.
having no “weapon” to use against constant pushing long down her backhand.
no backhand topspin
no backhand fast lift balls with long pips down the forehand side of the opponent with awkward hard readible spin
no forehand counter topspin at all
forehand topsin against heavy push is too weak, not enough power and spin in it. It is too easy to block for high level players.
no great variety of serves. Mainly backhand “security” serves. I have not seen one direct winner serve!
always uses pips in on the forehand when taking serves
Suggestions:
should try other more choppy and dangerous pimples.
should try to topspin more often with the forehand on pushes to her forehand or to middle of the table
should try to learn to break the game up with an aggressive “lift” ball with the pimples when getting pushes down her backhand all the time
should practice more and more awkward serves with both backhand and forehand thus getting opportunities to attack right after the serve as modern male defenders do.
should learn to play deceptive “floats” on the forehand thus making it more awkward for the opponent to know what sort and how much backspin she is confronted with.
should try to occasionally take the long pips on the forehand when taking serves that go short and spinny into her forehand.
I am not sure: But it looks as if she is using a max. medium thick sponge on the forehand. She should try to use 2,0 or 2,3 sticky chinese rubbers. You get more chop when pushing or defending and it is easier to topsin or counter topspin.
The following observations are of course my personal view and do not claim to be the “truth”!
Here comes Li Jie (The Netherlands):
Strengths:
consistent defending and pushing on backhand
the forehand sidespin defense rotating into the backhand of the opponent can be a good weapon when not overused
good backhand serves
good aggressive pushes with backhand into various places on table side of opponent
fast forehand topspin or smash
Weaknesses:
physically not fit enough for standing up against top level players, needs to practice more footwork
forehand topspin always fast (rather a smash than a topspin) and such not usable against choppy pushes.
When smashing and the ball comes back slowly she rarely follows up by another smash but just playes the ball back to avoid the error. At high level standard of play you have to take the risk of finishing these ones off.
backhand to predictable, since the ball is always pushed back on a push from the opponent
both backhand and forehand defence goes up to high when there is really much topspin on the ball
no forehand serve variations
“hopping” to much between the rallies without need, thus slowing down the reaction time when confronted with a tricky shot
very vulnerable towards fast topspins into her body
Suggestions:
should absolutely practice forehand topspin with heavy spin so that she could also attack pushes that come back to her with heavy underspin (as a reply to her own choppy defence)
should practice forehand serve variations
should try to attack (very slowly) with long pimples on slow, or if playing short pimples smash high pushes into her backhand as a variation to always simply pushing the ball back
should try to twiddle and use the rubber in side to aggressively push back pushes into her backhand
should learn to occasionally use the pimples on the forehand to return topspins into her forehand that come slow and loaded with spin. Once you really get a ball back like this nearly no female players will be able to spin it up again or push it far over the table
should try to take spinny tospins much lower than she currently does in order to ensure that she return the ball much lower.
also learning to counter topspin occasionally at topspins played into her forehand would help
The following observations are of course my personal view and do not claim to be the “truth”!
Here comes Kim Kyung Ah (South Corea) and Park Mi Young (KOR) in a package because of the nice rallies and because of their strengths and weaknesses being nearly identical in my humble view (Park being a bit more active with her forehand though).
Strengths:
very good physical fitness and footwork
consistent defending and pushing on backhand
good forehand smash
good variety of backhand serves
occasional backhand block with pimples breaking the rhythm of the opponent
Weaknesses:
often defends on forehand too high thus giving the opponent the opportunity to get in with a big winner smash or topspin
often pushes the ball from the forehand corner with the backhand without any need. This push is also always with pimples so that there is not enough underspin to prevent a topspinner from getting in with a big, fast topspin.
never twiddels such giving away the chance of confusing the opponent
nearly no forehand serves
the backhand defense has too few variety is spin. As far as I know and can see, she is using medium long pimples with which you don’t get enough backspin on short, slow topspins.
to defend everything that comes as a topspin far behind the table is too much “old school”-defending.
Suggestions:
she should practice also forehand serves
occasional twiddling would help, but only when using different pimples which get more chop and are more confusing when pushing aggressively close to the table
a lot of pushes and stops into here forehand should be converted into a forehand topspin by hereself
an at least occasional counter topspin from her forehand corner into the middle of the table (preferably with a lot of sidespin) is necessary to beat also one of the top ten players more than once.
Thank you for your first comments, referels and encouragements. Since I can only update this blog in my spare time I will upgrade with more players (also from Korea) slowly but regurlarly. I thank you for your patience.
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