The following observations are of course my personal view and do not claim to be the “truth”!
Here comes Qianhong Gotsch (China):
Strengths:
good backhand serves
very good forehand smash
good footwork
choppy fore and backhand when pushing
Weaknesses:
seems to play with two sides pips in, which is disadvantageous against better players
haven’t seen a forehand topspin from her yet
forehand defense looks more “shovely” than choppy
Suggestions:
if you don’t want to use long pimples you need to be able to float back fast spinny topspins in order to keep the ball low and deceive the opponent. So practise heavy chop versus float on same kind of topspin
The following observations are of course my personal view and do not claim to be the “truth”!
Here comes LIU Fei (China):
This is a great one:
Strengths:
good footwork and general physical fitness
very good, low and consistent forhand defending with pips-in rubber which is very rare in female table tennis.
forehand push with pips-in is very choppy producing a lot of first topspin errors by the opponent
backhand defence also very low and choppy
Weaknesses:
generally too much defence only, nearly no attacking capabilities shown over whole match
too many backhand serves of same style and placement
Suggestions:
absolutely needs to work on attacking capabilities, especially forehand topspin on pushes down her middle or forehand
also counter topspins or aggressive blocks from behind the table with forehand need to be developed, same as most of male defenders and also female players as Wu Yang f.e
The following observations are of course my personal view and do not claim to be the “truth”!
Here comes Game and skills analysis Ma Te (China):
Nice “Best-of”:
Great match! I can not recall Xu Xin having ever lost to a defender! As I try to categorize defenders in users of long and short pips I would be grateful if anybody comes up with a reliable (!) information on what pips Ma Te uses. There are a lot of rumours out there. Some say short pips (I doubt it!) some say TSP Curl P-R1 (possible but unlikely). It might be in between and medium long.
Strengths:
very versatile playing style, one of the rare defenders using the long pips on forehand to defend on short very spinny topspins into his forehand, a dangerous weapon.
good footwork
good Forehand Topspin on pushes and good Counter topspinning
consistent backhand chop (short pips as far as I can see)
nice use of the different Rubbers to push, block and Topspin with both sides
good backhand Topspin on pushes
Weaknesses:
occasionally the shot pips return fast Topspins too high
variety of serves could still increase a bit
footwork could still improve a bit (but he is still Junior, so that normal)
Forehand defense is rather going “round” the ball putting it back too high instead of chopping it upside down to Keep it low and with much backspin. So
Suggestions:
practice Forehand chopping the ball back low and with more backspin
practice “Floating” backhand defence balls back in order to avoid a high defence that easily gets punished
The following observations are of course my personal view and do not claim to be the “truth”!
Here comes Hou Yingchao (China):
Great comeback 2019!
Banana-Defending and Banana-Topspins:
Strengths:
Very good footwork
Good unorthodox defending on backhand and forehand
Good forehand topspin against pushes
Since he is using short pips to chop he can put either put a lot of backspin, sidespin or deceptive float on the ball which makes it more difficult to read the spin for the opponent.
An astonishing often flabbergasting weapon is his forehand counter topspin with loads of sidespin making it nearly impossible for the opponent to counterspin it back as you can see in this first video when he plays Christian Süss.
Uses the shot pips on the backhand occasionally to smash high pushes or block topspins down the line.
Weaknesses:
Serve range could be wider
sometimes a bit untempered and such putting him self off in tight match situations
occasionally returning fast topspins into his backhand to high against the better Chinese players.
often goes back into defending to early and to far away from the table thus opening up chances for the attacker to use wide angles with the topspins.
Suggestions:
should get a wider range of serves
Should try to attack more often with his forehand close to the table.
The following observations are of course my personal view and do not claim to be the “truth”!
Here comes Fan Ying (China):
Strengths:
good footwork
very good fast and/or spinny forehand topspin
good backhand and forehand defense
consistent pushing capabilities with the long pimples
Weaknesses:
no particularly sophisticated and dangerous serves
forehand defense often comes back to high or long due to taking the ball too early or too high. To be fair one must admit that rare female players can hit topspins so hard and fast as Vacenovska showed here.
often returns block balls into her back hand to high and gets punished by smashes.
Suggestions:
practice defending with the forehand taking the ball lower or later
practice defending deceptive “floats” with here forehand. Ball should be returned fast, low and with nearly no backspin.
occasionally use the long pimples when defending slow spinny topspins down into her forehand
absolutely use pimples in occasionally to hard chop back pushes down her backhand
practice counterspinning slow topspins into her forehand with heavy side spin
should practice a greater variety of serves particularly shorter ones with various spin.
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