Australian Womens Team
Bronze medallists

There were 3 points that stood out for me at the recent Commonwealth Championships.

It has been a couple of years since I have had a chance to watch Table Tennis at the highest level from up close. It was great to see the level of Table Tennis that is played. It always thrills me to watch the best at their art. If you ever get a chance to do it take it up, you will enjoy every minute of it.

The first observation was the change in the importance of the open rally. Now, more than in the past 20 years, the open rally seems to be dominant. Gone are the days of the strong 3rd ball attack that wins the point outright. Now it is a matter of gaining an advantage from the opening attack and then maintaining that advantage through a series of strong topspins. The counterspin has become a major part of the game. No longer are players able to block the ball around and wait for an opening. As soon as the ball is hit with topspin, your opponent is looking to come back at you with a counterspin.

The second observation, is the necessity of short play to gain the first advantage. Players are so strong at keeping the ball short on returns and serves, that when you gain the advantage with a topspin it is often no longer a winning stroke.

The third observation is a sad one. The gluing rule is not working. At these Championships the system was that in the morning you would find out which teams match was to be targeted for racket testing. Then only the first player in the match was to be tested. So it was very easily manipulated that if you had a player whose racket was borderline, you could choose to play them in the second match rather than the first and therefore avoid the racket test. Also if your match was not targeted for that round your players could use whatever they wanted to play with.

The second disappointing aspect of the system was that rackets were tested 20 minutes before the match. If your racket failed the test you could have a second racket tested before the match. If this racket failed the test, you could play the match with a third racket that would be tested after the match. So players had three chances to get it right. Then the ruling is that it is up to the Referees discretion as to what would happen if the third test was failed. Surely this is too lenient. It invites the players to push the envelope and really test the system. As long as this sort of testing is maintained you will not have an even playing field. It needs to go one way or the other. Let players use whatever they want or get tougher and only allow one chance. There of course also needs to be definite policies set out as to what will happen. If players know that if they fail a racket test twice they will automatically forfeit the match and perhaps be banned from the competition, I am sure they will be a lot more careful about their equipment.

From a personal point of view the championships had some highlights. The Australian Womens team winning a bronze medal in the teams event was pleasing. Also to see the strength of the Indian team. They have developed a great squad of players that will be looking for success in next years Commonwealth Games. Four Indian players reached the last 8 of the Mens singles. They also won the Mens doubles beating the highly fancied Singapore team of Gao Ning and Yang Zi. Their women reached the last 4 of the Teams and they won a bronze medal in the womens singles and bronze medal in the Mixed doubles.

Watching players like Gao Ning, Paul Drinkhall, Sharath Kamal Achanta and in the womens Wang Yue Gu and Yu Meng Yu, in action and having the ability to observe their strokes and training was educational.

If you have any queries about the championships please use the Ask the Coach section.