Variety of Styles
Watching the last group matches of the Men’s teams event and the thing that stands out to me straight away is the variety of styles that are possible in Table Tennis.
I am currently watching Samsonov, one of my favourites of the moment because of his tremendous feel for the ball. He is tall, with great ability to rally the ball from any position. Playing against the left handed forehand attacking style of Jiang from Hong Kong. Samsonov, much older, much taller, much more control and experience and on this occasion much too good.
On an adjacent table Baum from Germany takes on Pattantayas of Hungary. Baum a left handed attacker and his opponent a defensive chopper. At the other end of the hall I see the youthful exuberance of Kenta Matsudaira with ridiculously good serves that mesmerise his opponents, including Boll earlier this morning. This time playing against the Spanish, European looking left handed penhold player from Spain Cantero. This afternoon it is the Spanish player who brings Matsudaira down to earth by defeating him in the first match of the teams event.
All legitimate styles and all on show on the biggest World stage of Table Tennis.
If you are thinking that your style is no good, maybe take another think, because there is more than one way to play this game.
usman
commented on June 10th, 2010 at 2:53 am
Samsonav is really good player. He plays very natural and stands like a wall in front of the player not redy to move bit. Great player…