Hitting mode and racket configuration
Table tennis can be said to be a highly technical competitive sport, and its complexity is mainly manifested in the diversity of winning factors. As far as an incoming ball is concerned, its speed, strength, rotation intensity, landing point length and arc trajectory can all be the winning factors that make the opponent in trouble. What's more, almost all these winning factors appear in front of people in a combined way, which brings difficulties to judge, move and control the stroke. In a sense, the reason for this complicated state is that people choose rackets with different configurations and adopt a variety of different hitting methods. There is a very subtle relationship between users and devices. A racket will create a style of play, while a positive rubber sponge racket will create a fast attack style, and a reverse rubber sponge racket will create a fast loop ball attack style. However, in the process of using the same type of racket, different users can change some configurations and create different "stunts".
It can be said that Rong Guotuan, Zhuang Zedong, Qiu Zhonghui, Xu Yinsheng, Li Furong and other first-generation table tennis players in China cannot do without a positive rubber sponge racket. However, after Rong Guotuan lost the first game in the face of the resourceful and well-behaved Hungarian veteran Seedo, he boldly changed his routine. First, he corrected the normal hitting way of the rubber sponge stick, and increased the friction by spinning the ball sideways, which destroyed the opponent's rhythm. China's first dream of world championship was finally realized at the 25th World Table Tennis Championships. Since then, his famous saying "How many times can you live" has spread like wildfire in China. However, the same is true of rubber sponge rackets. Zhuang Zedong chose a "rotten sponge" with almost no elasticity, but it was this racket and this sponge that helped him create a precedent for fast break on both sides of the table with the unique characteristics of hitting power. "Little Tiger Style" accompanied him to become the first person in history to win the men's singles three consecutive championships in the World Table Tennis Championships. It was also suggested that he change a sponge with higher hardness in a linear thinking way, so that the attack speed can be further improved. The result backfired, which proved that this was a "cruel move."
Jiang Yongning, the first famous backhand chopper in China, returned from Hongkong. In the face of the storm, it is necessary for him to save the ball into the sea. However, it was Zhang who really turned the backhand chop into a "magic master". It was an accidental piece of "long glue" that inspired him to hit the ball with "reverse spin", and the ball changed from "downward spin" to "upward spin", and the arc cut the ball more and more. These were incredible things at the time. In order to keep this "secret", the World Series specially made an ordinary rubber racket for him (there was no racket inspection system at that time). Someone wanted to see his racket, so he took it out and used only a long rubber racket in the game. After the game, he must put it in his bag immediately to avoid "leaking", so Zhang's reputation as a "magic master" really deserves its reputation. Similarly, Liang Geliang, the former world champion who used the "long rubber racket", invented the "backhand serve", which made full use of the different properties of the front reverse rubber and the back long rubber (there was no restriction on the color of the racket face at that time) and served with the same action with a large rotation gap, creating many opportunities for attack. Many famous players can't do anything about him in the competition. I remember once in a national competition, he lost only one game, and the winner was an old member of the Guangdong team. Everyone is busy "learning from the scriptures", but the secret of his success is really jaw-dropping: "Don't look at the serve, stare at the rubber model." Later, the China team brought this "invention" to the world series and was invincible, and further improved it to hide behind the back and "backhand" suddenly serve; Use the sound of "stamping" to cover up the sound difference caused by different rubber serves and so on. This kind of service makes foreign players feel at a loss and try their best to crack it. It is said that some foreign players sent teammates to observe behind our server, indicating that one-on-one singles would become one-on-two "doubles". The change of long rubber racket has been used to this extent, which should be incisive, but it has gone further. Deng Yaping changed the slow-paced hitting method of long rubber racket, which was mostly used for cutting, wiping and blocking, and created a new technology of sponge with thickness of 1mm to accelerate the attack ball. She didn't simply change the performance according to the rotation of the long rubber racket, but gave full play to the "rhythm" characteristics of the long rubber racket. The long rubber racket has a short arc and the flight path is "floating". In addition, the sponge with a thickness of 1mm is really a bit "thief" and it is not easy to borrow money, which is very different from the fast break of rubber ball prevention. Deng Yaping has excellent footwork and sharp forehand smash. The long rubber ball often forces the opponent to slow down the hitting rhythm, so she takes the opportunity to smash the opponent sideways continuously, making the opponent breathless. The long rubber racket featuring change was slightly thickened by her sponge, which changed the way of hitting the ball and even played "domineering".
The anti-glue racket was first invented by the Japanese. Later, they invented the loop ball by using the anti-glue racket, and established the attack start mode of friction hitting, which made great contributions to modern table tennis. China's first anti-glue world singles champion was Yun Enting, who used to be a real fast break. His three unique skills are the hidden one-handed action, the different rotation and non-rotation of the service, the powerful explosive push and the real loop ball. The positive loop ball can only be used when dealing with the backspin ball, and the opponent's offensive power is completely useless. After using the anti-adhesive sponge racket, his serve and pull are more powerful, and he can continue to pull the ball. Coupled with his vigorous promotion, friction attack and impact attack reached a perfect combination. He has never won a championship in a major competition, and finally got his wish at the 32nd World Table Tennis Championships and won the men's singles championship.
Over the past 70 years, the anti-sticking racket has shown great development potential, but at that time, in the traditional environment of China, there was always controversy about promoting the use of anti-sticking racket, changing the hitting habits and learning the loop ball technology comprehensively, which made us miss the opportunity to take the lead in reform and innovation. Until 1989, the Swedes' three musketeers, Waldner, persson and Apeyilun, defeated the China team, which had been under siege for many years, with convincing fast break skills. Jiang Jialiang, Chen Longcan and Ito, the three best fast-break players in the world, lost by 0: 5. The fact finally makes China table tennis circle, which has been hovering between "inheriting tradition" and "innovation" and "change", understand that "development is the last word", and the technical upgrade brought by the rubber sponge-proof hitting method has changed the trend of table tennis in the world. Nowadays, the attacking technique of curling ball is not only simple "hanging high" and "rushing forward", but the combination of "friction" and "impact", which makes the attacking technique of curling ball develop into various techniques such as pulling, dragging, rushing, hanging, tearing, paddling, skimming, splitting, twisting, picking, bouncing, smashing and buckling. Emancipation of the mind makes the excellent table tennis groups in China glow with the great creativity of the overall advantage of "national ball". It only took six years to recreate another spring of table tennis in China. Since the 43rd World Table Tennis Championships was held in Tianjin in 1995, China table tennis team has re-established its own world champion phalanx-Kong, Liu, Liu, Ma Lin, Wang, Wang Nan, Zhang Yining and so on.
With the development of loop ball technology, the concept of racket configuration has changed a lot. First of all, in the era of floor and near-table fast attack, because people's hitting methods are mostly "impact", even the assault backspin only emphasizes the combination of "beating and rubbing", thinking that too much friction will affect the speed. At that time, people thought that the harder and heavier the thick floor was, the better it would be, because the fast attack near Taiwan was the pursuit of rhythm and speed, and retreating was considered as losing "speed" and being passively beaten. At that time, in training, the coach often saw a baffle behind the athletes-blocking their retreat and cultivating their consciousness of decisive battle and never back down at the front desk. At that time, the fast break near the stage pursued the hit rate on the premise of improving the rhythm and speed, and grabbed the rising point and the highest point of the passing ball in the near stage and in the stage. Arc is not very important for hitting the ball in this period, so the ball with impact is more lethal, and the ball with low arc is more lethal. The hard floor holds the ball for a short time, and the efficiency of converting the hitting force into the ball speed is low-it is not easy to rub the ball out of the arc, which just meets the requirements of fast break near the table. Moreover, the hitting power of the near-table fast break often requires the batter to use "resultant force" (commonly known as medium force), that is, with the help of the rebound force of the incoming ball and his own hitting power, the two form a resultant force to quickly hit the ball back on the near-table or on the stage. This is a very skillful way to hit the ball with the help of strength. Such a fast break will often make the opponent unable to get enough distance to return the ball, and at the same time, he will often be unable to borrow the rebound force of the ball, thus being passive. Therefore, this hitting method requires that the bottom plate can produce higher rebound efficiency when hitting the incoming ball, and the harder bottom plate can just meet this requirement. When using a hard bottom plate, players can get a faster return speed in a shorter distance with less force. In addition, the arc hitting distance near the table is short, and the swing speed is required to be fast, so the range of hitting the ball must be relatively small, and the method of approaching the ball must be often used. In order to improve the hitting power in small range and close range, players need to choose a heavier base plate. The natural composition of the wooden hard bottom plate is heavier, and at the same time, thickening the plate body can also increase the weight of the racket and move the center of gravity forward. At that time, many athletes added a layer of 2 mm-thick paulownia wood to the back of the 6 or 7 mm-thick ball board, which improved the "potential energy" of the racket when hitting the ball and increased the power of hitting the ball. Even though we have entered the era of arc fast attack, there are still traces left by the times in terms of the requirements for the bottom plate for fans who have come from that era. Recently, a golfer in his fifties came to our store. He introduced himself as a horizontal shot and a double-sided loop ball. According to the routine, everyone recommended a super-Jie -B suitable for double-sided loop ball: the thickness is 5.7mm and the weight is 90g, but after a few days, he found it and came back and said: This floor has no speed. Everyone checked it, and there was no problem with the bottom plate. I have never heard such a reaction before. They think that maybe he just accidentally pulled the loop ball or played more fast breaks. Because the service here is zero risk, as long as it is not dirty, it can be changed, so he replaced it with a harder Super B, and he tried it and took it away. But after two days, he found it back and said, although this board is good, it is a little hard, and it feels a little lacking in pulling the ball. Can you change a bottom board between this board and the previous one? This time, I asked him to pull the loop ball a few times, only to find that his loop ball was all played by the force near the stage with the help of the anti-pull and anti-belt action, not the pull and rush as everyone imagined. So I recommended Chaojie -A to him: 6.2mm in thickness and 95g in weight. As a result, he left this time with great satisfaction. This incident gives us a revelation: among fans and friends, due to their different ages and playing backgrounds, their physical fitness and hitting habits are also very different. Although everyone says that they have mastered some curling skills, the thickness, hardness and weight of the selected ball board should be different. With this experience, that day, a young golfer who claimed to combine fast break and loop ball came to the store and chose a super A-type crossbar, so we suggested that he choose a lighter, thinner and softer super B-type again, and he was really satisfied after the trial.
It is no accident that the bottom plate becomes thinner (except veneer), lighter and softer in the era of loop ball, because the way of hitting the ball changes, friction and impact are integrated. A national team coach explained the difference between forward curling and explosive impact: the force of forward impact is friction, while the force of explosive impact is bounce. This shows the development and progress of modern loop ball. Elasticity is about deformation and recovery. The elasticity of hitting the ball shown by the thick and hard ball board is mostly the deformation and recovery of sponge and ball. The elastic efficiency he showed should be mainly the conversion efficiency of the rebound force of the incoming ball, rather than the efficiency of converting the hitting force into the flight speed or rotation speed of the ball through the bottom plate. At the moment of hitting the ball, the bottom plate of the hoop ball needs a long holding time-deeper impact deformation and faster deformation recovery speed-at least greater than the rebound speed of the incoming ball, so it can combine the instantaneous friction and impact force, so a reasonably designed thinner and softer ball plate is more suitable for hoop ball. Furthermore, the loop ball is basically a completely self-propelled hitting method. When hitting the ball, we should try our best to overcome the problems of short ball control time or insufficient friction caused by the rebound force of the incoming ball. Therefore, the ball board with high rebound efficiency when pulling the loop ball is not as good as the ball board with higher strength efficiency. Undoubtedly, the thinner and softer ball board may not bounce a few times when used to balance the ball in static state, but it has better power conversion efficiency under dynamic swing force, which makes you feel that your pull is directly proportional to the speed of the ball. But an excellent ball board will feel inefficient when hitting the ball vigorously. In the early 1990s, most athletes were still playing the hard and thick traditional floor. In a match between China and North Korea, Chen Zhibin failed to kill the semi-high ball scored by North Korean player Kim Seung-hee with a backhand. Chen Zhibin was one of the best players in the national team at that time. Watching this game is chilling. At that time, Xu Yinsheng, chairman of the Table Tennis Association, asked: Why do many of our players lean forward too much when they rush the loop ball? When foreign players hit the ball, the board is only slightly forward and can be easily combined with the zipper. We have also tried to improve in training, but it is ok to pull one or two boards by hand. When pulling continuously, we feel the ball falling. In order to ensure the arc, we have to increase the upward force and sacrifice the flight speed. In order to pursue speed, we have to lean the racket forward to increase the grip depth of the sponge glue at the moment of coming. You can't have your cake and eat it, what's more, relying on the elasticity of COSCO Taiwan Province sponge rubber is far from producing the energy needed for greater speed. Later, a softer and thinner ball board was used to solve the above problems.
Because of the stress characteristics and large running range of the self-powered pull loop ball, more hitting time periods can be selected, and the action range is obviously larger than that of the near-table fast break. In the fast break, you can hit the ball with big movements and strong strength, and naturally choose a light ball board, which not only saves labor, but also improves the swing speed. Therefore, since the 1990s, no one in Europe likes boards over 90g, and now the younger generation of fans in China are beginning to like light boards.
In contrast, with the development of the times, the change of sponge configuration is not as big as that of the bottom plate. Players who used to play near-table fast break all like soft sponge, and the double happiness sponge 12 is the most suitable for playing near-table fast break. TSP in Japan is world famous for its raw rubber sponge. Their hardness is below H40 degrees, and the Shore hardness system adopted by Shuangxi will indicate a lower index. Close-range fast break likes soft sponge, which is also because they choose the way of hitting the ball hard-mainly by impact. They need to give full play to the precise function of the hard impact of the bottom plate at the moment of hitting the ball, and quickly exert the hitting force on the ball through the ball board to control the speed, arc and landing point of the ball. But too thick and hard sponge will directly affect their feeling of controlling the ball, making them feel that their hands are powerless. This is the reason why Zhuang Zedong, who is known as the cutting-edge force mechanism-spring impact force, can't change hard sponge in any case, while Deng Yaping, who is famous for volley, only chooses 1.5mm thick sponge ... We also have experience in this field. Once, a middle-aged golfer drove from Zhuozhou to our shop to buy a racket. He chose a lightweight (85g) three-layer carbon overspeed -B racket. Because he introduced himself as a fast break combined with a loop ball, and he chose a lighter bottom plate, we gave him a sponge with a hardness of 46 degrees and a thickness of 2. 1mm, and stuck it on. But after two days, he found it again, saying that he couldn't hear the sound of "bang, bang" when playing, and he couldn't find the feeling of hitting the ball. At first, everyone thought that the bottom plate was too soft, so they replaced it with a harder one, but it was not enough. When he tried to play, I found that his offensive actions were traditional straight-shot, fast-break and impact. Because he was in a hurry and didn't have time to keep trying, I suggested that he only replace a 40-degree, 2. 1mm sponge. After he changed it, he left a question, ours. At this time, everyone's heart will fall to the ground.
The sponge used to pull the loop ball has always been hard and thick. When the thick sponge pulls the ball, the deformation depth is large and it is easy to control the ball. Moreover, a hard and thick sponge, with large deformation and energy storage, must have higher resilience, which can meet the requirements of rotation and speed at the same time. Only after the 40mm ball was changed, the athletes adjusted the sponge in order to adapt to the situation that the ball became slower and softer. Increasing the thickness of sponge (above 2.2 mm) and reducing the hardness of sponge (below 46 degrees) are the common choices of many people at present. Of course, the thickness of rubber should also be considered when the sponge is thickened. According to ITTF rules, the total rubber thickness of sponge should not exceed 4 mm.
In short, the racket is the material, and the material is the foundation. A properly configured racket can certainly make people feel comfortable and show their elegance. But people should also have the spirit, learn advanced technology, study and master various skills, techniques and tactical changes of hitting power, and make the racket in your hand a real "sharp weapon", which is also the reaction of spirit to matter in dialectics.