Development of Table Tennis in China

In 1904, Wang Daoping, the manager of a stationery store in Shanghai's Si Ma Road, bought 10 sets of table tennis equipment from Japan, including tables, nets, balls and paddles with holes, and set them up in the store, and made a performance of playing the ball and introduced the table tennis situation that he had seen in Japan, and table tennis activities began in China. In 1916, the Children's Department of the Shanghai YMCA set up a table tennis room and table, and table tennis activities were also organized among students. Later, in Beijing, Tianjin and Guangzhou, the activity was also carried out in several large cities, but the number of participants was not large.

In 1925, various cup matches were held in Shanghai, including the Akiyama Cup between the Chinese team and the Japanese expatriates in China; in 1927, the Chinese team went to Japan for a visiting tournament, and in August of the same year, it took part in the Eighth Far-Eastern Games in Shanghai, a Sino-Japanese exhibition match; and in 1930, it took part in the Ninth Far-Eastern Games in Tokyo, a ping-pong tournament. In 1935, the All-China Table Tennis Association was established, and initiated and organized the national table tennis competition, but only a few teams from Shanghai, Tianjin, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Nanjing, Qingdao, Hong Kong and Macao actually took part in the competition. in January 1935, the president of the International Table Tennis Federation (FITT) had invited our country by telegram to join the FITT and take part in the 9th World Table Tennis Championships, but it could not be realized due to lack of funds. The invitation could not be realized due to lack of funds.

In the darkness of old China, due to the reactionary rule and the impact of the war, the majority of the people lived in dire straits, and there were no conditions to engage in physical exercise, and table tennis could not be a healthy development.

The new China provided unprecedented conditions for table tennis

After the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, table tennis was given a new lease of life in China under the attention and care of the Chinese ****producing Party and the People's Government. 62 men's table tennis players from six administrative regions (Central and South China, North China, Northeast China, Southwest China, Northwest China, and East China) and the Railway System Sports Association (RSSA) played the table tennis game at the Beijing Tourism Association (TTA) in October 1952, and the TSA was the only one to organize such a tournament in China. In October 1952, the "First National Table Tennis Tournament" was held in Beijing, which was attended by 62 players from six administrative regions (North, Northeast, Southwest, Northwest, and East China) and the Railway System Association, opening a new page in the history of the development of table tennis in New China. At the same time, the Table Tennis Department of the All-China Sports Federation joined the International Table Tennis Federation (IBTF)

From then on, table tennis mass activities developed rapidly, and various national table tennis tournaments were held every year.

Third, the growth of China's table tennis team

China's people love table tennis and care about our table tennis team. Since its establishment in 1953, the Chinese table tennis team has experienced a process of development from defeat to victory, from weakness to strength. It has gained excellent results in the World Table Tennis Championships and various international competitions. The Chinese table tennis team has traveled to all five continents of the world. Through matches and friendly visits, they have made positive contributions to enhancing the friendship of people from all over the world and promoting the development of table tennis in the world.

(I) Battle-tested (1953-1957): Participating in international table-tennis tournaments was the best opportunity to improve and test the level of table-tennis.In the spring of 1953, the Chinese table-tennis team took part for the first time in the Twentieth World Table-Tennis Championships held in Bucharest. In this tournament, although it defeated the teams of Austria, Sweden and West Germany, it lost to the strong teams of England, Hungary and Czechoslovakia respectively. In the team competition, our men's team was rated tenth in the first division and the women's team was rated third in the second division.

When the young Chinese players just entered the world ping-pong world, some European countries looked down on our traditional straight-racket fast-attack style of play, thinking that the straight-racket technique is not as comprehensive as the horizontal racket technique. However, we believe that straight and horizontal racket have different advantages, and our straight racket players are good at fast attack with their own characteristics, only the ability to deal with chipping is still poor, coupled with the lack of experience in international competitions, so that the characteristics of attacking the ball can be played out in its entirety. In order to change this situation, so that our players also have a variety of playing styles, China began to advocate and cultivate a portion of the horizontal racket athletes, learning to study the techniques of European chipping players.

In the summer of 1954, China's table tennis team went to Hungary to participate in the Twelfth World University Games, won the third and fourth place in the men's singles, the third place in the women's singles, the third place in the men's doubles, and the second place in the total score only after Hungary. This showed that the technical level of our players had improved faster than in 1953 when they participated in the World Championships, and thus began to attract the attention of the international table tennis community.

In August 1955, the Chinese table tennis team took part in the Second International Youth Friendship Games in Warsaw, where our players showed their talent and won the second and third place in men's singles, the third place in women's singles and the second place in mixed doubles by defeating the best players from Japan, Romania and France.

In March 1956, China's table tennis team at the 23rd World Table Tennis Championships in Tokyo, the men's team defeated the Asian champions South Vietnam and the United States, and lost to Britain, Japan and Romania. This makes our players realize that the fast and hard in attacking the ball must be combined with accuracy in order to play its role better. This realization prompted the fast attack players to pay attention to the training of basic skills, and gradually improved the accuracy of the pull attack and attack, laying the foundation for the later creation of good results.

At the 24th World Table Tennis Championships in Stockholm in 1957, China's men's and women's teams beat the seeded Romanian and British teams respectively and both won the right to play in the final. China's Wang Chuanyao defeated Japan's outstanding player Ogimura Ichiro in the team competition, and the women's Sun Meiying defeated Britain's outstanding player Ann Haydon, initially showing the power of the straight-racket two-sided attack and the left-push-right attacking style of play. Our men's team rose from sixth place in the first level to fourth place in the first level, and the women's team rose from 11th place in the first level to third place in the first level, achieving better results.

From 1953-1957 just four years. China's table tennis team in the World Table Tennis Championships, from obscurity to the ranks of the world's strongest teams, a strong illustration of the progress made by China's table tennis, but also shows that we in the implementation of the policy of "a hundred flowers blossom", adhere to the direction of the development of our own, has achieved initial results.

(2) Toward the World Summit (1959-1965): In 1958, the table tennis team of China reviewed several years of combat experience, analyzed the situation of our team with the European team and the Japanese team, and believed that what the foreign athletes could do, the athletes of the new China could also do. Guangdong athlete Rong Guotuan was the first to formulate a plan to win the world championship, driving our athletes to the peak of the world table tennis. Everyone in the stadium, the bosom of the motherland, put service to the world, the fighting spirit is high, carried out a large movement most training and than, learn, catch up, help, super competition activities. The Chinese Table Tennis Association also lost no time in organizing several intensive training of outstanding athletes from all over the world, which played a good role in promoting the rapid improvement of technology.

Rong Guotuan was not only diligent in learning and practicing, but also good at practicing skillfully. He often loved to say that "playing table tennis is not only with the hands, but also with the brain". He created the spinning and non-spinning serve, rubbing attack tactics and pulling side topspin technique, which made an important contribution to the enrichment and development of China's traditional fast-attacking playing style. In the 25th World Table Tennis Championships, he won the first world championship for China with the spirit of passing five hurdles and defeating six generals. The whole Chinese table tennis team also took a leap forward to win 5 third places, with 6 male players in the top 16. It was an extremely important and good start for China's table tennis team, and the impact it had on the journey since then has been profound.

In the first spring of the 1960s, the Chinese table tennis team blew the trumpet for a full-scale march to the world's technical peak. On the eve of the 26th World Table Tennis Championships, 108 generals were trained intensively. They are ambitious, determined, in the strategic contempt of the difficulties, in the tactical importance of the difficulties, serious and hard training. 1960, when the Japanese invented a greater threat of the arc circle ball, the Chinese training team in the ideological did not waver, rapid investigation and research, according to which the timely training of a few arc circle ball playing style of the players, at the same time, China's close to the table fast-attack style of play for the targeted technical and tactical training, repeated practice, and constantly summarize the experience so that the athletes are not only the best, but also the most effective. Practice, constantly summarize the experience, so that the athletes of the arc ball real king to achieve a strategic contempt, tactical importance, both dare to fight, dare to fight the confidence of victory, but also have a certain technical basis.

In addition, there is a very important point is that the purpose of this training is very clear, each athlete to climb the peak as their own goal, so the training of self-consciousness is very strong, and even more bitter and tired can maintain a vigorous hard work and hard work, and thus exercise a number of both a wide range of adaptability, but also their own unique style of players. Before the 26th Championships, 70 players were selected to form the China Table Tennis Team with an average age of only 21 years old, and the main players of the men's and women's teams, who mainly played with straight racket and fast attack, fully demonstrated their strengths in the competitions, and achieved 3 championships (the men's team won the team title for the first time, and the women's team won the first women's singles world title for our country, and won the men's singles title for the first time), as well as 4 second-place finishes and 8 third-place finishes. third-place finishes.

The Chinese team y realized in the joy of the game and victory that there is nothing difficult in the world, as long as one is willing to climb. In the process of climbing, first of all, it is necessary to establish a clear day target, and on the other hand, it is necessary to learn and practice hard to master excellent skills, both of which are indispensable. Climbing the technical peak of the world table tennis and any other things to climb the peak of the same, not afraid of the level of low, for fear of no ambition, not afraid of more difficulties, only afraid of no energy. With a clear goal, coupled with hard work, there are no insurmountable difficulties, no unclimbable peaks.

The success of the Chinese table tennis team in the 26th World Championships not only greatly inspired all the table tennis players in China, but also boosted the development of the national table tennis movement, and set off a "table tennis fever" among tens of millions of young people.

The Chinese women's team's performance at the XXVII World Championships in Prague in 1963 was less than ideal, with the team*** winning three titles, two second-place finishes and seven third-place finishes. Men's team final, the Chinese team on the court in addition to the two straight-armed fast attacking play, but also on a straight-armed chipper Zhang Xielin, than the Twenty-sixth Championships showed a greater advantage. The men's doubles title was won by Zhang Xielin and Wang Zhiliang, who counterattacked in the chipping, showing that China's table tennis can climb to the world's technical peaks with its variety of playing styles and technical styles.

For the preparation of the 28th World Table Tennis Championships, the Chinese men's team has the problem of how to solve the "from the top" problem, while the women's team focuses on how to solve the problem of how to fight a good "turnaround battle". Under the guidance of Mao Zedong Thought, the Chinese team attached great importance to learning and applying materialistic dialectics to guide the training, competition and summarize experience. During the training period, in order to improve the confidence and courage of the women's team, Comrade Xu Yinsheng gave the women's team a lecture on his own experience of playing the game. Comrade Mao Zedong after reading this speech, that this speech is full of dialectical materialism, personally made "on how to play table tennis" important instructions, to the table tennis team comrades with great encouragement, the women's team to study Comrade Mao Zedong's instructions, and further to find in the last tournament failure of the four reasons: ideological dare not win; technology is not good, the team of green and yellow not enough; the leadership and the coaches, Athletes of the three to do a bad job. Following a variety of measures, especially focusing on training and boldly use Lin Huiqing, Zheng Minzhi, Li He'nan, Liang Lizhen and other young athletes, encouraging them to build ambition, ambition, hard work on the basic skills, fight a good turnaround. In the long run, the National Sports Commission, the Ministry of Education and the Central Committee of the **** Youth League jointly issued a circular to vigorously develop table tennis for young girls and to organize a national table tennis tournament for young girls. Under this call, Zhang Li, Zheng Huaiying, Hu Yulan, Huang Xiping and other outstanding junior players emerged, cultivating a strong reserve force for the future.

Chinese team in the 28th World Championships, the women's team played a beautiful turnaround, men's and women's teams *** won 5 titles (men, the team won the team title), 5 second, 6 third place, creating the Chinese team's best results ever, the international public opinion is generally recognized as the "world's top table tennis country". The achievements of China's table tennis team in the World Championships have further promoted the popularization of table tennis in China. According to incomplete statistics, nearly 90 million people have participated in table tennis to varying degrees, which is why some foreigners call table tennis China's "national sport".

(3) A New Journey (1971-1979): Since the seventies, there was a great change in the balance of power due to the rapid improvement of table tennis technology in various countries, especially the revival in Europe. After the Chinese team rejoined the world competition in April 1971, from the 31st to the 35th I men's team*** achieved 6 and a half championships (mixed doubles counts as half), 6 and a half second places, 6 and a half third places, women's team*** achieved 10 and a half championships, 9 and a half second places, 10 and a third place.

The above achievements, in addition to the development of China's straight racket fast attack playing method, but also successfully created two sides of different performance racket defense and attack combination of playing methods. In recent years, China's straight racket fast attack on the premise of maintaining and carrying forward the strengths, began to master the appropriate rotational techniques, and strive to achieve the speed of the main, supplemented by the rotation, and strive to achieve in the game to be able to fast attack fast attack, can not be fast attack with a certain speed of rotation and the other side of the hold, and then turn to fast attack, play speed, which, to a certain extent, enriches and develops fast attack playing method.

But on the way forward, the Chinese table tennis team also has some shortcomings and deficiencies, mainly in the various playing styles of the basic skills are not solid enough, the ability to deal with the curved ball is not strong enough, and secondly, the quality of the body is not good enough, etc. In particular, the fast attack playing style has not been significant. In particular, there is no major innovation in the fast attack style of play, the lack of major breakthroughs in key techniques, and thus the development of technology and style of play is correspondingly slow, which is one of the reasons why the men's program suffered a setback in the 35th session of the tournament.

We have learned from both positive and negative experiences and lessons that table tennis technology is constantly evolving, and that we should not only stick to our own way of doing things, but also absorb the strengths of foreign countries and constantly enrich and develop our own methods. Only in this way can we overcome the difficulties in the game and win.

The head coach of the Chinese men's team was changed from Xu Shaofa to Xi Enting at the 1991 World Cup in Chiba, Japan. The loss in Dortmund two years ago made the Chinese team realize the backwardness of the straight-racket fast-attack technology, this World Series, the Chinese men's lineup of Ma Wenge, Wang Tao, Chen Zhibin, Zhang Lei is a clear cross-court, and only the third place in the men's singles of the last World Series, Yu Shentong, is a straight-racket. But this horizontal racket team did not bring light to the confused Chinese team, in front of the quarter-final opponent Czech Republic, the Chinese men's team stopped moving forward, and in the end, only won the seventh place in the team. What is even more heartbreaking is that Chen Zhibin's cross-court forehand arc circle can't kill North Korea's Kim Sung-hee's straight backhand pocket. In a worldwide horizontal comparison, the backwardness of China's men's table tennis technology has fallen to an all-time low. The Swedish team has grown into the strongest team in the world men's table tennis world, they not only won the men's team title, but also won the men's singles and men's doubles gold medals in the World Table Tennis Championships. At the same time as the Chinese men's team lost, the Chinese women's team also lost to the North and South Korean teams in the team final, and had to surrender the Kauppelin Cup, which had been settled in China since 1975. But it was also in this World Cup that the Chinese women's team's legend Deng Yaping began her journey to sweep the world of women's ping pong. Although Deng Yaping lost to North Korea's Yu Soon Bok in the women's team final, she won the women's singles title, and from this time on, the world's women's ping world entered the "Deng Yaping era". In addition, in the current World Series, Chen Zihe/Gao Jun and Wang Tao/Liu Wei also won the women's doubles and mixed doubles championships for the Chinese team respectively. Although there are gains in the single event, but the men's and women's team's double loss, especially the men's team fell to seventh place, so that the Chinese team returned from Chiba up and down a layer of gray, China's table tennis team entered a period of extreme difficulties.

The struggling Chinese table tennis team is nurturing new hopes. Under the recommendation of Xu Shaofa, Cai Zhenhua, who returned from Italy in 1989, took up the role of head coach of the men's team at this time, and he led the Chinese table tennis team through the mud, and people watched the team with hope, hoping that it could return to the top of the world soon. In the 2nd World Cup team event held that year, the Chinese men's team won the men's title by beating Sweden in the final.

A group of youngsters represented by Kong Linghui and Liu Guoliang are now maturing, and at the 1992 China Grand Prix in Chengdu, Liu, at the age of 16, wowed the crowd with his "straight-racket cross-court stroke". He beat Waldner, Kim Chae-soo and other world-famous players in the tournament, which gave new hope to China's traditional straight-edge fast-attack style of play.

The 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Cai Zhenhua decided to take the men's doubles as a breakthrough, and the responsibility of winning the title fell on the shoulders of Wang Tao/Lu Lin, who lived up to their name and won the title by defeating Germany's famous Rothkopf/Fetzner in the final. This Olympic gold medal sounded the trumpet for the recovery of the Chinese men's team. Deng Yaping also won two gold medals in women's singles and doubles, becoming the brightest star of the Barcelona Olympics table tennis tournament.

The 42nd World Table Tennis Championships were held in Gothenburg in 1993. The men's team competition attracted the most attention, with China meeting old foes Sweden in the final, where China's final lineup was Wang Hao, Ma Wenge and Wang Tao. The coaching team considered that the experienced Wang Hao could not lose two points alone, so they ranked him as the first starter, and ranked Ma Wenge, who was at his peak, as the second starter. Unexpectedly, the first set of Wang Hao against the Swedish team's number two starter Carlsson, the two played to a tiebreaker, Wang Hao in the case of 19:16 lead to play too conservative, was Carlsson even five points to win. In the second set, Ma Wenge easily beat Waldner, in the third set, Wang Tao lost to Persson, and in the fourth set, Wang Hao, who was under too much psychological pressure, couldn't resist Waldner's impact and lost, and the Chinese team once again had no chance of winning the title in this competition. Standing on the runner-up podium, coach Cai Zhenhua was not convinced, he told reporters: I really want to pull down the Swedish team from the podium to play again.

At the 42nd World Series, a new term broke into people's vision: overseas corps. In this context, overseas corps specifically refers to those who go out from China to represent other associations in international competitions. Most of them have practiced solid fundamentals in China and have high competitive level, and they are more familiar with the domestic players' technique and tactics, so for a period of time, they are more threatening to the Chinese players than the foreign players. In the women's singles match of this World Series, Qiao Hong, the 40th World Series women's singles champion, and Deng Yaping, the 41st World Series women's singles champion, were eliminated by Shi Jie, who played for Germany, and Inui Junhong, who played for Singapore, respectively.

The reasons for the overseas corps are many and varied, and the one that has left the deepest impression on people is He Zhili, who played for Japan at the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games, and some fans still clearly remember the ear-splitting "yosi" sound at the stadium at that time. Was the 39th World Series women's singles champion He Zhili has now been renamed to Oyama Zhili and played on behalf of the Japanese team. In the women's singles final, she won the title with a surprise victory over Deng Yaping.

In 1995, the 43rd World Series kicked off in Tianjin. It was the second World Series to be held in China since Beijing hosted the 26th in 1961. The Chinese men's team vowed to fight a beautiful turnaround at home. At this time, the Chinese men's team not only has the veterans Ma Wenge and Wang Tao, who have matured technically and tactically, but also has the young players Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui, who are eager to try their hands in the World Championships. In addition, in the World Championships, the Chinese team has also sent a secret weapon: the chipper Ding Song. Ding Song's right-handed grip, the front of the anti-glue, the reverse positive rubber, chipping out of the turn and not turn the ball is very stable and shielded, and chipping with attack, has a very strong offensive power.

The Chinese men's team made it to the final against Sweden. The Chinese team lined up Ma Wenge, Wang Tao and Ding Song. In the match, Ding Song really played the role of a miracle worker, in the first two sets of the two sides tied, he easily broke through the defense of Carlsson, to determine the lead for the Chinese team. In the end, the Chinese team won the Svenska Cup again with a 3:2 victory over Sweden. It was a day that the Chinese team had been waiting for for six years.

Motivated by the men's team's turnaround battle, the Chinese team repeated the glory of the 36th World Championships in this World Cup, and once again swept all seven pennants, of which Deng Yaping won the women's team, the women's singles, the women's doubles three gold medals; Wang Tao/Liu Wei won the mixed doubles title for the third time in a row, and for this reason, the International Federation of Association of the Pingtong Special gift to the Chinese team an imitation of the Hedusecker Cup in commemoration of their achievements; Junior Kong Linghui and Liu Guoliang met in the men's singles final, and finally Kong won the title, which is the first singles world championship won by a Chinese horizontal board male player, and China's horizontal board technology has fully matured.

Holding the 43 sessions of the aftermath of the power, in 1996, China's table tennis team traveled to the Atlanta Olympics again will be all four gold medals in the bag, in the men's singles final, junior Liu Guoliang won the title over his older brother, Wang Tao, so far, China's younger generation of players has fully matured. The two whirling rounds of the two tournaments made China once again set off a ping-pong boom, with the emergence of youngsters such as Kong Linghui and Liu Guoliang bringing Chinese table tennis into the era of idols.

The 44th World Championships returned to Manchester, England, where table tennis originated, in 1997, where China collected six gold medals, with only the men's singles title being won by Sweden's Waldner. 1998's Bangkok Asian Games saw China lose the men's singles gold again, with South Korea's star Kim Jae-soo putting on a valiant performance, beating Kong Ling-hui in men's singles in succession, Liu Guoliang won the championship. Wang Nan won four gold medals in the women's team, women's singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles at the Asian Games, filling the vacancy of Deng Yaping as the first star of the Chinese women's team after she retired.

The 45th World Table Tennis Championships were originally planned to be held in Yugoslavia in 1999, but the NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia forced the tournament to be rescheduled and relocated. Table tennis, originally a messenger of peace, this time, but the war disrupted the game. 1999 August, the 45th World Series singles tournament held in Eindhoven, Netherlands, the Chinese team got all five gold medals, Liu Guoliang in the men's singles final of the World Series fought five sets of teammates Marin won the men's singles title, so Liu Guoliang has become the world's second Grand Slam player after Waldner.

In April 2000, the 45th World Team Championships was held in Kuala Lumpur, China's women's team successfully won the championship, while the men's team's main force Liu Guoliang was extremely out of order, in the final with the Swedish team, he was defeated by Waldner and Persson, a person lost two points, resulting in China's ultimate loss of the Svenska Svenska Cup. Before that, Liu Guoliang had played with Waldner six times without defeat. Half a year later, people realized that Liu Guoliang was suspected of taking prohibited drugs by the FIBA because of urine test problems. After a six-month-long examination, he finally proved his innocence, and in the days of waiting for his innocence, Liu Guoliang endured unprecedented pressure.

From Oct. 1, 2000, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITF) changed the diameter of the competition ball to 40 millimeters. This reform had a great impact on the existing table tennis technology, which was bound to eliminate a number of athletes and bring table tennis into a new era.

The Sydney Olympics in September 2000 was the last major tournament of the small-ball era, in which China's table tennis team once again swept the gold medals, and Kong Linghui became the world's third Grand Slam winner by defeating Waldner in the final of the men's singles.

The small-ball era is over, and the Chinese table tennis team, at its peak, has brought its small-ball days to a close. A month later, the first world tournament of the big-ball era: the Men's World Cup kicked off in Yangzhou, China, and China's Ma Lin, who failed to make the Sydney Olympic squad, won the World Cup and became the first world champion of the big-ball era, a gold medal that signaled continued glory and honor for China's table-tennis team as it moves into the big-ball era