How Does Ma Long's Backhand Conquer Force With Softness?
This is a brand-new, technique-focused column in a question-and-answer format. The mystery figures answering are two former national team members and one retired provincial-team player, all now veteran coaches, who would rather keep a quiet, peaceful life and a good night’s sleep than become famous. I think sharing these technical insights is quite valuable, and a good complement to this account. So the “Reaching the Summit” column was born.
In practice he plays about even with me, but come the match he goes wild. How do I respond?
So your opponent is a match-type player — the bigger the event, the more excited he gets, playing better with higher ball quality than usual.
There are generally two approaches. One: try to control him — for example, play to spots that make him uncomfortable, or deliberately let him get on the offensive but in a way that produces no quality, so you can defend it easily. Two: vary your own striking rhythm, mixing fast and slow, so he cannot fire smoothly. Since the two of you know each other so well, ball speed, line, angle, spin, even fakes, may all have little effect. The main thing is a change of rhythm — do not stay on your usual one pace.
After my opponent serves a hook serve, I push one back, he loops-and-hangs it, and now how do I block, control the placement and stay stable?
Blocking is the most basic defense. It is a last resort. You use it when you cannot read the opponent’s spin strength clearly and dare not attack. The key points: take the ball early, on the rising phase; keep the bat fairly upright; brace the incoming ball with your body’s center of gravity; let the arm block lightly; and adjust the wrist a touch according to the incoming spin and power.
The best method, actually, is to wait until the ball is just slightly higher than the net. Brace the arm with your center of gravity, lightly push and send it forward, and fine-tune the angle with your fingers. After a few balls like this, you will also get a better sense of the opponent’s spin strength.
How does Ma Long’s backhand conquer force with softness?
Rhythm, power, long and short, speed and angle — all constantly changing.
Ma Long’s backhand is very distinctive. It looks like it has no quality, but watch closely and the variation between each shot and the next — the rhythm change, the long-short change, the left-right placement change, and the change in power — leaves the opponent slightly off the timing, constantly forced to readjust his body.
Being able to do this shows Ma Long is extremely relaxed mentally, and that he has read the opponent’s returns very accurately. Heavy hitters like Fan Zhendong and Liang Jingkun have higher single-ball quality than Ma Long, but it is relatively rigid; their variation in every dimension is not rich enough. So in big matches against Ma Long, they feel a bit controlled.