It is common knowledge that necessity is the mother of invention. Xu Yinsheng, in the meantime the President of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, came up with a revolutionary idea which he presented at the National Coach’s Conference in 1988.
He suggested using the backside of the racket with the penholder grip in order to overcome the
extreme vulnerability of the backhand side. They began this ambitious experiment with players from
the Junior National Team – such as Liu Guoliang and Feng Zhe.
Cue: He is good-looking, sunny and highly competitive as an athlete. He fought all the way into the final in his first Olympics. After suffering disastrous defeat in his career, he was able to pull together again and walk out of the shadow. He is the person we are featuring today. His name is Wang Hao, the Chinese table tennis player.
Re: One day in 1990, the 7-year –old Wang Hao was sent to Changchun Children’s Palace to learn to play table tennis. His first coach was Liu Hongqi who taught him the “zhi pai AB sides” (straight double-sides) playing method.
Liu: “AB sides” was a new playing method, naturally it was quite controversial.
Re: The method Coach Liu is talking about here was a new technique then. It involves attacking from backhand side, which was usually the side for defending.
Wang Hao practiced this method from childhood, so he is the master of this technique.
Wang: “zhi pai” (straight line) method appeared quite outdated for at time, because some western players were so used to it that is was longer as effective as before.
Re: In order to help his son master this new technique, Wang Hao’s father Wang Zhongquan quitted his job to become his son’s training assistant. Now, he has become a trainer of this method. When Wang Hao started to learn table tennis, his hand was too small to hold the bat firmly. So his father designed a special bat for him.
Wang’s father: I fixed a hook onto the bat to help him grip the handle better.
Re: In order to save money to support Wang Hao’s training, his parents rented out their bigger house. Today, the family is still living in their old smaller house of only 69 sq meters. When Wang Hao graduated from the primary school. his parents hesitated on whether he should continue his education or his table tennis training. Wang’s mother explains.
Mother: We held a family meeting. His teacher told us that Wang Hao was destined for university and I was in two minds. But Wang Hao liked table tennis very much, so we asked for his opinion. He wanted to play table tennis.
Re: Three years later, Wang Hao already won many championships titles in Changchun. In order to improve his son’s skills, Wang Zhongquan hoped to see his son get into the popular “ba yi team”(the military sports team) A soldier was exactly what Wang Hao wanted to be. He loved to play with toy guns as a child.
Wang: I had always wanted to be a soldier. I liked their smart uniform among other things. Anyway, I just wanted to be a soldier.
Re: In 1996, the 13-year-old Wang Hao got into “ba yi team” to become a soldier Wang Tao and Liu Guoliang were among his teammates. Two years later when he was 15, Wang Hao was recruited into the national table tennis team. He was allocated to coach Wu Jingping.
Wu: My initial impression of Wang Hao was that he was like a big boss, dealing with balls very casually. He was not at all thoughtful in playing, so I did not know where to start
Re: Wang Hao knew that if he wanted to improve, he needed to have a chance to play against the frontline players. So he volunteered to be their co-player. However, to his surprise, because of his unconventional way of playing, he did not even qualify for that role.
Wang: None of the key players wanted to play with me because my style was too odd for them. It was nothing like the ways western players or South Korean players played.
Re: A even bigger surprise for Wang Hao was that his coach Wu Jingping, the person everyone called professor, did not know how to make training plans for him.
Wu: When he came to the national team, none of our players played in that way, so I did not know how to train him. So my priority was on another player Ma Lin. I worked on every detail of Ma Lin’s technique. As for Wang Hao, I just gave him a general guideline without much detail.
Re: Although he did not get much of his coach’s attention. Wang Hao knew that in the national team, there were simply too many competitive players, and it was only natural that the key players got more attention form the coaches. If he wanted to get the same kind of attention, he had to improve on his skills. So Wang Hao started to do extra training outside the normal training sessions. Every evening after everyone left, he would go to the training hall to do more practice.
Wang: Of course, all the players in the team must have talents since they have reached this far. So if you want to stand out from them, you have to be hard-working. Without that you would get nowhere even if you had talent.
Re: After a year’s training, Wang Hao improved a lot in his technique. However, at that time, the top players in the team like Ma Lin, Kong LInghui and Liu Guoliang were all in top form. Hardly any match opportunities came Wang Hao’s way. But one year, such an opportunity finally came to him. Coach Wu Jingping recalls:
Wu: We ere to hold a competition within the team. When he heard the news, he was excited saying to Liu Guoliang that his day had come. When I learned what he said, I thought to myself, how could opportunity come to him given that his technique was still so bad. To our surprise, he won the fourth place. It was totally out of my expectation. I felt that his child did have a sharp edge.
Re: With this fourth place in the team. Wang Hao won himself an opportunity to take part in international competitions at last. He even won two champion’s titles in the Holland stop and Egypt stop of the world table tennis tournament. What he had not expected was that another more important opportunity was in store for him. What is it? We’ll find out next time.
