In the recently concluded warm-up match of the World Table Tennis Championships in Houston, the men's team cutting star Matt easily defeated the women's team Olympic champion Chen Meng 4-1, which caused heated discussion among fans and friends. What is touching is that in order to accompany the main athletes, Matt made a major sacrifice, willing to try to change his equipment and playing style for many years, and replaced the backhand long glue with raw glue.
I have to say that the reason why the Chinese table tennis team can flourish for a long time is because there is a great collective as support: behind every world championship gold medal, there are many unsung heroes, although they have no chance to climb the highest podium, but they also deserve everyone's respect!
Veteran fans know that as a passive defensive style of play, although it was once popular and dominated the table tennis world, it has become non-mainstream decades ago, although it can occasionally be upset, but it is almost impossible to win the world series singles championship.
Taking the national table tennis as an example, when the 50s first participated in the World Series, the chippers were still the top main force, and then they continued to decline, and Ding Song in the 90s became the last glory so far, and the result was only a flash in the pan, and then Hou Yingchao never entered the main ranks from beginning to end, but at least won the singles championship of the national championship, and then completely became a sparring partner in Matt's generation.
But even as a sparring partner, Matt did not slacken off in the slightest, not only conscientiously completing the tasks assigned by the coaching staff, but also undertaking many things other than ordinary requirements, such as this time changing rubber.
As we all know, the backhand of the ball cutter will generally use long glue, this kind of rubber can create a fluctuating rotation, has a very "magical" characteristics: the rotation pulled by others is sent back, and the longer the other party turns the glue, the more the rotation. But the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, they cannot take the initiative to exert force, so they are easy to be pressed.
Compared with the long glue, raw glue has the characteristics of active attack, but relatively speaking, it will also sacrifice the rotational weirdness of the long glue, and the two cannot be combined, so for Matt, this is not just a simple thing to change a piece of glue, but a large-scale change involving his entire technical and tactical system, which is not easy!
So for his own way of playing, Matt still retains room, and the first goal now is not to completely change his bones, but to hope to switch two different rubbers at any time to participate in the game, thus playing an unexpected effect.
Of course, the premise of making the opponent unaccustomed is that he must adapt first, and this is also a serious challenge for Matt, so he also said:
"I have been playing for so many years, I have basically eaten more thoroughly on the long glue, first of all, raw glue is challenging for me, I think it is also for the opponent, that is, before playing, he may not know what I use." This is also a goal of my future, can not say that the switch is free, at least can be adapted to use, of course, if you can achieve the switch freedom is better. ”
So I also wish Matt more achievements on the road of exploration and more living space for the way to cut the ball: come on!