In the sport of table tennis, generally speaking, whoever takes the initiative to attack and who takes the initiative can occupy a certain opportunity.
However, there is also a style of play that focuses on defense, waiting for the opponent to attack, and then waiting for the opponent to make a mistake, which is to cut the ball.
There is a saying in the NBA, "Offense wins the game, defense wins the championship!" ”
However, this sentence does not apply to table tennis, in table tennis, offense is the main means of scoring, waiting for the opponent to make a mistake is equivalent to putting the initiative in the hands of the opponent.
Therefore, chipping in table tennis is not the mainstream way of playing, and it is difficult to stand on the highest podium.
But if there is a chipping style of play, excellent defense and attack at the same time, then it will definitely be able to get a place in the world table tennis arena full of strong players.
But it is not easy for a chipper to have both offense while doing defense, and it just so happens that there is such a player in the history of the Chinese table tennis team, he is the former "world's No. 1 chipper" Ding Song.
Today, let's walk into Ding Song's table tennis world:
One
Ding Song was born on September 5, 1971 in Shanghai, China, in a family of workers.
Ding Song's father is a worker in the wheelchair factory of the Civil Affairs Bureau, and his mother works in a paint factory, and the combined salary of his parents is seventy or eighty yuan per month, but Ding Song also has a younger sister, and his grandfather is still paralyzed in bed, so Ding Song's family lived very poorly when he was a child.
Ding Song lived in an alley in Shanghai when he was a child, and there were not many entertainment items at that time, and Ding Song has been interested in ball games since he can remember.
At that time, there was a neighbor who liked Ding Song very much and often took Ding Song to play with him, and this neighbor usually liked to play badminton, so Ding Song became his golf friend.
At that time, Ding Song played badminton, and there was no net, let alone a professional venue, but Ding Song still played very well, and even won the title of "playing all over the inclined dirt road".
In this way, when he reached the age of elementary school, Ding Song entered Zhaojiabang Road Primary School, at that time, there was no badminton court in the school, only a few table tennis tables, and the teachers were also very lacking.
Ding Song remembers that he was an art teacher and a physical education teacher, and when the school's table tennis team picked people, the physical education teacher asked Ding Song and these students to play against the wall with table tennis rackets to see who played back and forth.
At the beginning of seeing this scene, Ding Song's heart was a little lost, because in his heart, he felt that he should play badminton, after all, there was some foundation.
Of course, Ding Song also played table tennis at that time, but at that time, they played table tennis, just set up a table with a few friends to play, and they didn't have much love for table tennis in their hearts.
But maybe Ding Song was born with a talent for ball games, even if he played table tennis against the wall, he played well, so the physical education teacher asked him to join the school's table tennis team, and Ding Song officially embarked on the road of table tennis.
Two
At the beginning of the training in the primary school team, the students all learned to attack the ball, and they all started from the basic movements, such as forehand attack, backhand push block, etc.
Because, at that time, direct shooting was still the mainstream in the Chinese table tennis team, so most students practiced direct shooting at that time.
The beats of straight shooting and horizontal shooting are different, and Ding Song practiced horizontal shooting when he came up.
After practicing for a while, Coach Cao Fuqin of Xuhui District Children's Sports School went to Zhaojiabang Road Primary School, where Ding Song is located, to select good table tennis seedlings.
Coach Cao Fuqin goes to various primary schools in Xuhui District every year to select seedlings, which is why she is very familiar with the physical education teachers in these primary schools in Xuhui District.
She wants to visit these primary schools to see if those children are talented and have cultivation value, and Ding Song was favored by Coach Cao Fuqin at this time.
However, Ding Song was only in the second grade at that time, and his age was still a bit young for the junior sports school, so Coach Cao Fuqin discussed with Ding Song's mother and asked Ding Song to go to the junior sports school for training after the third grade, and Ding Song's mother readily agreed.
Ding Song really started to practice chipping, which was started at the children's sports school, which was decided by coach Cao Fuqin.
This is because Coach Cao Fuqin is very experienced in training chippers, in addition to Ding Song, she also trained Hu Mingdi and Xu Wenfu, two very famous chippers.
After watching Ding Song's training, Coach Cao Fuqin said to Ding Song: "You can practice chipping in the future."
At that time, the training of the first echelon of the junior sports school was like this, and you had to practice how the coach asked you to practice.
It was around this time that Ding Song's father's unit was divided into houses, and Ding Song's family moved from Xuhui District to live on Tongzhou Road in Hongkou District.
At that time, Coach Cao Fuqin stipulated that the players must arrive at the Major Sports School at six o'clock, so Ding Song had to catch the first 17 trolleybus at 4:45 in the morning every day, and many times Ding Song was the only one on the bus, and then went to Hankou Road to change to Bus No. 49 to the terminal, and then changed to Hengshan Road Major Sports School.
After arriving at the junior sports school, he practiced serving for an hour, and then began formal training, except for breakfast time, until more than four o'clock in the afternoon, and then Ding Song took a car for more than an hour to return home, and it was already about six o'clock when he got home, and after dinner, Ding Song generally went to bed at 8 o'clock.
At that time, in addition to playing table tennis, Ding Song also liked to read comic books, because the time of sitting in the car was very poor, Ding Song would often read comic books in the car, and Ding Song's eyesight had begun to be a little myopic at that time.
After a year of living like this, Ding Song's mother felt that her son was too hard to do this, and at that time, it was popular in the society to change houses, so Ding Song's parents changed the house in Hongkou District to Xuhui District, so that Ding Song saved a lot of time when he went to primary school.
Coach Cao Fuqin took great care of Ding Song, at that time, after school, the other team members lived relatively close, and some parents came to pick them up, while Ding Song lived far away, so Coach Cao Fuqin often prepared some buns or snacks for Ding Song to eat on the road.
However, as a female coach, Coach Cao Fuqin is usually very fierce and has a very strong personality, and Coach Cao Fuqin himself told Ding Song that if the players are not afraid of seeing the coach, then the coach is not good at leading the players.
As for why Coach Cao Fuqin let Ding Song play chipping, this is because Ding Song can often show strong control of the ball in training at that time.
Three
In 1982, when Ding Song was 11 years old, Coach Cao Fuqin told Ding Song that she had recommended Ding Song to the Municipal Sports School, and asked Ding Song to report to the Municipal Sports School the next day.
When he arrived at the city sports school, Ding Song was about to start living in the school, which was a new way of life for Ding Song.
Every day, you start training at 5:45 a.m. and go to bed with the lights off at 9:45 p.m., during which time you have to study in addition to training and cultural classes.
After training in the city sports school for a period of time, Ding Song's eyesight became worse and worse, which had seriously affected his playing, so after the examination, Ding Song began to wear glasses, and this area was not taken off, even if he wore glasses to participate in the national competition later.
It stands to reason that Ding Song's ability should have been selected for the Shanghai team a long time ago, but because of his myopia, the coaching staff of the Shanghai team has not been able to make up his mind, and it was not until Ding Song was 13 years old that he was officially selected for the Shanghai team.
After entering the Shanghai team, Ding Song also became a professional athlete, and began to get a salary, with a salary of more than 30 yuan a month, so Ding Song learned to smoke.
At first, Ding Song went to the toilet to smoke, but after a long time, he simply smoked directly in the room.
When the coach of the Shanghai team found out that Ding Song was smoking, he was already the main force of the Shanghai team, and had won the singles championship of the national children's competition, so the coach of the Shanghai team turned a blind eye.
In 1986, Ding Ning was selected for the national youth team, because the main players of the national table tennis men's team at that time were still Jiang Jialiang and Chen Longcan.
Even, two years after entering the national youth team, Ding Song was returned to the Shanghai team because he smoked.
In the Shanghai team, because of his indispensability, the coach tolerated his smoking, but in the talent-rich national team, the coach obviously did not have much patience with him.
In the year that Ding Song was returned to the Shanghai team, his father died, Ding Song's father was usually silent, but he was also very supportive of Ding Song's practice.
As mentioned earlier, in order to facilitate Ding Song's training, their family changed the house in Hongkou District to Xuhui District, and Ding Song's training was convenient, but his father's work was much more cumbersome.
Therefore, Ding Song was very sad after his father's death, but who knew that soon after Ding Song's house there was an uninvited guest, and he took special care of Ding Song's mother, who had just lost her husband.
Although this man helped Ding Song's family in the most difficult time, Ding Song, who already had his own thoughts, obviously couldn't accept this situation, especially the longing for his father in his heart.
So, Ding Song packed his luggage and went directly to the Shanghai team, and since then Ding Song has been living in the team, both in life and training.
In 1990, Lu Yuansheng, then the head coach of the Shanghai table tennis team, was transferred to the national team.
In this way, Ding Song followed Lu Yuansheng to the national team and started a new training life.
Four
Just entered the national team, everything is relatively new to Ding Song, for example, the national team has a head coach, four or five head coaches below, and a head coach with six or seven players, Ding Song was assigned to Coach Huijun at the beginning.
At that time, Huijun still had main players like Yu Shentong in the coaching staff, so he didn't have much time to take care of Ding Song, and Ding Song trained by himself most of the time.
After practicing for a period of time, in 1991, the coaching staff signed up for Ding Song, the North Korea Open, in this competition Ding Song lost to the chipper Lee Geun-sang, although he was also a chipper, but at that time Lee Geun-sang had participated in many world series, both experience and strength were stronger than Ding Song.
At this time, the men's team was already preparing for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and the head coach of the men's team at that time was Cai Zhenhua.
Because Sweden's Waldner and Karlsson and South Korea's Yoo Nam-kyu and Kim Taek-so were too strong at the time, the Chinese team focused on doubles when preparing for the Barcelona Olympics.
At that time, the number one doubles combination of Chinese men's table tennis was Wang Tao and Lu Lin, and during the preparation for the competition, Cai Zhenhua asked Ding Song to change to a long gel, and together with Chen Weixing, he imitated the playing style of the Japanese team combination Koji Matsushita and Hiroshi Shibuya, and helped Wang Tao and Lu Lin train.
In the end, at the Barcelona Olympics, Wang Tao and Lu Lin won the doubles championship, which also had Ding Song's contribution, but the national table tennis team at that time was like this.
Except for the team members who have the opportunity to participate in the World Championships, almost all the other team members are unsung heroes who serve them, which may be the main reason why Chinese table tennis has always stood at the top of the world table tennis arena.
In Ding Song's career, the most important match may be the 1995 Tianjin World Table Tennis Championships, he can be said to be famous, the media at the time described Ding Song as the "secret weapon" of the coaching staff.
But in fact, Ding Song won the World Cup team championship as early as 1994 with Liu Guoliang, Lin Zhigang and others, and also won the men's singles championship at the Swedish Open in the same year.
It can be said that Ding Song at that time was not a stranger to foreigners, and the reason why he was allowed to participate in the Tianjin World Table Tennis Championships team competition was that Ding Song would spin and not spin the chipping ball, and the second was that Ding Song had the ability to grab and pull, that is, to cut the counterattack.
Of course, although Ding Song was on the team list, there were only three players in the competition, especially the final round, which was the most important.
At that time, both Kong Linghui and Liu Guoliang had the opportunity to play, but in the end, Cai Zhenhua knew that he still chose Ding Song as the third single, one was Ma Wenge, and the second was Wang Tao.
It is said that the day before the finals, Cai Zhenhua also went to Ding Song's room and asked him how sure he was of playing with Karlsson, and Ding Song answered truthfully: I played twice when I was a child, but I haven't played now, and I am only 60% sure that I can win, but I can't say for sure.
Perhaps it was Ding Song's honesty that moved Cai Zhenhua, and he chose to let him play at the last moment, and Ding Song did not live up to Cai Zhenhua's trust.
In the case that Wang Tao lost one point, Ma Wenge won one point, and the Chinese team and the Swedish team drew 1-1, Ding Song easily defeated Karlsson with a big score of 2-0 and scored a valuable point for the Chinese team.
In the end, the Chinese team defeated the Swedish team with a big score of 3-2, and won the men's team championship of the World Championships again after three World Table Tennis Championships in 8 years.
After the Tianjin World Table Tennis Championships, Ding Song became famous, but at the Atlanta Olympics, he did not get a quota for the competition, and he was competing with Liu Guoliang at that time.
And Liu Guoliang's winning of the singles and doubles titles at the Atlanta Olympics also proves the vision of the coaching staff.
Later, Ding Song first went to play abroad, and then returned to China, and represented the Shanghai team in the 10th Games with Wang Liqin and others, until he officially announced his retirement in 2007.
After retiring, Ding Song has never left table tennis, and has been cultivating talents for the Chinese table tennis team in his own way.