Training in China
Joseph Wang
2/28/2007

Training in the U.S. is not always enough, and many players who want to improve their game travel overseas to train. What better place to go for training than China, where table tennis is the national sport, and the Chinese national team has won countless Worlds and Olympics? For the past two summers, I did just this, and I felt my game improved dramatically. One year, I went to the Yin He Table Tennis School in Xi An and last year to the Zheng Da Table Tennis School in Bao Ding, Hebei, where Gao Jun and Niu Jian Feng came from. The Zheng Da Table Tennis School is a boarding school with around 200 kids enrolled ranging in age from 6 to 18 years old. The students come from all over the country. The president of the school, Xi En-Ting, is a former World Champion who often oversees our training sessions and gives us instructional summaries at the end of the day. In China, the main focus for all of their players is forehand, and many children train only forehand for the first two years. Some just shadow practice forehands for the first year. Whenever you play a Chinese trained player, you can see the effectiveness of their training: their forehand shots are incredibly powerful. Just look at Wang Liqin or Ma Lin; both are forehand powerhouses.

Training was intense, to say the least. We trained six and a half days a week, most of the time in 90 degree weather with no air conditioning. At around seven, we wake up for morning stretches, then breakfast and morning training for three hours. After a lunch break, it’s three more hours of training in the afternoon, followed by physical training, with running, push ups, sit ups, and a variety of unique Chinese leg exercises involving mainly jumping and hopping. Our final training session was at night, for one to two hours.

The schedule isn’t all work and no play, as the players get to relax on Sundays and have breaks between training sessions. I made many friends during my stay, and not only did my game improve, so did my understanding of the Chinese culture and language. I visited my relatives and also went sightseeing when I wasn’t training.

If you think you can withstand the rigorous training and intense conditions, head on over to China and you’ll see yourself develop mentally and physically in ways that you couldn’t in the U.S.

[Playing Tips.]