Phenomenal.

Very pleasing to the eye, indeed.

kong had class and an air of sophistication in his shot making, truly a wonder to watch, nice anton

Kong, to me, was one of the most talented player.
His loops and push BH and FH is very good, his BH block down the line is phenomenal, and his chop block is magic.. He does not have strong serves like Liu but that is precisely why he is the better rally player.
I can't imagine someone saying that he is not "particularly talented".
The fact that he looks slow is because he anticipate every ball, his positioning is first class. The better the player is, the more time he seems to have. He is not slow..
Players nowadays are all about power. Technically Kong is superior.
Name one player that plays like Kong at his level???
IMO, the only shakehand player as enjoyable to watch is Waldner.

the match between him and joo in that video is and has always been my favorite tt video... I think Kong had to default because of his arm after that match. It hurts my arm to watch that match, but its so good.

Sure Kong looks like a master of the sport. But let's not forget that his training was also influenced by the time he spent in Sweden, learning from the best. There was a video of him, playing Ma Long, but I guess some benefactor was offended by that being available for free. If someone can find it, please post it here.

Kong's mastery of so many shots and brilliant tactical play is breathtaking.

He plays as the ultimate "controlled, consistent, allround attacker" in that match, capable not only of an incredible variety of shots to keep joo guessing, but also the ability to switch between passive and aggressive play in a heartbeat.

Thanks for the link!

If you refer to LGL interview, he said that Kong has less natural talent when it come to service, LGL even said his serves is amateurish.. But then he added that Kong is the player with the best basic (meaning strokes) in the national team. I read this article at http://www.masatenisi.org/english/roportaj5.htm
If it is not the article you are referring to, I would like to read that article too.

It said his power and spin was average but he combined speed and spin very well.. nothing mentioned about his talent.
I can say Ma Long has pretty good power and speed but his spin and FH/BH linking is not very good. But that does not make him less talented player.. Every player has their own strong point. Even Waldner is not that powerful..

Both are phenomenal.
Kong and Joo.

dragon kid wrote: It said his power and spin was average but he combined speed and spin very well.. nothing mentioned about his talent. I can say Ma Long has pretty good power and speed but his spin and FH/BH linking is not very good. But that does not make him less talented player.. Every player has their own strong point. Even Waldner is not that powerful..

The newest Kong Training vid: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=J1SJBJ4Q . At 7:14 is an especially funny incident.

Theres another BTY one from the past too, when he was younger. That video was my bible.


Edited by Vassily - 07/23/2011 at 8:08pm

Read my comment properly Dragon Kid. I did not say he was not talented compared to normal people, I just said he was less talented relatively compared to the other CNT members.
He didnt have the evil genius of LGL for example.

I define talent as the proportion of people in the world, if given exactly the same upbringing, will result in an equal or better player.




Edited by Vassily - 07/24/2011 at 12:27am

Vassily, LGL and Kong has different talent. LGL is the best in service and link it with a 3rd ball. Once he gets drag into a rally he is not as good at it. Kong on the other hand is more talented in the basic skills and his rally play. In his heyday the two top players from CNT is Kong and Liu. Given everybody at CNT train everyday at roughly the same amount of time, would you say the other players behind him is more talented than him? That is absurd..

Robot, you can train all you might but if you don't have the talent you won't get far. This is why some people can be better than others with less training time. For example some people in USA can reach 2000 rating in 2-3 years while some will remain sub 2000 for years. X Talent + Y Training = Z skill. If Y is the same than someone with better skill must have more X..

I still stand by my comment. Kong is more talented than probably 99,99 percent table tennis player in this world, past present and future.

Kong is one of my top three favorite shakehand player besides WLQ and Waldner.