Reigning Commonwealth table tennis champion Harmeet Desai said the general perception that equipment plays a minor role in a paddler’s career is wrong.
Speaking to Sports Authority of India coaches on Monday via video-conference, the World No. 72 cited the transformation of Sweden’s Mattias Falck, who profited from a change of rubber, to buttress his point.
“Mattias’ backhand was strong but his forehand topspin wasn’t,” said Harmeet. “Under the coach’s instructions, he used short pimples on his forehand and there was no looking back. He won silver in the World Championships last year.”
Customised approach
Harmeet, the current National champion, also highlighted the need for coaches to tailor their approach to a player’s requirements. “Soumyajit Ghosh and I were training under [coach and former European singles champion] Peter Karlsson. We were both different personalities. While I was self-driven but used to burn myself out during practice, Ghosh thrived when the coach was in his corner and backing him. So Peter advised me to take it a bit easy to be fresh for tournaments.”
The 26-year-old, who won the ITTF Challenge Indonesia Open in 2019, then spoke about the importance of having a weapon and formulating plans to hide and manage weaknesses.
“For example, [World No. 2] Xu Xin has a weakness on his backhand side and everyone knows it. But at the same time, it is impossible to catch him there because of the way he strategises and covers his backhand side.”
Recalling a story about the Chinese system’s methods of simulating match situations during practice, Harmeet described how Ma Lin was instructed by coach Liu Guoliang to play Zhang Jian with a 2-0 handicap ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
China had failed to win the men’s singles gold at Athens 2004. Harmeet said Guoliang, in a bid to provoke Lin, had stipulated that he stood to lose 10,000 yuan if he was defeated. Lin went on to win the practice match and gold in Beijing.