Many fans now know about Chinese men's table tennis at most to the generation of Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui, because the Chinese table tennis team has an absolute dominance in the world table tennis since that time.
On the other hand, it is also because of Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui that at the previous stage, many athletes are now old and don't care about these fames.
Many people may think that in the generation before Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui, the world table tennis is completely under the world of Europeans, but in fact, Chinese men's table tennis is also a world powerhouse, and there are also very good athletes.
Today, let's get to know an athlete who supported the national table tennis men's singles in the nineties of the last century, he is Ma Wenge:
One
Ma Wenge was born on March 27, 1968 in a family of workers in Tianjin.
The reason why Ma Wenge practiced table tennis was because of his sister, who practiced table tennis at a very young age and later entered the school's varsity team.
Ma Wenge watched his sister play table tennis, and he also practiced in a good way, and often followed his sister to the school team to watch his sisters train.
The coach of the school team saw that Ma Wenge was also interested in table tennis, so he let him practice for a while and found that he had a good feel.
At that time, Ma Wenge was not yet at the age of elementary school, and the coach of the school team recruited him into the preschool team for training, so Ma Wenge began to come into contact with table tennis after entering primary school.
After coming into contact with table tennis, Ma Wenge not only quickly fell in love with table tennis, but also showed his super talent in table tennis.
Because of his outstanding performance, Ma Wenge has long been favored by the physical education teacher of Fujian Road Primary School, so when he reached the age of primary school, Ma Wenge went to this school with a "cradle of table tennis".
After graduating from primary school, Ma Wenge was favored by the coach of the Tianjin Sports Brigade, selected into the Tianjin Sports Brigade, and officially became a professional table tennis player.
After entering the sports team, both the training equipment and the coaching level have been greatly improved compared with before, so the level of Ma Wenge in this environment has also improved rapidly.
But at the same time, entering the professional team, the requirements for Ma Wenge have also increased, after all, he was only in contact with amateur players in primary school, but after entering the sports team, he played against professional players.
Therefore, Ma Wenge's usual training is also more hard, from the basic return to the attack, he tirelessly trains day after day.
Even though the training is very boring, Ma Wenge has no complaints about it, but has summed up a set of special playing styles suitable for himself in daily training.
Ma Wenge's hard work led to a rapid rise in the team's rankings, and it wasn't long before he was transferred from the junior team to the first team, where he played with the team, gaining a lot of experience and winning some tournaments.
In 1983, at the age of 15, Ma Wenge won the National Table Tennis Junior Championship that year, and a year later he won the National Youth Championship.
In 1985, at the age of 17, Ma Wenge won the men's singles championship at the National Championships.
Ma Wenge, who performed so well, was finally noticed by the national team, but at this time, the dominance of Chinese men's table tennis in the world table tennis plummeted, and the national team did not have too good athletes.
It can be said that the morale of Chinese men's table tennis was very low at that time, but on the other hand, there were many outstanding athletes in Europe, South Korea and Japan.
Two
Table tennis has two grips, one is straight and the other is horizontal.
The traditional playing style of the Chinese team is the straight slap play, but in the era when Ma Wenge first entered the national team, the European horizontal slap play was emerging, and the Chinese straight slap was already backward in terms of play, which is also the reason why the Chinese table tennis team has been deflated in international competitions one after another.
For this situation, the coaching staff did not think of a way, and also asked some players to change their playing style, but at that time, China relied on direct shooting after all, and the players usually trained in direct shooting.
If you suddenly change the grip method, not only will your strength not improve, but you will also lose sight of one or the other.
At that time, the Chinese team advocated fast attack, so straight shooting, positive glue and long rubber were the mainstream, and Ma Wenge happened to be a horizontal slap play, so the coaching staff had high hopes for Ma Wenge, hoping that he could improve the playing style of backhand raw rubber, and the most important thing was to figure out a set of techniques that are more suitable for the development trend of modern table tennis.
Ma Wenge began to conduct research after receiving the task of the coaching staff, and he spent every day at the training ground in addition to eating and sleeping, and at night before going to bed, he had to study the game videos of foreign athletes over and over again.
For Ma Wenge, he felt that he must not be able to copy foreign technology, and he must tailor a new style of play, not only to understand the opponent, but also to understand himself.
It's not easy to change your style of play for years, and it may be difficult for others to understand, but for professional athletes, more than ten years of training will definitely have muscle memory.
And during the period of technological transformation, the level of competition will definitely decline, which is a very big test for both psychology and physiology.
In this way, after a period of research, Ma Wenge adopted the anti-glue play, and also specially formulated a plan to strengthen the skills of ball control and spin attack.
In this way, Ma Wenge participated in the 39th World Table Tennis Championships with the team, but he did not have the opportunity to play at that time.
In 1989, this year has a very special significance for the Chinese table tennis team, because it was in this year that the relevant leaders decided to form a group of "baby soldiers", and in the future world table tennis arena, I hope that these "baby soldiers" can help Chinese men's table tennis achieve rejuvenation.
And Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui both entered the national team because of this "child soldier" plan, which shows how wise the decision of the relevant leaders was at that time.
Of course, it is not enough to have a plan, there must be an executor, because in this year, the relevant leaders recalled the former Chinese table tennis world champion Cai Zhenhua, who went to Italy to coach, and let him be the head coach of the Chinese men's table tennis at the age of 28.
For Ma Wenge, this year was also different, first of all, he followed the Chinese men's table tennis to participate in the 40th World Table Tennis Championships, and finally lost to the Swedish men's table tennis led by Waldner again in the men's team final and won the runner-up.
But in the subsequent 10th Men's Singles World Cup, Ma Wenge defeated Apeielen, Seif, Persson, Gruba and other celebrities all the way to win his first world championship.
You must know that during that time period, the Chinese men's table tennis has not been able to win the singles world championship for many years, so after Ma Wenge won the World Cup men's singles championship, it also gave the Chinese men's table tennis a glimmer of hope for its rise.
Three
In 1989, he won the World Cup men's singles championship.
In the 1990 Asian Games, Ma Wenge won two more championships in men's singles and men's doubles, and in the World Cup in the same year, he lost to Waldner in the final and won the runner-up.
With this series of good results, Ma Wenge became the only athlete who could do well in Chinese men's table tennis in that era, so he also successfully became the first brother of national table tennis.
In that era, in addition to Sweden's Waldner and Persson, South Korea's Yoo Nam-kyu, Kim Taek-so, etc. were all top players, and almost all of the semifinals and finals in the World Series were these people.
For example, the men's singles champion of the 41st World Table Tennis Championships in 1991 was Persson, the World Cup champion was also Persson, and the men's singles champion of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics was Waldner.
It is worth mentioning that in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Ma Wenge also won the bronze medal, which can be regarded as the best result of the national table tennis men's singles in the Olympic Games at that time.
In the same year, Ma Wenge won the World Cup again, which was also the second and last World Series singles championship in his life.
After that, Ma Wenge actually began to go to a low point, after all, at that time, Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui had begun to cultivate a group of "child soldiers", and Ma Wenge did not keep up with the historical trend and changed his style of play, so it was inevitable that he would be eliminated.
After that, Ma Wenge left the national team to play in Europe, but before the 1995 Tianjin World Table Tennis Championships, the national table tennis coaching staff temporarily recalled Ma Wenge, after all, Ma Wenge was still the best athlete in the national table tennis men's singles at that time.
Prior to this, the Swedish men's table tennis team had won three consecutive championships in the men's team competition at the World Championships, so this time at the World Table Tennis Championships at home, the national table tennis coaching staff vowed to regain the men's team championship.
In this way, the Chinese men's table tennis team reached the finals all the way to the finals, against the Swedish men's table tennis who was in full swing.
At that time, the number one main force of Chinese men's table tennis was Wang Tao, so Wang Tao served as a single in the men's team finals, and the coaching staff originally planned to let Ma Wenge serve as the third single, but Ma Wenge said that he would either go to the first single, the second single, or not to play.
Ma Wenge is only 7 years younger than Cai Zhenhua in terms of age, when Ma Wenge first entered the national team in 1985, Cai Zhenhua had not retired, so the two had been teammates for a while.
Therefore, Ma Wenge was not as afraid of Cai Zhenhua as other players, and he dared to put forward conditions.
In the end, Cai Zhenhua decided to let Ma Wenge play the second singles, and the third singles was left to Ding Song, the "secret weapon" that the Chinese men's table tennis had hidden for several years.
In the first game of the men's team finals, the Chinese men's table tennis team sent Wang Tao, and the Swedish men's table tennis also sent the first main force Waldner.
At this time, Waldner is 30 years old, Wang Tao is also 28 years old, both of them are veterans, in the previous encounters, Waldner has always won more and lost less than Wang Tao, and the result of this game is no exception, and finally Wang Tao lost 1-2 to Waldner.
In the second game, Ma Wenge played against Persson, the No. 2 main force of Swedish men's table tennis, Ma Wenge was 27 years old at the time, and Persson was two years younger than Ma Wenge.
For a long time, the professional life expectancy of Chinese table tennis players is not as good as that of European athletes, Ma Wenge and Wang Tao can play until they are twenty-seven or eighteen years old, which is already amazing, of course, this may also have something to do with the fact that both of them are direct shooting athletes.
In the first game, Wang Tao lost to Waldner, and the Chinese men's table tennis team fell behind 0-1, which made the second game extremely important.
In the end, Ma Wenge, who played well, successfully defeated Persson 2-1, and the two sides drew 1-1.
In the third game, the Chinese team sent Ding Song, and the Swedish men's table tennis team played Karlsson.
Ding Song was a chipper, he was known as the "world's No. 1 chipper" in that era, and some fans even called him "the savior of the modern horizontal racket chipping game".
Generally speaking, chippers pay more attention to spin and defense, but Ding Song is a slicing with attack, and the attack is not less than that of chipping, which makes the opponent very uncomfortable.
Therefore, in the third game, Ding Song easily defeated Karlsson 2-0, and the big score came to 2-1, and the Chinese men's table tennis took the lead.
In the fourth game, Ma Wenge played against Waldner, Ma Wenge played very well in this game, but Waldner was in a burst of state, so in the end, Ma Wenge lost 1-2 to Waldner, and the score was 2-2.
In the decisive game, Wang Tao of the Chinese team played against the Swedish team Persson, and finally Wang Tao easily defeated Persson 2-0, and the Chinese men's table tennis team finally won the men's team championship of the World Championships again after three World Table Tennis Championships in 8 years.
Four
In 1997, at the 44th World Table Tennis Championships, Ma Wenge joined hands with Wang Tao, Ding Song, Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui again, and finally successfully defended the men's team championship.
It's just that this time at the World Championships, Ma Wenge is no longer the absolute main force, and Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui, who have already won the Olympic championships, began to carry the banner of Chinese men's table tennis.
Therefore, after this World Table Tennis Championships, Ma Wenge went abroad to play again, and this time he went to Germany.
During his years in Germany, Ma Wenge has moved to five clubs, and he has brought countless honours and trophies to each club he has played for.
Although Ma Wenge is not young and can no longer bear the responsibility of the main team in the Chinese team, he has been ranked in the top three in the European League all year round.
Even the rising German star Boer, the two have won and lost each other, and Ma Wenge said about his perennial competitiveness in European clubs:
"The skills of Chinese table tennis players are the best in the world, and my ability to play so far is the best proof that European players are bold types, and my skills are more delicate and solid than them, and I still have an advantage in playing against them, if I change to Asian players, this advantage is almost non-existent, after all, the age is old, and young people with delicate skills have no advantage at all. ”
After staying abroad for more than ten years, Ma Wenge returned to China in 2005 and led the Tianjin men's table tennis team to win the fifth place in the team at the 10th National Games.
In 2007, Ma Wenge officially announced his retirement, and after retiring, he returned to the Tianjin team and began to cultivate talents for the Tianjin table tennis team.
Under the cultivation of Ma Wenge, the Tianjin team won the men's doubles championship of the National Games in 2013 and the championship of the Table Tennis Super League in 2019, but then Tianjin men's table tennis was forced to transfer for some reasons.
In order to continue to cultivate table tennis talents, Ma Wenge also opened a special training base to continue to shine for the table tennis cause.
Although he was not as famous as Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui, and did not rise to a high position like Wang Tao, Ma Wenge was also one of the most outstanding players in Chinese men's table tennis in that era, and even as the only light before the dawn of Chinese men's table tennis, he was even greater.