Zhuang Zedong - Unique Style Among Penholders

Unique Style Among Penholders

Influenced by a veteran national team member and national champion Wang ChuanYao (王传耀), and encouraged by his coach, Zhuang picked up the "Dual-sided Offense" style in the 1950s when he was a teenager.

During the 50s to 60s, the majority of the pen-holding style players lack attacking or counter-attack capabilities on the backhand side, and rely solely on push-blocking. Wang is believed to be among the pioneers of the "Penholding Dual-sided Offense" style that emphasize on offensive backhand strokes and drives.

Zhuang adopted but modified Wang's style by:

1. Shorten the strokes of backhand drives - sometimes even simply use wrist or finger actions to flick the racket (referred by himself in his book as to "knock" or "snap" the ball).

2. Stand closer to the table than Wang - but still 2–3 feet away from the table, which is farther away from the table than most push-blocking penholders who are normally within 2 feet.

He did so as a result of his meticulous analysis of the physical differences between him and Wang - Wang was much taller and had a longer arm-coverage which enabled bigger, more powerful swings and strokes.

He had to streamline his strokes and instead attempted to generate a sudden burst of explosive power via a smaller motion, similar to the "one-inch-punch" in Wing Chun Kung Fu style.

He won and dominated 3 World Championships with this unique style, and encountered almost no match from the Japanese, European and his fellow Chinese players. Table tennis observers generally believe that he could have won one to two more world championships if the Cultural Revolution had not occurred. (It was evidenced by the fact the next 2 champions both had lopsided losing records against Zhuang when the Chinese team did not participate during the Cultural Revolution.)