No abstract

In table tennis, many different approaches to scientific founded match analysis have been developed since the first ones in the 1960s. The aim of this paper is to give a review on some of the most acknowledged methods of match analysis in table tennis. The first chapter presents a historical overview of match analysis from all over the world. The second part reviews different approaches to match analysis in more detail, using the performance analysis classification of theoretical and practical performance analysis. The review includes the most actual theoretical performance analysis techniques in table tennis: performance indices, simulative approaches, momentum analysis, footwork analysis, and finally an approach which uses top expert knowledge for a comprehensive technical-tactical analysis. In the section of practical performance analysis, the paper presents two "best practice" examples describing performance analysis procedures of the two most successful countries of the last Olympics: China and Japan. The paper ends with a summary on the impact of the different approaches and gives an outlook on promising new developments.

The current study proposes a novel approach that improves the conventional performance analysis in table tennis by introducing the concept of frequency, or the number of shots, of each shot number. The improvements over the conventional method are as follows: better accuracy of the evaluation of skills and tactics of players, additional insights into scoring and returning skills and ease of understanding the results with a single criterion. The performance analysis of matches played at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London was conducted using the proposed method. The results showed some effects of the shot number and gender differences in table tennis. Furthermore, comparisons were made between Chinese players and players from other countries, what threw light on the skills and tactics of the Chinese players. The present findings demonstrate that the proposed method provides useful information and has some advantages over the conventional method.

The official material used in table tennis balls was changed from celluloid to plastic, a material free of celluloid, in 2014. The purpose of this study was to understand the differences and similarities in the two types of ball materials by comparing their behavior upon collision with a table. The behavior of the balls before and after collision with a table, at various initial speeds ranging from 15 to 115 km/h, was captured using high-speed cameras. Velocities and spin rates before collision and velocities after collision were computed to calculate the coefficients of restitution and friction. Based on the computed variables, the post-collision trajectories of both balls were calculated by integrating the equation of motion of the ball for simulated service, smash and drive conditions with respect to time. The coefficients of restitution were higher for the plastic balls than the celluloid ones when the initial vertical velocities were higher. The coefficients of friction were higher for plastic balls when the initial horizontal contact point velocities were slower. Because of the differences in the material characteristics, the plastic ball trajectories of services with backspin and drives with great topspin were expected to be different from those of celluloid balls. Since the extent of differences between the two ball types varied depending on the initial conditions, testing at various initial conditions was suggested for comparing and understanding the characteristics of the balls.

The rotation speed of the ball spin has been considered a key factor in winning table tennis matches. This study quantiˆed the rotation speed (rotations per second: rps) of service balls delivered by quarter-ˆnalists in the 2009 World Table Tennis Championships. Ball services were recorded during the quarter-ˆnals of both the men's and women's singles, involving 4 matches and 8 players per gender, using a high-speed video camera (1000 fps) for calculation of the rotation speed, and a standard video camera (30 fps) for distinguishing players and aces (including those touched by the receiver). Eventually, the rotation speeds of 329 services were calculated, and these ranged from 13.7 to 62.5 rps. For men, 50 60 rps was the most frequent (40.0) range of the rotation speeds, while for women, the corresponding range was 40 50 rps (43.8); the average (±SD) rotation speed was signiˆcantly greater for men than for women (46.0±9.0 vs. 39.2±9.3 rps, p＜0.001). The fastest rotation speed was 62.5 rps for both genders. Chinese men produced a slower rotation speed than did other men (43.5±8.9 vs. 51.0±6.8 rps, p＜0.001). For women, however, the rotation speed was similar between Chinese players and the others (39.9±10.2 vs. 38.5±8.2 rps). The rotation speeds of aces were scattered over a wide range of 37.0 58.8 rps for men and 27.8 62.5 rps for women, implying a weak association between aces and fast rotation. These pioneering data may help clarify some of the technical and tactical aspects of table tennis, and can be used to develop training and game strategies for successful performance.