How Harimoto Wins EVERY Backhand Exchange - Table Tennis Pro Analysis

And again, there's a lot of nets on this point, but pay attention to the tactic for Harimoto. It's extremely important, especially if you're at a higher level and you get into, you're at a point where you take a lot of these quote-unquote 50-50 backhand-to-backhand exchanges with your opponent. The way Harimoto approaches it is so good. He always finds a way to bait his opponent and then move them into the corner, which prevents the opponent from playing a perfectly optimal shot and allows him, even if he doesn't have as much power just head-to-head as his opponent, to play higher quality shots than his opponent. So again, plays to the middle. This is really, really uncomfortable for Lin Shidong. Shifts his weight to the right. Lin Shidong shifts his weight and then, bang! Extremely deep into the corner. Now Lin Shidong's weight is shifted this way and he is so out of position here. He is absolutely tied in knots here. And so, what does he do? Back to the middle. Lin Shidong decides he might try to step on that. And again, he's so out of position and so uncomfortable that Harimoto has all the initiative. Nets aside, that's a point would take 10 times out of 10. Hey guys, what's going on? It's Louie Louie here and welcome to a brand new video. This is going to be my second ever pro analysis. Some of you may remember that I did one a couple months back that was extremely popular and I've kind of been waiting for the right match before I do another one. And I've had to kind of pick and choose very carefully because WTT is very strict with the copyright. But fortunately, I got special permission from TT11TV to do a complete pro analysis on the final of the Asian Championship without any risk of copyright strikes. So, big shout out to them. I really do appreciate that and I will link the full match in the description if y'all want to go and check that out. But the reason that I have decided to review this match is because Harimoto, and we're going to be reviewing this from Harimoto's perspective, plays almost or maybe even a perfect game of table tennis. Everything he does in this game is so tactically sound and so textbook that it is an absolutely fantastic video for me to use as a reference point to go over some very simple combinations that you can use to generate points on your own. And then the other thing that I will be pointing out as I review this match is the footwork that Harimoto does on his serve returns because he puts on an absolute clinic with the serve returns in this match. The way he approaches the serve returns, the footwork, the shot selection is just about perfect on his end. So, this can also be a reference so that you can kind of see what to do and how to move against different serves. But with that out of the way, let's go ahead and get started and I hope you enjoy the video. Now, before we get started, I want to talk about Harimoto's keys to success, kind of like I did with the Aruna video. Now, let me go ahead and draw a table real quick. So, this is Harimoto, this is Lin Shidong, and Harimoto's game revolves around forcing out suboptimal shots from his opponent and then punishing that. So, what I want you to pay attention to throughout this match is the way that Harimoto is able to make Lin Shidong so uncomfortable against seemingly simple balls and then he's immediately able to punish for that. So, for example, you'll see many many points throughout this game where they're in the backhand to backhand rally, which is extremely common when you have a righty versus righty matchup. So, they're in the backhand to backhand, neither of them really want to mess with the forehand. And what Harimoto will do is he will bait Lin Shidong into playing a backhand further and further to his right, basically giving him shots where it's really really difficult to decide whether or not to pivot. So, for example, what he might do is flip a ball here and then Lin Shidong plays a backhand cross court. He'll play the next ball right here and hope basically that Lin Shidong moves and plays another backhand and then he'll follow up with an extremely deep ball into the corner again and this wins him points over and over and over again because if Lin Shidong moves and plays this ball with his backhand, that is always a lower quality ball than his most optimal shot and so it gives Harimoto an opportunity to play his counter game and punish. And you'll also notice that when it doesn't work, so let's say Harimoto tries to play here and Lin Shidong decides that he's able to step around on it and he decides this early and plays just a booming forehand, then Harimoto is done, has absolutely no answers to it. But Harimoto is so good throughout this whole match of always finding exactly where to place the ball to make Lin Shidong as uncomfortable as possible and force out extremely suboptimal shots from his opponent that he can then punish with very quick time pressure and off the bounce counter loops. So that's kind of the idea behind Harimoto's play just to kind of preface the review or the analysis and with that let's go ahead and get started. And actually I know we're two points in but I will highlight early on the footwork of Harimoto on the serve return. A very common question in table tennis is whether or not you should have a split step in your serve return. And if you don't know what a split step is, it's basically a tiny bounce or a jump or a step with one of your legs before your actual movement toward the ball. And the answer to this question is a resounding yes. You absolutely, especially at a high level, should have some sort of split step on your serve return. Now the way Harimoto does it, he opts to always step in with his right leg and then move to wherever he needs to move with pretty standard footwork. You'll see other players kind of bounce or jump, but regardless you should always have some sort of movement before your actual movement on the serve return. And Harimoto does a very good job of this the whole match, of course, because he's one of the best players in the world. But just to highlight it, watch his approach on the serve return. So he steps, finds the ball, sees where it's going to be. His idea, by the way, and this is something I always tell my students, is first idea ready to attack, second idea push. So he is only thinking about attacking with the backhand here. But he steps, shuffles, super wide stance on the serve return, extremely stable, and then the shot lands in the last inch of the table. Which you'll see time and time again, both of these players are always hitting right into the last inch of the table, which is what you have to do at this level if you want any chance of your tactics working. So of course you have to be very physically strong and in shape. And this is the first time we see the strategy from Harimoto. They get into the backhand to drag it to the forehand and make Lin Shidong uncomfortable. Lin Shidong plays a very high quality forehand that's difficult for Harimoto to punish and so Harimoto does not win the point. Insane quality from Lin Shidong. Again, doesn't give Harimoto any chance to punish. Harimoto doesn't give any ball that makes Lin Shidong uncomfortable. And here it is again. Firstly, watch the footwork on the serve return. His first idea is to attack. He would only push if he absolutely has to. But here's the split step and then from the split step he does a normal shuffle of, of course, left leg and then right leg. So generally, just for my beginners out there, if you're moving to the right, left leg moves first. If you're moving to the left, right leg moves first, other than the split step. So the split step disregard. But now that he's taken his split step, left leg moves first because he's moving to the right. And then as he's playing the shot, feet are nice and planted. And again, tries to get it into the middle, basically to bait out an uncomfortable shot from his opponent. And in this case, they get into the backhand to backhand. This would have worked if Lin Shidong didn't get a little bit fortunate. But you can see he switches to the middle and baits out this uncomfortable ball from Lin Shidong where his weight is heavily on the right leg. He's playing off of his body. This is really not balanced from Lin Shidong. So this is what Harimoto wants. And he will take a ball like this any day. He just happened to clip the net and he got a little bit unlucky. And this is really smart. Yeah, this is really, really smart. So a few things to talk about here. Serves normal, short to the forehand, short touch by Lin Shidong. Neither of them really play forehand flip here. So Harimoto pushes half long. And this is an issue for Lin Shidong because if he plays a low quality loop where he just throws the ball up with spin, it gives Harimoto all the time in the world to set up his shot and play time pressure. So like, let's say Lin Shidong takes this ball, plays a slow spinny loop to the backhand. Well, Harimoto is going to play to the backhand, then he's going to play to the middle, then he's going to go back to the backhand or switch out wide for a winner and basically have all of the initiative. So Lin Shidong needs to try and win, not win the point, but initially play a shot that puts Harimoto under a lot of pressure. So he rips the forehand, but then all Harimoto has to do is play a block to the backhand. And because Lin Shidong's first shot was so big, he has to play a weak ball on this backhand. It's still a decent quality ball, of course, because Lin Shidong's insanely athletic and has insane quality, but it's weak enough for Harimoto to punish. So he rips this ball with his backhand. And because he's the one taking initiative and Lin Shidong's reacting, it's a rule I talk about all the time. If you're taking initiative and you catch your opponent by surprise, 90% of the time they are going to react by playing cross court. It is very, very rare that they will play down the line. So Harimoto can play this ball and then immediately pivot knowing that he will have an opportunity to play a winner, which is what he does. Rips it down the line, doesn't quite win the point. But again, Lin Shidong is reacting at this point. There's no chance or a very low chance that he plays down the line. And so Harimoto knows where this ball is going and then just pushes him even wider. And it's just a free point. You can see when it doesn't work, Harimoto falls apart. I guess the way I should put it, when Lin Shidong is able to play with enough quality that Harimoto can't immediately punish, his tactic starts to fall apart. Because if he just kind of puts his paddle in the way and rallies, Lin Shidong is going to win most of the time in that sort of rally. Harimoto is reacting. He's just blocking. There's not much quality. He doesn't have many answers. But you'll see as this match progresses, Harimoto does an insanely good job of making Lin Shidong uncomfortable. Crazy heavy spin on that serve. Now, this is an important serve to keep in mind because this gets used again later in the match. But again, it comes down to making Lin Shidong uncomfortable and getting him to play a less than perfectly optimal shot. So here, and look at where this serve lands. It's something I tell my students all the time. Just like if you're going to push, you need to push. If you're going to serve long, you need to serve long. This ball is literally last inch of the table, makes Lin Shidong uncomfortable. His weight is going backwards. And so now again, Harimoto has a ball that he can punish. So even though Lin Shidong has tried to move Harimoto to his middle, the ball does not have enough quality or velocity to give Harimoto much trouble. And he clips the edge, but I mean, he's aiming for the last inch of the table. So it's not super surprising, but just very, very solid play here. And again, I pointed that out because this is going to come back later. And again, similar tactic to what I mentioned in the kind of keys to success. Firstly, watch the footwork on the serve return. I'm going to point out every time there's the split step recognizes the short shuffles. Feet are planted and extremely stable, explosive shot. And then two steps to come back. There's the bounce that you always want to have. And then there's the footwork to wherever the ball is going. But tactically speaking, ties Lin Shidong in knots with this ball. It's the perfect position to where Lin Shidong doesn't want to play a back end because he knows if he plays a back end, the next ball is coming deep here. And then the ball after that's probably coming deep here. And that's hugely advantageous for Harimoto. So he tries to step, but Harimoto's placement is so good that he's not able to get great quality on this ball. So plays with awkward technique. And now from here, Harimoto is still able to punish this ball and go extremely deep into the corner. He hasn't moved. He's having an absolute field day with that. And those are the types of points that you want to win. Points where you don't, I mean, obviously he's working, but points where it's basically bread and butter. And that was the definition of bread and butter. Lucky ball there. And this is actually very risky from Harimoto. Decides to open first. Lin Shidong ties Harimoto in knots here. Harimoto, I mean, both of them are in insanely good shape. So even though he's tied up, he's able to get just enough quality on this ball to cause Lin Shidong to make an unforced error. But really that's actually okay on Lin Shidong's part. Insanely heavy serves. And this is another good example of what happens when the placement is slightly off or the tactic doesn't work. Again, perfect footwork. Very nice flip. Two steps after the flip. This flip is not quite as difficult for Lin Shidong. It doesn't cause him to play a less than optimal shot. It is right in his wheelhouse. He's not off balance. Transfers his weight perfectly. This is like a dream shot for Lin Shidong. And Harimoto just has no chance on that ball. Because if you've seen my videos on angles, if you play to the middle and it's not with good quality, there are so many angles that Lin Shidong has right here. He can go wide to the backhand. He can go wide to the forehand. He can just play back to the middle. And so Harimoto basically just has to guess like a soccer goalie against a penalty kick. There's really not much he can do there. And then again here. Ties Lin Shidong in knots. Baits out a step around. Even if that shot connects, Harimoto's winning the point. And even if Lin Shidong goes down the line, Harimoto's winning that point. Because it's not enough quality to prevent Harimoto from punishing it. And this is a similar concept but with a serve. But the goal is to bait out this weak backhand. It's just in the right placement to where he's uncomfortable. So he can't rip it. Has to throw it up with spin. And it's low enough quality again that Harimoto can punish. And play right off the balance with lots of time pressure. And again, this is all about initiative. He did one of these earlier. Goes back to it here at 9-10. Or at 10-9, excuse me. Super long serve. Again, last inch of the table. Very last inch of the table. Catches Lin Shidong by surprise. But not quite as bad as before. You can see he's still balanced and plays a decent quality shot. But not good enough. He's still caught by surprise a little bit. And doesn't play with enough quality to prevent Harimoto from punishing. And it's just bread and butter. That's game one. Let's take a look at game two. And this is a good example of if it's not broke, don't fix it. Very last point of the first game. Harimoto gave a very long serve deep into the backhand. And Lin Shidong was quite uncomfortable. He still played a good shot. But it was a shot that Harimoto liked. It was a shot that let him rip a forehand off the balance. Keep the initiative. And play time pressure. Which is exactly what he wants. And so if Lin Shidong gave him a weak ball, what's to say that he's not going to do that again? So basically, anytime you find something, especially at a really high level where technique isn't an issue. And shot quality isn't an issue. Because everyone plays with good technique and good shots. It comes down to tactics and finding exploits. And if you found something that makes your opponent uncomfortable, you don't want to get in your own head in the sense of, oh, well, I should save that for when it's deuce. Or, oh, well, if I do it four times in a row, they're going to figure it out. Well, you don't know that. Do it until they prove that they can figure it out. And win those four points in a row in the meantime. Which is what Harimoto does here. Just another long serve. Less than optimal return from Lin Shidong. And Harimoto just punishes it. And then again, it makes the short serves even more effective. I also want to point out, look at the quality on the pushes here. It's something I tell my students all the time. If you're going to push, then push. And that is a disgustingly deep and heavy push that makes Lin Shidong extremely uncomfortable on the back end. And again, you can see when it doesn't quite work. So like here, Harimoto opens. Lin Shidong catches Harimoto by surprise, blocking down the line. But regardless of all that, Harimoto plays a weaker ball. And this ball doesn't give him an opportunity to punish anything. This is absolute wheelhouse for Lin Shidong. His weight's going forwards. He's ripping that ball. And now Harimoto has to block. Even if he lands that block, it's going to be very difficult because he didn't take the initiative early to find a way to put Lin Shidong under any time pressure. So it doesn't work as well. So from this point, it's just difficult. And again, there's a lot of nets on this point. But pay attention to the tactic from Harimoto. It's extremely important, especially if you're at a higher level and you're at a point where you take a lot of these quote-unquote 50-50 backhand-to-backhand exchanges with your opponent. The way Harimoto approaches it is so good. He always finds a way to bait his opponent out this way and then move them into the corner, which prevents the opponent from playing a perfectly optimal shot and allows him, even if he doesn't have as much power, just head-to-head as his opponent, to play higher quality shots than his opponent. So again, plays to the middle. This is really, really uncomfortable for Lin Shidong. Shifts his weight to the right. Lin Shidong shifts his weight to the right and then, bang, extremely deep into the corner. Now Lin Shidong's weight is shifted this way and he is so out of position here. He is absolutely tied in knots here. And so what does he do? Back to the middle. Lin Shidong decides he might try to step on that. And again, he's so out of position and so uncomfortable that Harimoto has all the initiative. Nets aside, that's a point that Harimoto would take 10 times out of 10. And again, same thing there. Hopefully you see it. Watch it back one more time. Middle. And then drags Lin Shidong out onto his backhand. A little bit of a lucky break. Same thing here. If you're gonna push, push. And this push is brutal. Very last inch of the table. Far enough that Lin Shidong plays a forehand but not so far that he has all the time in the world to rip it. Makes him very uncomfortable and basically just puts him under a lot of pressure. But that doesn't work if the push is even a little bit too low quality. Weird ball. And again, similar pattern. This flip does not put Lin Shidong under any pressure. It's very predictable. It didn't bait. The bait didn't work basically. And Harimoto wasn't able to force a suboptimal shot so there was nothing to punish. And he's not going to win those rallies most of the time. It's he maybe wins 10% of those points. So it's not something that he wants to do. Oh my god. Yeah, this is solid. But it all starts with the push. So short touch from Lin Shidong. Disgusting push from Harimoto. Last inch of the table. Almost a complete repeat of the last point. Lin Shidong decides to step and play a forehand. And if you'll remember, and this is pattern recognition which comes with experience. Obviously a full-time pro is going to have really, really good pattern recognition. But the last time that he pushed really deep to the middle, Lin Shidong missed, but he missed aiming for the backhand here. The cross court shot to the forehand wasn't even on his radar. So Harimoto doesn't need to worry about this shot because he knows from the last time he did this that Lin Shidong likes to take this ball. If he's going to play a forehand and go deep into the backhand. Also because Lin Shidong has been playing a lot of backhand to backhand rallies. So there's very little reason to think that he will go cross court here. So it's very safe to guess that he will get a backhand here. And in addition to that, Harimoto is quick enough to move out and react. Regardless of this disgustingly high quality push, Lin Shidong is able to loop it. But it's again not quite high enough quality. So Harimoto is just standing there ready to rip it. Again last inch of the table. And look how uncomfortable Lin Shidong is. That is not his best shot. This is not his highest quality ball because he doesn't have the initiative in the point. Because Harimoto's finding ways to catch him by surprise and force him to play sub optimally. So super off balance. Weight's going backwards. And look at the contrast. Look at Harimoto in comparison. Weight is leaning forwards. Arm is out. Taking the ball early. Really really like crushing the ball. And Lin Shidong is just reacting. So here moves him a little bit to the right. Not quite high enough quality. And Harimoto punishes it. And again almost all of his balls land on the white line or close to the last inch of the table. But Lin Shidong is reacting. He doesn't have any initiative. Which is why Harimoto... And this is why Harimoto at his best is so dangerous. Because he's so good at this. And again when it doesn't work Harimoto's not as good in just the pure open rallies. He's not as good in like these... He's not very good at just challenging someone power for power. He is at his best when he is forcing his opponent to open with weak balls. Not necessarily when he is opening first with his own quality and just trying to play boomba boomba. And something else I want you to notice is... And I talked about it a little earlier. But again if it's not broke don't fix it. Don't save your strategies for when you need them or be scared to use something that worked because you think your opponent's going to figure it out. Harimoto has been just pushing long to the middle this entire game. Because it's on Lin Shidong to come up with an answer to that. If Lin Shidong can't come up with an answer to that then there's no reason to stop going there. You don't need to like save it or be scared. Just keep doing it until your opponent proves they can do something about it. So again several times in this match he gets this long push. This time Lin Shidong plays a backhand. And you can actually see this is putting Harimoto under a little more pressure. So he's not able to rip. So from this point Lin Shidong actually has an advantage. He is better in this sort of open rally than Harimoto is. He's quicker than Harimoto. He's got more power. Harimoto wins the point here. But that's actually a point that Lin Shidong would rather have than Harimoto. And same with that one. If you play this exact point several times in a row Lin Shidong probably wins that point more than Harimoto does. But he happens to win it there. Now we're on to the next game. So on to game three. And something worth pointing out here is all of the pressure should be on Lin Shidong to come up with new tactics. As the person finding the exploits you shouldn't need to change until your opponent proves that you have adapted. So Harimoto should keep going for the same tactics until it stops working. So again baiting out uncomfortable shots. Pushing wide this way. And then going really deep into the forehand. Jamming with lots of deep pushes. And basically saying hey this is working. Prove to me that you can do something about it. This is a point that actually is better for Harimoto. That he happens to lose. This is exactly what Harimoto wants. It doesn't work. But it's all Harimoto. He's dragging him to the left. And then bang! Deep into the corner. Dragging him to the right. Lin Shidong's just reacting. And then bang! Dragging him to the left again. And he is so uncomfortable here. He is so off balance. That if Harimoto connects on this shot he probably wins the point. There is a probably. And obviously these players are a million times better than me. But this is a slight tactical mistake from Harimoto. Because this probably wins the point. Because of this pattern. And him conditioning Lin Shidong to go middle. Backhand. Middle. Backhand. Middle. Backhand. He probably wins the point outright. If he goes deep into the corner here. But either way really that's... It looks like maybe he clipped the edge. But that's a good point for Harimoto. That's a bad push. That's a bad push from Harimoto. He wants to flip. Again, first idea. Attack. Then react. So he's ready to attack. Ready to attack. Oh crap. I can't loop that one. Footwork. His timing on the footwork's a little messed up here too. So okay. Push. But the push is not great. That's kind of right in the place where you don't want to push. And so it lets Lin Shidong play very very high quality backhand. But there's just no way to punish. We've seen this before. If you remember in the first game. This is a point that's probably favorable for Harimoto. But he has to land a good block. This is a tricky concept. But this also comes down to pattern recognition. When Harimoto pushes to Lin Shidong's middle. But on Harimoto's right side of the table. Kind of again that deep push that ties him in knots. Lin Shidong has always gone to the backhand so far. When Harimoto pushes half long to the middle. Where the ball is more on the left side of the table. So in this box right here. Lin Shidong so far has only done and can only do a couple things. So again this is pattern recognition. If you remember the very last point of game two. Lin Shidong did decide to take this ball. And play a slow spinny ball into Harimoto's backhand. It was actually probably a more favorable point for Lin Shidong. However Harimoto did end up winning it. But the reason that Harimoto can still sit forehand here. One pattern recognition for the most part. Every time Harimoto has given this half long ball. Lin Shidong has gone for the powerful shot to the forehand. And on top of that if Lin Shidong is going to go for the powerful shot. Because the ball is half long and not very long. There is no realistic way that Lin Shidong can play a very powerful shot to the backhand corner. So in other words there's a lot of reasons that Harimoto can just sit here. Number one Lin Shidong has proven that this is the most likely place he's going to go. And number two if Lin Shidong is going to play with power. Then he can only go cross court. There's no way with this type of ball and it being half long. That he can play deep into the backhand with tons of power. So if he does decide to go for the less probable shot into Harimoto's backhand. It'll be like at the end of game two that slower spinny ball. And because it's so slow Harimoto can still sit forehand. And has enough time to react and come back to play the backhand. So Lin Shidong has to play this shot. But all Harimoto would have to do here. Is block deep into the corner to bait out a very weak ball. From Lin Shidong and punish it. So even though the loop misses here. This is a very very good tactic from Harimoto. Insanely spinny serves from Lin Shidong as well. Now Lin Shidong has slowed the game down a little bit. He instead of trying to rip the ball. He's now opting to take it a little bit more compact. And also play with a little bit more spin. For what it's worth this point is still played fine by Harimoto. The issue was that his half long push drifted too long. And also that Lin Shidong being a good player is starting to adapt. And also picking up on patterns. So as Lin Shidong adapts it'll be up to Harimoto to continue to play counter strategies. But again this is a similar point. He pushes half long and from pattern recognition. Again he can pretty safely expect the ball to land in this corner. And react if the ball comes to his backhand. But only if the half long push is really good quality. Because the second the half long push accidentally comes a little bit too long. Now Lin Shidong just has a field day. And can actually go into the backhand with more quality. But you can see as Lin Shidong is playing this shot. Harimoto is absolutely cheating on the forehand side expecting this ball. And again that's valid because so far when he's played this half long shot. Most of the time he's gotten this forehand and it's worked out for him. And when Lin Shidong's played to the backhand. It's been low enough quality for Harimoto to react and counter. However here the half long push drifts a little too long. Now Lin Shidong can play a high quality push or a high quality loop into the corner. And on top of that Lin Shidong's probably just adapting to Harimoto's tactics. Which means now it's time for Harimoto to start adapting and changing his own tactics. And this is still working for him though. The middle wide is still working. One ball here. Now just going for broke. Slightly different look here. This is worth pointing out. Even though it's 9-3. Harimoto decides to outright challenge the forehand here. Instead of going to the middle and it worked. Flip is not quite ideal here. Too predictable. Doesn't bait anything out. He knows that he's getting a cross court ball. But this is a point that's in Lin Shidong's favor. 10 times out of 10. And it's almost a mental lapse from Harimoto. And last game here. A lot of the tactics at this point are kind of set. You'll notice again it's all down to pattern recognition and finding exploits. But I'll focus a little bit more on the serve return footwork. It's hard to see from this side of the table. But I'll still be able to show you. And you can see his approach now is different. No longer pushing half long or pushing to the middle. Now he's more... He's going for more variation. Just pushing deep to the backhand. And again I'll point it out. If you're going to push, push. And the only reason this works so well is because of the quality on his pushes. That is landing so deep. And you can see it's tying Lin Shidong in knots. He is off balance. He's leaning backwards. He is not comfortable with that ball. So he misses this ball. But I'll show you the serve return footwork again. There's the split step. So he stepped in with the right leg. Ball comes long and he shuffles. He's always ready to hit by the way. Again, ready to hit and then reacts to the block. So split step. Recognizes that the ball comes long. Very wide stance. Left leg is very far out. Feet are planted. And he's very stable on the backhand. He misses here but the footwork and the approach is perfect every time. And that's just perfect. So watch the footwork on the serve return again. Split step. Shuffles. Really really nice flip. This one is much better placed because it actually... It was placed in a way that it was close enough to the backhand corner to where Lin Shidong didn't step. But far enough from the corner to where it's not right in Lin Shidong's wheelhouse and shifts his weight a little bit. So now he brings the ball back to the left and he has all the initiative again. Then he goes to the middle again. And Lin Shidong is conditioned at this point. To this, this, this, this. So in his mind, this is the ball he's worried about. As you can see. This is just world-class perfect tactics from Harimoto. Lin Shidong is still moving this way as the ball comes past him on his forehand. And again it's because Lin Shidong has started answering some of Harimoto's tactics. So Harimoto has to come up with some new stuff to continue generating points. Yeah, really solid. Look at the serve return footwork again. I'm going to point it out again for this game just because I've covered a lot of tactics. But split step. He's ready to attack. Sees the ball's coming to his backhand. Moves. And again this is something I emphasize to all of my students. Ready to hit. And then when you can't hit, you push. Ready to hit. Oh crap. I can't loop this one. Okay, it's really easy to change. And look at that push quality. Play a really high quality push with tons of backspin. At this point this is a 50-50 because Harimoto was caught on the serve. And he happens to win it. Takes initiative. Play some very very good shots. Same. And again, perfect footwork on the serve return. Split step. Ready to hit. Shuffles. Flips. Bounces back out. Ready to play more. Yeah, it's absolutely perfect. Yeah, same tactics. So now Harimoto has the initiative again. He's found another exploit. He's found another exploit where basically he goes middle. Oops, lost the tape. He goes middle and then very wide to the forehand. And Lin Shidong doesn't have an answer to it yet. And so now again the pressure is on Lin Shidong to come up with an answer. And Harimoto just has to keep exploiting. Until Lin Shidong proves he can do something. Yeah, I'm just going to point out the serve return again. This one Harimoto is actually probably pushing all the way. Unless it comes long to the backhand. You can see he's not really ready to hit. Very stable. Not bad. Serve variation was just enough to give Harimoto a good opportunity. Yeah, and that's just perfect table tennis. Look at the push quality. If you're going to push, push. Look at where that ball lands. And so it's just very good for Harimoto. And there it is. Solid, solid, solid game from Harimoto. Again, this last serve, his approach is different. He's actually a little bit more passive all the way. Because he's noticed that he gets a lot of good opportunities from this push here. It's a very, very good tactic. Touches the server turn short. Brings Lin Shidong in this way. Then takes the next ball because Lin Shidong is not flipping. And pushes it out this way. Which forces Lin Shidong to at least for a little bit have his weight going backwards. Now Lin Shidong is insane. So he's still able to play a good shot. But that's the idea behind it. And he's noticed that he gives himself good enough opportunities to win the point. So here he's at 10-5. He's just taking a 50-50. But again, it's the same tactic. He baits Lin Shidong into this ball. Where he moves out and plays a backhand instead of pivoting. And so this is really, really difficult. And then follows it up with a much deeper ball into the backhand. And while he's doing all this, he now also has the forehand. Which he knows he can win points on. So Lin Shidong just has too much to worry about here. So like from here, what do you do as Lin Shidong? It's just too hard. And so he falls under the pressure and loses the match. And Harimoto becomes the Men's Singles champion at the Asian Championship. Which is a really, really good accomplishment for him. I've enjoyed watching his game for such a long time. Because he fights hard. I think that he has a genuine chance to get to the very top of the world rankings when he's on. But hopefully that was helpful. If you want to go back and watch this match on your own. If you're struggling with serve returns and footwork on serve returns. And how to approach the serve return. This match will be linked in the description down below. And just take any point where Harimoto is receiving from the close side of the table. So that you can see what he's doing. I mean you could watch him from the far side of the table too. Because it's still possible to see what he's doing. But just go back and watch the match on your own. And look at how Harimoto deals with serves. Because he gets just about every serve you could get. He gets a bunch of short serves. He gets a bunch of long deep serves. He flips a lot of serves. He touches a lot of serves. He pushes a lot of serves long. He does basically every shot. Minus the forehand flip against a serve. That you could want to do on a serve. With perfect footwork on all of them. Or I mean obviously he makes mistakes sometimes. Lin Shidong's an insane player. So he's gonna make Harimoto tied up. And make him make mistakes many times. But again the approach is good. Just go back. Rewatch the match. Take a look at any point where Harimoto is receiving the serve. Don't even worry about the tactics. Just watch what he does. And he's a very good player to learn from in that regard. But with that out of the way. That is going to do it for this pro analysis. Thank you all so much for watching. If you enjoyed the video. Please give it a big thumbs up. Leave a comment. It helps the channel a lot. If you're interested in free coaching. Then make sure to check out my discord server. That is linked down below. But again thank you all so much for watching. And until next time.