Coaching in table tennis involves way more than shouting “Move your feet!” from the sidelines. It’s the backbone behind every champion. Especially in China, where everything runs like a well-oiled war machine with strategy, resources, you name it. And yet… somehow, Wang Chuqin pulled off the impossible: made history as ranked #1 in the world in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles at the same time, while never having the full coaching support his peers enjoy.
How does that even happen?
To unravel this mystery, we need to take a closer look at how the Chinese National Table Tennis Team operates, why coaching is so crucial, and how Wang Chuqin slipped through the cracks.
(Quick note: Officially, the Chinese National Table Tennis Team is abbreviated as CTTT, but I prefer rolling with CNT, short for Chinese National Team, in my table tennis articles.)
1. The Role of a Table Tennis Coach
A table tennis coach isn’t just there to refine technique or fire up players with dramatic pep talks. Think of them more as project managers who oversee every aspect of an athlete’s growth, ensuring nothing is left to chance:
- Skill Development: Sharpening technique, movement, and consistency.
- Match Strategy: Analyzing opponents and crafting game plans.
- On-Court Coaching: Providing real-time tactical, emotional guidance, and technical feedback during matches and practices.
- Training Schedules: Structuring daily workouts and selecting sparring partners.
- Advanced Analytics: Using tech to analyze matches and optimize strategy.
- Communication & Coordination: Managing the support team (fitness trainers, sports psychologists, medical experts, etc.), player relationships, sponsors, and tournament logistics.
At the highest level, talent and effort are the baseline rather than an advantage. Every player trains to exhaustion, and every prospect has the skill to win. What separates winners from runners-up is access to resources and the way authority at the top channels those resources.
Look at match preparation. In table tennis, a player’s form constantly changes and is often unpredictable. Top players rely heavily on analyzing their opponents’ recent performances, sometimes studying several matches back, to find patterns and weak spots. In this collaborative effort between coach and player, talent may be the weapon, but coaching is the gunsmith. No coach? You’re showing up to a gunfight with a spoon.
In elite sports like tennis or Formula 1, top athletes have an army of experts behind them,1 including tech nerds, analysts, trainers, even mindset gurus, squeezing out every competitive advantage possible. Table tennis is no different. When everyone’s playing at a crazy high level, even the tiniest advantage can be the difference between gold and “better luck next time.”
And while this is true everywhere, the Chinese National Team takes it to another level.
2. Why CNT’s Coaching System is Different
Unlike most table tennis associations, the Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA) and its national team, the Chinese National Team (CNT), operate like a bureaucratic empire. They’re a key part of China’s state-sponsored sports machine, backed by the government and driven by national honor. It’s essentially an authority within an authority.
The system mirrors China’s broader government structure, where power and resources are centralized. Senior coaches, many of them former world champions, hold the decisive authority. They shape training methods, control the flow of resources, and ultimately decide which players are trusted for the biggest tournaments.
However, centralization here does not mean the provinces disappear. On paper, every player in the national team still belongs to a provincial squad. They gather in Beijing for year-round centralized training, yet at domestic tournaments like the National Games or the China National Championships they represent their province. Even international achievements such as the Olympics are partially credited back to their home team.
This overlap makes the provincial teams more than just feeder programs. They stay invested in their players and sometimes quietly provide support or resources that go beyond what the CNT allocates. The real dynamic is a constant negotiation: provincial coaches and administrators on one side, senior CNT coaches on the other. Authority to decide training focus, sparring partners, and competition slots remains concentrated at the national level, but provincial teams still tug at the edges, trying to shape outcomes for their own athletes.
With this tug-of-war in mind, the next question is how authority is structured once a player is inside the CNT itself.
2.1 CNT Coaching Hierarchy: Who Holds the Power?
Here’s how the power ladder looks within the CNT:
- Head Coach: Oversees the entire program and makes key resource decisions.
- Head Coach of the Men’s/Women’s Teams: Lead their respective squads, executing training plans, and typically serve as on-court coaches during singles/doubles matches.
- Head Coach of the Mixed Doubles Unit: Manages a squad of mixed doubles players but lacks exclusive players. Provides coaching during all mixed doubles matches.
- Supervising Coaches: These are like squad leaders. Each gets a small group of players, handling the daily grind, strategic prep, and logistics. Players in their group can request them as on-court coaches.
Among these, the mixed doubles unit is particularly interesting. It was introduced in January 2023, following China’s loss of the first-ever mixed doubles gold at the Tokyo Olympics. This was an especially bitter pill to swallow, as the loss was to Japan,2 a country with a tumultuous history with China.
CNT scrambled to patch the leak. Wang Chuqin got tossed into that unit, and ever since, he’s been stuck there, never fully plugged into the core structure of the men’s team.
As of today, there have been changes, including some players confirming they have left the team. However, no official updates have been provided.
2.2 CNT Player Hierarchy: The Echelon System
Just like the coaches, CNT players follow a strict pecking order. Promotions don’t happen just because you’re popping off, and everything is controlled, planned, and gatekept. In the men’s team:
- Top 3 = core players: Guaranteed spots at major events like the Olympics.
- 4th and 5th players = main players: Basically the bench mob. Trained to step in when needed, but not the priority.
- If a core player retires or gets injured, one of the mains gets bumped up. Meanwhile, younger prospects are groomed to fill the gaps.
This structured pipeline, known as Echelon-based Team Development (梯队建设), ensures a smooth generational transition.
There’s also a tradition baked into the system called The Old Leading the New (以老带新). It’s like mentor mode: one or two veteran Olympians team up with younger players every Olympic cycle to pass down their experience and grind mindset. Deeply rooted in Chinese culture, this strategy has been a cornerstone of CNT’s long-term dominance.
2.3 Supervising Coach and Player: Who Gets Their Personal Team?
As mentioned earlier, unlike sports where athletes build their own personal teams, CNT players aren’t allowed to have private coaches or independent teams. Instead, each core player is assigned a supervising coach who becomes their go-to for training, matches, and all other matters. It’s a one-on-one system.
- Every core player is paired with a supervising coach specializing in their development.
- Each supervising coach leads a small training group, typically comprising one core player (the No. 1 in the group) and two to four second-tier players, who also serve as sparring partners.
- Group setups depend on CNT’s internal competition, training style, and player-coach compatibility.
- Resources go first to the top dog in the group, but the rest still benefit from the structure. Everyone trains, everyone levels up.
In practice, it puts CNT’s echelon-based strategy into action, turning the theory of resource concentration into a daily training reality. Core players receive max support, and the next generation gets groomed in the process.
Every core player in CNT is supposed to have their own supervising coach.
Except Wang Chuqin.
3. National Interest and Resource Allocation
In China, table tennis isn’t just a sport. It’s a matter of national pride. For some Chinese, “the medal tables are real-time trackers of national prowess and, by extension, of national dignity”4 in major international events like the Olympics. With that in mind, the system is not designed to nurture individual players or to “create a national sporting culture that organically produces elite athletes,”5 but to uphold China’s collective dominance. Period.
In theory, the best players should get the most resources, right? But in reality, resources aren’t handed out purely based on who’s crushing it. They’re doled out by top coaches and administrators, who determine which players to prioritize based on internal logic rather than purely on merit.
The coaching time, training focus, sparring partners, and competition slots are scarce and decisive. They function like currency. Once a player is tagged with a certain role, like “doubles player,” or “long-pips player,” their calendar bends toward team duties, often as sparring partner for a core player preparing for a specific opponent. The hierarchy reinforces that role until it becomes permanent.
What that actually means:
- Yes, the CNT wants gold medals, but not every top talent gets a fair shot.
- Instead of rewarding pure performance, the system selectively invests in “safe bets,” those that already align with the CNT’s strategy and long-term vision.
- Systemic favoritism exists not just due to individual bias but also because the structure itself allows for selective prioritization (eg, choosing between lefties or righties based on what the team needs).
Bottom line: Team honor equals national honor. But inside the CNT machine, not every talent gets plugged in the same way.
4. Systemic Favoritism and the Left-Handed Chance 🪫
In table tennis (and in sports like baseball and cricket), left-handed players have a natural edge when time pressures are particularly severe6 and the opponents stand at the shortest distance. Lefties mess with angles, create weird spin, and throw opponents off because people just don’t train against them as often. It hits even harder in doubles. A lefty-righty pair allows for seamless court coverage and squeezes out every bit of advantage.
However, the sport itself is built around right-handed players, from coaching methods and spin mechanics to footwork drills and even equipment design. This means that the natural advantages left-handers have don’t always translate into opportunities, especially within the CNT.
Historically, nearly all world singles champions from CNT have been right-handed, except Xu Xin, who won once in 2013. This has shaped training methods, coaching experiences, talent selection, etc. Given that most coaches and decision-makers are also right-handed, this reinforces a cycle in which right-handed players receive early access to better training, more trust, and greater opportunities, thereby further perpetuating this bias.
So, where do CNT lefties fit in? Instead of the system adapting to them, they’re forced to adapt to the system. Instead of being developed as complete players, they’re molded into ideal doubles partners for right-handers, emphasizing teamwork drills, doubles tactics, and complementary footwork. It’s efficient, low-cost, benefits the team and the collective system, and minimizes risk, but at the expense of individual growth.
Even Xu Xin, one of the most creative left-handed players of his generation, was rarely given the chance to shine fully in singles. Only one of his 19 world championship titles, the 2013 World Cup, was in singles. Throughout his career with the CNT, he was consistently steered toward doubles. This clearly illustrates how the system utilizes left-handed players as strategic tools, rather than as solo stars.
Given this systemic favoritism, Wang Chuqin’s challenges as a lefty become more apparent and even more extraordinary. And yet somehow, he broke through it.
(More about the fate of Chinese left-handers: Wang Chuqin vs. Systemic Bias Against Left-Handers in Chinese Table Tennis)
5. The Anomaly: Wang Chuqin’s Impossible Rise
By 2023, Wang Chuqin was already balling out. He’d proven himself over and over, showing insane skill and flexibility that went completely against how the CNT’s system is supposed to work. He rose to the top tier, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Fan Zhendong and Ma Long. By early 2024, he made history as the first-ever triple No. 1 player (singles, doubles, mixed doubles) at the same time.7
But what makes this insane?
Wang did it without the support system his rivals had.
- No dedicated supervising coach or personal team.
- No specialized training tailored for left-handed players.
- No priority access to resources enjoyed by other core players.
Let that sink in for a second… The best player in the world – who by CNT’s own logic deserved top-tier support – was left largely to fend for himself. Wang Chuqin had to handle match analyses, strategy tweaks, and preparations mostly on his own. Occasionally, the men’s team head coaches, Qin Zhijian before 2023 and Wang Hao after, would step in, but only when it was convenient. It wasn’t steady support. That extra workload inevitably drained him and stunted his growth, but at least having them around helped a bit, Wang Chuqin picked up what he could.
How did this happen?
That’s exactly what I wondered. I let my documentary-producer brain take over and started digging. (I don’t plan to discuss Wang’s rise today, maybe later? For now, just focusing on how CNT has treated him throughout his journey.)
What I found was a tangled web of bureaucracy, politics, and sheer neglect.
And that’s where things get really interesting…
Continue to Part 2: Wang Chuqin’s Career Path with Coaches
Read More
Wang Chuqin vs. Systemic Bias Against Left-Handers in Chinese Table Tennis
2025 WTTC Doha: Calm After the Climb 👑
Reference
- Entourage: The team behind the champion – US Open Tennis ↩︎
- Chinese Athlete Tearfully Apologizes for Winning Silver in Table Tennis – VICE ↩︎
- 国家队教练分组揭晓 @乒乓世界TTW – 微博 ↩︎
- Tokyo Olympics: Chinese nationalists turn on their athletes – BBC ↩︎
- Is China Gaming the System or Playing the Game? | Council on Foreign Relations ↩︎
- Left-handedness and time pressure in elite interactive ball games | Biology Letters ↩︎
- Wang Chuqin Ranking History ↩︎
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