Xu Xin: A Rare Penhold Grip Athlete
With an illustrious career that has earned him superb nicknames like “Xuperhuman”, cloudwalker, showman, etc., Xu Xin is dubbed one of the best Athletes to play ping pong using the highly revered Penhold grip technique.
Background
On January 8, 1990 Xu Xin was born in Xuzhou, Jiangsu china. He grew up in this same city participating in different games and sports right from the outset. His extraordinary sporting capabilities stood him out as one of the fastest runners and most athletic kids amongst his peers.
It didn’t take long for him to be noticed by the teacher of the street elementary school in schaohua. After a considerable amount of development here, he was taken up by the Jiangsu sports team.
One could say Xu Xin’s interest in ping pong or perhaps sport as a whole was borne out of his natural flair for it. He was very athletic and hence excelled quickly at sporting activities. Today, platforms like Pong Place are helping people excel at the game of ping pong.
Career
Xu Xin started playing table tennis at the early age of 5 in his hometown in Schaohua. At the tender age of 10, he made it to the Provincial sports school in Jiangsu where his professional career as a ping pong player took off as he encountered the veteran Tang Zhixian as his first professional coach.
In 2007, Xu Xin became a member of the B team of the National team where he was known for his superb work ethic. Six months later, he was promoted to the A team where he was coached personally by Qin Zhijian.
He has since gone ahead to become one of the best ping pong players of the modern day by claiming the number one spot of the best ping pong players in 2013, 2015 and 2019.
He won his first major championship, the East Asian game’s men’s singles in 2009 and it has been uphill since then.
Coaches
Tang Zhixian was Xu Xin’s first professional coach. At the early stages of Xu Xin’s career, Tang Zhixian helped equip Xu Xin with the high work ethic which has helped Xu Xin throughout his career.
Qin Zhijian is Xu Xin’s personal coach. They share similar characteristics as the coach was left-handed like Xu Xin himself. He also played with the penhold technique and this affected Xu Xin’s playing style.
Lin Guoliang is another figure that contributed immensely to Xu Xin’s playing style. Lin is one of the most successful Chinese tennis players and coaches of all time who also played with the penholder technique. He also influenced Xu Xin’s playing style.
As of today, Xu Xin is revered as one of the best Penhold grip athletes and it is very evident that his coaches early in life and during his professional career contributed to Xu Xin’s style. They all played with the Penhold grip technique.
Effect of losses on his career
Xu Xin has won a lot of titles and championships but he has also had his own fair share of career lows and losses. What’s most fascinating is how these losses have shaped the renowned player we know today.
In the year 2017, Xu Xin conceded major defeats in the German open and the ITTF world tour grand finals. He was knocked out in the Men’s double round of 16 of the German open. He responded positively to this by winning the double’s event of the Swedish open with his partner Fan Zhendong.
This “high” was short-lived as he later crashed out of the ITTF World tour grand finals in the quarter finals in the same year.
Xu Xin continued to demonstrate tenacity and a fighting spirit as he always bounced back from losses and what seemed to be an alternating “high” and “low” sequence in 2018. He reclaimed number one spot in 2019 due to this.
Career highlights
Xu Xin has attained this status because he has achieved major feats throughout his career.
The following are some of the major highlight’s amongst others in Xu Xin’s illustrious career:
- Winning the world cup 7 times; once as a singles and seven times in a team.
- Two times ITTF world tour Grand finals champion.
- Eleven times Asian champion
- Reaching the number one spot on the world rankings.
- Winning the world championships.
Conclusion
Xu Xin’s extraordinary career makes us wonder if we’ll find another athlete who plays using the penhold grip technique as good as he does.
His career started shaping up from his early ages and no doubt, the coaches he encountered have contributed immensely to his success. Another important factor contributing to his success is how he responds to defeats throughout his career; he just keeps bouncing back.
Indeed, Xu Xin is an extraordinary penhold grip athlete hard to come by.
