(by Larry Hodges, Photo Credit: Steve Claflin)
Jian Zhuang, 65, started playing table tennis in Shanghai, China. He played in school and through college, but said he never really trained seriously at that time. In 1988 he came to the US as a graduate exchange student in electrical engineering. He spent about 25 years as an electrical engineer, and then retired ten years ago – and now gets to focus on other interests. And that starts with table tennis, of course. And now he’s top seed in Over 55 here at the US Classic Nationals in Austin, TX!
How strong is he? In hardbat, he won Over 60 at the 2022 US Open (yeah . . . over me), and was second in the event at the 2022 and 2023 Nationals. At the 2023 US Nationals he was in five finals. Besides second Over 60 Hardbat Singles, he won Over 65 Men’s Doubles, and came in second in Over 60 Men’s Singles, Doubles, and Mixed Doubles. He has a USATT rating of 2182 – not bad for 65!
He’s a two-winged shakehands attacker, playing close to the table, with a very strong backhand. However, that’s not how he started. In China, he was an inverted penholder, looping with inverted. In the US, he stopped playing for many years but started up again 17 years ago. He tried to modernize his penhold game by developing a reverse penhold backhand, but never felt comfortable with it. Then he decided to switch to shakehands, and it paid off. Originally he learned to loop from both wings, but as he got older, he changed his style again. With sponge, he now uses medium-long pips on his backhand, regular short pips on the forehand. And since he already uses pips, this helps make him a dominant hardbat player. The irony is that he started out with a conventional inverted blocking penhold backhand, and ended up with a dominant shakehand pips-out hitting backhand!
He owns and runs the Folsom TTC in Folsom, CA, near Sacramento, and also sells equipment – both are affiliated with Butterfly. Outside table tennis, Jian’s a gardener – flowers, trees, and other plants, which he cultivates on over two acres. Which probably attracts even more butterflies!
