Ideal height of a table tennis player

5'8" to 5'10" seems to be a great height for table tennis players. The best way to hit the ball is at the peak of its trajectory. If you’re 5'8" to 5'10", after the ball bounces, that peak is usually somewhere between your knee and waistline, which is ideal because that’s where you can generate the most power and spin by using your legs for grounding.

What is the average hight of young men where you have the most table tennis players? You would get the same figures. If there was 2 billion people in the Netherlands and table tennis was National Sport there then the average hight of the best table tennis players would be much taller.

Waldner - 5 feet 10 in - this happens to be the average hights of male Swedes in Waldners generation.

Jörgen Persson was / is taller. Anton Kjällberg is taller. Patrick Franziska, Samsonov and so on. This since they didn't have Asian parents.

If shorter was better then the best table tennis players in the world would be shorter than the average Chinese.

All empirical evidence shows that you can be nr1 in table tennis no matter if you are short or long. Short = better reaction times since distance between brain and hand is shorter. Tall = better reach.

So the tall player needs to play a few centimeters further away from the table to compensate for slower reactions. Short players needs to play close to the table to make best use of their reaction (and provide youtube candy like Koki Niwas chop blocks).