Back in 1987 the Chinese National table tennis team came to UCD in Dublin to play a friendly against an Irish team of Tommy Caffrey, Colum Slevin and Gary Neilson. Needless to say the Chinese team won 3-0. However they also put on an exhibition which I can still remember. One of the standout moments was watching the world class defender Chen Xin Hua doing cartwheels to retrieve balls from the barriers. Never before had an Irish audience got the chance to watch such experts showing there skills to the highest level.
Afterwards I got to meet Chen Xin Hua and was surprised at how good his grasp of the English language was. He was best known for his amazing deception on serve. So I asked him for his autograph and quickly asked how he serves like that. He replied ''Good Coach'' and ''Lots of practice''. Here's a video of Chen doing his cartwheels below.
Afterwards I got to meet Chen Xin Hua and was surprised at how good his grasp of the English language was. He was best known for his amazing deception on serve. So I asked him for his autograph and quickly asked how he serves like that. He replied ''Good Coach'' and ''Lots of practice''. Here's a video of Chen doing his cartwheels below.