A video clip posted on a popular Internet site caught Chinese men's team head coach Liu Guoliang slapping young player Hao Shuai in the face.
  
The clip, posted by Ksjerry on YouTube, showed the coach hit Hao twice as the Tianjin player was immersed in cell phone conversation when other coaches and players were drinking and chatting by a round table in an unknown restaurant.
  
The 48-second clip caught an uproar among Chinese netizens, who posted messages accusing the 31-year-old coach of being rude and overbearing.
  
The clip started with Chinese coaches Liu and Xiao Zhan drinking with players Chen Qi and Ma Long, with Hao leaning back on the chair talking into cell phone. When Chen called Hao to return to drinking, Hao snapped back: "Shut up!"
  
An agitated Liu stood up and slapped Hao in the back of his head. Then he snatched Hao's phone and slapped him again in the face.
  
On the sidelines of the Asian table tennis championships on Tuesday, Liu denied he had hit Hao, adding the so-called incident happened in southern Chinese city Sanya last December.
  
"Hit is a strong word," said Liu. "I didn't hit anyone. I just stroked Hao Shuai to remind him to show due respect to his coaches and teammates.  The video showed the stroke was a bit heavy. But it doesn't look like what it was."
   
Liu Guoliang, himself a "grand slam" winner of Olympic, world championship and World Cup singles gold medals, became a national team coach in 2002.
  
Never away from controversy, Liu had been suspected of doping in 1999 but the International Table Tennis Federation cleared his name in 2000.
  
Another Chinese coach Kong Linghui, also a "grand slam" winner and now a women's team coach, has been as flamboyant as Liu.
  
In 2006, Kong was fined after a late-night drunk driving incident, in which the newly-appointed Chinese coach crashed a Porsche Boxster into a taxi cab in downtown Beijing.

(Xinhua News Agency September 19, 2007)