[User 1878]

Dear Mr. Sharara,

I totally agree with many items brought up by a lot of posters here.
I wrote to You before the ban of low friction long pimple rubbers came into effect(I know You like to tell, there has been no ban but only a new rule) and You have published my mail and Your answer to it on the ITTF-Page.

As You see there are not only a few people that are angry or sad about the latest development in our sport caused by the actual regulations. As I hear all around in the gyms in my district, there are many people that don't understand the sense of what they consider an over-regulation of our sport.

Remember: Most of the players are amateurs, indead with maybe a lot of ambition, but first of all wanting to play tabletennis as a lifetime-sport in there leisure time. And: They in Germany are the spectators coming and paying for the Pro Tour and DTTL-Events.
Maybe You know that in Germany there are a lot of (especially elder) people who don't see tabletennis in the first place as an individual sport but primarily as a team competition in the very good organised league-system in German tabletennis. For our seniors it's one of the best possibilities to avoid loneliness and boredom at home and to enjoy the company with there comrads while being active and by that staying fit, mentally and physically.
On my opinion this is a big part of what tabletennis is all about when it's considered a „Gesundheitssport“ (accepted by German health-insurances with the DTTB being proud of this regulation).
But then it's really necessary to give these elder people an instrument to use there special abilities to compensate the pysical strength of the younger players.
One of the instruments in the last years were the low-friction long pimpled rubbers. Our older players could use there routine, clever ball placement, the ability to „read the game“ built up all over the years and so sometimes manage a victory against someone with a better constitution than they have meanwhile the material of the attackers was getting faster and faster (on amateur level not really stopped by the speed glueing ban).
Some of these seniors took SLPs when the reached the market in a high amount(Dr. Neubauer Hallmark Super Special, then Superblock etc.). They changed there playing technique to use these rubbers for there advantage. Now they played with it for several years.
The way back may work for a young guy, but I really find it cynical to tell people „ok, it may be hard, but take it as a challenge“.
I'm really sure, that a lot of people will quit, maybe not now, but when they don't succeed in 1-2 years, they'll stop playing. I don't know if this is what the german health insurances intend when they call tabletennis a „Gesundheitssport“. I think they must have seen player statistics.
Tabletennis as mentioned here already is the only ballsports where a seven year old girl and a 70 year old man maybe with a new hip of titanium can meet and have the same level. Both need the material that fits there unic ability. It's one of the facinations of TT that there are so much possibilities to adjust the racket to your special needs. And, very important: You don't get any advantage by material without getting any disadvantage as well!

The ban of the slippery long pimpled rubbers (SLP) caused the death of a system of playing tabletennis. Blocking with long pimpled rubbers is no longer effective now considering a middle or higher playing niveau. The material of the attackers is much to fast to block topspins constantly and dangerous enough by using for example a Feint Long II ox. The attacker will hit the ball a second and third time still harder and the longpips blocker can only react. Nothing for use in 4th league or higher in Germany.
Of course there is the possibility to play defence with long pimples behind the table. Obviously you need physical strength for this playing system.

Before the SLPs where no longer allowed (I still know that You like to explain it the other way round: New rules, unfortunately the SLPs didn't fit anymore) there was information given by the ITTF as well as by the DTTB, that it was only to stop the after treatment of long pimples. Obviously this can't be true. If it were, then there would be any instrument to use in gyms all over the world to verify long pimpled rubbers concerning there friction level. Up to now there is none although a Mr. Kuhn is quoted in german table tennis magazine (member of the ITTF's material committee) that there soon will be one.
Any child of 6 or older can tell a SLP from a long pimpled rubber with higher friction by using a ball and its own hand.
The rubber list must have been given only one further item (slippery/non-slippery) and anyone, referee or not, could check rubbers if they where changed and not legal.
It seems as if such a simple possibility isn't in the sense of the people that made the decisions. Why, Mr. President? Is there still something to come?

As soon as I first read about it, the „unpredictable effects“ of the SLPs made me shake my head. The opponents of this type of rubbers should have regarded attentively. If they did, they would have seen, that the results of the users of SLPs where not improving more and more. The opposite took place: The more users of SLPs, the better the other players learned to play against. The biggest successes already where history when the new rule came.
And by the way: Nobody at Your organisation really meens that any kind of rubber can overcome physical rules, or does anyone?!

I know about the rumours for example at the World Veterans Championship in Bremen in 2006 and I heard some discussions there by myself. But what about G.Langer (I think?) winning Women's Single 75 with Superblock? Any problem? As far as I remember many Japanese women used short pimples in classical penholderstyle. For me it's fine as well!
German Dieter Lippelt uses a combination of short pimples and Antitop .
I know that there are some former stars thinking that in Veterans Championships results should be the same as they were when players where younger. For example Kunz or Amelin should win against Neubauer. But it's a specific feature of TT that such things can happen. And look at the results of, to stay there, Herbert Neubauer in the last years – the former stars like Kunz, Surbek... found conclusions against his material and playing system.
More and more they came into the lead again.

For elite sport I think anything that can be done for defensive systems has to be done. The speedgluing ban doesn't only effect the attackers but for modern defenders it again is a bigger problem: They loose some of the attackers spin to work with but the speed of the ball nearly is the same and can't use their sticky backsiderubbers what they need for their slice and good serve and which had to be glued intensively for having a strong forehandattack by themselves.

My opinion for the (near) future:

1.delete the 25Nm – rule for pimpled out rubbers.
2.Instead of it create a new category with „slippery-non slippery“
3.Maybe it's a good way to complicate cheating if there are only such slippery long pimples allowed which are slippery on every part of the rubber, so there can be no coating only on the tops of the pimples. For classical long pimples nothing has to be changed, the thought of re-introducing the 1,3 aspect ratio again maybe a dream to nice to come true.
4.Create a very simple measurement with only two types of pimpled rubbers: non-slippery (Feint Long, Curl...) and slippery (Superblock). Anybody can detect, if the checked rubber is near one or the other. So a slippery Feint Long II can't work because in the list it is marked as „non-slippery“. Without any provement in the gym we now have the worst situation I've ever seen in the 35 years of playing TT.
5.Think about the boosters again: There are so many products which obviously allow to increase speed and spin of rubbers not intended for use in tabletennis (even babyoil) that for me it isn't to imagine that all can be detected. Maybe we get a situation like bikesports with the question: Who is first now? Enez or players. And this would be the worst for the image of tabletennis that possibly can happen.
6.And last but not least: No more changes for the next few years! No higher nets, larger balls, regulations about short pimples, backside rubbers or antitops. I'm really sure that at least in Germany there will be a remarkable amount of players that will no longer play under the supervision of the DTTB but really think about meetings in a different organisation with lower restrictions. In times of the internet it luckily isn't that difficult to organize something like that. National associations will loose a lot of influence and money.


Yours sincerely

T.Stakemeier