Hello from ITTF President

[noppen-lord]

Well Adham hope your christmas time was nice and you and your family are o.K..
I want to give a short message to show what happens in the real table tennis world since banned the frictionless long pimples and gluing.
Yesterday I played a tournament in my country and what I see there makes me really angry.
I played against a men and after my first topspin I looked like a hot dog.
All spin comes back from his pimples.
I went to see the rubber and it was a grass ultra.
I took the ball and pressed over the rubber.
NO friction.It was like super block last year.......
I ask how this could be right and the player only says its normal.
I am sure its not normal so I informed the referee.
He looked to his materiallist 29b and says yes its legal everything O.K.

So (sorry ) what a bullshit.....
I played against and I win because I know how to play but I dont understand.
You forbid the frictionless long pimples but you have no chance to controll....

In the half final I played against a guy I know him a long time.
He has no pimples.
We play first 2 minutes and I am wondering about his extrem spin and speed.
Bevore we start the referee looked to our rackets and yes they are o.K. all rubbers are listed on the ITTf materiallist 29b.
Then the rackets are tested by ENEZ.All nice so we start.
I lose! the spin and the speed was to extrem .
I thinkt it was more than bevore the ban of gluing.
After the final we drink a beer together(yes he win) and he told me what he did .
its a tuner you can buy legal in the Internet......
What (sorry) a bullshit you forbid gluing but you have no chance to controll...

Now Adham I can tell you what I will do now:
I will buy some long pimples which are tuned frictionless but listed and will play them .
Then I will buy a boster and will play with,too.

only the best for 2009!! my motto for 2009:tuned but listed

[adham]

Very important: the description of the table tennis racket is given in the Chapter 2.04 of "The Laws of Table Tennis". There is no word there about any friction level of rubbers. That clearly means, that any friction level is legal. That's why all the "frictionless pimples" were authorised by ITTF and had ITTF Logo.

Let me reverse your argument, which would actually make more sense. If NO friction level is mentioned in the Laws of TT in rule 2.4 "Racket", then NO friction level is allowed. In this case, the TL clarifies what is the friction level allowed. TLs are the responsibility of the BoD. So using your own argument, all is legal. Now you can sleep worry free.

Adham

[adham]

Zitat von noppen-lord

I will buy some long pimples which are tuned frictionless but listed and will play them .
Then I will buy a boster and will play with,too.

only the best for 2009!! my motto for 2009:tuned but listed

Very good, I am happy for you. The cheaters corrupted you so now you cheat too. Congratulatiuons! And if you are in a store and no police around you can also steal, and you can eat in the supermarket before you pay for the item because no one is controlling, and you can leave the restaurant without paying, and you can take a jacket from the store and walk out without paying, and you can cheat on your expense account at your work, and you can cheat on your income tax, and you can pretend you are sick and not go to work. You have now joined the morally weak. Don't be sad, you are now part of the majority, those that take performance enhancing drugs because they are not detectable, those that injure their opponent because the referee is not looking, those that swear that the ball did not touch the edge even if they saw it, those that park in Disabled spots because no one is looking. You are now in good company.

Adham

[TSC]

Well said, Adham.

@ Noppen-lord: Maybe you should quit drinking beer with him, then.

Right, I've created a F.A.Q. which you can see at the beginning of this thread and as a dedicated, stickied thread in the "General Discussion"- discussion forum.

Before you post:
1.: Please read it first.
2.: Use the search function (seriously, it works!)
3.: Even better: Go through this thread to see wether your issue has already been discussed.

I'm rather sick (I admire Mr.Sharara's patience) of seeing the same enquiries and arguments over and over again. Be prepared for moderation if you're going to post this stuff (especially glue/pimples, etc.).

[Caoscrischen]

Zitat von adham

Very good, I am happy for you. The cheaters corrupted you so now you cheat too. Congratulatiuons! And if you are in a store and no police around you can also steal, and you can eat in the supermarket before you pay for the item because no one is controlling, and you can leave the restaurant without paying, and you can take a jacket from the store and walk out without paying, and you can cheat on your expense account at your work, and you can cheat on your income tax, and you can pretend you are sick and not go to work. You have now joined the morally weak. Don't be sad, you are now part of the majority, those that take performance enhancing drugs because they are not detectable, those that injure their opponent because the referee is not looking, those that swear that the ball did not touch the edge even if they saw it, those that park in Disabled spots because no one is looking. You are now in good company.

Adham

This is the way a big part of the tabletennis players are thinking. The other part of the players think the way "noppen-lord" does, and i was part of them. But why? Because everyone was Happy with the step of forbidding the Speed Glueing, cause it is dangerous. Then two different kinds of products came out: The rubbers with Speed-Glue-Effect an the Tuners. In my opinion the Tuners were better. So i bought them and i played a half year with them. Everything was perfect, and then i heared, that they are forbidden now too. I was so angry that i thought "F*** off, they can't control it, in the amateur-leages!". That was the time people got angry about the ITTF, because there was no reason for forbidding them. The ITTF said, it is because people can use things that are as dangerous as Speed Glue. Now they also can do it. It chaneged nothing. There were other ways like giving a limit of gas pressure (i hope it's they right word), so the companys can develope Tuners wich aren't dangerous.
I know this all has already been discussed, but i think it is the reason why a lot of players are so angry and don't agree with the rules. And then there are coming thoughts about making the nets higher or change the size of the balls to 42mm. For the most things there is the arguement, that tabletennis become more attractive for TV. But for me and for a lot of other players it's not the right way. At the moment there is a lot of change going on. In my local newspaper the biggest sporttheme behind Soccer is Tabletennis (The Team of our local Tabletennis-Club made it into the third german league). In TV every week there is a show that shows the Highlights of the Top-Match for 30 minutes, and it's geting more and more viewers (meanwhile the first german league can be seen in china ). A important thing would be to get more people to the table, especially in areas where tabletennis isn't very popular yet.

To sum everything up, the players want less rule-changes, and more inclusion of their opinions.
I think that is the reason why a lot of people are so furios with the ITTF.

Btw: Sorry for my bad english .

[nevada]

Zitat von TSC

I admire Mr.Sharara's patience of seeing the same enquiries and arguments over and over again.

Yes, full ACK ! I've never seen such an user who is spending time on answering nearly every question, that is posted in the forum. He has no part time job but he tries to give every information he is asked for.

So from my point of view it is not really a good idea to annoy and offend him. At the moment every user has the chance to get informations from ITTF Preident directly. I hope this will last for a long time.

regs nevada

[noppen-lord]

Congratulation Adham i am sure you never drive faster than the speed limit is,you never drive over a red sign,you never drink some beer at lunch and sit in your car,you never get a ticket for wrong parking,you never drive train or bus without a ticket.............. so you followed all the rules in this world and you never make misstakes.
I want follow the rules you and your comitee did.
Dont understand me wrong I want SOLUTIONS to controll your rules for all players.Thats fairness!
For me this is my last article to this thems (gluing/frictionless long pimples).
So long hope to see you in Lousanne in January (tt master) and we can have a beer together....

With best wishes for you and your family and really RESPECT for beeing here and answer all this questions

[nevada]

Zitat von noppen-lord

Dont understand me wrong I want SOLUTIONS to controll your rules for all players.Thats fairness!

You pointed directly at the problem and it's the same adham has already said. There is a problem to control these rules but that's not TT-specific. Most people who drive their car after ten beers are lucky because police has not enough employees to control every car.

Many shoplifters are never been caught, because there are not enough....

Many drug dealers are never been caught, because....

and so on and so on

I think your intensions are the same, so there is no need to struggle about it.

What you want to have is a 100% control to garantuee fairness for every player. I believe that is what anybody wants (except cheaters) but it will never become true

If somebody wants to betray you he will find a way

regs nevada

[Mighty]

Zitat von nevada

You pointed directly at the problem and it's the same adham has already said. There is a problem to control these rules but that's not TT-specific. Most people who drive their car after ten beers are lucky because police has not enough employees to control every car.

Many shoplifters are never been caught, because there are not enough....

Many drug dealers are never been caught, because....

and so on and so on ...

You are absolutely right regarding shoplifters, drug dealers and driving drunk. Unfortunately, it is not so simple in case of ITTF.

One problem is, that certain rules are seen as unfair by some players. They feel badly treated by ITTF.

Another problem. Even if players agree with the purpose of a certain rule, they may find, that the rule is a bad solution, because it is practically uncontrollable.

Third problem - credibility of ITTF. Adham said, as far as I understand, performance enhancing additives had never been allowed. On the other hand, using them had not been properly controlled for many years, as far as I know, also under his presidency.

Another problem with credibility. If someone reads the service rule in the Handbook of ITTF, its explanation in the Handbook for Match Officials and compares that to what he sees on TV at ITTF Tournaments, he may get an impression, that ITTF doesn't really mean it seriously with the rules.

Also legality of the way certain rules were adopted is questionable.

Unfortunately, all that doesn't make the player's life easy.

[buddywow]

According to Adham's recommendation I can announce that I successfully wrote messages to both German national TV stations expressing my critisicm about the poor presence of tt in TV.
I doubt that I'll get an answer, but if so, I will report here.

Furthermore I am astonished about the harsh way people are discussing here about topics like long pimples that I think are not so important. Somebody who is using other rubbers than the usual one with pimples inside will easily find an alternative despite the new rules about the friction levels.
I am glad that Adham hasn't left this threat because of the rude tone.

Regarding tt in the media I am astonished that despite having a German star like Timo Boll, who is voted the 2nd popular sportsman in Germany, the bad presence of tt still goes on. It appears to me that the people who work on that here in Germany are not doing a good job. Whose the responsible person for that? The general secretary? Is there a special media lobbiest at ITTF?

Why doesn't tt reach the status of a fancy sport? I am thinking of the fact that currently nearly every competition in boring biathlon and ski jumping is broadcasted although there are probably not more than a few dozens of people who are actively practising these sports. The reason for this is that a few years ago there were 2 famous young ski jumpers who were presented as teenage superstars. All in all it was a media hype and nothing else. Nobody was interested in ski jumping so much before their successfull years and after that.

A cool thing that I saw at last years' Austrian Open:
they had a VIP area right next to the main table serving champagne for the guests with Timo Boll playing regular matches just a few meters from them. Maybe that's the solution!

Any comments?

Till