Hello from ITTF President

[TSC]

I've created this F.A.Q. to prevent members from asking questions to Mr. Sharara that were already asked previously. Please have a look onto it before you post. The answers are summaries of posts which are linked to (usually in the "answer-a"). This F.A.Q. is just a rough guide and will probably be updated continiously. Let me know if you think that something is missing or wrong. Please note that I copied/pasted these text passages from Mr. Sharara's original (sometimes several) posts and that some parts could be misunderstood.



Frequently asked questions/topics



Q 1: Can you bring proof that the changes (40mm ball, 11 points rule) really were good?

A: The main objective was to make Table Tennis more TV friendly. Did we achieve that?
- In 1992 in Barcelona Olympics Table tennis ranked by IOC 24th out of 26 sports as far as TV viewers worldwide are concerned
- In 2004 in Athens, the IOC ranked TT 5th out of 28 sports
- For 2008, we have only partial results and statistics but already based on this partial results TT is ranked 4th out of 28 sports (we hope to end up even higher).

Any measure of success remains a question of statistics and opinions. My statistics show that ITTF influenced in improving our sport, and my opinion is unfortunately biased.

The delegates at the ITTf are not stupid, if after a year or two they realize that this rule should be changed back they will do it. But we must give enough time to see the effects. We had mush stronger opposition to the 40mm ball and the 11 points games, but today there is general agreement that these were good changes.

Q 2: The rules were/are badly executed and their was internal confusion in the ITTF.

A: Unfortunately the ITTF reacted too late in my opinion (after manufacturers were already producing ready made rubbers that had the post-treatment effect). I agree with you that the new rules were noy implemented in the best possible way. But we are doing our best now to correct that. We were not all on the same wavelength (on this issue [minimum friction level ]). I apologize for that. We will try to get our act together better.

Q 3: TT is now totally overregulated and the ITTF doesn't care for the amateurs.

A: The ITTF makes rules only for the International level and for the events at the international level. None of the ITTF rules are intended beyond the international level. Then each national associations decides the rules in their own country. Some national associations adopt the ITTF rules 100%, some adopt certain rules and not others, and a few just have their own rules.

Here in England the ITTF rule is only applied at the national level. At lower levels the Associations allows the use of any equipment. This is the choice that England made, and probably a good choice. My personal philosophy is to let everyone play as they like and as they enjoy and to have minimum restrictions and minimum rules.

Q 4: What's the point of thinking about huge popularity? TT will never be as popular as soccer or so.

A: If I did not believe that, then it's better for me to stay home and sleep.

Q 5: The rules may work on international level, where umpires and testing devices are present but not on amateur level:

A: It's up to each national association (and its affiliates) to decide how and if they wish to implement ITTF rules. It is subsequently also their responsibility to take care of the proper implementation of the rules.

A (member Thorsten von Bayern reports about the implementation of the rules): On all regional levels, our joint result up to now is:
- The vast majority of all ENEZ results is "green".
- Almost all players appreciate the procedure as a contribution to fairness.
- No time delays or other interruptions of play are recognized.
- On the other hand, players are definitely hoping for even stronger procedures covering tuners and boosters. It is the players' firm belief that, whereas most players have refrained from speed gluing, many of them just replaced it by tuning.
- My feeling as an umpire and racket controller is that no issue, not even the ever-discussed enforcement of the service laws, has ever drawn more attention than the "new" banning rules.

Backed by this experience, the concept is about to be extended down to county level, including tournaments. ...
The booster/tuner matter of course is still unresolved...

Q 6: I heard that new rules (such as a higher net and a 42mm ball are discussed)?

A: The chairman of the ITTF Athletes Commission, Zoran Primorac, favours a higher net. Also the Swiss TTA may make such a proposal. No plan at the moment for a 42mm ball.

Q 7: This rule is terrible for lower league members. I'm an amateur, I just want to play for fun (and I'm too old to change my style).

A: the friction rule has caused a lot of problems to players at the lower levels in clubs and leagues, while it had no effect on the top players. I am very sorry about that. But I firmly believe that players should rely on their own skills and hone those skills to be better players and use equipment only as a question of comfort and as a matter of fitting their style of play, rather than using equipment (and altering) to gain advantage. This is my personal belief. I also believe that defensive players should be able to make a comeback now that we no longer have VOC glues and if we control the use of boosters better in the future. The door has opened for defensive players to come up with their skills, with some help from equipment, but not to rely entirely on equipment.

Older players can learn new things. If you already have the basics, then you can learn the variations. If you are playing only for fun and you don't have time for practice, then of course it is difficult to improve. In this case play even more for fun, try new things, win or lose it does not matter because you play for fun.

See also Q 5

Q 8: The rules are useless because you can't control them, players keep cheating.

A: It is impossible to detect everything and always someone will cheat. Just like the IOC cannot detect every drug taken by athletes and always someone will cheat. So? Does that mean we abandon in what we believe and allow everything so that we have no problems? This would be like the IOC saying "we always have cheaters so we will no longer test for drugs". No, this is not the answer. The answer is that we need better detecting equipment and we need to educate young players to be honest and follow the rules. ... There will always be those that will find their own substances and tinker with their equipment to gain advantage.

Q 9: Speed-glue is (was) well-established and was in use for many many years. Why did it take so long to create a rule to ban it?

A: A strong and large group within the ITTF opposing such a ban and always working against any movement towards banning VOC glues in fear of ruining the sport.
It took quite some time to develope affordable and reliable testing equipment that would detect ALL VOCs.

Q 10: Those players that used speed-glue will simply use tuners. Why weren't they banned?

A: Boosters and Tuners were NEVER legal. Adding anything after it is authorized has always been illegal. The challenge is the detection of boosters and other additives that according to current ITTF rules are illegal. As of January 2009 special instruments will be introduced to detect such additives, and the ITTF is working closely with manufacturers to stop the production of such substances.

Q 11: The whole implementation of the rules is undemocratic. The voices of the everyday players are not being heard. These players don't want these rules.

A:What do you call when a group of national associations decide to form a world body because they have common international needs. So they form a federation of national associations, create a constitution, set-up a structure, have elections to elect their representatives, and follow the rules of their constitution? This is how all international federations are constituted and function. You cannot compare an International Federation (IF) to a government. An international federation is just that, and it does have its own democratic process. Any rule, change to the constitution, regulation, etc., is decided by a vote.

It [the rules] is made by the appropriate meeting within the ITTF and was passed with a big majority. It would seem that the national associations members of the ITTF favoured the establishment of a minimum standard. This is the role of an international federation to set the rules and to establish standards. Some would prefer anarchy and anything goes, Ok, I respect their views. Others prefer extreme regulations and strict set criteria, also OK, I respect theior views. ... But I find the ITTF to be somewhere in the middle. ... Do you blame the ITTF for trying to set some standards and for not allowing post-treatment? ... We need to standardize equipment within an acceptable range and avoid chaos.

[adham]

hello everyone,

I have been invited to join this Forum. It's my pleasure. I am enjoying reading all your opinions and discussions, it is indeed very refreshing to read your comments.

I will visit periodically and would be happy to answer any questions to the best of my knowledge.

Adham Sharara

[TSC]

Hello Adham, great to see you here!

You're certainly a worthy contributor in this forum. You may want to ask the administrator wether he can include you to the usergroup for the "time-out" subforum, which is meant to be for acknowleged experts and for discussions on a high, civilised level.

I hope that you'll enjoy your stay!


cheers

[Tony_Iommi]

Dear All,

In the meantime I had the pleasure to "talk" to Adham Sharara and I can confirm, that it was him indeed, who had signed up earlier today. He is happy to be aboard with us. I also promised him to act a little bit as a facilitator here - in other words, he might not be able to check in with us on a daily basis, and therefore, if an important questions sits here unanswered, I will forward it to him directly.

Dieter

[adham]

@TSC

I did mention to the administrator your suggestion. I leave it up to him. But frankly, I don't mind roughing it in this Forum. It does seem much more civilized already. I have been heavily bashed in other Forums, even though I tried my best to explain rationally some decisions of the ITTF. I know that some decisions may seem wrong when one does not have all the information. But it seems that when some people do not agree they refuse to understand. I always thought that one can understand and then choose to agree or not to agree, but if not agreeing means that one also must become rude and aggressive, well... , I guess I have to accept.

In any case, I am here for the purpose of clarifying issues, explaining decisions, sharing a future vision and most of all to hear about what players think and want from our sport. Ultimately though, any decision is made through a specific process and in a democratic way according to the rules of the ITTF. With modern technology this is an excellent way to feel the pulse of the players and to have a good idea of their thinking whether they agree or not with the direction the ITTF has taken.

I hope my presence here will be useful. I am sorry that my written german is too poor to allow me to take part in German, and my wife is too busy to help me (her German is much better than mine, she played one season in Saarbrucken in the early 1980s).

OK, I hope to visit occasionally and be part of this cyber community.

Auf wieder sehen

Adham

[Tackiness]

Here's a first question for you that surely many are interested in:
Will there soon be an improved ENEZ device that can detect boosters? Surely you cannot be happy about the current situation where many pros seem to "cheat", and no one can do anything about it - at least that's what happened at the recent European championship.

[Ghosttalker]

I already wrote an e-mail some times ago to your address, but I didn´t receive an Anwer until now - I know you have to do other business too.

I would like to copy my text I wrote and also posted into a Discussion Board for long pimples.

Many people and not only pimples-players join me in what I have written:

Dear Mr. Sharara,

I think you received many E-Mails like this one before and you don´t have the time to answer each of them.

As I can remember, the main reason of baning frictionless long pimples was the reason, that many people tryed to get their pimples even more frictionless with illegal techniques "to be a loose cannon".
In higher classes on national or international side, only a few players managed to play with the "normal" frictionless pimpels, e.g. Solja or Ackerström.

So the dangerousness of long frictonless pimples isn´t given in higher classes.


Since the ban, more people then ever try to cheat with their pimples and use the same dubios methods some people used before to hold their positions. Nowadays you can even bid on aftertreated rubbers on ******** - and the people really earn much money!!!

I played frictionless long pimples before the ban in a period of 3 years. So I "lost" 3 years of training with other rubbers! I also spend the amount of more then 200 € to find my new rubber - but then the next shock - TT Master Insider is banned for some unregular behaviours found. Why didn´t the material comitee find those things in their first analysis of this rubber???
And why does the comitte investigate this rubber after a hint of one player? (Is he/she a memebr of the board who still looses against players with these coverings?;-))
Should I spend another 200 € to find again a new covering?
What if this covering is again forbitten after half a year?

In my opinion, the hole ITTF is making a fool of itself for the moment!
Temporary allow the rubber and then again ban it?

As there is no real method to identify aftertreated frictionless long pimples (I can make one and even a refree can´t see the difference! - No I don´t use them for offical plays!), why can´t you change the rule and allow frictionless long pimples again?
This would be the best for all players, as there will be no longer any cheating! You can buy frictionless long pimples - so why aftertreat some "normal"?

I hope TT Master will plead in law court and they will win!!!
Maybe then it´s time to allow all kind of pimples again, but they should have some regulations, e.g. that the whole covering must be frictionless and also the aspect ratio must be given!



The same with ban of fresh glueing or boostering. It is OK in my opinion to ban harmful glues or boosters and it´s OK to control this. But "your" Enez can´t find anything, if someone uses vegetable oils or something else (there are hundreds of things you can buy in a hardware store to boost your rubbers!).
But people also use more harmful things than the old glues!!!

As Timo Boll and Jörg Rosskopf sayed in an interview, there are still many players using somekind of "Boostering" to make their rubbers better.

In my opinion, the rule is a little bit spongy - as we say in Germany. Shouldn´t it be better to control some boosters or glues, if they are harmful or not and then allow them with an official "Tested by ITTF"-sign?

In many german internet forums, people are more and more unhappy with the regulations of the ITTF!
Why all those changes?
TT is not more popular then before your changes, even less visitors come into the halls or watch it at TV - remember St. Petersburg?

Money, money, money isn´t ever funny!!!

Think about games most people like to watch, e.g. games between a good defender and an attacker! I love to see people like J.S.Huk or Chen Weixing.


Maybe you should only allow a trivial racket for all players, like in good old barna times. Then the best player will win and not the one with the best cheating method!!!

Please leave this mail also to the members of the technical board.

Regards,

a very frustrated Table-Tennis player from Germany!

XXXX

P.S. Excuse may bad english...

[Tony_Iommi]

Dear All,

Let me take the opportunity to clarify and remind you on our rules here at tt-news.de.

Unfortunately, only a few hours after Adham Sharara has registered and posted his first statement, he was viciously and nastily attacked in this forum.

I will make it very clear, once and for all and in plain language: We are not willing to put up with any bullshit. Personal insults, discrimination, inappropriate language, etc. will constitute reason and justification, to immediately take action and proceed as outlined in detail in our rules and regulations. In other words, we will not engage into any discussions if a member of this forum behaves inappropriately, but rather suspend him/her temporarily or kick him/her out permanently right away. Therefore, please watch your language carefully and use common sense. Especially if your emotions might take over, you may want to revise your posting before actually placing it online. Again, no excuses and no exceptions.

By saying that, that doesn’t mean that we advise you to hold back with challenging and tough questions or engage into controversial arguments. Apparently, Adham is quite used to some tough talk as he already mentioned in his posting. So there is certainly no need to be OVERLY cautious in your wording nor to pamper him (or anybody else). However, please keep in mind what I just explained with regard as to how, not only him, but everybody else here, deserves to be treated like.

Lastly, Adham asked me to take on the role as a facilitator – as he explained, he might not be able to check in with us on a regular basis all the time. I will therefore, if a questions/comment remains unanswered by him, reach out to him directly and pass on your posting. In order to make everybody’s life easier, I may advise you to keep your questions/comments as concise as possible.

If you’re not sure about the rules and regulations here on tt-news.de, feel free to contact a moderator at any time. Also, if you need help in translating your questions or Adham’s feedback, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. We will hopefully over the course of the next weeks bring a few more folks aboard that are willing to help me with that. Please note that I live in a different time zone (and so does Adham) and therefore there might be delays every now and then until I’ll get a chance to get back to you.

Alright, now have fun and take the opportunity to address your question, comments, concerns etc. with Adham directly.

Thanks.

[Mark Neef]

Dear Mr. Sharara,
welcome here in "TT News"
A few months ago the ITTF introduced the new friction-rule for pimples.
I respect this decision but I think it was wrong and brings more damage to our beloved sport than it is useful. We want to play table tennis and after the matches we want to drink a beer (or two) and we don't want to discuss about things like friction of pimples or other difficult rules which can't be measured objectively and exactly in a gym. Such complicated and not comprehensible rules are poison for our sport!
Please take them back as soon as possible.

A few months ago you have written in a letter that you want to support the defensive style fundamentally. Up to now I couldn't note anything of that. On the contrary, recently you banned the racket coverings of "TT-Master"
because of production fluctuations. A lot of players use these as a substitute for slippery long pimples. Does your promised help look like this?
Best regards,
Mark Neef

[adham]

Zitat von Tackiness

Here's a first question for you that surely many are interested in:
Will there soon be an improved ENEZ device that can detect boosters? Surely you cannot be happy about the current situation where many pros seem to "cheat", and no one can do anything about it - at least that's what happened at the recent European championship.

In fact, the ITTF has announce already that starting 1 January 2009 we will use a device that can detect Boosters. Enez will continue to be used to detect VOCs as we are using now. The new device is already available but rather expensive and it has been used at all ITTF tournaments already. In fact we know exactly who uses boosters and who does not. But this device based on RAE technology is not yet approved by ITTF for this purpose. The ITTF Executive Committee decided to order a more practical device that can be applied directly to the rubber and would give an indication if Boosetrs were used or not. We have approved the use as of I January 2009 and we are now working on the penalties to be imposed for those who fail a racket test. In addition, we now check very closely the thickness of the rubber.

Adham