Hello from ITTF President

[adham]

Zitat von hanifah1

People made a decision, made a Mistake, try to explain and in the end they do not wanne hear anymore about it.

The "low/non-frictionpimple ban" is the biggest problem for the players in Germany now. Nobody will hear them. The German Präsident of the DTTB does nothing !
So our last chance is to trying get help from the Präsident of the ITTF !

Mr. Saraha, what can I do now to play with non-frictionpimple again.
Please give me an answer, what shall I do ?!?

Thank you very much .

A "MISTAKE" is your opinion because it has affected you personally. Do you mean that the majority of players in Germany use the low-friction long pimple rubber? If so, then it should be easy to convince the DTTB. But I don't think so. As another Forum member has said, the majority has won, and we must all accept. If this decision was really a mistake we will know after one or two years and then it could be changed.

You ask: What can I do? What can I do? Here is my answer:
- Invite me to your club and I can show you how to have a lot of fun playing with another type of rubber. I will personally play with you if you like.
- I am sure that you can find some rubber that can accommodate your style. You may need some time to adjust, but that is part of the fun.
- One thing I can assure you is that you will not die from using a new rubber.

You seem to love table tennis and I am sure you will keep on playing. You may have a bad season this year, and you can blame it on ITTF, but at the end you will find joy again in playing this sport.

Adham

[adham]

Zitat von TSC

As far as I understood, the ITTF President is solely responsible for organizing and coordinating ITTF member sessions, committees, etc. and has little power itself (at least less power than the ITTF members). It would probably be considered overbearing if he'd approach the DTTB with what you'd like him to do.

Besides that, it is quite possible that a majority of both players and association officials actually support the ban. You may have to accept that.

Have you tried contacting the athletes representatives or any of the other local representatives in your region?

This is correct and very good advice. It seems that all those affected by a particular rule are those that complain. I fully understand. But in fact, what is the majority? I only know what the majority of the national associations think, more than 90% voted in favour of the low friction level. This is now a rule, and I must respect it and help implement it. I'm sorry about that, but this is how the system works.

Adham

[No_Name_Surfer]

Zitat von adham

...
If you have any difficulty finding them, then just send me an e-mail (ittf@ittf.com) and I will guide you.

Adham

Hi Adham,

first of all many thanks that you join this site to share with us your positions . I think not every president would do this in a situation like we have currently in table tennis world. Also sorry for my terrible english, it's really bad but I'll try my best .

I don't want to tell you how you should do your work. I think it's not really easy to satisfy all player in the world. I think the Idea to reduce the friction of the pimple is justifiable. Also to ban the booster, glue, … is ok. It's nice to play with this but there is no need for this. We won't die!

But when you decide anything you should always think about the impact. What have you done currently:
- our clean sport is now in every newspaper like the tour de france. This is not the way where want to known by the people, or?
- every match you have to discuss with the players if his rubber is forbidden or not? Some players are still using the old forbidden pimples.
- there are also using many players the booster and other stuff

And this is the way that we should show our children, what is fair play??? Noo waay!!!

You have to check if the rules that you (and all the others) decides will have any impact. Not a impact to the professionals like Boll, Samsonov. Impact to me, wfox, neptun, fozzi, ….

We are the base and we will bring our children to this sport. I'm quite sure that you are doing your job very well, but to be honest, some wrong rules makes you know to a problem for the most players. I think when you review you decissions, you will see many improvments. Please think about it!

Hopefully you will understand my statement. It's not against you but agains you past decisions . And again:

Really great that you are coming to the base to discuss the current situation!

Thanks for this

[cyberdrom]

Hello Adham,
beautiful they also take time for us.
Times I wanted to know how it comes to the table tennis sport in Turkey looks! How far is worked there, there is a professional league?
What looked in the amateur field?
Bye

[Teddy Cool]

Dear Adham,

thanks a lot for your participation in this forum. I think it is invaluable to have the opportunity to communicate directly with you.
However, even though I currently live in Switzerland, I am still sufficiently German to complain about a couple of things...
You mentioned the 4Ps in one of your earlier posts. As far as I understand both the increase of popularity and participation in table tennis activities such as championships are important goals of the ITTF and the general rule changes concerning long pimples etc. are reflections of the attempt to foster the 4Ps. However, I have a feeling of unease with respect to the way the 4Ps are pursued.
As an example, the German table tennis association made severe changes to the orgnaization of the German team championship (numbers of players in a team as well as championship scheme) which, at first glance, is a success, if you measure popularity in terms of time on TV. Alas, at the same time, there is a tremendous decrease in active table tennis players in Germany over the past ten years (I came across this topic this night). I do not intend to judge whether the increase in boradcasting time is more valuable than the decrease in pariticipation rates and I fully understand that Germany is just one example of the numerous table tennis associations organized in the ITTF. But still, I am curious about the view of the ITTF concerning the weight of the 4Ps.
As I hate political correctness, I have to ask you the following: Would you as ITTF president consider the 4Ps to be in balance if there remain 1000 table tennis players worldwide but whose matches are broadcasted 24 hours, 7 days a week and watched by 1billion people?

Best,
Thomas

[Mighty]

Zitat von Oliman99

But every really democratic country I know has laws and rules to protect minorities!

I'm afraid, you have somehow confused different meanings of the word "minority".

[Tackiness]

Zitat von Oliman99

But every really democratic country I know has laws and rules to protect minorities!

That's an absurd comparison... When you change the laws of a sport, then everyone will have to play by those laws; that has nothing to do with persecuting minorities. Imagine that 20% of soccer players don't like the offside rule, should they be allowed to ignore it during a match because they need to be "protected"? Or if 10% of Germans would like to drive their cars on the left side of the road, should they have their wish?

By the way, could this discussion move on to other topics? Here's what ML wrote yesterday:
Wichtig: Lest Euch bitte erst die Themen durch, über die schon gesprochen wurde. z.B. über das Verbot von glatten Langnoppen wurde schon ausgiebig diskutiert und es bringt nichts, ein und dieselben Argumente immer wieder zu bringen.

[adham]

@No_Name_Surfer

Thank you for your nice comments. Your English is fine. I am embarrassed that I am using English in a German forum, but my university German is not good enough to write properly.
- It's Ok to have TT in the news papers, it shows people that we want a clean sport and that is OK. It is different from cycling where they are doping their bodies.
- The players using forbidden pimples are cheating, those using too thick rubber are also cheating and those using boosters and tuners are also cheating. If we say that breaking a rule on purpose is cheating, then they are all cheating.

But I understand the attitude of these players. Many of them do not think that they are cheating. They think the ITTF rule is stupid and unfair, so they justify to themselves NOT to follow a stupid and unfair rule.

But you are right, it has created an atmosphere of mistrust and has forced some players into cheating and others respect the rule but they are very angry. I am very sorry about that. But I sincerely believe that the decisions were good decisions and time will tell.

Now, this is an excellent opportunity to teach our children:
- Win at all cost? BAD
- Break the rules? BAD
- Be angry and frustrated playing sport? BAD

Teach your children to respect the "values" of sport, to try their best without drugs or altering their equipment, to improve their skills all the time, to tell the truth when they see an "edge" ball, to respect the other players, to be on time, to respect the rules even if they do not like them, to respect their opponent regardless of their level, etc., etc.

I understood your statement, and I respect your opinion. And I promise you that I will think about it more. I also hope that you understand that this is a "transition" period. Things will settle down, most illegal rubbers and boosters, etc., will disappear with time. Please be patient, continue to play TT and we can judge the outcome in a year or two from now.

Adham

[adham]

Zitat von cyberdrom

Hello Adham,
beautiful they also take time for us.
Times I wanted to know how it comes to the table tennis sport in Turkey looks! How far is worked there, there is a professional league?
What looked in the amateur field?
Bye

Yes, they have a very good league in Turkey. About 15 years ago Turkey had a very good team and excellent Turkish players, today most of them are in the federation as president, Vice president, etc. Unfortunately, now Turkey is relying more on Chinese immigrants. They have several very good young players that have come from China. I hope that Turkey will develop gain some very strong local players.

They have many clubs and a large amateur base. If you do to Turkey it is not difficult to find a club to play. It is also a very beautiful country.

Adham

[adham]

Zitat von Teddy Cool

As I hate political correctness, I have to ask you the following: Would you as ITTF president consider the 4Ps to be in balance if there remain 1000 table tennis players worldwide but whose matches are broadcasted 24 hours, 7 days a week and watched by 1billion people?

This is an excellent question, It is also the perennial debate about what is better, mass participation or elite sport? All countries and all associations have this debate. My personal view is that they are both part of the same continuum. You need a large base and you need a strong elite to properly develop a sport. Your examples remind me of something I always say abiout the definition of PARTICIPATION and POPULARITY in the P4 philosophy. I take Motor Sport as an example and I look at Formula 1. This is a perfect example of POPULARITY. Everyone (millions and millions) know the sport, see it on TV, know Michael Schumacher, and can name all the car companies involved. But how many Formula 1 car drivers do we have in the World? Maybe 50? Now on the other hand, in France and Italy they have a sport called "Boules" or "Botce", millions play this in France, you see it everywhere in the parks, but you never see it on TV and no one knows who is the champion. This is a perfect example of a large PARTICIPATION sport. Now, the best example is a sport that could combine both these 2 Ps. Football (Soccer) is a perfect example with massive participation levels and highly visible on TV and in all printed and electronic media. This is the standard we must benchmark against. Cycling is also a good example (without the doping problems) and swimming is also a good example. tennis of course does very well in both participation and popularity.

So, to answewr your very difficult question, I can say that because TT was suffering from very low visibility on TV and in the press, the ITTF made it a very high priority to start pushing TT on TV in China, in Asia on Eurosport and anywhere we can. While we urge the national associations to do as much as they can to increase participation.

What you should know is that in the ITTF we do not start any new programme unless at least 3 of the Ps are covered, while always ensuring that the Planning "P" is included. So sometimes we may have a project to increase Popularity, make a Profit and well Planned, while other times we may have a programme, like our development Plan, that covers Planning, Participation and Popularity, but will cost the ITTF a lot of money. This is still OK.

I hope I have answered your question and thank you for the new fresh subject.

Adham