Hello from ITTF President

[adham]

Zitat von akosch

Sorry for this correction, but Timo's family name is Boll, not Ball.
You wrote the wrong name many times before...

I humbly apologize. Must be an Anglicism slip. I know what it means to have your name spelled wrong, it is very annoying. I have first hand experience with: Sahara (the desert) instead of Sharara (a spark).

[adham]

Zitat von Cheftrainer

Yes and Yes! I still play 2-3 times a week. Iam still a trainer (coach) and in my case I lead some international training camps in europe with players of almost all skill levels. In the past I trained some players that played in international championships. One of my former players has won some medals at european youth championships some years ago. But why should we talk about me?

Has my oppionion another value if I can prove a TT specific background???

I only wanted to state that some changes missed their goal. And I want to discuss about the recent changes of the ITTF. Maybe we could achieve that the ITTF discuss some topics with tha base in front of such major changes not afterwards like now...

I believe, that all the current problems with the tuners and boosters are selfmade. The AGM has made a decision without thinking of the consequences. We never had something like a real doping problem in our sport. Now we have something similar. I do not agree that we should live with that till you have some new test possibilities with something like Enez 2.0.

That was the real major mistake the ITTF made in the last years. I never have seen such an incompetent action like banning all boosters and tuners without a real possibility to test this.

I know that your intention was to stop the development of the last decade leading to more and more speed in this sport. But it would have been much better if the AGM had waited till it is possible to test this.

I think that more and more players starting to cheat because of this situation. Iam not saying that cheating is acceptable. But it is a situation that has disadvantages for our sport.

To many players (and here Iam talking from profis, from the top players) are still using tuners because it is an advantage and no one can really detect the use. In the last years, table tennis was known in public as a very fair sport. But we might loose this property in future.

I know that you always had good intensions. But the problem is that it seems to be that the AGM never thinks of how something should be done. They only know what they want to change, but no one seems to think about practical consequences of the decisions they make...

First, I am very happy that you are still playing, that's great, and that you are also coaching and introducing players to our sport. If everyone did what you are doing then for sure the number of players would increase and not decrease. Of course everyone's opinion is important, but I also like those that bring new people to our sport, this is the basic way to make it grow.

Regarding Boosters and Tuners, I respect your opinion, but you are not well informed. These substances were NEVER legal. Not before, not now, never! If you read carefully the composition of the Racket (Rule 2.4) you will find that no other substance except what is listed is allowed. This is the first point.

The second point is that you do not declare something illegal only if you can detect it and police it. Many drugs and many drug masking agents are also not legal, but the IOC only discover how to detect them sometimes years after they have been used. This is why the IOC keeps all doping test samples for year and retests when new methods are found. Case in point: Marion Jones.

The third point is that in 1995 three or four toxic solvents were banned from glues. How do YOU know if players used these banned solvents or not. There was no racket testing except at top International events. it's exactly the same thing.

Please do not underestimate a group of 60 people from all over the World that compose the Board of Directors of the ITTF, or the 200 plus members of the ITTF at the AGM.

"Do not consider intelligent only those that agree with you"

Do you allow drugs to be used in your home by your children? Even if you do not have a drug testing machine to detect them?

[adham]

[QUOTE=buddywow;1343083][QUOTE=adham;1342971]The first step is that I have to work on you. YOU have to watch your own sport and support it more. YOU have to call your local newspaper and ask them for the results of the German players at the Slovenia Open. YOU have ...

exactly

i don't have statistics but to me a lot of other not so popular sports have even bigger problems than tt regarding tv presence or media importance

Badminton and Squash: you almost never see it on tv
Tennis: seems to have lost A LOT of importance in general interest

i am content about the development tt has done in the last years regarding organization or ProTour and other major tournaments, ITTF websites... and so forth

Thank you man, finally I can smile a bit. I appreciate your nice words.

[adham]

Zitat von Cheftrainer

We have to be more specific with the new rules. Not all were bad.

But the the recent changes (e.g. Tuner/Booster) had a dramatic bad impact on our sport. The ITTF has managed to move our former clean and fair sport to a sport where many professional players are trying to cheat.

This consequence of this very bad decision of the AGM is the topic where I want to read a statement from ADHAM.

I know that there are so many other topics that we could (maybe should) discuss here, but at this point I want to hear if some of the officials could agree with the assessment that the last change was a big mistake.

I think that it is really a good idea to prohibit the use of tuners. But the AGM should have waited till an easy method for a test is available.

The ITTF and especially ADHAM has never committed mistakes in the way they "develope" our sport. But everyone is able to see the fact that we now have some kind of a doping problem in our sport.

The ITTF only states that they want increase the punishments. But such punishments were never necessary in the past. Is that the future now? Is that your vision of our sport in the future?

No it is not a mistake. On the contrary. Boosters and Tuners were NEVER legal at any time. Yes, the ITTF was late in finding a way to detect them, but that is what we try to correct. If people have no moral fibre and they want to cheat they always will find a way to cheat. Our goal is to try and make the playing field as level as possible. We also think that the manufacturers are slowly developing new sponge and rubbers that will not need to be boosted or tuned, so this is a transition period. Let's wait and discuss this topic again in a year or so.

[adham]

Zitat von mithardemb

10% of all German TT players are aprox. 60 000 people. Even if all of them would constantly watch any TT match on the screen, it would still not convince major TV stations.

On the other hand 10% is a very challenging number. Currently much less than 10% are even interested in results from the DTL (German major league) or international tournaments. Now you want them to promote professional table tennis.

It would be curious how you want to achieve this.

Actually it does not work this way. If the TV network receives one complaint they consider it 1,000 complaints. If they receive one congratulation, they consider it 10,000 congratulations. This is based on their survey statistics. Just to give you some numbers: The European Championships was watched on Eurosport (according to Eurosport) by 9 million viewers in total over an 8 day period (more than one million per day). The 2008 World Championships was watched by more than 12 million in 7 days (almost 2 million per day). These are not huge numbers, but a great start. $ years ago only half a million watched the European Championships, so we are making a lot of improvement. And 6 years ago you could not watch the WTTC on Eurosport !

The time it takes to write this post, is the same time it would take to write an e-mail to your local TV network.

[adham]

Zitat von nevada

Doing nothing is useless.

Doing a little bit is a step foward.

Doing a little bit more is an improvement.

Doing as much as you can is adorable.

Just my 2cents

regs nevada

Your 2 cents are worth 2 million to me. Bravo !

[Cheftrainer]

Zitat von adham

No it is not a mistake. On the contrary. Boosters and Tuners were NEVER legal at any time. ...

I dont think that the new rule is a mistake. I only think that the timepoint is a mistake. Iam disappointed that you still not see the bad impact of this still not testable rule. We have a doping sport now. Its far to easy to say that the responsible people are the players who cheat. We never had such a problem before.

And by the way. The ITTF approves only the surface of a rubber and not the sponge. So the point that boosters are illegal is just a interpretation of the ITTF. I would not expect that this interpretation is strong for a validation of an lawyer. Dont forget that in asian it is common that some players glueing the surface with a sponge. According to your interpretation, this is not legal too. Because the glue changes some physical (and chemical) parameters of the rubber

[Joachim Voigt]

Zitat von Cheftrainer

We have to be more specific with the new rules. Not all were bad.

But the the recent changes (e.g. Tuner/Booster) had a dramatic bad impact on our sport. The ITTF has managed to move our former clean and fair sport to a sport where many professional players are trying to cheat.
(...)

I think that it is really a good idea to prohibit the use of tuners. But the AGM should have waited till an easy method for a test is available.

The ITTF and especially ADHAM has never committed mistakes in the way they "develope" our sport. But everyone is able to see the fact that we now have some kind of a doping problem in our sport.

The ITTF only states that they want increase the punishments. But such punishments were never necessary in the past. Is that the future now? Is that your vision of our sport in the future?

Sorry, we had something like a doping problem in the past. In my opinion something much more boring. A real problem, but everyone closed the eyes. Kids of an age under 15, some also under 10, were using glue that is/was definitly bad for their health. The big mistake of ITTF was not the ban now, the big mistake was not to ban it much earlier. For me it´s a big lie to say we have a problem NOW, we had a tremendous problem before and now we have a smaller one. Now we have the problem of control. But I´m very, very happy with it, because the "lie" you need to use this toxic stuff to be good is banned. And I - as a coach - can take a big influence to my players if they cheat or not. I won´t accept cheating of my players. But I will not care to much about others. And, also sorry, it´s no excuse to cheat because others do it.
You say no punishments were neccessary in the past. Ok, but do you really think it was a responsible way of coaches to accept or more - to expect kids to use toxic glue? There were articles in magazines telling 10 year old girls are gluing (and it was in a time, when every one new, the ban will come) and there were no response, how can this be.
Maybe we should change our way of thinking about glueing. It was never a good idea and it was late, maybe to late, when it was banned.

[Cheftrainer]

Zitat von Joachim Voigt

Sorry, we had something like a doping problem in the past. In my opinion something much more boring. A real problem, but everyone closed the eyes....

Dont mix these topics!!! We are not talking about the ban of fresh glueing!!! We are talking about the use of a tuner!

If the health of a kid is in danger because of the material that should be called a problem but this is not a kind of a doping problem.

You can say that the ITTF has made a mistake by allowing these glues. But your statement has nothing to do with the actual discussion. Because we are not talking about health impacts of the old kind of glues.

And by the way: You talk about the role of a trainer and that he should prohibit cheating in his environment. I agree with that. I still have somewhere at home two tubes of a tuner. But I never have used them and I will not use them in future.

But again you mix up different topics. I am not talking about "normal" players. I talk about professional player. And YOU can not influence them !!!

[nevada]

By the way. This is not the Indy 500 but a normal discussion !

regs nevada