OOAK Table Tennis Forum

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wire ... he-racket/

LONDON — Table tennis has its own version of "doping."

It has nothing to do with ingesting banned substances. Just like other Olympic athletes, pingpong players are regularly tested for those. But performance enhancers remain an issue.

These substances, however, are materials applied to the racket, or paddle, to get more grip, spin and speed. The substances go by various names – speed glue, booster or tuner.

The world governing body of table tennis has eliminated part of the problem but has yet to wipe it out. Adham Sharara, the organization's president, used the word "cheating" to describe how some players get an edge.

Following the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the International Table Tennis Federation banned the use of speed glue, a highly toxic compound that has been linked to cancer. Players used to apply it to fasten the rubber to their rackets. The glue expanded the rubber, providing more speed and spin and causing the celluloid ball to take more dips and curves.

This is the same compound that glue-sniffers inhale.

"Now players have started to find other elements to put on the racket that will give the same effect," Sharara said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Speed glue was banned partly on health grounds, and the ITTF has ways to spot it.

When speed glue was banned, Sharara said players started to look for another way to gain advantage, using nontoxic substances known as boosters or tuners. They're not banned – largely because the ITTF has yet to find a way to detect what are mostly oil-based substances that may give "about 85 percent of the effect of speed glue."

Sharara said the ITTF knows which players are using booster – "players talk" – and said he expects a test for it to be available "very soon." He said it's also possible it may be permitted, but he'd like to see it gone by the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

"The problem is some use it, some don't use it," he said. "So it's not an even playing field. We're trying now to find detection mechanisms. We'd prefer to find detection. If we allow it, we don't what else they'll be able to use."

Asked if the practice amounted to cheating, Sharara replied: "We think it's cheating. ... And the justification from some of the players is, well, we're not doing anything against a person's health. All we are doing is fine-tuning. Or we're making the rubber perform better. It's like driving on the highway. They drive 100, and if there are no police around they drive 110."

Table tennis players are control freaks, looking for any sliver of margin to guide the tiny ball across a slick table. Their moves around the court can seem huge, sweeping strokes that look even bigger in the small area.

Players continually fidget, walking to the net and wiping their sweaty hands on the table – choosing the spot where the ball is least likely to land. They blow on their paddles, spin balls to make sure they're perfectly round and hard. Many stomp their feet as they're serving, drowning out the soft ping sound.

"Every little detail counts," Sharara said. "It's almost a sickness I would say."

Many players at the Olympics, none willing to be quoted, agree that the foreign substance improves grip and speed, and it makes the ball click with a familiar sound.

Pro-style paddles – most are wood and carbon fiber – cost about $200, and it's another $100 each time players change the rubber, which is often. Most have sponsors that foot the bills.

"I would say it's 95 percent psychological," Sharara said. "They (players) lost the feeling they had with the speed glue and they need that feeling back. ... But when you look at the performance, there's not that much difference."

A former player for Canada, Sharara described many players as "eccentric and inward." He recalled the strange behavior of Jan-Ove Waldner, the 1992 Olympic singles champion from Sweden. Many still regard him as the game's greatest.

"He played in the Olympics wearing the same shirt and never washed it," Sharara said. "When he went to receive the medal, they told him he had to wear a clean shirt."

Sharara said the filthy pullover is framed in his office. Still unwashed.

Matthew Syed, a two-time Olympian and three-time Commonwealth Games table tennis champion, likened players to those of a more sedentary profession.

"It's like tax laws," the Englishman said. "You have clever accountants who push the boundaries – then they change the rules again. I suppose you can characterize that as life itself."

Syed said no one should be surprised pingpong players push the envelope.

"Table tennis has two distinctive meanings," he said. "It's a mass participation parlor game that anybody can play. It's recreational. Then you have the elite, techo-crazy game. They are very different. So people are often surprised. But at this level, people are always looking for that edge."

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It's pretty rediculous comparing it to doping In every sport players finetune their equipment, so if there are no health implication in tuning, there should be no comparison to 'doping'.

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And in elite sports, when tech is involved everybody is a freak control with his equipment.

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Exactly right!

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This article really illustrates Adham's distain for the players in our sport. They're "cheating," they "almost have a sickness," many are "eccentric and inward," etc.

Considering that our ITTF President is a *pathological liar who obviously despises the players, we have to be concerned that he will cause irreparable damage to our sport.

*I'm more than willing to cite example after example.

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My whole set-up costs less than a sheet of Butterfly Dignics

hmmmm what an amiable guy this Sahara person is...NOT

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This reminds me of the saying "There are people that make the rules and people that break the rules."

Just banning one thing will lead to another equipment enhancer. That someone somewhere, probably China, will develop a new booster that is undetectable or "legal" as the rule is written.

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As Adam describe it, using of tuners or booster is more of a psychological thing.

On the olympic level, somehow, top level athletes has access to better equipment tuned or not.. As I see it and on my limited world, China dominates the sport more because of their skill and training program not on undetected boosted racket. ITTF should focus more on bringing our sport to the people instead of hating the players.

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Enjoy the game. It is a never ending learning experience once you play and keep the ball on that 45 sq ft of space or should I say half of that space.

Adham should look in the mirror. The people who "almost have a sickness" are the ITTF officials who are control freaks about pips being one-tenth of a millimeter too long, or brand new rubbers out of the package failing a test due to an insignificant level of VOCs.

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My whole set-up costs less than a sheet of Butterfly Dignics

It is true that we should focus on lifting the sport level universally, but I still wonder which players may have tuned their paddles and which ones did not. The reason for my curiosity is simple. Even when your skill level might be superior, a person with a tuned paddle may outwit you by a fraction of a hair based on this advantage.

A Neo GT3 finely tuned is like an iron blade against a bronze shield back during the Axial Age. The arrival of iron blades to the battle field revolutionized warmaking (just asked the Assyrians). A skillful sword fighter with non-iron blades may survive a bit longer than his peers, but he will ultimately fall to the strength and power of the iron.

This comparison may be just a bit stretched. Yet, the mismatch in TT paddles exists. What I have seen in practice is that a fine clean Tenergy will not be a fair match to a Hurricane Neo 3 finely tuned (with Falco, Dianchi, or any other) if both players share the same level of skills.

So, I still will want to see if the top players (olympians?) still tune their paddles? I would have a better idea of the skills involved in the matches. If the display of skills is not the main attraction, why watch the game?

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