OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Having played a number of sports in my highschool days, somehow I always felt that table tennis players were the worst sports. People who, even as you were beating them, just COULDN'T accept that they could be losing. People who would keep telling you how your game was weak and that they would be whooping you 99 times out of 100. People who would demand rematch after rematch and would shake their head after missed shots like their miss had nothing to do with your skill but just damn bad luck or a mysterious phenomenon.

I have a theory. Because table tennis has more subtle elements than other sports. You watch tennis and its easy to appreciate some sizzling shot that lands on the line at a million miles an hour. And if you are not within a country mile of the passing shot you've clearly been beat and that's no way to hide the fact. With table tennis, because spin is so important, you can beat an opponent by a deceptive spin that he misreads...but for all he knows he just mis-hit it. He might look at his racquet in puzzlement but he doesn't put 2 and 2 together. Then he begins to bitch and moan. That's one reason why table tennis suffers as a spectator sport because people watching it don't realise how difficult the shots are, and how much spin is involved.

Any thoughts?

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Blade: TSP Black Balsa 7.0 flared; FH Rubber - Donic Acuda S3 max sponge; BH Rubber - Speed Spectol 1.8mm

That's exactly right

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Chasse Patate

Yep, very true. Even for a seasoned TT player it is sometimes difficult to see from a distance how much, if any, spin is on the ball. It's usually only the receiver of the ball who can often recognise how much spin is there, because they fall victim to it. And if they are not experienced, as you say, they might just think they didn't hit it right. Usually the applier of spin will know what spin they put, but not having to deal with it, they might not appreciate how hard it is to deal with (except to experience spin from someone else and assume their spin must be similar to have to play against).

I do think that watching pro matches though, a lot of the time the spin is apparent, especially when you see a ball dive with a huge arc when hit from 15 feet back of the table, lol.

As for bad sports, the only thing I have encountered lately is a player who let a heap of points go at the end of a match when he couldn't handle my spin. He kept on taking uncontrolled bashes at the ball which went in all directions.

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I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
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It is difficult to cheat on table tennis whether the ball hits the table or not, there is a sound when the ball hits the table. However, tennis is a self regulation honor system game, there is no sound when the balls are out. You call on your side and your opponent have no say. Of course, I am talking about just the everyday players, not the pro tennis. Over the 14 years of my son's tennis career, we have met many cheaters, and of course many honest players who showed true sportsmanship.

Although I have not played tournaments now, but I did met some players full of gamesmanship during match, especially when they are down. Hey, which sport don't have bad apples? At least for table tennis, it is difficult to cheat. For me, I really don't care whether the opponent look puzzled, don't understand why he lost, as long as I played my shots according to my plan, I am satisfied.

As far as popularity concern, so long as the general public doesn't understand the spin (our sport is based mainly on spin), it is difficult for them to enjoy the match.

Tat

I suspect that in general the sportmanship gets better the higher level you go... where the players start to appreciate spin more and more...

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I think people who do not have good sportsmanship are available on every sport, it just depends on the individual's character. However it is true that for one who is not a TT enthusiast, all shots are very simple and do not require any effort, until he tries to play in a serious level. Then he will be in for a big surprise.

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Expert II crwi C-Pen
Red Acuda P1

I tend to agree with Haggisv. The higher level player have very good integrity.

At the Japan Open 2007, Wang Liqin faulted on his serve, but the umpire did not see. Liqin walked over and flipped the point for Wang Hao on the scoreboard, giving Hao the 12-11 lead.

See link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF7yPuQ5 ... re=related

This kind of sportsmanship restores my fate in humanity a lot.

Arlene

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For me, its not really bad sportsmanship, but more sledging...At my old school where i uses to play almost every lunch time, I got sledged left right and centre.
The stuff that they said were'nt really offensive to me...well...some people may find it offensive, but with the bullying and stuff ive taken from yrs 5-10...ive just gotten uses to it and ignored it.
Back onto the sledging...those people usually say stuff like..."look at the asian, ill beat him any day" (Throw in a few "F"'s and racist comments as well...but you know what i mean"
When im in a good mood ill usually challenge that claim, and always the answer was "No, maybe tomorrow"
those matches never came, but deep down im laughing my head off because their answer to a challenge was alway "maybe tomorrow"

edit: the slegding was usually done by the who would crowd around our table to watch my friend and i play.

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old bat got stolen...
New bat
blade: Chinese pen stiga O CR
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RPB: 729 Higher Tension

Dong that sounds more like typical schoolboy bullying to me, than bad sportsmanship. It could be called racism but I guarantee you it is not only Asians who will come in for this sort of stuff. It is the low intellect and peer group pressure that fuels this sort of stuff. And it doesn't only happen in schools either, but generally it fades a bit as people get older and more mature. It can still occur in work groups too, usually when there's a "boys club" formed. I have never been one to get involved in this sort of stuff as its so immature. Of course this can put you the other side of the fence to it. But I know what you are talking about, although I don't think I've come across it in TT much.

One thing I find obnoxious is a player who growls and stamps their feet when they lose a point, but cheers and carries on when they win one, especially when its not through their own good play, but your bad play. Very unsporting I think.

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

My experience, unfortunately, has been that tt can bring out the worst in people. I have lost respect for more than a couple people (some I used to call friends) due to strange, sometimes totally out of character outbursts of anger, cheating mind games, and disrespect at the table. Fortunately, there are many players out there who play tt for the fun and are thoroughly enjoyable to play with.

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I take Tatlwai's point about table tennis being a bit clearer in terms of edges making a sound. We all know some of the controversies surround line calls in tennis (though with the technology nowadays, this is becoming less of an issue)...

It's good to hear from Alex and Arlene that the higher level players are better sports...gives me more incentive to improve.

Sorry to hear about racist comments from thedong...hope that's in the minority. Fortunately I haven't really come across that before - not explicitly anyway.

Maybe bad sportsmanship is the wrong expression, but what I was thinking about was not so much lying or fighting over edges but sore losers. In my years playing table tennis, I have come across so many arrogant players who criticise you and scoff even while you are whooping their arse. My friend had such an experience recently when he entered a competition and beat some guy. The guy challenged him afterwards and they played two more best-of-5s and my friend beat him both times again. Apparently, he had a very hard time returning the spin on my friend's serve (hard to imagine!). At the end, instead of saying "well played", "congrats" or whatever, he said "I have never seen such a spastic serve"!

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Blade: TSP Black Balsa 7.0 flared; FH Rubber - Donic Acuda S3 max sponge; BH Rubber - Speed Spectol 1.8mm

well...in terms of bad sports, ive only seen one occasion where someone nearly broke a window because they got pissed off at not being able to read my spins and threw the bat randomly.

ive also had a cricket bat thrown at me once when i clean bowled somedude with the middle stump went like 3 metres back....hhahahahahahha apart from the bat...i just loved the look on the guys face when i got him...classic.

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old bat got stolen...
New bat
blade: Chinese pen stiga O CR
FH: DHS H2
RPB: 729 Higher Tension