OOAK Table Tennis Forum

As title states - I have an opponent in a 'friendly' match up in the club object to me making a grunt before returning a ball. What happened was that I was under attack back from the table - he played a short ball - lunged forward just making it and returned the ball making it a 10-8 in my favour. I grunted in getting to the ball but the noise was made before returning it. Initially he wanted the point so I offered for him to go and take it then but he relented on a let as a show of 'generosity'. Ended up loosing the set 12-10 leaving the match at 1-1. Decided to call it a day since I was due home for lunch (it was a Sunday). Have never had anyone complain before to me about making a noise in a match but I have had someone mimick my stomping. Surprised that this objection happened in a match that didn't matter.
Curious to know if he was right in claiming a let. I didn't do it on purpose and it was from the effort in essentially getting to the ball.

I don't think that its an issue but I can't say for certain in the eyes of the rules. As the noise was made before you made your shot on not afterwards while he was trying to make his then there is no distraction in my understanding.

A let I would probably let fly and play again, I can see that as a fair ball, but I don't think that there was a need to contest the point. If this was a tournament I'd be saying that he stopped play, or has spoken during play and its my point.

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CORNILLEAU Hugo Calderano FOCO OFF+
FH: ANDRO Hexer Powergrip 2.1
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Since it wasn't intentional, and obviously just a noise made in an effort to get to the ball, I can't imagine any umpire giving your opponent the point. Only if an umpire deems the noise to be a disturbance to play can it be a let:
2.09.02.04 because the conditions of play are disturbed in a way which could affect the outcome of the rally.

Poor sportmanship from your opponent I'd say.

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If not deliberate i wouldn't be concerned, doesn't this happen all the time? Our c grade would hardly ever play a fair point, they are always, laughing, squeeling, commentating during points. That's why we love them at our club, they keep it grounded.

Stomping would annoy me.

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Donic Waldner Senso V1,FH Baracuda Big Slam 2.0mm ,BH Victas Triple Regular 2.0mm

Poor umpiring. If you or your opponent can call the lets or edges why the umpire is sitting there?

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I'M A TURK I CANNOT KEEP CALM
Butterfly Joo Saehyuk
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On the dark side since April 2015. Rating 1500 Australia

Imagine top level tennis being played with this rule

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Many thanks for all the responses.
Based on the rules of TT his objection would be upheld.
When I was playing last Monday I was a lot more conscious of any noises I was making in getting to a ball. On balance I felt that I was holding back and it didn't feel natural that I couldn't let out a groan if I had to get to a 'hard to get' ball.
I'm probably going to continue groaning grunting and contest any let if an objection is raised. In hindsight I felt that it was gamesmanship to upset my rhythm. My opponent would have been a very competitive player but then stopped and has returned to TT after a 2 year break. A lot of the tournaments that are been played on the qualifying rounds sometimes have no umpire but in the case of this opponent I would prefer to have one if at all possible.
Still I'm surprised at the rule and as previously mentioned tennis and in particular woman's tennis is very vocal.

p.s. thanks for the spelling correction on the title.

p.p.s. stomping - tend to do that just on the serves but now trying to stop that as well !

I do not see it that way... I think 99% of umpires would give you the point.

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If you were grunting on every shot, I'd see your opponent having something to complain about. But one grunt here or there when lunging to a ball is acceptable IMO. A friend of mine often gets into a "grunt" mode where he grunts on every shot when he is making attack after attack and I'll tell him its off-putting. He's a tennis player and does it in tennis and reckons he's unaware he's doing it. No-one's ever penalised him for it, just asked him to tone down.

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I agree with Reborn.
Even the professional players get into a "grunting" mode once in a while ex: Ovtcharov vs. Mizutani.

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BTY Timo Boll Spirit
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Kind of hard to say without being there to see/hear it.

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2.2 mm Nexy Karis M on FH and BH

Posting to a relatively old thread, but it's relevant to what I experienced last night.

Our gym gets noisy so there's lots of ambient noise to even drown out the adjacent table so it's not a distraction if they are grunting, stomping...etc.

We had a newcomer come play last night, she's an older experience player, but haven't played for a while. Most of the night she yelped, squeeled, and loudly spoke to herself. She had a much higher pitched loud voice so it tend to pierce the overall noise level of the gym.

So far it's tolerable and not a big distraction. When she would get into a rally she would start continuously squeeling and grunting loudly that it honestly sounded like she was getting assaulted or having loud sex in the gym! People stopped to look over, so apparently I wasn't the only one who's concentration was distracted.

IMO I think grunting and stomping is part of the game when the receiver/server is hitting, just like getting net or edge balls, it would be silly to object to it or contest it. HOWEVER, I think in her case it was excessive enough to cause a distraction and falls under the TT rules of "2.09.02.04 because the conditions of play are disturbed in a way which could affect the outcome of the rally."

It's human nature to stop and see if the person is okay if they are being assaulted, or having sex or sounds like they're being sexually assaulted! That's enough to break the concentration of many of the people playing especially when they are all stopping to look around. The gym owner or umpire should warn the person at this point. Or opponent should kindly ask the lady to tone it down or he would call a let next time, thereby giving her a chance to stop. Especially during a friendly game.

Back to Multispoke's original post, it's a matter of opinion on what is disruptive or what falls under general acceptance. Based on what Multispoke posted, I think it's within the generally accepted playing conditions. It didn't seem like he was making immature fart noises or loud sexual noises for his opponent to warrant asking for a point.

Now that lady from last night.....

Personally I couldn't care less what happens when an opponent is playing their shot, I only ever take issue when they do something (grunt, stomp, gesticulate) on or just before mine....

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Timo Boll ALC ST
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Sore losers would make just about any excuse...

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