OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I experienced a first in TT tonight after about 40 years of playing the game. It wasn't a pleasant experience either.

I'm playing a regular Thursday night match against a lady in her 60's who is also an old hand at the game. I'd never played her before, but found her awkward as she took the ball directly off the bounce most the time and hit deep to the corners quickly with normal rubbers both sides. She was an unusual player and would get more angle than you'd often expect. I was beating her, but the games were very tight. In fact the first 4 sets went 11-9, 8-11, 11-9, 12-10. She has gotten more than her fair share of nets but its part of the game and I'd gotten a couple. I'm not phased by this as I consider it part of the game. In the 5th set she got 3 or 4 balls hit the net on her FH drives and then hit the back corner on my FH. As the score went to something like 8-7 her way from one of these I commented how a lot of people hit the net and go long, but hers hit the end of the table....it was friendly banter, no malice, and we'd had other instances of it in the game...like when I got a net, she said "your turn now". Anyway, before I finished what I was saying while I fetched the ball a spectator yells in a very angry voice "Stop complaining and play the game ya bloody girl". I was taken aback. I looked and saw an old guy in his 70's was the culprit. He immediately got my dander and I yelled back at him to shut up as you are not part of this game. The entire hall stopped wondering what was going on. t settled down immediately and people went on with their games.

His outburst had put me in an angry mood, and I was damned if I would let it affect me winning the game. In fact it had the reverse effect and I beat her 12-10 in this last set. I apologised to the lady for my fire back at him and asked if he was a friend of hers. She said he was her partner under her breath (and looked very sheepish about it). I actually had to ask her to repeat what she said as I couldn't make it out the first time

This old guy has never played at our club and the lady is new to the club the last 2 seasons, although I think she may have played there before my time (last 10 years). I went to the old bloke calmly and said to him I'd played him many years ago at a Vets tournament (and beat him lol) and thought he was alright, but before I could get anything on an even keel with him he abused me further saying he was an International Umpire and I don't play within the rules as "I talk during the rallies", which could not be further from the truth. I love friendly banter between points, but I do not speak in a rally, ever (unless there's an involuntary sound for a ball I think I've hit long and it lands). But this guy just wanted to be an a$$hole. I could have said things like "well an International Umpire should know better than to abuse a player as a spectator". Instead I just walked away from him as I could see he was an unreasonable person.

Many people asked me what the shouting was about later on and when I told them the story they all said they'd have responded the same way to him. I can't say I enjoyed the experience or ever desire to have someone carry on that way at me again.

I still don't know why he decided to have this outburst, except that his partner has won most her games and I was beating her (she was just 2 matches behind me as leading player before tonight, but my partner beat her too ) But if he was trying to put me off, he went about it all wrong!

_________________
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.

YES-Several female groupies often follow me around making various demands..Dont they know im married

im a legend in my own mind

_________________

igorponger wrote:

Day -by-day inhalation of the speed glues is not any good for health..

Had a bad experience at our national championships one year. Three or four of my opponent's family were sitting in the front row a few feet from the barrier. During one game I was playing at their end of the table got a lucky net dribbler and quickly acknowledged by raising my hand and saying sorry to my opponent. By their response these folks probably hadn't seen a tournament match before in their lives and didn't have a clue about Table Tennis etiquette.

They were all over me about what an insincere jerk I was and how I wasn't sorry at all. I made the mistake of stopping to tell them that "sorry" means "sorry to win simply by luck", but they didn't get it or didn't "want" to get it, and continued to rag on me with vigor for the rest of the match. It was off putting to say the least, but a good test to get back to concentrating on the match.

So try to be polite and get roasted for it. Nowadays I raise my hand on nets and edges, but just say "lucky" or nothing, except in matches with old friends where I might say "skill" or "been practicing that" or "sorry...I didn't get two points for that".

_________________
OSP Ultimate cpen
Acuda S1 Turbo
Hallmark Phoenix ox

Yep, I have. And I've abused them back (not proud of that fact). I am super nice and chilled out, very hard to anger....until I'm not. Then the ex-MMA, Kick Boxing, Judo, Wrestling, meat-head comes out of me and it's ugly. I can neither confirm nor deny if one of the altercations got physical.

What set me over the edge? It was when the guy turned to my 4 year old son and told him, "You look like an (expletive) just like your dad." You can imagine where that went...specifically, he went to the floor. I think he tripped.

_________________
Blog: "Holy Chtchet!" ⇝

Projects: Player Equipment Grid ⇝ Comprehensive Thin Inverted Chopping Rubbers Grid ⇝ Please send me corrections or new submissions

Sort of the opposite: I've been known to give a 'death stare' to spectators who I think are too vociferous in their support of my opponent. I do it without thinking.

_________________
Timo Boll ALC ST
FH Tibhar Evolution MX-P Max
BH Tibhar Evolution FX-S 1.8
185g

During my small career as a professional, I was playing at a pub (yeah, like you're not going to get abused by spectators there ), and was told, in a manner of speaking, to be aggressive and actually smash. Do you think I paid any notice?

_________________
Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Not me, but I have had a match where spectators abused my opponent. It was a little boy who was a very loud cho-er. We were playing a tight match and he would yell the loudest chos every point he won. I miss a receive CHO!!!!! He gets a lucky net, or pops up a putaway that I miss CHO!!!!! You know the deal.

So a couple was watching their kid play on another table, and the choing bugged them. It must have, because they started very loudly doing sarcastic chos whenever my opponent made a mistake. He couldn't take it and completely cracked.

_________________
Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you'll start to see a big difference in your life.

Yoko Ono

Actually Retriever you came straight to mind after this guy said he was an "International Umpire". Is there anything in your officials code that says what to do with abusive spectators? This guy wasn't an umpires bootlace in my mind. A hasbeen at best I'd say. But I figured if he actually thought about his action, he'd have been breaching his own code somehow lol. I just would like to be a fly on the wall when his "wife" got him home

_________________
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.

I wonder who teaches kids to do that sort of thing.. Parents? Maybe coaches. Which would be bad - you'd have entire training centers that get reputations because all their kids cho loudly.

Iskandar

Reb wrote:


Being an <adjective> <official> doesn't help. I am only a lowly state umpire.

Haven't ever seen this happen. I don't think there is anything in the "laws of the game". There may be something in the "handbook for match officials".

My reaction would be to tell them to be quiet, then if repeated treat them like a coach giving advice during a point - and call the referee to sort them out.

_________________
Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74