OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Here is an article written by Mr. Adham Sharara (ITTF Chairman) from the TV chair:

http://www.ittf.com/_front_Page/ittf_fu ... ition_ID=&

01/01/2015

It is traditional in North America to have a year-end review of almost anything. Every TV network has its own take on the year. CNN likes to show the disasters that happened during the year, other networks focus on the major political incidents, and others will show you the photo and a little description of important people that passed away in that year. We also have the Top-10 craze, or even Top-100 craze, these show in a particular area, like music, sports or entertainment, the top songs, or top plays in sports, or even the top entertainment events of the year, the best movies, the celebrity marriages and many such things.

My particular interest is to watch the Top-100 Sports Plays as shown by a network called SportsNet and I also like the top plays by ESPN. I particularly also enjoy the Top-100 “Sports Bloopers”. These are “misses”, own goals, terrible mistakes, funny incidents, etc. Of course the most amazing on SportsNet are the Top-10 plays of the year. These are really something to watch and admire the skills and abilities of top sport stars.

In North America usually the Top-100 plays of the year contain more than 80% plays in American Football, Baseball, Basketball and Ice Hockey. Basically the 4 top professional sports in the continent. However, over the years, now you can also see a lot of plays in Soccer (Football) and some other sports occasionally. The same applies to the bloopers; especially the “own goals” in soccer are popular.

On the last day of the year, I was enjoying first the top-100 “sport bloopers”. When they reached the coveted top-10 bloopers, those that will be remembered for a while, and after seeing 90 bloopers almost all in the traditional North American professional sports, I was stunned at blooper number 8 to see a junior table tennis match. It was a match in a city in Russia of a local junior table tennis event at which one of the young players was very upset after he lost. However, he calmly walked over to the opponent, who just beat him, and shook hands in a good sportsman manner. Then calmly walked to the young umpire, and it seemed like he would shake his hand. Instead, he pushed the young umpire off his chair and shouted at him. Very bad form. I was embarrassed that such a thing happens in our sport. But being a positive person, I was happy that table tennis was included.

Then I watched the Top-100 plays of the year and saw some amazing plays. Some of these athletes have incredible abilities. Again, the bulk of the plays were in the traditional North-American professional sports. Some amazing “catches” in American Football, some amazing “throws” in Baseball, some amazing “dunks” in Basketball, and some incredible “stick-play” in Ice Hockey, and some fantastic scoring in Soccer.

Lo and behold, to my amazement, for play number 3, I mean in the top 3 of all 100 plays of the year, was a long rally in table tennis. I was stunned. Table tennis made it to the top 3? I could not believe my eyes. It was truly an amazing rally between Segun Toriola of Nigeria and Gao Ning of Singapore in a semi-final team match at the Commonwealth Games in Scotland. It was what seemed like an endless rally. To the experts in our sport this may not be the best table tennis point of the year, but to the TV producers, and I suppose based on what they saw, this was the best rally in table tennis for 2014, and one of the top 3 best sports play of the year.

Top-3 in such a TV program is amazing. Let’s keep working together, and support the ITTF leadership, welcoming our new president, Thomas Weikert, and wishing him and his team a great 2015 full of Top-5 achievements.

Adham Sharara
From the TV Chair

I like the way TMS International owner Adham (whom all ITTF money still funnels through) urges us to support the ITTF leadership - which is still him! Wiekert is his hand-picked unelected puppet. lol

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Wiekert is Medvedev to Sharara's Putin.

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I will stay away from discussing the "politics". I will just present my personal opinion as a TT fan and as a TT player.

As a TT fan.
I have been watching TT matches for over 40 years. The first big TT match I watched live on TV was Kjell Johansson vs Xi Enting (1973) and I was cheering for 'the Hammer". I still enjoy watching matches played between great players in the last 50+ years, over and over again on youtube.
I don't understand why ITTF and Mr. Adham are so obsessed with making TT big on TV and more spectator friendly to watch. Long rallies, which we see so much of in professional matches nowadays, are so boring to watch. There is nothing "amazing" about it. I applaud the talent and athletic ability of the TT players today. But I really miss the different playing styles that made TT so much more enjoyable to watch in the past.

As a TT player.
I still consider myself a "recreational" player after more than 40 years. Has the game become more enjoyable or more fun for me with all the changes in rules, equipment, and ball size? No!
I remember I had to save up money from my daily or lunch allowance so I could buy some better and more durable balls: Nittaku or Double Happiness. Well, "better" and "more durable" polyballs...don't really exist today.
Table tennis was a sport a poor kid (like me) could play and love. If ITTF really wants to make TT popular all over the world, then let's not make it so "expensive". I can afford to smash and loop those polyballs with Tenergy now, but it is not more fun than smashing that cheap 38 mm ball with my "dollar setup" 40 years ago.

Really good points shaolinTT

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It's a very good to writing i want to appreciate Mr Adham but just one thing is that you should update your link which you have to share with us its have an error....again well writing

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