OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Talking to an older guy today from the hard bat era, he hit me with a really interestig question. He said that in his day the one thing you could rely on was the fact that (hard bat era) the novice guy who went in to his local sports shop, could buy the exact bat that the current world champ used, so as he percieved it, there could not be in those days any question of equipment advantage at all, it rteally had to be down to skill, no glue, pimps or anything, just pure hard bat rubber. I don't like it, but I think he had a point, think about it once again, the world champ has to by logic play with the same rubbers that you do, it surely is quite a sobering thought.

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the covers blown, mission over

ox short pips? Sounds OK to me, but I'd have Dr. Evil on the backhand.

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

Are you missing the point?

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the covers blown, mission over

No (lol)

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The MNNB Blog has had some pretty amazing stuff lately. Just click this text to check it out. | My OOAK Interview
Table Tennis Video Links: itTV | laola1.tv | ttbl | fftt | Challenger Series | mnnb-tv

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

In the context of this thread, what are you saying then?

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the covers blown, mission over

If I've judged things wrong here, I'm really sorry Hagisv, Its just an attempt to stimulate some decent chat.

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the covers blown, mission over

I think I've prolly said this once or twice....

I beleive that using a "ping pong" hardbat bats, anyone can play the game.

doesn't matter if your 6 years old to 80, I've been playing tt for quite some time, and when I come down to work, we play with the hard bats that you get from K-mart doesn't matter what size ball, but it does come down too skill and consistency.

anyways its always great fun....

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the re-evolution of war
Bty Gergely Palio Macro Era 42.5 Max DHS H2 Max

I played Houshang Bazorgzadeh when I was a teenager (early 70s). He was top 20 in the world in the 50s, used a hard bat, he had great skills and was diabolical with his pick hitting and his control. Being young and stupid I tried to overpower him with heavy spin (Surbek being my hero at the time). The harder I looped and spun, the worse things got, especially since every young buck of my generation tried to play him the same way. The outcome was pretty ugly and not in my favor.

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Butterfly Viscaria Black tag
2.2 mm Nexy Karis M on FH and BH

This probably the only time I will agree with you DH. I would love to see everyone go back to hardbats. You would know what you are up against everytime. You could still chop,block, and slam with the hardbat but,I don't think it will ever happen. There is way too much money being made by the big companys with inverted and the glues. You can still dream though.

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Equipment:
Victas Koji Matsushita, Yasaka Rakza 7 2.0, TSP P1r Curl 1.5-1.7

USATT Rating: 1869

MOLON LABE!!!

Saw "Reismann" on David Letterman SHow the other night

He still has all the moves , still a god in TT even in his 70's


monkey

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the re-evolution of war
Bty Gergely Palio Macro Era 42.5 Max DHS H2 Max

Personally I think the sport is perfect as it is and I wouldn't change anything, and we haven't needed most of the changes we've gotten --although I do like the bigger ball.

I still don't understand why we changed to 11 point games. I miss being able to work opponents with a series of 5 serves. The rules about hiding serves are almost unenforceable. Players who hid their serves with their arms and bodies gave up something in terms of their ability to get ready for the next shot, so it is something of a wash, and servers dominate as much as ever -- as in all racket sports. This recent banning of certain kinds of rubbers is stupid. Frictionless LP never bothered me much, so it is a matter of complete indifference to me if certain players want to give up as much as they do by using them, especially since the really long ones, which were problematic, had been banned earlier. I suppose I can understand the health issues with the organic solvents in glues.

But enough already! Stop! There is beauty in the diversity of the game.

Now I will say something that will probably upset somebody, but I think it's pretty much obvious. If you watch tapes of players from the pre-inverted era, the one thing you notice is that inverted rubbers increased the athleticism -- by which I mean foot speed, quickness, strength, reflexes -- needed to play at a world class level. It has to. The ball moves faster, comes out farther, people have to play more off the table and therefore cover more ground, and they have to account for spin in ways that they never had to previously. Personally, I like that. However, that change happened a very long time ago and it's not worth revisiting a debate that raged in the 70s (specifically was the dominance of inverted rubber "good for the game"). Already in the 70s that was a debate akin to how many angels dance on the head of a pin. I am 51 and the first blade I ever used -- once I really started to play with the idea that I would compete -- was a Stiga Alser --with green three star Cobra rubber. It was inverted. This would have been 1968, and by that time, nearly all the top players had been using those kinds of rubbers for a long time.

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Butterfly Viscaria Black tag
2.2 mm Nexy Karis M on FH and BH

Thanks guys for responding in the spirit that the thread was intended. What struck me was the simplicity of the statement, It was a level playing field, nobody could have an excuse, the best player was definately the best player, no arguments at all. Boring though

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the covers blown, mission over

I have played with hardbat as well, in fact I still have one. I also have two rackets with the pimples out wakaba rubber and a 0.6mm or even thinner sponge, its almost hardbat. But I agree, with DH, with hardbat, the game is totally different, you need to place the ball, you have to be great at controling where you want the ball to go but you can't out-speed or out-spin your opponent, its about strategy and placement.

Maybe the next step in table tennis should not be about banning anything, but making categories, like they have age caterhories, we should have a pips world champ, a hardbat world champion, and an open champion.

People can either enter the category of their choice, or the open if they feel they want to match their style and equipment against some other.

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1-ply Hinoki Club
Violin/Acoustic Clan
Recreational/Club Player
Local Press Club (Journalists) Champion

The speed of a Rhino and the power of a Gazelle!!!!
http://xtrariter.blogspot.com

I have often thought about this, also there would be interest in a triathelon type competition, consisting of three different categories of TT, say hard bat, 'free style' and a 44mm ball. I would be most interested indeed to see the likes of Boll, Kreanga, WLQ, ETC play seriously with a hard bat. If only somebody put enough money up.....

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the covers blown, mission over

Well, that's interresting. I sure don't know actual world class players well enough, but I've been playing in 1995 next table to Jean-Philippe Gatien who has stopped his career in 2003 (about). He was playing with a very standard Yasaka extra 3d and 2 regular sheets of mark V and he was very proud of that. He kept saying that his bat was freely buyable in a TT shop. Maybe today things have changed. It has been said that some top players have their own customed blade and rubbers but still, I like to think it's for comfort and habbit purposes, not to give them an extra advantage. If they have one, it's surely to always play with new (and free... ) rubbers. So you see, things haven't drastically changed since hardbat time, or maybe I missed you point.

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Joola Rossi Emotion
T64 + Express one