Yes, you are right. This is a main priority for me. I am not sure from which country you are. But as you may know, the ITTF has 205 National Associations, so of course it is impossible for the ITTF to go one by one. What we do is we psuh at yhe Networks level such as Eurosport, ART (Middle East), etc. Of coutse in Asia we also deal on a one by one basis in certain markets because the game is very popular in some countries. So we have agreements in China, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong etc. In other oarts of the world it is more difficult. So we package one-hour highlight packages of our top events, and offer them free of charge to the local TV stations. But we cannot do the leg work. We ask each national association to contact their TV station in their own country. Sometimes this works, sometimes not. We keep trying.

Firstly, let me be the first in any forum that you have attended to congratulate and thank you for steering the ITTF ship for the good of the TT world. Thank you for all your time and work

As for ideas, I do have one which might solve the 'vertical throw' scenarios. In order to avoid advantages or disadvantages to either opponents in a match, maybe the umpire should be instructed to ask both players to show him their throw before the match begin. The one with the more vertical throw can then be given a choice of whether he wants the opponent to at least throw as vertical or not. I am sure once this rule is announced, most, if not all, players will immediately learn to throw vertically as it would disadvantaged themselve should they be required to make more vertical throw on the day of competition. If this idea is not crazy enough, I will try my best to come up with something else

Cheers.

No one has ever thanked me for the volunteer work as the ITTF President !

Adham,

I, for one, had no idea the ITTF Presidency was a voluntary position. It makes me wonder what percentage of TT players do. Could be the reason for you not receiving the thanks you alluded to above?

I did pass your idea (crazy or brilliant?) to the ITTF's URC (Umpires and referees Committee) and I received one answer so far from the person responsible for Umpires within the Committee. We cannot introduce it as a Rule yet, but it will be introduced as common practice before a match. Here is the answer, preceded by my response:

"This is great. I like your comments. Please introduce this aspect as a regular part of umpire training, this is what I would call, a "cooperative" method, and much better than my suggestion. In fact, the idea from the player is what you seem to support, but to be done at the ball selection level, which is much much better. Thanks for your positive response.

Adham"

On 17-Dec-08, at 12:29 PM, :

Dear Adham,

The proposal is not at all a crazy idea. Actually it worked very well for young players and PTT players who sometimes claim that they have problems throwing the ball correctly. At least such sample throw demonstrates if a player can throw in an acceptable way. I always advise umpires doing that during the ball selection time, not in the field of play, and to remind players to observe the service requirements. Such advice and request for demonstration also gives the message to the players that the umpire will take care of the service action. Normally there is little problem then after the match starts. Even if the player does not serve correctly, they will accept a fault call more easily during the match. Some "top" players may find it annoying to be asked to do so, but those who observe the service rules would also appreciate the intention of such requests. Umpires should be encouraged to take initiative to communicate with players on the service requirement, before and during the competitions. This could be further emphasized in the Handbook for Match Officials and as part of t the training process.

However, it is important for the umpire to control the service at all times, especially during the first 4 points, as you said. The biggest psychological obstacles for some umpires to control services are that whenever there are situations / controversies, the umpires are blamed most of the time, or even have adverse consequences to their umpiring career if the complaint comes from some top players, coaches or officials.. The umpires would only be able to do a good job under a supportive environment and culture. There is much to do in our education, training and support system for umpires.

Regards,

what would it take to start promoting table tennis as a party game? People really enjoy playing it in their basements, when they're with friends, what if we were to put it out there as the sort of thing for people to do when they're out, having a drink with friends? think of it like Disco ten pin bowling, with a bar.

It already exists. Here in the States its called 'beer pong'. And we want to stay as far away from that as possible as it further degrades the idea of this sport as anything other than a joke.

beer pong is a different game, just uses table tennis balls - that's all.

My idea on how to increase the popularity of the sport, I've said it before, but I'm happy to say it again: I think it all depends on media coverage. So what can we do to get more/better coverage?

1: ITTF should have loads of statistic, easily available to any TV-station that wants to broadcast TT-events. The sport journalist loves this kind of stuff, and so do we, the viewers. When Ma Lin steps up to play Samsonov, I want to have the stats, how many times have they played each other, who holds the upper hand? Does it matter if it's best of 5 or 7 games? What about even games? Present and past? This kind of info is needed and as I said, it should be easy to get hold of.

2: Big events! Look at Tennis, they have their grand slams, Golf has their Majors and Table tennis has... Our opens? Come on! Create a couple of big events, preferably in different continents, give them some cool names to show that these comps are more important then the regular opens. An increased winning check might be needed to gather all the best.

3: Not sure if you (ITTF) are trying to sell the sport to media, or if you are offering it to them for free, but I suspect you are trying to sell it. Well, it is hard to sell a product that no one (or at least, very few) wants. So, when you kick of these major events, offer them to TV-stations all over the world, for free! Perhaps with some restriction that they must show at least x hours to get it for free? I'm sure some TV-stations would accept this offer, which would give the sport a great opportunity to catch attention. Later on, when people knows about the event and hopefully start to look forward to it, then you can start charging money for it.

Those are my ideas on how to improve the popularity of the sport.

I think TV coverage is great where you can get it, but what's better is the matches you are streaming on the ITTF site. I would make it a priority to update that technology (the size too small now). We're currently on the verge of a paradigm shift. Very soon, it won't be uncommon for people to watch webcasts on their TVs so you soon won't be so much at the mercy of these networks, you can broadcast it yourself. And you need to get the associations to heavily promote these webcasts. In fact, you can offer a 24-hour on-line table tennis web channel (streaming or on demand). The beauty of this is the associations can send in footage of their tournaments and the various countries can get recognition for their players also. This, of course, will encourage more participation in the game and each webcast will offer contact information where people can go to start playing. This channel can also offer training videos, which would be quite popular. Your countryman Wayne Gretsky once made a comment that has become one of the main philosophies I apply in my life and business (and table tennis). "A good hockey player skates to where the puck is. A great hockey player skates to where the puck is going to be."