Slippery flooring in table tennis

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gingertom

Post subject: Slippery flooring in table tennis

Posted: 24 Sep 2019, 21:02

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Hi looking for some advise from other clubs with regards slippery flooring. I have 2 venues in my league which are generally unplayable unless the floor is washed between sets. Still not that safe washed.
I am looking into alternative ways of making footwear nonslip ie. spraying bat cleaner on soles etc. and possible ways of making the flooring safe without wetting. Any suggestions.
Also if a player refuses to play on grounds of safety what stance do most leagues take. Do they side with the club or the player?
Its easy for most committees to bury their heads in the sand as they do not want to lose any clubs from their leagues, but shouldn't player safety be paramount. We have quite a few players in their late sixties and seventies and a fall would be a lot harder for them to recover from. I'm not a health and safety jobsworth just seems to me in table tennis there is not much care provided on the safety side of the game.
There seems to be no general health and safety guidance on TTE website.
Any suggestions/information would be most appreciated. Thank you.

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alphapong

Post subject: Re: Slippery flooring in table tennis

Posted: 25 Sep 2019, 05:30

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At nationals we normally have red TT flooring only on some of the courts. The other courts are bare smooth concrete. One year they provided trays that had a large piece of sticky tape in them. You would step on the tray and it would pull the dust off the bottom of your shoes. I came to realize, if your shoes are very clean, then you have good traction on almost any surface.

So after looking at various materials to clean the bottoms of shoes, I have finally settled on "Dish Drying Mat" that I get at the Dollar store.

I cut each mat into 6 square pieces. I place the pieces along side the tables, and provide a spray bottle to make them damp. Most players don't need the spray bottle, as they can just pour a little from their water bottle. If I was really cheap, I could launder them after a week or 2. But, since each pad is only 16 cents, I generally just toss them after they become dirty.

By providing the traction pads, I can get away from people making a mess with their own solutions, such as pouring water directly on the floor, or on paper towels or toilet paper.

Attachments:

mat.jpg [ 224.59 KiB | Viewed 1234 times ]

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mart1nandersson

Post subject: Re: Slippery flooring in table tennis

Posted: 25 Sep 2019, 06:26

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A proper floor for TT is the best option. You can get flooring that you can install and remove fairly easily but this is obviously quite expensive.

The alternative is to place a wet towel on the floor close to the net and simply rub your soles against it every now and then.

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iskandar taib

Post subject: Re: Slippery flooring in table tennis

Posted: 25 Sep 2019, 13:32

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There is, apparently, "ITTF Certified" flooring.

If it's a concrete or tiled floor, you could try... Coca Cola.

Spread it around, allow to dry.

Reminds me of a short story I read once. It involved an amateur stage production, which was some sort of opera, performed on a stage that sloped at a steep angle towards the audience, and had two Greek columns at the sides. To prevent the cast from sliding downhill, they poured a couple of bottles worth of Coca Cola onto the floor and allowed it to dry. Unfortunately, a few hours before the performance, the cleaners came through and mopped the floor (including the sloped stage). So when the curtain came up, the first performer came onstage and immediately started sliding down the slope. She grabbed onto one of the pillars. The next person came onstage and grabbed onto her. Eventually you had eight or ten people on stage, all hanging onto the pillars and each other. The singing never stopped. By this time, the audience was splitting their sides laughing. Wish I could find that article again.

When I was in college we played in these basketball gyms with beautiful polished wooden floors - which unfortunately were fairly slippery. The fix was proper court shoes. Still, there were people spitting on the floor and spreading the saliva around to make the floor less slick. Orange balls were all but invisible, the walls were also the same wood. I also remember one or two people doing the wet towel thing.

Iskandar

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igorponger

Post subject: Re: Slippery flooring in table tennis

Posted: 25 Sep 2019, 18:04

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IT ALL DISASTER HAPPENED ICE SKATING RINK. FOLLY -FOLLY-HOP-HOP
they neglegancy of ITTF Technical Guidance. Russia, September 2019.

Technical Leaflet T6.
Table Tennis Flooring wrote:

Under-layer or under-construction

A thin floor mat, typically up to a thickness of 5mm, only shall be used on an underground with sporting properties, never directly on concrete or tiles. A thicker floor mat may have sporting properties good enough to be used directly on a rigid ground; but it may possibly not be suitable to be used on a sports floor or other supple underground.
If the floor cannot be used directly on a floor not showing adequate resilient properties like concrete, an undercarriage or under-construction introducing the missing sporting features is needed; it may ensure the same properties all over the playing area. This may be an existing sports floor, preferably a combined-elastic sports floor. This may be an under-construction specially designed and set up for the tournament, with a reduced area-elasticity to prevent the table from moving when the player jumps. Such under-construction may be a wooden undercarriage lying on joists and felts. It may be Styropor i.e. expanded polystyrene (28 to 30mm thick) or another similar point elastic material covered by agglomerate or wood (17 to 19mm thick). The pieces of the under carriage shall connect in a way that play does not create horizontal or vertical shifts, and that their junction does not line the synthetic surface floor mat. Additionally, the designer of a floor or an under construction must take care that it does not produce noise; a thin, soft but tear-proof under-layer directly on concrete may help.
For an under-construction using wood or derivatives the supplier shall add a certificate that it does not release formaldehyde (tests EN 717-1 and EN 717-2).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWaL9ouoP3M

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