OOAK Table Tennis Forum

just a quick question for you guys,since everyone hates net and edge ball (to the point of not apologizing for one is considered rude) why do we just rework them ? I personaly believe that a net point as is today should count towards the opponent's score and not to the other player who either made a mistake and will get rewarded for such with a point or who straight up tried to "cheese" the match

I'll let you in on a secret. We only pretend to hate nets and edges when we get them. That's why we have to apologize, because we are so happy.

When the other guy gets them, that we hate.

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

Yoko Ono

Can't agree with you here
The world can't be binary - there will always be a third (or n-th) element. In case of our sport - luck
Nothing bad about it. If your opponent is more lucky today - then so be it. That's life for you. You can't control everything

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My ooak blog.

What do mean by "cheese" the match?

Iskandar

I actually like nets and edges from both sides. I think it's awesome to catch those balls and even better if I can snake it into a point. though more than often I fail in the heat of battle... but the difficulty is part of the fun.

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~ Puttin' pressure on you kids like I'm a soccer mom. ~

I suppose if it were technically feasible to eliminate edge and net balls it would have been done a long time ago, but it's not, so there's no point in obsessing about it..

Iskandar

It seems that quite often the nets and edges go for you when you are on top and against you if you are losing .
There is a team of old timers that keeps the net deliberatley slack to enable more net balls to creep over from their low trajectory ox short/medium pips rubbers!I managed to tighten the net without detection during a break in play and the game became more normal
,

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Tsp Black Balsa 3.0 Tenergy 05 1.9 388d ox black

Net and edge ball is part of the game.

What I want to be removed in the rules is during service. There should be continuity of play. Net ball during serve should not be called a let.

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Enjoy the game. It is a never ending learning experience once you play and keep the ball on that 45 sq ft of space or should I say half of that space.

Table tennis is a fast and dinamic sport, it's hard even with high technology to identify some net points, just imagine how many soft touches of the net are during the points, many of them not seen/felt/heard by both of the players, and how many disputes will be if one players seems to have seen a net ball and the other not.

Personally, I am for the simplicity of the game and all the ambiguous situations should be avoided, that's why I considered one of the best decisions made by ITTF that of the hand+ball or hand+bat+ball, which are now valid balls, since in the past not all the players accepted that they double touched the ball with the hand and the bat.

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I don't seek to eliminate the net and edge balls, I simply propose what i consider a better way of awarding points

I suppose it could be done if the net was a rigid object instead, that way if the ball were to graze it the spin would stay the "same" further more it can be angled in such a way to make any ball go back to the side where it came from. A isosceles triangle perhaps.

The net would have to be made out of a harder material. Like you see on outdoor tables, they sometimes have hard plastic nets. It wouldn't eliminate nets 100% but it would likely dramatically reduce the number that do go on the table, you'd completely eliminate the "dribblers" that just roll over. As far as edges go...I don't see how they could ever be eliminated.

Close to the table blockers and flat hitters seem to get the most nets because of the style. I was playing a friend who is a long pips blocker last week, we played 10 games, he got at least 2 balls that hit the net and dribbled over every game. So frustrating, but obviously not intentional.

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"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

To me it works like this:
I try to put pressure on my opponent. He tries to put pressure on me. A lot of this pressure comes from precise placement:

• To the pocket (out of your "power zone") vs. at an angle (out of reach, or moving you out of position for your next return).
• Long vs. short.
• Low over the net

The aim is often close to the edge (net edge or table edge), and the better player is the one who can come closest without missing.

So, the better player will, in the long run, get the most edge balls. Each single edge is perhaps lucky, but if one player consistently gets more edges points compared to another, the difference is due to quality of play, not luck.

The fix to "dribblers" is a tight net, as the rules specify. Get yourself a 100g "heavy" net gauge and use it as per the rules (you'll be surprised how tight the net has to be to conform to the rules). It helps if your net is a high quality one where you can actually pull the necessary cord tension without the brackets shifting (this eliminates most of those "clothespin" style brackets). It won't completely eliminate dribblers but it does eliminate almost all of them. How many do you see during televised pro matches?

One of the sillier rules proposals that have ever been made was to increase the height of the net "because players these days use shots that go way over the net height when crossing the net anyway". Sure, that might be true for loopers, but how about blockers, hitters and choppers?

Iskandar

I think the nets should just use a metal bar of some sort instead of string along the top. Then, there's never a decrease in tension. I also remember seeing that proposal for a higher net. As if they haven't done enough in the game to handicap non-looping styles.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5