OOAK Table Tennis Forum

The ITTF is doing their best to wreck the sport of competitive table tennis, but they fully support the abomination known as TTX.

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Yep, I'm certainly no fan!

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I saw this, and honestly wondered how they thought this was a good way to promote table tennis as a serious sport in the U.S. This just continues the image that it's a basement recreational activity to play while drinking. I just can't see this converting the casual player/observer of this event into someone who wants to seriously train or watch world class matches on a regular basis.

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I'm pretty sure they are not promoting table tennis here, they are promoting TTX. Hoping, perhaps, that there will be some uptake into TT as well, or just expecting to make some money off it. I have my doubts.

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And then, they say low friction pips are damaging to the sport???

What damages the sport most? promoting the idea of tt as a basement recreational game for the happy go lucky generation + alcohol and pills or low friction pips?

Well done, Ittf !! .

They promote TTX alright,...Who can take tt seriously while practising TTX? what % will really turn into serious training tt players ?

Yes, making money out of it is the most sensible idea .That's what the ITTF likes : Money .

If beer pong, and sand-paper paddles now flourishing worldwide -- why not TTX ??

Because it is a joke .

Sandpaper is definitely not a joke. Have you seen the videos on YouTube? Huge prize money up for grabs. It's even in China now. Beer Pong, on the other hand... actually, come to think of it.. the top level Beer Pong tournaments have prize money that dwarfs anything available in table tennis.

What people forget here is how difficult table tennis, as played with sponge sandwich, is to the general public. I've seen this first hand - for Chinese New Year last year they set up one table for several days in a shopping mall, in a prominent area (wish I'd taken photos). I brought a bag of bats there one evening, unfortunately no other table tennis enthusiasts showed up so I had to hit the ball back and forth with random people walking by. It was pretty much impossible - ANY hint of spin and the ball would fly off into the outer regions. If I ever did that again I'd bring a couple of cheap hardbats (or buy a couple at the Daiso nearby). The thinking behind TTX (whether you "like" it or not) is to come up with a game anyone - ANYONE - over the age of four, that is.. can at least get the ball back with. Yeah, like Pickleball. It's not table tennis, and isn't meant to appeal to the same people. And like it or not, I think eventually there will be experts, playing a pretty high level (much like you have with Pickleball), and the best of these experts will be ex-table tennis players, for obvious reasons. For this to happen, though, they'll have to do things right - line up sponsors, hold large events, and then get to holding elite tournaments with lots of prize money.

As I said elsewhere (trust NotBob to immediately start another TTX thread for obvious reasons ) some of us will see this as a threat, some of us will call the ITTF "stupid", and pretty much all of us will say this isn't for us. What will happen in the end? It depends. On ITTF. If they play their cards right this COULD be the next Extreme Sport on ESPN, and will become part of the X-Games. If so, well, I'll probably ignore it most of the time anyway, since it doesn't concern me... I feel the entire Extreme Sports thing kinda silly anyhow..

Iskandar

It does embody X-Games elements of risk. For example, there's an extreme risk that the crappy TTX bat won't grip the ball, and a very high risk that any given TTX player can't hold the bat properly or hit the ball.

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"Once you get past a certain threshold, everyone's problems are the same: fortifying your island and hiding the heat signature from your fusion reactor." –Doctor Impossible

Not really an "extreme risk" - it's a 100% certainty that the bat's not going to grip the ball. I think that's the idea, after all.. As for not gripping the bat properly - pause at 0:18.. that's what I call the American Basement Grip. You'll see frat kids employing it in the Intramurals (usually one of the Independents wins... usually some grad student who actually plays table tennis instead of being forced to play for their House).

Iskandar

The idea is to get the general public to play vs some other activity.

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TTX is a distraction from the demands of amateur and professional TT.

ITTF needs to focus on getting the rules and regs setup so a sane person can follow. Like allowing minimum friction pips and non-VOC boosters.

Figure out simple ways of reducing hidden serves ( I still see a lot of body shadow hiding the contact point ... and that fiasco that is Austrian National finals ... with the no-look serve and crap ... )

Service should be performed with no distraction elements ... maybe eliminate the foot stomping as well it won't be popular ... but at least players have less excuses for trying to "trick" the opponent with non-game mechanics ...

During the rally making foot noise as part of movement is fine ... but deliberate attempts to distract the opponent from playing his stroke should call for a let and a warning.

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Actually all of the above shouldn't take much time at all. They're just rules, after all.. obscure rules of an obscure sport most people don't care about anyway (we're a tiny minority, folks... and our opinion doesn't really matter that much, see below ) It's just that, as with everything, not everyone agrees with what needs to be done or what is desirable. Some people would vehemently disagree with allowing "minimum friction" pips and some (Igor) would disagree with boosters of any sort. To some people, ANYTHING the ITTF does (including doing NOTHING) is BAD (and this is, to them, obvious.. ).

The ITTF has a LOT MORE on it's plate than coming up with a few rules that are supposed to satisfy everyone - there are developmental programs for Juniors to, er, develop. There is equipment to approve (and fees to collect). There are tournaments to organize (and sanction). There are pro players to rank. There are videos to be made (and contracts with TV networks to, er, contract). There is a web site to develop. There are National Organizations to coddle and satisfy (and be sure, THEY carry a LOT MORE WEIGHT than a bunch of hobbyists posting on the Internet). If TTX is going to be a distraction to worry about, it would be a distraction from this other stuff. Not the stuff WE care about.

Iskandar

That’s actually an improvement over the default grip I see in most of my school groups. It takes a couple of school terms to get maybe just half of them to stop holding the bat like it’s a dead fish.

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"Once you get past a certain threshold, everyone's problems are the same: fortifying your island and hiding the heat signature from your fusion reactor." –Doctor Impossible

Trying to imagine how one holds a dead fish... I suppose it'd depend on the size of the fish.

The most extreme versions of the Greater American Basement Grip involve a rigid thumb pressed up against the back of the blade. It's kind of the opposite of the penhold grip - all backhand, no forehand - balls to the forehand side involve tilting the body in that direction and hopping on one foot, while twisting the arm so that the bat head faces down. I think the frat kids teach it to each other.

Iskandar