By Greg Letts, About.com Guide August 25, 2011
Article source: http://tabletennis.about.com/b/2011/08/25/table-tennis-quiz-question-14-answers.htm
I’m going to slip back into grumpy old man mode for a little while, while I publish a rant concerning the ITTF’s failure to provide a workable racket control system for eliminating the use of speed glue, boosters, tuners and the practice of factory tuning.
But rather than just criticize from the sidelines, I thought I’d throw out a suggestion for the ITTF regarding a different approach to racket control – one that might just work for a change. As to whether I’ve blundered as badly as I think the ITTF has, or whether I’ve come up with something worth thinking about, I’ll leave up to you to decide.
But three years after the initial speed glue/booster ban, looking at the current state of the sport regarding allegedly undetectable boosters and factory tuned rubbers, and the lack of affordable testing methods, I think it’s fair to say that the ITTF aren’t making racket control a high priority.
Article source: http://tabletennis.about.com/b/2011/08/19/does-the-ittf-condone-cheating.htm
This week I’ve actually got 6 quiz questions for the price of one, simply because I started with an original scenario and then kept thinking of interesting variations that demanded a quiz of their own!
The Original Scenario
Player A smashes the ball at a wide angle, so that the ball hits Player B’s court and flies out wide to Player B’s left side. There are no barriers in place to separate the court areas. Player B runs to his left and collides with Player C, who is playing on the adjacent court, and consequently Player B fails to make a good return. In the umpire’s opinion, Player B would have reached the ball if not for the collision. What should the umpire do?
Scenario 2:
Player A smashes the ball at a wide angle, so that the ball flies out of the playing court. There are barriers in place to separate the court areas. Player B runs through the barriers and collides with Player C, who is playing a match on the adjacent court, and consequently Player B fails to make a good return. In the umpire’s opinion, Player B would have reached the ball if not for the collision. What should the umpire do?
Scenario 3:
There are no barriers in place to separate the court areas. Player A smashes the ball so that it bounces up high and deep to the back of Player B’s side of the court, but in line with the table itself (i.e. straight down the middle of the table). As Player B is getting ready to hit the ball, Player C, who is playing a match on an adjacent court, chases down a wide smash from Player D and collides with Player B in the process, preventing Player B from making a good return. What should the umpire do?
Scenario 4:
There are barriers in place to separate the court areas. Player A smashes the ball so that it bounces up high and deep to the back of Player B’s side of the court, but in line with the table itself (i.e. straight down the middle of the table). As Player B is getting ready to hit the ball, Player C, who is playing a match on an adjacent court, chases down a wide smash from Player D, runs through the barriers between the tables, and collides with Player B in the process, preventing Player B from making a good return. What should the umpire do?
Scenario 5:
There are no barriers in place to separate the court areas. Player A smashes the ball so that it bounces up high and wide to the left side of Player B. Player B runs to his left and positions himself to play the ball, ending up in line with Player C’s table and behind Player C, who is playing a match on the adjacent court. Player C moves backwards to return a smash from Player D, and collides with the stationary Player B. What should the umpire do?
Scenario 6:
There are barriers in place to separate the court areas. Player A smashes the ball so that it bounces up high and wide to the left side of Player B. Player B runs to his left, runs through the barriers between the courts, and positions himself to play the ball, ending up in line with Player C’s table and behind Player C, who is playing a match on the adjacent court. Player C moves backwards to return a smash from Player D, and collides with the stationary Player B. What should the umpire do?
As per usual, I’ll post my own thoughts on the answers next week.
Article source: http://tabletennis.about.com/b/2011/08/19/table-tennis-quiz-question-14.htm
While table tennis players of different levels have different training needs and capacities, no player wants to go into a tournament feeling stale and over-trained.
I recently suffered that exact problem due to a simple but costly mistake that I would have easily avoided with a few minutes of thought. And while such a silly error is kind of embarrassing, I thought I’d share my experience with being stale in table tennis anyway, on the principle that while you can learn a lot from your errors, it’s even better to learn from somebody else’s mistakes!
Article source: http://tabletennis.about.com/b/2011/08/11/a-stale-tale-over-training-in-table-tennis.htm
By Greg Letts, About.com Guide August 11, 2011
Article source: http://tabletennis.about.com/b/2011/08/11/table-tennis-quiz-question-13-answer.htm
It’s been a while since my last quiz question, and this particular scenario was inspired by an incident in a recent tournament I was at, where one player queried whether his opponent was allowed a towel break at the change of ends in the final game of their match.
The Scenario
Player A is leading Player B 4-1 in the fifth and final game of a match. Player B wins the next point, making the score 4-2, and both players take a towel break. Player A wins the next point, making the score 5-2, and the players change sides, with Player B taking another towel break at this point.
Player A wins the next point making the score 6-2, and Player B calls a timeout, grabbing his towel to use during the timeout.
Once the timeout is over, Player A wins the next point, making the score 7-2, at which point Player B claims to have sweat on his glasses, and wishes to take another break and use his towel to remove the sweat from his lenses.
Player A protests to the umpire against this interruption, claiming that Player B is trying to unfairly delay the game. What should the umpire do?
As per usual, I’ll post my own thoughts on the answer next week.
Article source: http://tabletennis.about.com/b/2011/08/04/table-tennis-quiz-question-13.htm
By Greg Letts, About.com Guide August 2, 2011
Article source: http://tabletennis.about.com/b/2011/08/02/water-based-table-tennis-glue-guide.htm
PLEASE CHECK BELOW AS SOME OF THE CLOSED DATES HAVE CHANGED
PLEASE NOTE: 3/24 HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE LIST BELOW!!!
NO TABLE TENNIS AT THE JCC THESE DATES:
SAT 3/24
SAT 3/31 (HIGH SCHOOL TOURNAMENT)
SAT 4/7
SUN 4/8
SAT 4/14
SUN 5/27
JULY 4TH — WED 7/4
GREAT NEWS
STARTING FEB 20TH SUNDAY TABLE TENNIS WILL BE IN ONE OF THE GYMS AGAIN FOR THE MOST PART NOW THAT BASKETBALL SEASON IS OVER!
BAD NEWS
IF BALLS DO NOT STOP (WALKING OFF) AT VERY HIGH PRESENT RATE ON SATURDAYS WE WILL HAVE TO STOP SUPPLYING BALLS ON SATURDAYS.
I KNOW THAT SOME BALLS GET BROKEN AND A FEW DO GET LEFT IN POCKETS ACCIDENTLY, BUT NOT 20 PLUS EACH SATURDAY.
IF YA’LL WANT BALLS SUPPLIED ON SATURDAYS, YOU WANT TO HAVE A TALK WITH SOME OF THE PLAYERS
((REMEMBER YOU GET TO PLAY FREE AT THE JCC))
