Lets and lets not

 How often has this happened: At an important, if not critical juncture in a match, someone puts up their hand or calls a stoppage in play, because of  borderline interference from another ball or player. It may be just a ball whizzing at the back of the player, or someone from another table making a sudden move that mildly distracted, perhaps, the player calling the let. It can be infuriating, because very often( not in all cases) it is the carelessness and/or laziness of someone, that caused that ball to come into the playing area. Once, it cost me a match, two people who were practising nearby, and not seriously at that, shot their ball into my table as i was about to win at match point, causing a technically justified let. Over the years, I've had about 50 points called back because of questionable lets. And people have pulled tantrums when I questioned a let or didn't take the initiative to stop the play. That's largely because in that exact situation, I wouldn't myself call a let! So I assume the point is good. In fact, the mini-tantrums I pull are because lets are called, not the opposite. I would call a let if a player actually ran into me during the point, or if the balls collided( duh!), Not for just about anything else. And if a ball is wet( incidentally, does anyone know the ittf rule on wet balls during play) I would excuse it, in the hope that the next one would be okay- meaning that if the ball dropped on the floor and the point over, it's good, but please try to keep the following one dry.  It's probable that a large number, if not a majority of lets are not legit, if there was an umpire they wouldn't be called.

My approach is simple.  I'm very conservative about calling lets, but I'm very liberal at tolerating lets called by my opponents since I can't know the extent to which something is distracting.  I find that many of the players I play with will follow my lead in being hesitant to call lets. Aside from this, my only advice is to "let" it go when lets annoy you.  Failing to do that just amplifies the problem.

I am one of those people who call a let very rarely and unwillingly. 

Yep, it needs to be done that way... Thx.

Korean amatures address these situations by a convention where it is only a let when you run int a player in an adjacent court or a ball from another court bounces on your table. That is it. EVERY thing else goes, to include players retrieving a ball from under your table during the rally, etc.

"It's obvious that you are allowing them to affect you far too much. Accept it and move on.
Lets and calling of nets whether or not they are justified are part of the game of TT. The only way to bring some neutrality is to have all your matches played with 2 umpires overseeing. Otherwise....."

BH-Man wrote: Korean amatures address these situations by a convention where it is only a let when you run int a player in an adjacent court or a ball from another court bounces on your table. That is it. EVERY thing else goes, to include players retrieving a ball from under your table during the rally, etc.

Fulanodetal wrote: Some opponents will call a let for the purpose of throwing you off. Really shitty and cheap way to play. The reality is that there are SOME players who have no sense of good sporstmanship. I suppose someone is gonna come and say, "just dont let that bother you and focus". Which I would agree with. But I still want to rant about the poor sportsmanship and thats what the internet is for. FdT