learning curve + equipment

Your thoughts are not uncommon and are well intentioned.   What that means in thr face of the status quo and the direction the sport has currently evolved is hard to say.  My best guess is that one should try to form a inverted table tennis with regulations and limits based on a standard setup.  It just might catch on and beat hard bat.  But spin makes the sport hard for most but I think a standard setup for everyone will put some guard rails around that.

I think something should be done to standardize the equipment.  The sport is already too difficult for most people to attempt let alone watch. 

The bottom line in table tennis is that a player must instantaneous correctly react to the speed, location and spin of the ball, make a judgement then correctly provide a response.  If you start playing at 2, nice fast neural pathways will develop and you have a lot of time to react correctly and do the correct thing.  If you start at 12, these pathways won't be as good as those who started earlier and you will have less time and probably never be able to compete with the people who started at 2.  If you start at 16, well a national team coach in China I knew put it this way "Waldner was the most naturally talented player ever, even if he started playing at 16 with every advantage possible, he would probably only make a province team in China, if that." 


Edited by Lightspin - 02/20/2024 at 11:36pm

The thought of a standardized setup is like the idea of making everybody pay the same %age of their revenue in taxes. We start again from a clean slate and next thing we know, there is an exception here, an exemption there and in no time it's the same mess all over again.

Edited by stiltt - 02/21/2024 at 10:45am

idk, can't we have one thing that's difficult?  

I'm with Vanjr on this one.  I've played sports all my life and table tennis is the sport I've had the most trouble trying to play the game well.  Friends ask my why I stick with a sport that is so difficult for me to play. My answer is always "I refuse to let the sport beat me"  I will keep playing until I feel I have beaten the sport.  Unfortunately I'm a long way from my goal.  

Edited by mts388 - 03/29/2024 at 1:33pm

Edited by king_pong - 03/30/2024 at 4:50pm

What's needed is a leadership imposing hardbat and smooth only events in rated tournaments. If the tournament director wants their event to be USATT rated, they will make sure to have the relevant mandatory hardbat only and smooth/sponge only events along with the traditional ones. It would be an inexpensive way to force local communities to promote simpler games while the traditional mayhem where spin gets crazy complicated still lives on strong, the latter being very important to manufacturers without the approval of whom nothing will happen.