TT Legend - Victor Barna

takaaki wrote: "Sandwich rubber has dominated for about fifty years." actually, that should read "sandwich rubber and northeast asians have dominated for about 50 yrs."  i read somewhere that it was the japanese who developed the loop drive and that's what put the nail in the coffin of the hardbat game.  for the better, i feel--we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one... "There used to be more spectator interest." and that one should be "there used to be more spectator interest here in the usa (and the uk) when we (they) had players ranked in the top-20." "spectator interest" always takes a dive in a country where their players take a dive in the rankings, in large part due to a lack of "commercial interest" in a non-contender.  i remember TT getting way more TV coverage 20-30 yrs. ago here in the us (robert trudell has posted a lot of the broadcasts here) when we had top-20 players.  once they disappeared, the commercial interest disappeared and so went the "spectator interest." now, the only tt we can see are foreign broadcasts on foreign tv or livestreams on foreign websites over the 'net from countries that do have high-ranked players.  and as time has progressed, these broadcasts and livestreams have increased, the latter in part due to advances in digital technology.

god forbid that I should ever agree with takaaki, but I think i agree with him here.

Baal wrote: wturber wrote: Right.  That's the point.  Sandwich rubber has dominated for about fifty years.  There used to be more spectator interest. I used to read this debate in the early 1970s, thought it was gone for good. It is an idiotic argument.  The tectonic plates in the Atlantic ocean are moving away from each other.  My hair is turning gray.  A correlation!  The moving tectonic plates are making my hair turn gray!

It was a response to a comment that in the poster's experience table tennis has never been spectator popular.  And it points out his limited exposure.

Sure - correlation does not prove causation.  But correlation can be a good cause for investigation.  And personally, I think there was more interest in the game in the past not because of longer rallies, but simply because the public could more easily relate to the game.  They could relate more easily because the game was much more like the one that they played at home, schools, and clubs.  The public has a much harder time relating to and even understanding the sandwich game.  Tensor rubber? Reverse penhold backhand? Pendulum serve?  It's all foreign to them and they have no idea what's going on until and unless players get into a counter-looping rally.  Then it makes sense - for a moment or two.

Actually, if you listened to the interviews during the Olympics in China, the youth is moving away from table tennis. They see it more and more as an older generation's sport.  Also, the popularity of table tennis in China was due to huge government influences that made it cultural.  Which gets to my main thesis.  We have little cultural connection to high speed, high spin sandwich table tennis.  We have a better cultural connection with less spinny hardbat.

Sure.  People like local winners.  But more importantly, they like to relate to the sport.  If you play weekend tennis and golf, it is fairly easy to relate to the pro versions.  Sure, the pros are more athletic.  But the action is easy to understand, follow and relate to your own experience playing.

Go to a book or sporting goods store and compare the shelf space that is occupied by football, baseball, basketball, tennis and golf to the shelf space given to table tennis.  Those five are sports that are ingrained into our culture.  But table tennis in this country is not played in a manner that is very similar to what we see with elite play.  There's a huge disconnect.

Baal wrote: None of this has anything to do with inverted rubber, glue, carbon, ball size, number of points in a game.

IMO, it comes down to culture. It is a bottom-up process.  If you can get the U.S. culture involved in inverted table tennis, then spectator interest will rise.  The same goes for hardbat.  But failing that, it has been my experience that most non-table tennis folks find hardbat matches more compelling.  That said, that won't be enough to build viewership.

Baal wrote: takaaki wrote: "Sandwich rubber has dominated for about fifty years." actually, that should read "sandwich rubber and northeast asians have dominated for about 50 yrs."  i read somewhere that it was the japanese who developed the loop drive and that's what put the nail in the coffin of the hardbat game.  for the better, i feel--we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one... "There used to be more spectator interest." and that one should be "there used to be more spectator interest here in the usa (and the uk) when we (they) had players ranked in the top-20." "spectator interest" always takes a dive in a country where their players take a dive in the rankings, in large part due to a lack of "commercial interest" in a non-contender.  i remember TT getting way more TV coverage 20-30 yrs. ago here in the us (robert trudell has posted a lot of the broadcasts here) when we had top-20 players.  once they disappeared, the commercial interest disappeared and so went the "spectator interest." now, the only tt we can see are foreign broadcasts on foreign tv or livestreams on foreign websites over the 'net from countries that do have high-ranked players.  and as time has progressed, these broadcasts and livestreams have increased, the latter in part due to advances in digital technology. god forbid that I should ever agree with takaaki, but I think i agree with him here.

nice glasses, baal!!  where did you get 'em??