The game was sped up naturally in the 50s due to rubber and sponge added to the paddles, a bit like stronger strings and rackets in tennis allowing a firmer strike.Don wrote:I don't know much about table tennis. But I was told by a local tournament player that the game had been sped up a lot in recent years and that included ball and paddle changes. But that was probably close to 30 years ago. Are the change you are talking about more recent? I confess this is not something I know much about.Albert Silver wrote:Actually, it is just the opposite: the balls are slower.Don wrote:For sports you can have equipment changes, what is allowed and what is not and as in table tennis the game was sped up with faster balls and such.
I am not a big fan of speeding up games just for the sake of speeding them up. I know that tennis is much faster and more aggressive than it used to be many years ago because of faster surfaces and high technology raquets and such. In fact I MUCH prefer long rallies in tennis as opposed to 4 aces in a row, game over. When the really big servers came along with the shorter points there was talk of changing something, such as requiring servers to stand back a little more or only allowing one serve. The one serve idea seems a lot more logical to me, it seems silly to build an error like a first serve fault into the rules but I'm sure that would not be a popular proposal. How about making the first return not count if it goes out? Or how about letting the golfer have a second shot at his drive if he doesn't like the first one?
I am used to the 5x thing. Does this work like tennis tie-breaks where the first time you only get one serve to avoid the first serve advantage? Or is it always 2 serves even the first one?
The old format had sets of 21 points with each player serving five times. Now the sets are 11 points with each player serving twice. The ball is larger, creating greater drag and slowing it down. The game had few long exchanges at the highest level due to the extreme speed. Now monster rallies are not rare.
I have seen many table tennis video's, I'm surprised it's not more popular because it is more fun to watch than any other sport I know of.
Here is a video of:
One of the greatest recorded rallies of all time.
Waldner is one the greatest players of all-time, the Capablanca of table tennis.
In 2000, the ball size was increased, for the reasons explained, and in 2001 the set format was changed. Each player serves twice in a row from beginning to end. To compensate the shorter sets, more sets were added to decide official matches. All matches and events use this format and 21-point sets are not used in any competitions anymore.
The reason for the changes in set length was that it was not uncommon for players to worry little about large deficits in the first ten points as they knew they had plenty of time to catch up. Now this is no longer the case, so the first points are harder fought.