You're Tearing Me Apart

The 2024 World Championships began today in Busan. I was supposed to go to the 2020 edition of this tournament, but some weird disease showed up and caused the event to be cancelled. It's great that South Korea will finally get to host the Worlds.

Then on February 26th and 27th will be meetings of the ITTF Council and the AGM, where elected officials will consider making a few minor changes to the rules. They will also consider a couple major changes: Council Proposition IC-14 and AGM Proposition A-05, both of which I believe will be detrimental to the sport if they are approved. The first one recreates the environment for one of the messiest situations the sport has ever seen. The story starts with the long time Korean coach . . .

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At the 1995 World Championships, the Korea Republic's Kim Taek Soo had results that were decidedly mixed.

I wasn't there, but you can read news reports about it. In the team semifinal against China, Kim beat Ma Wenge but lost to Wang Tao. China won the team contest 3-2, and would proceed to win the team final against Sweden.

Then in the singles competition, Kim Taek Soo faced Wang Tao again, in perhaps the most controversial World Championships match in the last 70 years.

The official ITTF match results show Wang Tao as the winner, and the scores were 21-18, 21-16, 21-18. But not stated is that Kim Taek Soo was the player who got 21 in each game, not Wang Tao.

Kim Taek Soo would like a moment

You can watch highlights of the match on YouTube. Speed glue, orange 38mm celluloid ball, hidden serves. Kim ran around like crazy and you can clearly see that he won the match on the court. So what happened?

In 1995, racket testing was expensive and slow, and the testing was only done after the match. Kim's racket was found to be illegal, with a solvent emission level higher than permitted, and so he was disqualified. He won the match on the court, but lost in the laboratory.

It is very rare for this to happen today. Players submit their rackets in advance, and racket testing only takes a few minutes. If a racket is found to be illegal, the player can simply play with a different, legal racket. The only time a racket is tested after a match is if the player has really screwed up and showed up late for their match. This doesn't happen in major tournaments.

If Kim Taek Soo had been given the opportunity to use a legal racket, he might still have won the match and gone on to win the tournament. Speed glue doesn't give you better footwork.

Wang Tao, both the winner and the loser

If Wang Tao had been given the opportunity to play against Kim using a legal racket, he might have become the men's singles champion that year. After all, he was the highest ranked Chinese player, and the highest ranked player left in the tournament. He automatically advanced to the semifinal due to Kim's disqualification, but I suspect he didn't permit himself to become a world champion with an asterisk. "If they tell me to play, I will play but in my heart I know I have already lost." Wang Tao lost the semifinal to his teammate Liu Guoliang in what has been described as an exhibition match.

There was a third loser in all of this: table tennis. Other sports have newsworthy disqualifications for reasons like steroids, unsportsmanlike conduct, clandestine signaling devices, etc. Using glue that's too aromatic? What kind of sport is this?

I don't care to judge what Kim did or didn't do. My concern is with the system, and the pre-match racket testing protocol we have today is superior because from a competition perspective, a post-match disqualification is a major, almost catastrophic problem. If a player has an illegal racket, tell him before the match so he can play with a legal racket. The players played (and the spectators watched) a match that didn't count. Imagine if everyone were told one hour after the Super Bowl that the losers are actually the winners. The sports books would have to institute a policy where they don't pay out pending the post-match litigation.

Unfortunately we might be going back in time. On February 26, the ITTF Council will meet and vote on Proposition IC-14, which would introduce a new racket testing method and protocol. This testing would involve disassembling the racket and examining the discrete blade and racket coverings - after the match. So perhaps we will see the Kim Taek Soo - Wang Tao situation again in an upcoming World Championships or Olympics.

You can read the details in the book of propositions, pages 20-22 and 162-178.
https://www.ittf.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2024_ITTF_Council_Propositions_EN.pdf

I was a member of the ITTF Equipment Committee for ten years, being responsible for racket coverings, and sharing responsibility for racket control. I took the photos and wrote a lot of the text in the racket control procedures (you can blame me for writing "color" rather than "colour"). I'm familiar with the techniques players use to manipulate their rackets, and a few more that they could use but haven't discovered yet. In 2023 I decided not to stand for another term in the committee.

I was still a member of the committee when they started looking into taking rackets apart. I believe the intentions are good, but throughout the development process I continued to voice my opposition while simultaneously giving them advice. They proceeded onward, and all I can do now is write about it and hope that the ITTF Council votes against the proposition.

It's the racket testers' job to pursue the players. Some players will find a new way to get an advantage, and if it's an illegal advantage, the racket testers need to find it and enforce the rules. With rubber, players look for two main advantages: racket coverings that are as thick as possible (the limit is 4.0mm), and racket coverings with higher elasticity, typically boosted with softeners.

We don't want honest players to have an equipment disadvantage, so we should do what we can to detect and prevent illegal rackets. But this proposed changed to racket control doesn't go about it the right way.

The new racket control procedure describes three things for a tester to look for on the blade of a disassembled racket. One of them is "lacquer near the handle". But having lacquer or any other material near the handle is not illegal. My personal racket has a piece of wood along the bottom edge of the rubber, not for cheating purposes, but for hand support. No player should be penalized for having extra material on the handle.

Does this chunk of wood make my racket illegal?

The other two things to check are related to a "sanded blade" - removing a strip of material to try to fake out the thickness testing device. It is true; there are players who employ these techniques to try to defeat the system. But this kind of manipulation can be detected without racket disassembly. These rackets don't meet the existing flatness requirement, and this defect can be measured without disassembling the racket. The ITTF just needs to adopt a better flatness gauge (which should be quite easy to do) and train people how to measure this. I've disqualified many rackets for this, but maybe I'm the only one.

If you sand a hollow out of your blade, I'll catch you

You don't need to dismantle the racket to measure this

The new procedure also describes measuring the thickness of the racket covering after disassembly. In principle I have no objection to this, but there are important details missing, which I will not write about here because I don't want to give more information to potential cheaters.

Here's my biggest problem with this whole thing: It does nothing to deter or detect boosting. Players will have to go through the ordeal of post-match testing and having their rackets disassembled, and yet there is no test of elasticity or chemical composition to see if the racket covering has been boosted.

It is ironic that this whole thing started as the "boostering" project. If a test for boosters were included, I might be in favor of racket disassembly. As is, the player (and racket tester) will go through all this and the only useful thing you'll learn is whether the rubber is too thick or not. Sure, it's illegal if rubber is too thick, but is it worth all of this trouble when the thickness of the rubber can already be seen with a loupe?

If this proposition passes, I expect the following:

• Very few tournaments will have racket disassembly, so nothing changes for most tournaments.
• In major tournaments, players will have their rackets dismantled post-match. We could have another Kim Taek Soo vs Wang Tao situation, and it will only happen at a big tournament.
  
• In describing things for racket testers to look for, the ITTF has now published a set of techniques that players can use to defeat the standard rubber thickness device. Players who had no intention of sanding their blades can now learn what pros do, so more will do it and the situation will become worse.
• There will be zero reduction in boosting. Players who are concerned about their boosted rubber being too thick will simply start with thinner rubber. The advantage gained by boosting is much greater than the advantage of having a thicker unboosted rubber.

If you know someone who has a vote, or know someone who knows someone who has a vote, I hope you will encourage them to oppose Proposition IC-14.
 

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The other proposition surprised me. The equipment committee and rules committee have made a proposition that will increase the rubber thickness limit.

In summary: When a racket is tested today, rubber with sponge needs to measure less than 4.05mm thick, and rubber without sponge needs to measure less than 2.05mm. The aforementioned Proposition IC-14, combined with Proposition A-05 for the AGM, has the net effect of increasing the limits to 4.10mm and 2.10mm respectively.

Thicker rubber is faster rubber. The ITTF should not be taking action that directly leads to faster rubber. This would be counterproductive to work that's been done over the last few decades:

• In the 1990s, table tennis started the process of eliminating speed glue. This had the side effect of slowing down the game a bit.
• In 2000, table tennis went through a more deliberate process of slowing down the game by increasing the ball size from 38mm to 40mm. It was complicated and a bit of an ordeal, but the sport survived and is better for it.
• Then in the 2010s the ball size increased a tiny bit more with the move to non-celluloid plastics.

That brings us to the sport we have today. From an aesthetic point of view, rallies are far superior to how it was in the past. But each time things changed, professional players were affected. A larger ball, or thicker rubber, or any other change will benefit some players and hurt others. There is an adjustment period for everyone. We can't make changes lightly.

After all of the changes that were made to slow things down, it doesn't make sense to speed things up.

Today's players are faster and stronger than they were ten years ago. Rubber technology continues to advance. If anything, the thickness limit should be reduced to counter these advances. At the professional level, today's play is just as fast as the 38mm speed glued game of the 1990s.

I can say the same about any potential change to the blade rules. People have been talking about blade liberalization, permitting new materials or thicker layers of non-wood fibers. Adding more materials will make the sport faster - you don't see companies marketing new blades or rubber as "New! Improved! 20% slower!" Technology keeps making things faster; the rules should try to counter it, not help accelerate it.

The material advances also hurt the diversity of play styles. I don't think many choppers are excited each time a new attacking blade or rubber is produced. Among world class players, the number of choppers continues to decrease.

I could go deep and argue against the technical reasons in the rationales provided (they are not logical in my opinion), but I don't know if that matters. The rationale for this new proposition doesn't say the intention is to speed up the game, but that would be the end result. I hope someone at the AGM will speak up against it.

Tokyo Recap, Part Two

Larry Thoman, general manager at Newgy and longtime USATT contributor, asked a question: why were most of the divisions at the World Championships played as single elimination during the second stage, instead of the traditional progressive knockout?

In the minutes of the September 2012 meeting of the ITTF Executive Committee, you can find the following notes:

5.6 2014 WTTC update and playing system:
* The proposal to reduce the number of matches particularly in the top 2 divisions would allow a better schedule and prevent the event growing further.
* Eliminating all position matches, including for 13 and 14, would assist with positions 3 and 4, 5 to 8, 9 to 12, 13 and 14 being shared.
* The proposal to the Board of Directors should specify that if approved, the playing system would be implemented in 2014.
* Following the site visit and advice received, the organisers proposed various changes:
    - Fewer courts in the 1st gymnasium.
    - No courts in the swimming pool.
    - Adding the Metropolitan Gymnasium to replace the National Olympic Memorial Youth Centre.
    - Replacing the Keio Plaza Hotel and other hotels by the Prince Hotel which would improve transport logistics as all participants would stay here.
    - All meals could be served in the Prince Hotel although lunch may need to be provided at the venue due to possible time constraints.

Now that the event is over, it appears that the modified playing system was approved - as evidenced by the lack of courts in the swimming pool!

Deliberations at the 2014 AGM

The 2013 and 2014 Worlds both had record numbers of entries. Both tournaments required the use of two separate competition facilities. The complexity of the tournament has been a problem for a long time and it continues to grow - now it takes place every year instead of every two years; more players enter every year with larger entourages; the hospitality demands increase; there is more media. Growing pains are generally a good thing . . . as long as the "pain" part is dealt with. The difficulties include increased costs, higher staff demands, and greater host requirements which lead to fewer sites being capable of hosting the event. (See also: how many cities are bidding to host the Winter Olympics.) A more difficult event also means there are more potential points of failure, and more potential difficulties for the players. For example, the added complexity of requiring two playing halls is quite significant.

It is in almost everyone's best interests to reduce the complexity of the event. In my opinion, removing many of the final positional matches at the Worlds helped accomplish that.

But that's not enough. For the 2017 Worlds, the ITTF received only one bid. What would have happened if that one country had not submitted a bid? It seems that changes need to be made to reduce the host demands at each World Championships.

So at the latest Board of Directors meeting (which i did not attend), they voted to reduce the number of player entries to the Worlds. The number of entries per country continues to be based on the number of top ranked players from that country. Basically:

2013:

• Most countries can enter 5 singles players (per gender)

• Countries with a player ranked in the top 20 can enter 6 players

• Countries with two players in the top 20 can enter 7 players

• The host country can enter 7 players

2015:

• Most countries can enter 3 singles players (per gender)

• Countries with a player ranked in the top 100 can enter 4 players

• Countries with a player ranked in the top 100 and another player ranked in the top 20 can enter 5 players

• The host country can enter 6 players

I estimate that this will reduce the total number of entrants by 10%-15%. But the number of participating countries increases every year, so 10% may be closer to the mark. If i understand correctly, the Executive Committee would like to further reduce the number of entrants in 2017, but that change has not been proposed or passed and nobody knows what will happen. I suspect the general sentiment is that reducing the number of participants is a negative, but we want the World Championships to exist and continue to be a great event, and we want it to be a practical event for more cities.

A hundred world class players and coaches, packed like sardines prior to match time

People who care enough to pay attention to the actions of the ITTF knew that this change was intended to keep the tournament manageable. It's clear from the minutes of several EC meetings that they had been considering different ways to reduce the number of entrants, and accepting proposals from multiple organizations and associations on the best way to do it. In the end this reduction was proposed and passed with 70% in favor.

And then there are those who don't pay attention, and write articles like this: ITTF introduces changes to World Championship in bid to reduce Chinese domination.

"In what comes across a further attempt to reduce the Chinese monopoly on the medals table, the Board have also reduced the numbers of players per association available to play in the Championships."

Huh?

When i first read this line - that the reduction of players is designed to restrict China - i saw it as the typical haters repeating their "blame the ITTF" mantra. But then someone else made the same claim on another forum or blog. And then another.

What is going on?

Can any of the people making this claim cite a reference from the ITTF indicating that the intent of this change is to attack the Chinese team?

Can any of them describe how this change would actually decrease the Chinese players' chances of winning?

Then i heard some claims that the adoption of non-celluloid balls is also an attempt to disrupt Chinese dominance. And the change to 40mm balls. And the switch to 11 point games. Are these people for real?

Here's the reality:

The number of players permitted to enter the World Championships in 2015 will probably be reduced. The intent has nothing to do with China or any other particular country; the purpose is to limit the number of entries and reduce the burden on the host country. The change will have no effect on the performance of the Chinese players.

The number of teams permitted to enter the World Championships in 2016 will be limited to 96 men's teams and 96 women's teams. Again, the intent has nothing to do with China or any other particular country. Reducing the number of teams will reduce the burden on the host country. The change will have no effect on the performance of the Chinese team. (But it will affect the US Men's team; if we're not careful, it is possible that we will lose our eligibility for the Worlds. These changes affect the small countries more than the large ones.)

The adoption of a non-celluloid ball, 40mm ball, or 11 point games had nothing to do with Chinese players or any other particular country.

Personally i'm not satisfied with the way teams will be allocated for the Worlds, or with the language that describes the allocation. But i suspect we'll survive.

The minutes of the ITTF AGM, Board of Directors, and Executive Committee meetings are all public. If you want to understand things, read them yourself. Secondhand reports don't seem to be very reliable at the moment. But i'll attempt to put some weight back on the reality side of things, and describe some other changes that were adopted at this Worlds:

In one of many briefings, umpires are instructed to smile

* Players can now select a match ball. Well, they could kind of select one before, but it's clearer now. In the past, players could select up to three match balls, and one of the selected balls would be randomly chosen for the match. So the players could select three equally good balls and one would be used; or they could select one superior ball and that one would be used, but if it broke they would be stuck with a backup ball that had not been selected. Now, players can do both - select three match balls, and the particular one which will be used first. Not a major change, but one that will reduce a lot of behind-the-scenes aggravation.

* In a return, the ball doesn't need to cross the net. In the past, a return was: strike the ball, cross the net, hit the opponent's side of the table. Now, it will be: strike the ball, hit the opponent's side of the table. The net becomes a defined obstacle, but no more (except for net serves). This is a subtle difference that i hope will have no real effect on match play.

* There is now an ITTF Technical Leaflet for net gauges, written by Nobuyuki Shirakawa (JPN). Many net gauges are used throughout a competition, but there was no formal standard for them until now. Whether there will be ITTF approval of net gauges remains to be seen.

* Changes were made to the Technical Leaflet for balls, maintained by Torsten Kuneth (GER). One of the major changes is that balls approved in the future must have "Made in (country)" on both the ball and the packaging. There was also some relaxation of ball manufacturing tolerances for a year and a half, as production continues to be refined.

* Changes were made to the Technical Leaflet for racket coverings, maintained by me. Most of the changes were clarifications of past issues:
- In the past, the TL stated that a thick non-wood coating on a blade was not permitted, however penhold players often used paint or a paint sheet on their racket which was technically in violation of this restriction. So an exception was made for this specific purpose.
- It has always been implicit that the red side of a racket should be uniformly red; printing on the sponge or blade, or dark wood grain lines, should not show through such that the color is not uniform. But this was often questioned, so this requirement was made explicit.
- The pimple friction requirement was clarified. The laboratory test is unchanged, and no rubbers have had authorization rescinded because of it, but the language was simply made more generic.

* Another thing that we should see in the next issue of the List of Authorized Racket Coverings is a back page which lists all of the rubbers that will be leaving the LARC. This will be useful for players so they can quickly see if the rubber they use is being withdrawn, and for umpires so they don't have to carry around two lists.

* The ITTF now has 220 member associations, tying it for first place with volleyball. In the simplest terms, this means more people are playing table tennis.

* A resolution was passed to encourage study of multicolored balls, which would make spin more visible, especially on instant replay. This doesn't change anything yet because the rules still specify white or orange balls, but perhaps a change will come in the future.

The 2015 World Championships will be held in Suzhou, China. I'm not sure if i will be there. But i am reasonably sure that any changes that are decided there will not be based on sudden impulses. The ITTF is a large and conservative organization; it takes a lot of work to make something happen. The work takes place over the course of the year, and what materializes (or fails) at the Worlds represents only a tiny bit of the labor that led up to it.

Tokyo Recap, Part One

One country, one apple

You've already read the headlines out of the Zen-Noh 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships, and i'm not planning to repeat them; it's not that kind of recap. This one is a little more first-person.

I go to a lot of tournaments, but not as a spectator. Occasionally people ask me to be their match coach at a local tournament, but besides those instances, it's been many years since i've gone to a tournament where i'm not an official.

So i was in an unfamiliar situation, in that i could cheer for particular players - Team USA in this case.

At this Worlds i had a couple meetings each day in Yoyogi National Gymnasium, and therefore i was able to watch several of US Women's Team's contests against their first division opponents. Meanwhile, i had no opportunity to watch as the Men battled through and went undefeated in their group at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.

Though i haven't had the chance to watch much of it, the video coverage at this Worlds was the most extensive ever. In the main hall, first division matches were broadcast simultaneously from two tables on ITTV and one table on TV Tokyo. Then in the second hall, the remaining divisions had three matches simultaneously broadcast on YouTube. In addition i'm told that the remaining six courts in the main hall were recorded by the ITTF, though i don't know where that video will surface.

The second hall looked kind of like a US tournament

The US Men (Timothy Wang, Adam Hugh, Jim Butler, Yahao Zhang, and Kanak Jha) had a tough elimination draw. They needed to reach the finals in order to get a guaranteed promotion to second division in 2016. When i saw the draw i had guarded hope, as our first opponent (after a bye) would seem to be Lithuania, who had defeated us in 2012. We would need to beat them as well as one more team to reach the final. But Kanak said that the team had identified Saudi Arabia as a strong and a more likely opponent, and they was right. So despite being the top seeds in the division and going undefeated in group play, the US was drawn in a half which included #2 Switzerland, #4 Lithuania, the strong team from Saudi Arabia (who beat Lithuania before knocking us out 3-2), and eventual division winners Puerto Rico. I don't think it was possible to get a tougher draw.

To my eyes, the loss to Saudi Arabia was largely because the Saudi ace was on fire that day. Nevertheless, the Men fought to the end, and you can see their final contest against Saudi Arabia on YouTube.

There are no easy groups in first division and the US Women (Lily Zhang, Prachi Jha, Crystal Wang, Erica Wu, and Angela Guan), seeded fifth in their group, were up for the challenge. Their first contest of the tournament against Hungary was perhaps their biggest opportunity for an upset, but nerves were a factor and it was a tough loss for us as Prachi was up 9-6 in the fifth game of the final match.

The second contest was a 3-0 loss to host and eventual finalist Japan. It's one thing to be playing on center court in a noisy arena; it's another to be playing on court one when the cheering is targeted directly at the court you're playing on. The ladies handled it well and i think they enjoyed it, despite losing 3-0. I wasn't able to watch these matches live, but saw some on TV. The Japanese commentators seemed to relish calling Lily Zhang, "Lily-chan".

Sizable groups of fans were in attendance from day one, and i say "groups" because there were two distinct contingents. The Japanese fans obviously had a lot to cheer about, but there was also a large crowd of North Korean fans, presumably Koreans living in Japan. Both groups were kept in sync with their own cheerleaders, and it was sometimes jarring to hear the clash of applause when North Korea and Japan were both playing, on different tables. Seiya Kishikawa seemed to have a hard time playing while the Korean fans were singing a tune, over the course of several points during his match against Kalinikos Kreanga.

The US Women got on the board after the next contest, a 3-0 win over Australia. The following matchup against Belarus looked to be a tough one, and chopper/coach's pick Angela Guan worked hard to help prepare her teammates for the upcoming challenge. One expert told me that Crystal was our strongest player against chop, but i have long believed that Lily ought to beat almost any female chopper, given proper instruction and guidance. Even so, given her past results, i didn't expect her best career win to come against world #11 Viktoria Pavlovich. Unfortunately we were short of the upset again, as Prachi lost in the fifth against Alexandra Privalova. And though Crystal got the desired matchup against chopper Elena Dubkova (who sported a much improved attack), she also couldn't win in the fifth game.

 

In the knockout stage the US Women seemed to have a decent draw - not especially lucky, but not bad. The immediate goal was to reach the semis, guaranteeing first division placement in 2016; that would require a win against Serbia and then against the Czech Republic. I fully thought we could beat Serbia 3-0, but it was not to be. Crystal might beat Ana-Maria Erdelji the next time they play, but this was Crystal's first time ever playing against a short pip chopper, and the spin variation off Erdelji's racket was noticeably different from long pips. The ladies had their chances, but the Serbian girls played tough. A variety of the US Women's contests can be seen on YouTube and ITTV.

The 1983 Worlds were also held in Tokyo, also in Yoyogi National Gymnasium. History repeated itself this year in the women's competition, as the host Japanese team came in second place against China. For the third time in a row, the men's runner-up team was Germany, behind China. Back in the day, the Swedish men placed second three times in a row (1983, 1985, 1987) before they won in 1989.

Unlike in 1983, and every other year until 2013, the competition was held in two different facilities. Running a team competition in two halls wasn't a huge problem for the players, as most teams played every match in either one hall or the other. But it was an additional burden for the organizers, and for coaches, captains, and spectators who would have to go back and forth between gyms.

Almost all vendor booths and concessions were outdoors

Whatever the hardship, things were always smoothed over by the superb hospitality. Long one of the most modern cities in the world, the reliance on manpower in Tokyo was noticeably higher than we normally see in the US. Everywhere you went, members of the tournament staff were stationed along the way to bow, smile, and greet every single person. Information desks were constantly manned at the hotel and the playing venues. Not only were the staff numbers high, they were all diligent and well-organized. Volunteers joking around on break were hard to find.

Table tennis is one of Japan's two national sports and their love of the sport is evident in the media (numerous print media sources and constant TV coverage), the event support (over a thousand staff members), and the general care put into the event and its attendees. The week of the tournament was scheduled to coincide with four federal holidays: Shōwa Day, Constitution Memorial Day, Greenery Day, and Children's Day. Also in the middle was the observed but not official May Day holiday.

May Day in Tokyo

The 6.0 earthquake on the final day was the opposite of a holiday, but provided an additional dose of excitement for both residents and visitors.

As i said before, i was not an official at this tournament. But i wasn't there just to hang out either. The World Championships is the most convenient event for table tennis people around the world to meet, because many of them will be going there anyway. President Adham Sharara said he had 87 meetings at these Championships. My meetings were much fewer in number, and only about equipment or our association. The non-celluloid ball was a hot topic of course, but the ball is not my area of focus; here are a couple of things i brought:

Prototype flatness gauge with movable feet to adjust to each racket

Why would you strap three balls together and rest them on a racket?

2014 is not a major election year for the ITTF, but a new Athletes' Commission was elected. Vladimir Samsonov, the consummate gentleman, was re-elected as chair of the commission. The proposal to have an athlete position on the Executive Committee failed by a narrow margin in the AGM. I'm told that a major reason for failure was due to a misunderstanding of the proposal. Perhaps it will come up again next year.

More details about the events at these Worlds will come in another entry.

A Lesson in Simple Mechanics

Before we start with today's lesson, here's a pop quiz. Which of these balls are not like the others?

The answer is in the photo further down the page. Skip down to it if you wish, but you are also welcome to continue reading first.

Today's lesson is about speed and spin in table tennis.

We don't measure speed correctly. In attempts to promote the sport, people sometimes cite numbers which attempt to illustrate the challenges involved in playing table tennis, and one of those numbers is the speed of the ball. Where does table tennis rank in a list of the fastest sports, or the fastest racket sports? How fast does a table tennis ball actually travel? 100 miles per hour is a high number cited; 60 mph might be more reasonable.

I believe that giving an answer in miles per hour is inadequate or counterproductive. Table tennis is clearly one of the fastest sports, and this is clear not by looking at ball velocity, but by looking at time: how much time a player has between shots, or how many shots are completed per second. A tennis ball has a higher velocity than a table tennis ball, but in table tennis there is less time between shots. It's the short amount of time that puts stress on the player, not the high velocity of the ball. Table tennis has far more shots per second than tennis, racquetball, or squash; and by that measure table tennis is the faster sport.

Similarly, we don't measure spin correctly. People cite spins in the range of 9,000 rpm (revolutions per minute), but how does rpm affect the player?

Spin is a little more complex than speed. Let's look at the primary ways that spin affects a player:

• The spin causes the ball to curve; more spin causes the ball to curve more.
• The spin kicks off the opponent's racket; more spin causes the ball to bounce off the racket more sharply.

In both cases, using rpm to describe spin is inadequate. If you compare a 40mm ball spinning at 9000 rpm with an 80mm ball spinning at 9000 rpm (all else being equal), they will behave very differently. The equator of the 80mm ball is traveling twice as fast as on the 40mm ball, and will jump off a racket twice as hard. It will also have a sharper curve through the air. It's common to use rpm as a measure of spin, but when we consider the effect of spin on a player, what really matters is the linear velocity of the equator of the spinning ball.

Why do we care?

Back in the year 2000, we switched from 38mm balls to 40mm balls. It was a widely circulated fact that the new 40mm ball would have less spin - but only if you were looking at revolutions per minute!

In fact, 40mm balls are not less spinny than 38mm balls in the measure that matters - the linear velocity of the equator. When a player strokes the ball, the tangential energy of the racket is transferred into the ball's spin. The linear velocity of the ball's equator is the same regardless of its size; all that matters is the stroke. No matter the size of the ball (but again, all else being equal), if a player applies 20 mph of tangential speed, the ball's equator will spin at 20 mph, and the ball will kick off the opponent's grippy racket accordingly. So if your goal is to make the ball jump off your opponent's racket, the size of the ball is irrelevant.

The other factor, the curve of the ball through the air, is more complicated. I don't want to get into it too much here; look up equations for the lift vortex of a spinning ball if you want details. But the conclusion is that for a given linear velocity of the equator, a larger ball will curve through the air more than a smaller one. That is, with a larger ball, the effect of spin is more pronounced than with a smaller ball for a given stroke, all else being equal. Intuitively this can be expected because the larger ball has more air resistance.

Didn't read all that? Here's the summary:

• Table tennis is a fast sport when measured in time, not velocity. Forget about miles per hour and talk about shots per second.
• For a given stroke, the effect of spin on the ball's bounce off the opponent's racket is the same regardless of ball size.
• For a given stroke, a larger ball curves more than a smaller ball.

Now for the quiz results.

Another tournament, another surprise. This time it was the TMS Midwest Regional Tournament in the NCTTA College Table Tennis League, hosted at Northwestern University. Instead of bringing the MiniRAE device to test rackets, this time I brought a variety pack of balls.

The correct answer is: The three on the left are non-celluloid, and the two on the right are 38mm. (This was a pretty easy quiz because I arranged the balls this way rather than mixing them up.)

Now, if you forward this article to your friends and say "read this article about the new ball!" you'll spoil the quiz for them. I hope you don't.

As you may know, earlier this month the ITTF approved three non-celluloid plastic balls, made by DHS, Double Fish, and XuShaofa. All three are made in China. The DHS and Double Fish balls are of the seamed variety, similar to the celluloid balls that we use. The XuShaofa ball is seamless, and this fact can be seen in the photos.

Another thing you can see in the photos is the size of the balls. If you believe the rumors on the internet, table tennis after July will be an unrecognizable sport because of how different the poly ball is compared to the celluloid ball, not just in material but in size. Now look at the photos and compare the size of the poly balls with the celluloid balls, and the size of the 40mm celluloid balls with the 38mm balls. Is there a huge difference in size?

There's also a rumor on the internet that my wife owns a patent on table tennis balls. How likely is that? (Hint: I'm not married.)

I only have one of each ball. I measured the diameters and they came out to: 40.03mm, 40.15mm, 40.17mm. The rules specify that the ball shall have a diameter of 40mm, so yes, these balls meet that requirement.

From what I understand, the process of making these balls and getting them approved was not easy. The initial balls submitted to the ITTF did not meet all the required standards, and the manufacturers had to adjust their formulations multiple times. As I had stated before, anyone who played with a prototype ball, and delivered a judgment of "the new poly ball" based on their experience with that ball, will not know what an ITTF approved poly ball plays like until they actually have an opportunity to use one of the new, approved balls. I have a few prototype XuShaofa seamless balls, and they play differently from the ITTF approved XuShaofa seamless ball.

Back to the tournament. I wanted players to perform a blind test on these balls, to see if they could detect a difference between the poly balls and the competition celluloid balls. Upon arrival I knew this would be difficult because the matches were being played using orange balls.

Plan B involved finding players who had been knocked out of the competition. Gabriel Skolnick had been drawn into the quarters against his brother Micaiah and lost, and he was willing to hit with me just for fun, because once in a while officials like to play too. The seamless XuShaofa ball has a different sound that I knew he would detect, so I only brought out the Double Fish and DHS balls. We countered. He looped, I blocked. He looped, I chopped. I looped, he blocked. Then I told him what was up.

Gabriel's teammate, Felipe Morita, had lost to Micaiah in the semis. (Micaiah would eventually win the Men's Singles event with a series of upsets.) Gabriel grabbed Felipe and they tried the poly balls. As teammates, each would be familiar with how the other plays, and this would be a better test than hitting with me.

The verdict? Both players agreed that when they tried the poly ball, they didn't notice anything unusual; it was just like a celluloid table tennis ball. When they switched to the celluloid ball, they noticed a subtle difference. When comparing the balls side by side, the flight of the poly ball was slightly different from the celluloid ball. But the feel of the ball on the racket was the same.

For reference, Felipe and Gabriel are better players than I am, but they're not world class. As more people test the new balls I'm sure there will be different impressions reported, and I can't presume to know how the game will develop as a result of the introduction of these new balls. This is just a single test.

I expect that the ball factories started production of these balls shortly after they received word that they were approved. Even so, it may take some time before new balls reach our markets. Now that I've seen that it's not a drastic change, I'm not in a terrible hurry to get them. At some point things will change, and I have hope that it will be okay.

The New Poly Ball is Coming . . . Maybe

In March 2012, the ITTF Board of Directors voted to pass the following resolution, proposed by the Executive Committee and the Athletes' Commission:

"That the new Poly balls (non-celluloid material) be used at ITTF events as of 1 July 2014. The Executive Committee may allow the use of the Poly balls, in exceptional cases, in the period between the 2014 World Championships and 1 July 2014."

Half of a celluloid ball, formed by pressing a disc into a
hemisphere. It will be trimmed, glued with another half,
and polished. Image taken from the Nittaku ball video.

Celluloid is one of the first industrial plastics, dating to the 1800s. "Poly" refers to other kinds of plastics such as polyethylene. The rules of table tennis permit the use of any kind of plastic ball, so there's no rule change required for the adoption of a new ball material. This resolution just designates a particular type of ball for a few dozen elite events.

From one perspective this is not much of a change. The direct scope only extends to ITTF events: World Title Competitions and ITTF Sanctioned tournaments, which includes the ITTF World Tour, ITTF Junior Circuit, and continental events. The ITTF already specifies a particular ball for these tournaments. For example, all World Tour events must use the DHS ball, while Junior Circuit events must use the Butterfly ball. So this resolution is in a similar vein in that it designates a ball to use, but in this case it's by material type, not brand.

But even though this resolution is directed at specific elite events, the game played by the pros is also played by aspiring pros; likewise, aspiring pros play with dedicated amateurs and weekend hacks. Even novice players want to play the same game as the professionals. A change in equipment at the top has broad effects.

Each celluloid ball is checked by hand and sent through
a gauntlet of mechanical testing devices before it gets
its final grade. Image taken from the Nittaku ball video.

At the time of this writing, every ball approved by the ITTF is made of celluloid. In the manufacturing process, celluloid is largely composed of nitrocellulose, a highly flammable material. Celluloid is not the easiest material to work with, and most historical uses of celluloid transitioned to newer plastic materials long ago, with the major exceptions being as decorative components in things like pens and musical instruments . . . and table tennis balls. If and when we stop using celluloid in table tennis, we'll be one of the last entities to do so.

Poly balls were briefly used in competitive table tennis a few decades ago, so in that sense it's not new. Poly table tennis balls are also readily available as recreational toys, but not built to the standards required for official competition. The forthcoming poly balls are expected to meet ITTF requirements and behave more like celluloid balls than older versions.

Some players and coaches have been able to acquire prototype poly balls for testing purposes. Reviews of those prototypes have been mixed. However until a brand of ball is fully tested by the ITTF in the approval process, nobody can legitimately claim that they have seen a final production set of approved balls. And nobody can truly say they know how the new ball will behave.

Personally, I would like the playing properties of the poly ball to be similar to the celluloid ball in feel, but improved in technical aspects such as roundness, durability, and regularity of hardness and bounce. I am hopeful that the use of modern materials and manufacturing processes can help lead to those improvements. However with the change in material there will probably be differences seen during play, and the more differences there are, the more time players will need to adjust to the changes.

Domestic competition does not fall under ITTF jurisdiction, and USATT tournaments could conceivably continue to use celluloid balls indefinitely, as long as there is an available supply of balls. Anyways, until there is actually an approved ball, and until that ball is available for purchase, we will continue to use celluloid balls by default.

How players, tournament directors, and USATT deal with the poly ball will depend on when it arrives, and how it performs. The fate of the poly and the celluloid ball may ultimately be decided by market forces and manufacturer decisions.


The 2013 USATT Annual Assembly will be held in Las Vegas at 7pm on Wednesday, December 18th, and all USATT members are welcome to attend. The complete program has not been determined, but I will be available to field questions about the ball or anything else.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

July 2nd, 2013, was the date that the US Open returned to Las Vegas. The last time the US Open had taken place in Las Vegas was 2009. Singles titles that year were won by our own Gao Jun and Slovakia's Thomas Keinath.

July 3rd, 2013, was the date that the ITTF World Tour returned to the USA. The last World Tour event (then called the Pro Tour) held in the US was in 2005 in Fort Lauderdale. Oh Sang Eun and Li Jia Wei were the champions on that occasion.

With the return to Las Vegas - within driving distance of of our biggest table tennis state, California - and the return of the World Tour, the pre-tournament level of excitement was high. The combined entry count among both pros and amateurs was just shy of 1000, higher than it had been in decades.

Held during the Independence Day holiday week, the city was full of people, particularly families on summer vacation. As a small sport, we're not often in the spotlight, and we're not likely to be in the spotlight in a busy place like Las Vegas where there are always things going on. Even in our host LVH hotel there was a basketball tournament taking place, and down the street there happened to be another touring sports competition in town, the mixed martial arts event UFC 162.

But for most table tennis fans, the US Open was the only event in town. 120 degree heat was not a deterrent - we were here to enjoy the great indoors.

A table tennis arena in the making

As a World Tour stop, the ITTF took a more active part in the organization of this event than other US Opens. This was readily apparent in some ways: the presence of ITTF sponsor logos in the main courts, the use of the official ball (white DHS, compared to orange Nittaku in the non-World Tour matches), and the presence and direction from Didier Leroy, one of four professional Competition Managers employed by the ITTF. Didier is not just a great organizer and manager, he's also a soothing presence for the players, providing continuity from one tournament to the next.

Only the most observant would have noticed the presence of a few other people who don't normally come to the Open, such as Anders Thunstrom, Managing Director of TMS International; and Andreas Hain, the Executive Director of Joola who was also filling in to coach his sponsored player Petrissa Solja. There were no specific meetings planned, but the number of ITTF volunteers there was also quite high, as there happened to be 10 ITTF committee members present in other capacities, most of them volunteering as match umpires. Also visiting was Bruce Burton, the current North American Continental President who also heads the ITTF Advanced Referee Project, and who surprised me when he said this was his first time attending a US Open.

It was amusing to me when kibitzers complained about the officiating. There were 26 Blue Badge umpires on duty - the highest level of ITTF International Umpire, the same ones who serve at tournaments around the world including the World Championships and Olympics. There are only about 200 Blue Badge umpires in the world. In particular, as members of the ITTF Umpires and Referees Committee, Umpires Rebecca Bergfeldt and Norman Tang (as well as Deputy Referee Michael Zwipp) help direct and shape policies for ITTF match officials, and when they're officiating a match themselves - whether it's at the US Open or the Olympics - they lead by example and help define the world standard. They didn't come to Las Vegas and decide to be stricter than usual.

The two names that almost everyone noticed were those of tour professionals and top men's seeds Jens Lundqvist and Zoran Primorac. Lundqvist may not be a legend like Waldner and Persson, but he's been the top ranked Swede for years and was certainly a factor in this tournament. Primorac, now in his 40's, clearly works hard and is still in great physical shape. Like his former doubles partner Lupulesku, he also seems to genuinely love the sport.

Chop blocker Shigeko Nakamura pushed #2 Gina Pota to 6 games

I know i'm not a typical table tennis fan because i pay as much attention to the women's game as the men's game. So of course i noticed that Elizabeta Samara was back as the top seed. The US fans last saw her in the 2009 Open, when she was here with doubles partner Daniela Dodean, and male teammates Andrei Filimon, Adrian Crisan, and Constantin Cioti. Crisan and his soft hands were absent this year, reportedly due to injury. Dodean's absence was also excusable as she had a prior engagement; she married Portuguese player Joao Monteiro on the 7th. But Samara and Filimon made the trip, and their presence was felt in the playing hall.

Were these European pros here because the Open was in Las Vegas, or because it was a World Tour stop? Or were both prerequisites?

July is in the middle of a typical table tennis player's off season. League play (where they draw their salary) takes place in the fall and spring, and the major tournaments like the Worlds and Olympics are important competitions to prepare for. To go to a World Tour stop in the middle of the summer takes an additional off-season period of preparation - that is, if a player expects to turn in a good performance.

But things are different when Las Vegas is the destination. When i asked a couple of professional players if they were enjoying themselves, the reply was "We ALWAYS have fun in Las Vegas," accompanied with a puzzled look that emphasized how stupid my question was. I don't know how much this comment would apply for Samara, because when i asked her in 2009 i learned that she was under 21 at the time; i suspect her experience in Vegas this year was a bit more exciting than last time. Another top player was rumored to have utilized the services of one of the many chapels in town.

I'm not one to partake in Vegas-style partying, so for me personally, the most productive experiences i had were when working with the aforementioned Didier Leroy, as i learned a lot about how the World Tour worked these days; and Michael Zwipp, who (along with myself) served as a Deputy Referee.

World Tour regulations require names on shirts,

          but do they require names to be visible?

Prior to the competition, i and 7 others had the privilege of learning from Michael in this year's only ITTF International Referee School. Over the course of three days, Michael and USATT trainer Wendell Dillon provided instruction and guidance in both the techniques and the art of refereeing. As the referee of the 2012 Olympics, Michael is one of the best; and of course Wendell is the guru in the US, and was the referee at the Atlanta Olympics; they both happen to be excellent educators. Thankfully Michael was able to stay for the tournament, and being able to work with him during the competition was also an educational opportunity for me. And the things i learned were not just related to officiating, for example i was surprised to learn how little female table tennis players were paid in Europe. The flow of information wasn't just one-way; in the same conversation, i think he was surprised how much money table tennis coaches are paid in the US.

He also said, in observing tournament management in the US, "I'm surprised how much work is done by so few people." (I'm going by memory so those probably aren't his exact words.) This comment really rang true, knowing how much work is done by some people in our association, and also knowing how many people in our association seem to care about table tennis and want things to improve, but don't help do the work required to make things better. When i joined Greg Cox, Mike Cavanaugh, and Kenny Tien in trying to lay down the sponsor advertising decals in the arenas, i'm not sure who among us thought of this as a task we were supposed to be doing.

The post-tournament meeting for Team Japan

The contrast to this is seen in the Japanese organization with their players, coaches, and officials. Almost all of them seem willing to do whatever is necessary to make things right for their association, for their team, and for the sport. I spent over half an hour at 8am one morning working with one Japanese player who was struggling with shirt legality, time she could have spent practicing. Yet there were no complaints, no excuses, and she was smiling when she went out on court for her match. Even though their delegation was composed of a mix of players from a dozen different teams - none of them were national team members - they still worked together as one.

Women's Champion Megumi Abe

The Japanese name at the forefront this year was Tokyo Art's Masato Shiono. Though he had played in previous US Opens, this time he was coming off a career-high success as the winner of the Japan Open - it was so rare for a player to go through the qualifying stage to win a major tournament, and these days it's also rare for a male chopper to win a big tournament. In the seedings for the US Open we used his prior month's ranking of 188, but his current ranking was 85, which would have made him the #3 seed in the tournament. Though he and his fans had high hopes, he exited the tournament in the quarters, losing to Primorac.

But the Japanese still came out with a singles title, as Megumi Abe won the women's final over Samara. Seeded #11, it would be hard to call this a fluke win for her as she had the toughest possible draw - she had to go through #1 Elizabeta Samara, #2 Georgina Pota, #3 Petrissa Solja, and #5 Ariel Hsing. She lost a total of 3 games in those four matches! Like the other Japanese players in this competition, Megumi is a semi-pro in Japan, playing for Sanritsu in the Japanese corporate league, but having limited opportunities to compete in international competition. For example she didn't even compete in the Japan Open a couple weeks ago.

Canada's Eugene Wang repeated as the men's champion. He knocked out Lundqvist 4-0 in the semis, while Primorac was defeated in his semifinal by Chinese wild card Yang Ce. In truth, the semis and finals weren't as exciting as the previous day's quarters and 8ths, and this seems to happen at a lot of tournaments. The simultaneous deuce-in-the-7th matches in the men's quarters were very exciting, and it seemed like the players on court enjoyed them almost as much as the spectators.

Start both videos at the same time to experience dual-deuce-in-the-7th quarterfinals.

I don't know when the Open will be in Vegas again, or when the Open will be a World Tour stop again. Hosting a World Tour event requires a facility with certain minimum requirements that have always been difficult for us to find: lighting at a level of 1000 lux, and a wooden sports floor underneath the rubber table tennis floor mats. We were lucky this year, with this particular hall having new lighting and a different event in Las Vegas allowing us to rent their portable wooden floor.

And, in addition to the requirements within the playing conditions, there are more demands on the organizers. If you ask me today if i want to host another World Tour event next year, i will quickly say no - it's too much work. And this is a common theme: even if everyone wants something to happen, if we don't have enough people willing to make the effort necessary to make it happen, it won't.

Working in Paris

Midway through the tournament someone asked me, "Are you having fun?"

Knowing that i have a bad habit of being a little too honest, i had to pause for a few seconds before answering.

"It's great to see all these top players and coaches in one place," i replied.

I think most would agree that the Worlds is second in prestige only to the Olympics. The Olympics is a larger event in overall scope and size, but that's a 26-sport event.

The Worlds is a single-sport event with over 800 athletes involved. In contrast, most World Tour events limit the entry count to about 200 (depending on the tier). A tournament like the forthcoming US Open might have almost 1000 players, but i don't think all of those players will expect two umpires at each match, or meal service throughout the tournament, or over 10,000 screaming fans.

Yes, it's a big production and an important tournament, and i was there working as an umpire. You can read my official report on the USATT web site: http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Table-Tennis/USATT/Committees/Committee-Reports

An indulgence. I hadn't had langoustines in years.

Paris was pretty much the same as i remembered from the last time i'd been there; it's still beautiful, and there are still too many smokers. They still like sitting at cafes theater-style with the sidewalk and street as their theater. But there were subtle differences: The French people spoke a little more English than before; there was less dog poop on the sidewalks; and there was slightly more franchise fast food than before. A more obvious change was the popular Velib bike sharing system. 

I'm told that the Worlds in Paris is a little different from the Worlds in other years and locations. (With this being my first worlds i can't use personal experience to compare.) People around the world want to visit Paris, so the player and spectator counts are higher than average. This is good news for everyone who isn't working at the tournament; more people means more work. But there is pleasure in being a part of making an event like this happen, and i believe almost everyone was happy to be there. Myself included, along with about 30 fellow USATT members (that i know of) who were on hand in one function or another.

Players patiently waiting for match time

 One thing that impressed me about the organizers was the calmness. When the bus driver was late, he didn't panic and start running down pedestrians. When the arena was being set up with a hundred things on the to-do list, the crew methodically went down the list and did things one at a time. It was as if they (the numerous volunteers) did this for a living; they worked like professionals.


I've been asked several times: How do you become an umpire at the World Championships?
1. Become an International Umpire. This will take a few years or a few dozen years, depending on a variety of circumstances.
2. Apply through your national association. Each association can submit up to two umpire applications to the ITTF. Being a good umpire and being an active umpire will probably help your chances of being submitted by your association.
3. Be selected by the ITTF. You would have to ask the URC (Umpires' and Referees' Committee) what the selection process is.
4. Complete the registration process, get the uniform cleaned, review the rule books, pay the fees, travel to the tournament, etc.

The process is a little different if the Worlds takes place in your home country. About 80 National Umpires from France worked the first two days of the competition. I was told that it typically takes over 10 years for someone to become a National Umpire in France.

The follow up question is usually: How much were you paid?
1. During the tournament, a hotel room (shared with another official) was provided, plus breakfast at the hotel, and lunch and dinner in the cafeteria with the athletes and other staff. Bus from airport to hotel and hotel to playing hall were also taken care of.
2. USATT paid a flat $750 of my plane ticket, independent of how much it actually cost me. The cheapest plane ticket i found for the tournament dates would have been $1500, but i saw that i could cut it down to $1100 if i arrived three days earlier. A cheap hotel would cost me $320 for three nights, so either way i was going to take a net loss of about $750. I opted to travel early and hang out for a few days.
3. Umpires were given $200 (20 euros per day) to handle other expenses.

Oeuf en gelée au jambon (egg and ham in aspic jelly) and pâté -

typical cafeteria food for an athlete?

So in total i was "paid" negative $550. Fellow US umpire Kenny Tien probably paid more. Why a subset of table tennis enthusiasts would repeatedly pay money (and use vacation days from their day jobs) to work at tournaments belongs in another article. But obviously much of the compensation is intangible.



A slightly less frequent question is: What is it like to umpire at the Worlds Championships?

It's different for everyone; i can only speak for myself and say that it's pressure. It's not easy, there's no relaxation, and i can't say i'm enjoying a match despite being closer to the play than any spectator. If a player serves into the net, he'll be kicking himself and he might get a tongue lashing from his coach. But if the umpire makes a simple mistake like that, it's a big problem; it doesn't matter if he or she was perfect up until that point. Even when the umpire does everything right, the players, crowd, and commentators may claim otherwise. An umpire can never win the match, but he can, in a sense, lose. And when my day is over i don't think about doing something touristy or having a drink; it's back to the hotel for me, briefly catching up on other table tennis things i'm working on, and bed. Again, i can only speak for myself; many umpires went out when they had breaks, but those people are tougher than i am.

Samsonov and Chen Weixing - someone brought their own thickness tester

Some umpires have other duties to attend to. There were 70 ITTF meetings at the Worlds, and some umpires are national delegates, committee members, presenters of proposals, etc. As a new member of the equipment committee, i had to fit in meetings along with my umpiring duties.

There was similar contrast among players. Some were very serious and focused on table tennis, even going to the practice area long after they were knocked out of the tournament. Meanwhile, others were taking in the whole Paris Worlds experience as much as they could.

For example, on the second day of the tournament there were 38 women's singles qualification matches scheduled at 8:30am, but i didn't see 76 players with their practice partners and coaches in the playing hall at 7:00am getting ready. Not even half that. But i was pleased to see Team USA there, bright and early and, incredibly, smiling.

Ariel and Erica, the first ones in the hall at 7:00am

The preparation that goes on before a match is extensive, and i'm not talking about the practice that was done at home. The serious players work up a serious sweat long before their match starts. Players are expected to check in for their match 30 minutes ahead of time and give their rackets to the umpires at that time. I'm trying to imagine asking US players to do this at the US Open - is it even possible? But the professional players handle it professionally, handing over their rackets and working it into their pre-match routine. And when their match is delayed and they haven't touched their primary racket for an hour or more, what do they do? They go out to the table when it's time to play, and perform the way they're expected to.

A photographer's wooden stool is the best seat in the house

The European fans - largely French and German - were slightly disappointed when their hometown heroes didn't make it to the finals. I suspect some Chinese fans were secretly disappointed about that too.

Should the women be offended?

Even the semifinals were monopolized by Asian countries, though there was some variety with North Korea and Taiwan taking home doubles trophies. But the hordes of spectators were still happy. You could hear the stampede of pre-teen autograph seekers whenever a member of the Chinese team decided to take a break and attempt to disappear in the cheap seats. "Was that Ma Long?" asks a middle-aged bystander. "No, Fang Bo" replies the French youth, with a look of "DUH!" The French federation is obviously developing a new generation of professional players with great potential. But alongside that, they're also developing new generations of serious table tennis fans, who will grow up with the sport and contribute to it for years and years.

Of course i was happy to be there. It was the World Championships! It was Paris! But like a typical American, of course i was happy to return home to the States. Then i realized that the America's Team Championships tournament was next weekend and i hadn't started preparing for it. And i knew that instead of having four times as many umpires as tables (the standard staffing requirement), i would have four times as many tables as umpires. So it goes.