I have watched in silence as the posts on this site go endlessly over technological and other extraneous issues which the posters seem to believe have some relevance to the game we played in the Classic Era ... the game that we tried to resurrect under the banner of "hardbat". But it is past time that I spoke up … and so, in this and subsequent postings I intend to address some of these controversies.

At the outset, let me say unequivocally that the motivating impulse behind the resurrection of "hardbat" was not to give a home to sponge players to play a modified sponge-light, 3-Ball, serve-intensive variation of the modern game sans sponge. Who in his right mind would SEEK to do that?

Rather, the intent was to restore the classic game of table tennis to USATT tournaments so its beauty, dialogue, and spectator appeal would not be lost, and also to provide to players of the modern era, a peek into their rich heritage – a heritage few modern players know about – to a world of table tennis when spectator interest was at its peak and American table tennis players were truly world-competitive. The world where technique, not technology, was the focus of the game.

Contrary to what anyone may believe, the constant barrage of opinions, observations, suggestions and insights in reference to the current hardbat game that appear regularly on this forum bears little relationship to classic table tennis as was played during The Golden Era, because at the elemental equipment base-level, the current hardbat game incorporates elements of deceit, fraud and deception made possible by the very nature of the modern hardbat rubbers, not one of which existed prior to 1952.

Most hardbat players of today, in reality, are playing and discussing a mutant variation of the sport, being neither Classical nor Sponge. Just because the modern rubber does not have an underlying sponge layer does not automatically qualify it to parade under the banner of the classic game -- the game that was played by Barna, Bergmann, Leach, Vana, Andreadis, Sido as well as everyone else prior to the advent of sponge. Have no illusions, today's hardbat game is not the classic game by a longshot, yet that was its reason for being.

A more apt description of the game as currently played should be Junk Hardbat. It's certainly not Classic table tennis because the purity of that game was based on utilization of spin for control, not befuddlement of the opponent. Yet this is a key element of Junk Hardbat -- and the selection of such rubber to produce such havoc is indisputably a prime consideration of most of today's hardbat players.

Present-day hardbat rubbers, most particularly Dr Evil, Butterfly Ox, Hallmark Magic Pips, Yasaka, Cobalt even the Reisman Classic, etc, despite what anyone thinks, are capable of producing disturbing springiness and aberrational spins, elements which have contaminated and undermined what we sought to resurrect, bastardizing it in a manner having no relationship whatsoever to the classic game as it was played with Leyland, Dunlop, and Slazenger coverings, and the like.

Regrettably, the table tennis game that was played during the Golden Era has been so bent out of shape by the spin-oriented mentality of the longtime spongers gravitating between sponge and hardbat that the art of the classic game relating to strokes, technique, footwork and strategy is never even discussed as it once was when its artistry and stroke-analysis were the topics of discussion among neophytes and experts alike.

As an unrepentant purist and foremost expert on the subject of Leyland, and based upon my ability to assess the precise effect that respective junk rubbers have on the ball, as well as my knowledge of having played the game for almost 70 years, I find these discussions by most posters on this forum to be totally without merit – on a fool's errand really – as they attempt to analyze, compare and decide on the best junk coverings that are currently being paraded as classic rubbers but that are actually more closely related to a peanut butter sandwich than to rubbers used in the Classic Era.

The fact that we cannot any longer obtain Leyland rubber is no reason for despair or a throwing up of hands. With a revival of interest in table tennis that seeks to level the playing field, a decent paddle with rubber conforming to the playing characteristics of the Classic Era can be manufactured and successfully marketed. Had Killerspin sought classic expertise instead of choosing to follow its own lights, such a paddle could already be in existence.

In all my years as a player during the Classic Era, the effect of the rubber was never a topic of discussion because none of the extreme outcome-influencing products even existed. The absurdity by some players, apparently bereft of talent, to experimentally tamper with the modern rubbers to further increase efficiency by sandpapering the pips or adding linen-backing to rubber sheeting indicates a growing desire and a never-ending quest to bring even a greater degree of sponge insanity – and elements of chaos – into what is already only an extremely poor remnant of the classic game.

To those of you who are not tuned into the purity and the art of the genuine game of the Classic Era – which, I suspect, is most of you (for reading books and seeing a few newsreel clips is not the same as experiencing years of such play) – who are hell-bent on finding and using the most effective rubbers possible, all I can say is that it is just such a sponge-driven mentality that has contributed to transforming my intent into a watered-down version of pimples-out sponge, a far cry from my half-century- long ambition to resurrect Classic table tennis with all its integrity.

The inescapable fact is that most everyone here is playing, promoting, discussing and analyzing a considerably butchered and bastardized version of the game of the Golden Era, so let's not try to palm it off to the world, to each other, to me and especially to generations to come, that this is Classic table tennis, because it's not. When you see it played you'll know it. So will everyone on the planet.

Reisman