--- In hardbat@yahoogroups.com, "Francis LEIBENGUTH" <francisdef54@...>
wrote:
>
>
> Let's be realistic: classic table tennis, like it was played in the
> "Golden Era", is now dead and buried, and even if the ITTF had
> immediately banned the first sponge bats in the 50's, and that all
> players would still use hard rubbers nowadays, table tennis would have
> evolved in terms of material and technique, and become different
> compared to the 40's. That's the case of most (all?) sports during the
> passed 60 years, and table tennis wouldn't have escaped to that
> rule. So now, the reflexion that we must have is not how to get back
to
> the real classic table tennis, but how to develop hardbat (junk or
not)
> in the "Sponge Era".
>
> USA chose to create a short list of authorised rubbers, to avoid the
> spiniest ones, and be as close as possible to the classic rubbers, but
> according to Marty, even these rubbers are very different from the
> Leyland or Barna, and no new rubber has been added to this list for a
> long time, even if a lot of other references would deserve to be. And
> anyway, even with that kind of material, most players use adapted
> "sponge skills" to play hardbat, rather than a classic style,
> because it's the way they learn to play.
>
> Germany chose to play hardbat with the current table tennis rules
> (except the one concerning the rubbers of course), and authorises all
> short pips rubbers without sponge, even the spiniest ones. Matches are
> generally played in 11 points sets, and with 40 mm balls. In 2006,
there
> were 554 players in the German hardbat ranking, and in 2008 and 2009,
> there were a few tournaments with more than 100 entries (140 this year
> in Sandershausen).
>
> In France, we have no real rules for the moment, but what I notice is
> that, generally, matches are played in 21 points sets, and even if all
> short pips without sponge are authorised for the moment, people
> generally use the less spiny rubbers, like Dr Evil, BTY Orthodox,
> Reisman, Andro Classic… With our association, "Hardbat
> France", we have the project to propose to the clubs, who want to
> organize hardbat events, 5 different "tournament classes", going
> from the "US rules events" to the "everything is
> authorised" (well, not the sponge or long pips rubbers of course,
> but hard rubber, cork, sandpaper and even no covering at all [:)] ),
> and even "everyone plays with the same model of bat". We'll
> see what people prefer.
> In August 2008, when we created our French hardbat ranking, we were
300
> players ranked, compiling the results of several tournaments I kept
from
> 2004. In the next one, we'll be more than 700, and we hope to reach
> 1000 in August 2010.
>
> In Belgium, it's the same as in France for the moment, and there
> will be for the first time a hardbat serie in an international table
> tennis tournament, in Ostend on next August 14.
>
> So, considering all of that, I don't think that one of our countries
> holds the absolute truth, but maybe it would be time to start a
general
> reflexion about the future of hardbat, instead of creating our own
> rules, everyone on its side.
>
> (I hope that my English is clear enough for everybody [;)] ).
>
now