Has Table Tennis become more entertaining to watch since the ban of speed glue?

I don't think it is worse to watch. But it is not better. The technique of the top guys today seems to be better. But the rallies are often shorter now than back in, say, the 1990s.

yes!!!!!!!!!

I think it's more about the competition among the top chinese that brought the skill level in general higher. i.e. I think tt would have become more entertaining with or without the speedglue ban (no that i disagree with that policy in particular)

nowadays u can see both forehand and backhands excelled by chinese players. i think it's such a good trend to see. you don't see this in many sports. first u see malong and zjk and xuxin competing, n then you see fzd trying to get both the good sides of both zjk (backhand and explosiveness) and ml (transition between strokes, coordination, reflex and tiredlessness approach in general.)

I think there should be a thread comparing tt nowadays, 5 yrs ago, and 10 yrs ago.

In my point of view, yes!
Players had to adapt to the speed glue ban, resulting in more physical and strength training to compensate the missing "speed" from shots. But just as perniciousnc said above, table tennis would have evolved naturally with or without the ban of speed glue.
Players will always adapt, just like it happened when the sponged bat was introduced to table tennis.

I think people who played with speed glue had to find the speed on the muscles and body velocity. So it's more competitive and clean.
It's like ciclism, when transfussions stopped, the beauty of the sport came out.
The answer is absolutly yes!.

Find me a match that is any better to watch than this one:

This video is an example of how the new generation of Chinese players have greatly improved the entertainment value of table tennis in my opinion. Table tennis would have improved with or without the ban. The question is, would table tennis have become even more entertaining than it is today without the ban? I would say no. New age tensor rubber is pretty similar to speed glued rubber of the pre-ban era. It's just more expensive. Which is what I think ittf was going for.

JayTT said:

This video is an example of how the new generation of Chinese players have greatly improved the entertainment value of table tennis in my opinion. Table tennis would have improved with or without the ban. The question is, would table tennis have become even more entertaining than it is today without the ban? I would say no. New age tensor rubber is pretty similar to speed glued rubber of the pre-ban era. It's just more expensive. Which is what I think ittf was going for.

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See, I love these two guys. Their level of play is phenomenal. At one point they showed a score of 1-1 (games) and 11-3. Not a close game. Not too much drama. The score of the last game was 14-12 but the score in games of the match was 3-1. Not too close. There are a few rallies in there that are amazing. But, there are so many rallies that are over by the time you get to the third ball. The level of play is great. But, it is not a nail bitter of a match.

The score of the last 3 games of the best of 7 match I posted were 12-14, 9-11, 12-10. Deuce in the 5th game, Deuce in the 7th game. Some of the rallies between Kong and Joo are totally ridiculous: amazing.

I play at a club where they have video monitors in several locations and they are constantly playing video reels of great rallies from all different eras. The rallies from the 1990s when Persson, Waldner, Raskopf, Kong, Gouliang, Saive, etc, were playing always seem to be a bit longer, a bit more dramatic, there are more shifts in momentum. It was more common back then for a person to get put on defense, back up and lob, find a shot to counter-loop, and get back into the point on offense. Today, the offense is so good that it seems rare to find a guy backed up and lobbing against a top player who can actually shift the momentum and get back in the point. So there is less drama within the rallies.

Today, the offense is actually so good that the points end faster. And therefore, in my opinion, even though the level of play might be a little higher, the level of excitement from the spectator standpoint is either the same or not quite as high.

Of course this is just my perspective.

Speed glue allowed players to lob and play away from the table with more power. Nowadays it seems majourity of the top players have to stay close to the table. I would like to see Jun Mizutani at his best during the speed glue era!

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Top flight TT, whether it is in your city watching the aces go at it, or the pros go at is has ALWAYS been exciting.

I have found that as I have gotten better at TT, I can appreciate their greatness even more.

UpSideDownCarl said:

Find me a match that is any better to watch than this one:

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Here you are:

Speed glue ban has not changed the game at elite level

I believe that the effect of the loss of speed of speed glue is very low compared to that of changing from 38mm to 40mm ball and banning the no-see serve.
Speed glue was simply replaced by boosting. Ok, not as great an effect, but close enough especially when applied by experts on specially chosen rubbers.
The XX, ML ZJH generation are all more or less children of the 40mm ball.
These guys have no respect for spin as much as the older players. In the old days a short spinny push was usually met with caution. With the 40mm ball, as long as the player is in position, then pow! from a banana flick.
To me, these guys are great for spectacular play. But there's little drama as there's no cautionary placements, chops (from non-defenders) or slow-spin play. It's all wham! bang! thank you, ma'am!
Bring back the 38mm ball where skill and tactics really counted, I say.....[irony]

Tinykin said:

I believe that the effect of the loss of speed of speed glue is very low compared to that of changing from 38mm to 40mm ball and banning the no-see serve.
Speed glue was simply replaced by boosting. Ok, not as great an effect, but close enough especially when applied by experts on specially chosen rubbers.
The XX, ML ZJH generation are all more or less children of the 40mm ball.
These guys have no respect for spin as much as the older players. In the old days a short spinny push was usually met with caution. With the 40mm ball, as long as the player is in position, then pow! from a banana flick.
To me, these guys are great for spectacular play. But there's little drama as there's no cautionary placements, chops (from non-defenders) or slow-spin play. It's all wham! bang! thank you, ma'am!
Bring back the 38mm ball where skill and tactics really counted, I say.....[irony]

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Tiny... I think everyone at all levels have become better but Chinese even moar. Sure we had some once in a generation players in 80s 90s but all in all we ALL got better regardless of rule or equipment changes.

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Tinykin said:

I believe that the effect of the loss of speed of speed glue is very low compared to that of changing from 38mm to 40mm ball and banning the no-see serve.
Speed glue was simply replaced by boosting. Ok, not as great an effect, but close enough especially when applied by experts on specially chosen rubbers.
The XX, ML ZJH generation are all more or less children of the 40mm ball.
These guys have no respect for spin as much as the older players. In the old days a short spinny push was usually met with caution. With the 40mm ball, as long as the player is in position, then pow! from a banana flick.
To me, these guys are great for spectacular play. But there's little drama as there's no cautionary placements, chops (from non-defenders) or slow-spin play. It's all wham! bang! thank you, ma'am!
Bring back the 38mm ball where skill and tactics really counted, I say.....[irony]

Click to expand...

It's scientifically true that the smaller the radius of an object less spin it will have (check spinning techiniques from ice skaters). In the old days rubbers weren't that grippy, and were a lot bouncier (due to speedglue abuse). It wasn't because of how much spin on the ball, but because their rubbers would shoot the ball out of the table.

The game nowadays is changed, they increased 2mm in diameter which reduces and makes harder to produce spin. But following the changes, manufacturers also developed new technologies to rubbers and blades. In my point of view, this increased the level of difficulty to react to both incoming SPIN and SPEED.
Even players nowadays have athleticism compared to other sports, as muscle strength and technique evolved, it contributed to make the sport even more competitive.

Nowadays is pretty hard to see players with short-long pimples, the european non-grippy rubbers and the infamous anti-spin. The game has evolved, and is much harder than ever before.