Is over celebrating a problem in table tennis?

laistrogian said:

Those people who say 'thank you' when you miss a serve deserves a special place in hell. If you are going to give hand signal for 'sorry' or ' i got lucky there' I'd appreaciate it but otherwise you might as well just shut up and do nothing. People's opinions differ but to me saying 'thank you' when your opponent miss a serve is like looking down at him / her

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If you ask me, that is just very lousy behaviour, and not sportsmanlike at all.
You can mostly find this on the lowest levels where players with little confidence are trying to score a point by any means. A player who knows about his abilities wouldn't find the necessity for that idiotic behaviour IMO.

Just today Timo served one in the net against Alvaro Robles.
But Alvaro didn't find the need to say thank you or cho'ed or anything. So i guess that says something...

NextLevel said:

If Ilia was a better player than his friend, this would not be an issue.

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That was actually the point of that post you quoted. If Ilia was better than this guy, he wouldn't care and it wouldn't be an issue. But if this guy is better than Ilia and does this kind of antics despite knowing that it upsets Ilia, then he is kind of being a big-time jerk.

If it was playful and funny and Ilia took it that way, it would be one thing, but if it clearly gets Ilia upset and he keeps doing it, that is low. At least as far as I am concerned.


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UpSideDownCarl said:

That was actually the point of that post you quoted. If Ilia was better than this guy, he wouldn't care and it wouldn't be an issue. But if this guy is better than Ilia and does this kind of antics despite knowing that it upsets Ilia, then he is kind of being a big-time jerk.

If it was playful and funny and Ilia took it that way, it would be one thing, but if it clearly gets Ilia upset and he keeps doing it, that is low. At least as far as I am concerned.


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Yes, but maybe since I got better than many of those player's who do this, I stopped caring and started getting revenge by beating them worse and worse. As my friend Shuki says, anything you think in other than playing the game is reducing your focus.

Some players apologize when they win points. In fact, while playing DerEchte once, I asked him why he kept apologizing for blocking my loops. Sometimes, it can be someone being overly polite but it can be a form of gamesmanship. While mocking people when they miss serves is rude, you can laugh at it when you are the better player. It is just more annoying when you are also losing. But the solution is to start beating those players. It won't happen tomorrow but it will happen.

People play a lot of mind games in this sport. You have to fortify your mind or you will lose focus at the worst possible times. It factors into technical improvement as well.

Of course you are right that the best solution is not to let anything get your head out of you playing your game the best you can. And that eventually, you get better and beat those kinds of players. That is ideal.

But it sounds to me like Ilia is upset. And a guy who does something like that to upset a person and does it just for that despite knowing he is better at the game than the person he is trying to mess with, I, personally, don't have to pretend he is something other than a douche bag.

It is true the responses like, "I am sorry I got that net (or edge ball)" are not exactly what the person might feel. They are common courtesy for the fact that something beyond the control of either player determined the outcome of the point.

Because table tennis has a lot of space for the net or the edge or weird mess-ups to interfere with the outcome of a point, this is just common courtesy to say sorry or hold your finger up indicating that.

Is it possible that I feel relieved, at 10-9 in the final game of a match to be given the match or a chance at deuce, by a net or an edge? Sure. Of course. As far as I am concerned there is nothing wrong with that.

But rubbing it in the other person's face? I just think that crosses a line that I have seen crossed way too many times.

Again, if both players are doing this and the banter is taken lightly, no problem. Even if only one player is doing this, if the banter is taken the right way or basically does not affect the opponent, not a big deal. If both players are doing this kind of thing and both players are getting under each other's skin, that is still not a big deal because they are both pulling the same mind games.

But it sounds like this does not fall into one of those categories.

As a player, you do have to have the mental toughness to handle that stuff. But it does not speak well for the kind of person who is acting the douche bag. If the player is the better player and he is taunting and he knows it upsets the other guy, to me, as an outsider looking in, it makes me think the better player who is pulling the antics, well, he probably has some real personality flaws and some insecurity issues. I don't have to pretend to like a guy who acts like that.


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I think excessive choing should be treated exactly the same way as someone swearing while they play (something I sometimes do when I badly misplay a ball, but only in practice). As for the 12 year old, if he suddenly shouted "motherf444" someone would definitely make sure it didn't happen again. But choing like an alien banshee is ok.

Why?

Because people have decided it is acceptable, in any degree of excess one cares to emit. Clearly, it is being encouraged and even coached as some sort of technique, at least somewhere, and then young people, being what they are, thought it was cool and emulated it. And kids should not be coached to do this.

This whole thing is a fairly recent development. I personally dislike it quite a bit.

I was used to "Cho" when I bit the edge of the table or the net or when my opponent missed his serve ! So juicy... #jokes
For me celebrating is not a problem if it is a good point, choing or anything else every point is annoying and it is more when he/she lose the point and he/she shut his/her mouth up... So funny.
Personnaly, I prefer staying humble when I score a point and make a quiet celebration if the point was good... Sometimes I say "well played" if the point was good regardless of who score the point xD
That is a sportmanlike behaviour for me.

Table tennis is a mainly mental sport, overcelebrating is annoying for the opponent, killing his mental and his game, like breaking the arm of a boxer... That kills the respect and the sport... And more when everyone shouts Cho... Meaningless word...

I recently watched this great match from Beijing Olympics and was really surprised by the amount of obnoxious psycho warfare that Primorac employed there. Apart from aggressive "choing" and stretching time between points in critical situations, there is another thing. Look at Primo's complacent smile, a grimace of superiority that he especially showed off in the first game. It disappeared somewhere in the middle the match, but in the beginning it was so bright and off-putting that I could barely keep watching.