My letter to ITTF (opinion)

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Hello ITTF,
I wanted to write to you because I think there are some issues that need to be addressed by the organization.

Firstly, I want to say that table tennis is a wonderful sport. There is a reason why almost 1/3 trillion people enjoy it. This is even more than football (soccer)!ITTF has a huge responsibility to both promote the sport to new players and satisfy the demands of existing professional and amateur players. This is not easy, and I understand that.
However, the organization has become more and more unpopular in the past year due to some decisions that many would consider to be unprofessional. I would like to bring these issues to the table (pun intended) so that ITTF can continue to build its reputation among audiences worldwide and become an even stronger organization.
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1) World Championship seeding
This world championships has really made me frustrated. I ask you: What other sport in the world has used random seeding, and especially for the world championships? This completely messes up the bracket and is a disservice to all of the players who worked their whole lives to get to this point. It is very odd that every event other than women’s singles has all the Chinese teams on one half of the bracket, with everyone else on the other half (with Xu Xin as an exception). Coincidence? I have no clue.
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[/FONT]2) Social Media professionalism
I remember the ITTF social media was recognized for its social media a while back. But I have to say, ITTF has made some very questionable posts in the past year, such as posting the results of a match on YouTube before releasing the highlights video. Additionally, there have been numerous inappropriate posts or captions on Instagram, such as making fun of a player who tripped, or bragging that there is a final that didn’t include a Chinese player. This wasn’t an issue a year ago, so I don’t know if the Instagram director was changed. However, I think it is very clear from the comments on those posts that the followers did not like what they were seeing.[/FONT]
Finally, I believe the videos should have professional players doing the commentary. The current commentators seem as if they have no experience in table tennis. These video commentators are the ambassadors for the sport, and they can help show more people the beauty of table tennis. Please pay attention to the feedback we give you in the comments sections. Please keep it professional. The whole world is watching. Please use your platform wisely.[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]3) Motives of rule changes. [/FONT]My last issue is perhaps the most important and central to the validity and longevity of this organization.
I think change is good. I think more people is good. However, it is no secret that many people think ITTF is trying to make the sport look better by changing the ball, or world ranking system, or number of players per country for the Olympics. Many of these changes have made a huge negative impact that I believe ITTF needs to take responsibility for.


For example, Waldner himself said that the ball change has caused many injuries for athletes. Sure, the bigger ball made of plastic gives longer rallies which are better for TV. However, on the flip side, the variation in the game is gone. Choppers, short pips, and penholders are in decline mostly due to this ball change. Everyone just attacks the serve and the ball is just fast fast fast. I ask you: how is this more interesting for audiences? Koki Niwa is so popular among audiences because he can change the rhythm and pace of the ball. He is one person who can do it regularly with the new ball. With the old ball, so many people did chop blocks, variation in the short game, touch play, deception, etc! (Ma Lin is the best example) I understand that plastic is a safer material than celluloid, but it is still something that makes me question the motives behind the ITTF's decisions.


For the change with the number of players per country for the Olympics, many people see this to be blatantly targeted at China. If this was truly the motive behind the rule, it is incredibly unprofessional and discriminatory. If you want more diversity, work with the dominant countries to help bring everyone up. Talk to China and Germany. Liu Guoliang already said in a documentary that he wanted to promote the sport worldwide, not just keep his own players dominant. Medals are old news for him. Global appreciation for the sport is his priority.


I personally believe your motive should be to put the current players and fans first, and to put money and attracting new players second. Otherwise, you cannot retain people and have table tennis grow even more. (TTX, for example, was not successful because the current players don't accept it.) [FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Please, for the benefit of yourself and for the fans, have representatives like Adam Bobrow ask the audiences and players what they think BEFORE making drastic changes.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]This email has many criticisms; I admit it. But I think that there is a lot of untapped potential in the ITTF organization. Table tennis is played by more people around the world than even football (soccer)! It is truly the people's sport. Imagine the impact your decisions can have [/FONT]on how we play and watch the sport 10 years, 50 years, and 100 years in the future! I am in love with table tennis, and I hope that it will continue to grow and provide others with joy the way it has with me.

Please consider addressing some of the issues I wrote of in this email, and thank you for your time.

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This user has no status.
This user has no status.
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Sep 2013
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couple of mistakes, but I'm sure many would agree in some point or another

sending this to ITTF means nothing, - you must send it to your national organization - who has voting power in the AGM
They can table items too

But, some people that attend AGM are not players themselves (some might struggle to even glue a bat) and I don't want to get into the political side of things.

The seeding issue - that is correct
it is the way they fill the half of the draws - where early rounds each nation can face each other. Not just China was a victim, but Japan too.
So overall - high level TT (not only Chinese) suffers.

The ball - yeah, I'm still waiting for the cost to drop like ITTF said it will after some time in production

on the part of Olympic, China is helping a lot of countries.
I wonder which other country is the close 2nd? any?
 
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