I honestly for once would love to see one day a world tournament where everyone has to play with the same equipment. Everyone will slam me for saying that because they all love the variety in terms of equipment and think that this is so great. But I believe Boll is actually right that CNT actually do have an access to equipment that isn't exactly the same from anywhere else.
I'm not saying that Ma Long isn't the goat, and that their technique isn't the best in the world. I'm saying just look at the sport like tenis and there's usually a pure skill involved, no pretentious equipment that makes a different impact depending on the equipment.
It sparks all these debates about the short pips used by Falck and going to the final or H3 National used by Ma Long etc. Even though the two of these played with entirely different equipment I actually didn't find it that interesting. If at least there was one tournament where everyone had to play with the same rackets (and even the ones that were medium speed which would make rallies probably even more interesting), rather than all of these commercialised expensive crap that gets quickly worn out after a few months of playing.
I had the most fun with table tennis when we played it at school and none of us had any of these ridiculous expensive super fast rackets that cost you 300$. All of us had just simple rackets that can do some moderate spin and that was the most fun game I'd ever played.
I'd find the matches a lot more interesting if the most top skilled in the world players fought against each other with medium speed rackets. 90% of the current rallies are ended in a short no-spin or little spin serve, and then a 3rd kill-shot attack. With everyone fighting against each other there would be a lot less pretentiousness, and would undisputably reveal who is truly the most skilled and the best player out there.
I have no doubt Ma Long or other from CNT would still be on top. But I'm saying at least the rallies would involve perhaps running and chasing after the ball, like occasionally you see right now which is only perhaps 5% of the entire match. The rest are just a boring serve and kill shots and if you watch Chinese super league they are even worse because players are taught to just always return the ball with maximum high risk power and so 95% of the rallies don't have more than 2-3 returns.
I know you have the ping pong now with hard-bats, but that isn't exactly the same... I do like a little spin, whereas hard bats tends to have too many hard-hitting, even when they're looping there's more contact required and less brushing which makes looping quite rare and harder to make.
However watch Chinese super league and it's about a serve, backhand flick and the 3rd shot is almost always an all-out top-spin which is either a kill-shot or goes outside the table and flies at 100km/h.
I'm not saying that Ma Long isn't the goat, and that their technique isn't the best in the world. I'm saying just look at the sport like tenis and there's usually a pure skill involved, no pretentious equipment that makes a different impact depending on the equipment.
It sparks all these debates about the short pips used by Falck and going to the final or H3 National used by Ma Long etc. Even though the two of these played with entirely different equipment I actually didn't find it that interesting. If at least there was one tournament where everyone had to play with the same rackets (and even the ones that were medium speed which would make rallies probably even more interesting), rather than all of these commercialised expensive crap that gets quickly worn out after a few months of playing.
I had the most fun with table tennis when we played it at school and none of us had any of these ridiculous expensive super fast rackets that cost you 300$. All of us had just simple rackets that can do some moderate spin and that was the most fun game I'd ever played.
I'd find the matches a lot more interesting if the most top skilled in the world players fought against each other with medium speed rackets. 90% of the current rallies are ended in a short no-spin or little spin serve, and then a 3rd kill-shot attack. With everyone fighting against each other there would be a lot less pretentiousness, and would undisputably reveal who is truly the most skilled and the best player out there.
I have no doubt Ma Long or other from CNT would still be on top. But I'm saying at least the rallies would involve perhaps running and chasing after the ball, like occasionally you see right now which is only perhaps 5% of the entire match. The rest are just a boring serve and kill shots and if you watch Chinese super league they are even worse because players are taught to just always return the ball with maximum high risk power and so 95% of the rallies don't have more than 2-3 returns.
I know you have the ping pong now with hard-bats, but that isn't exactly the same... I do like a little spin, whereas hard bats tends to have too many hard-hitting, even when they're looping there's more contact required and less brushing which makes looping quite rare and harder to make.
However watch Chinese super league and it's about a serve, backhand flick and the 3rd shot is almost always an all-out top-spin which is either a kill-shot or goes outside the table and flies at 100km/h.
Last edited:
