ITTF Pilot Testing “Thickness Measurement on Dismantled Rubbers” Project

The pilot project, which started at the ITTF Challenge Croatia Open this week, aims to ensure that the rubbers from professional table tennis players, used by ITTF tournaments, are following the rules: < 4.00 mm.

The pilot project is also aiming to find out the best procedure to achieve the goal of ensuring players rackets are according to the ITTF rules:

• to measure the thickness accurately
• not to hold up player’s schedule unduly
• to be transparent and credible towards all players

This pilot project will run for 6 months at various ITTF events and initially has no consequences for players who fail testing and the results will stay confidential within the ITTF.

How does it work?

This procedure will apply to the players losing their match from the quarter-finals onwards and then both finalists, with players being able to also request random testing.

Before the match, both players will be informed by the umpire in the Call Area that the racket of the loser and both players in the final will be tested again after the match;
The respective racket will be collected by the umpire immediately after the end of the match. The racket will be secured in the racket testing room and the player shall appear within 20 minutes and dismantle the rubber. Otherwise, the racket control expert will dismantle the rubber;
Once all measurements are completed, the rubber will be returned to the player.

The rubber will be measured with a device called the KÄFER JD 200 which checks the thickness of the rubber on 3 spots in the central hitting area together with a RAE test with 60 sec. measurement on the sponge side.

Once the 6-months pilot project is completed, the ITTF Equipment Department will present the results to the ITTF Executive Committee who will then decide the future of this testing.

https://www.ittf.com/2019/05/19/ittf-pilot-testing-thickness-measurement-dismantled-rubbers-project/

From their tone, it appears they want to collect some data first, to see how effective the entire test will turn out and how rampant the violations are right now.

If only Sharara never said factory-tuning is OK.

https://documents.ittf.sport/sites/default/files/public/2019-05/20181213_EC_Incheon_minutes_0.pdf

3.4 Boosting Working Group
The Equipment Manager, Mrs Claudia Herweg, updated the EC on the work done in the past weeks and presented the report conducted by the members of the boosting working group. Mrs Herweg informed about the considerations and the final conclusion of the report, of not allowing any after treatment(boosting) of the rubbers. The Equipment Manager reported that further tests will be conducted in the intention of defining a pilot phase that includes the dismantling the rubbers from the players’ Rackets, immediately after the end of a competition. The Athletes Commission Chair, Mr Zoran Primorac, expressed some of the concerns and possible issues that might arise from the players and events perspective. The President, Mr Thomas Weikert, asked the AC Chair, Mr Zoran Primorac, to discuss with the Athletes Commission members and with the players and present a report in regard to this topic at the next EC meeting in February. The EC acknowledged the importance of this matter and recommended the establishment of special rules that allow the dismantling of the rubbers at major events, after the competition ends. Further discussions should be continued under the leadership of the Equipment Department with regularly reports to the EC.

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https://documents.ittf.sport/sites/default/files/public/2019-05/20180818_EC_Prague_minutes_0.pdf

3.4 Boosting Working Group
The ITTF Secretary General reported that the boosting working group is finally confirmed and can start their deliberations. A proposition should be presented at the next EC meeting in December in order to be eventually presented to the 2019 AGM in Budapest.

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RidTheKid said:

Blade sink in the middle?

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Old news. They've since moved down on the sponge thickness, from 2.15 to 2.1.

http://mytabletennis.net/forum/foru...title=concavity-on-the-blade-whats-for#770265

igorponger said:

POSTAPPROVAL TREATMENTS ON THE SPONGE IS A GROSS ILLEGALITY. DHS MANUFACTURER IS THE RAMPANT SINNER.

Aside from manual rubber treatment by players, another illegal treatment is the factory tuning. In fact, factory tuning is a 'postapproval alteration to the rubber' as now being done in large by Chinese DHS manufacturer, and it is now prohibited by the ITTF Rubber Regulations T4, effective of January 2018.

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I think I wrote this before. They never stated it. Factory tuning is still fine as long as they send a rubber that's been boosted-to-the-max at factory level to the ITTF for approval.