To an extent I agree. Everyone should be on a level field. Not necessarily with me and you but
Factory allowed boosting on a personal level is rediculous.
It makes it so much harder for the ittf to keep it realistic.
Defense is DEAD because of the lack of ability to police speed and spin.
Then in an attempt to police that exact thing using the ball they killed spin based play all together making it a power game.
I like attacking shots but I can see Igor's point sometimes
So you are saying that defense is dead because people can't "police" spin, but then the new ball killed spin?
Go back since 1990 and tell me how many defenders have made it into the world's top 20? A handful. The only one who ever threatened to win a really major tournament if I remember correctly was Joo See Hyuk.
Don't get me wrong though. I very much dislike that when they changed over to plastic they also snuck in another stealthy increase in ball size which has definitely led to shorter points -- the opposite of what was intended (but which I pointed out at the time was going to be the eventual effect -- here and elsewhere). I have no respect at all for ITTF in terms of the rules they make. Way too often the unintended consequences outweigh the intended ones.
As for boosting and factory boosting, these are rules that serve no real purpose. It would be better to just let players do what they need to do. Remember that the only reason they claimed to want to ban speed glues in 2008 was that the fumes were dangerous to breathe, and nobody makes that claim about boosters. Just like the ban on celluloid balls was based on a false "world-wide ban on celluloid production". I'd say follow the money but international sports federations answer to no-one and they are not transparent, so you can't follow the money.
