I think that as long as the service it self is legal by the rules from ITTF, the table tap BEFORE the action of service starts is no problem at all. But if it is during the service action, I would reconsider it, since it might be kinda disturbing to the other player.
It is really a hard to decide, but this aint pros are they? So I think it is allright to make some "own" rules anyway, as long as they aren't aiming for the Olympics, hehe
You are right, they are low level club players. Not bad from the basement player standpoint, but not good from the club player standpoint. On the evening in question, there was no doubt that they were the lowest level players at King Pong Soho which is the tt club in NYC where this happened. And it was before he when for his motion to toss the ball.
By the way Anders, when did you start playing with a Clipper? Nice setup.
Well, originally I played it last autumn for some months.. But put it on the shelf to get a slower blade for more control. Then, a couple of weeks ago I picked it up again, since I didn't find the Andro blade suitable for my game.
Sadly I broke my Clipper on Saturday during practise, and now I use the STIGA Maplewood NCT V that I won in a competition from STIGA. It is easier to play and has more power than the Clipper Wood, so I am happy with that. Only the Clipper is slightly better for service, but that is one I can get used to The setup worked well with Clipper and also very well with Maplewood
How do you break your frame in practise? o.0 Recently I saw a funny way to break a frame lol. Some guys were hitting around a bit before their match started, and when they stopped, 1 gave the other a lob, like the last ball before their match would start. The guy smashed it with all he had, but his bat slipped out of his hand and dissapeared behind him (nice smashing technique I'd say ) and broke, so he had to play all his matches with his teammates bat xD.