Advice and thoughts on wet ball during rally

[JoeZhendong]

I play with a group of regular people. There's one particular person, although he's not a bad person at all, that I believe is putting sweat on the ball unintentionally. However, when I confront that the ball is wet we get into a tensioned situation. I always wipe the ball before serving. I've observed the way he serves and I do see that he wipes his side body before serving. Probably collecting sweat then transferring it to the ball. He doesn't serve conventionally with varied spins, but more so topspin or dead balls since he's a seemiller. When I receive the ball, especially when I try to topspin, the ball goes directly down into the net. I look at my paddle and there is a circle wet spot and I always wipe my rubber dry before receiving. On previous occasions, when I claimed wet ball he allowed to let serve. In our last meet up, I claimed a wet ball, but he continued to say his paddle is dry and then twisted the wetness on to me since my arms were very sweaty. But it doesn't make sense because I'm receiving and the only contact with the ball is on the receive and the evidence is a circle wet spot. He did not call a let serve and took the point. On the next serve, same thing happened again with a wet ball and my receive straight into the net. I called wet ball again, but did not pursue. How can I go about resolving this issue as I really don't want to come out as an a$$?

 

[Tinykin]

Either:
1. Treat each match as a learning experience and deal with it or
2. Don't play with him

 

[NDH]

Next time you serve..... Really make sure that ball has had a good swish around your mouth....... And then TOMAHAWK that bad boy......

"Wet ball" will forever be down to the players - Especially at "friendly" level.

If he was a decent person, and you showed him the wet patch from your bat after a shot that was clearly a wet ball.... He'd happily replay the point.

I've played players in competition who will do it accidentally, but at the same time happily take the point if they win it (the same types of players who will go on a month long rant about wet balls if they lose the point.....)

In your situation - Just highlight it everytime..... If they don't accept it, move on and play with someone else in future.

 

[Sherpa]

Every time you miss a shot and there is a wet spot on your bat stop play, show him, and he either sorts it out or he should forfeit.

 

[boretennis]

you are sure he does this on purpose and is not just an idiot? i assume he is not just playing you, so what do the others say? has this ever been openly discussed? if he does this on purpose he needs to be thrown out obviously.

 

[NetProphet]

You gotta take a strong stance on this imo because you absolutely cannot enjoy TT with a wet ball.
And you seem to be dealing with someone who knows he is wetting it, not taking any steps to dry it, and then acting as if it doesn't matter while winning points, which is out and out cheating.

I would point it out time and again and just take the flak because I'll bet you my racket that it won't be long until someone else pipes up to agree with you because you cannot be the only person who has noticed and is annoyed by this
So it's be brave or be quiet but being quiet is taking the 'Im afraid of a little conflict in standing up for myself' route and unfortunately you can't expect any respect if you do that, it's basically giving license for others to do whatever they want, and guys like him WILL!

 

[rbtitco]

Do it right back

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

report him to igor
he is a cheat

call him out and call officials of the club/match or who ever and if the problem continues, then clearly, there is sportsmanship problems

i would record the match too

 

[NetProphet]

Do it right back

Not good advise. Makes you as bad as the person you are complaining about, turns you into a hypocrite for complaining and leaves you with no standing whatsoever.

 

[lightspin]

Do you know who Big John McCarthy is?

The next time he serves a wet ball, you scream "I'm ready! Are you ready? Let's get it on!" then you jump on the table, over the net, stay low, jump into him, take him to the ground, work until you take his back, apply a rear naked choke, choke him out, call a referee over, wait until expedite is over and you are declared the winner. When he regains consciousnesses,, tell him "You serve wet balls? I serve PAIN and you lose!"

In all seriousness, tell the guy the ball is wet. If he won't do anything about it, never play him again. If it is an official tournament, get a referee. Most normal people will be cool and call let. If not, let the referee deal with it.

 

[Doum]

When he serve, ask him to dry his hand on the table then hand him a dry ball. If he ask why then tell him "because of your wet balls".

 

[sebi]

Don't do the same. Just confront everytime,

When he serve, ask him to dry his hand on the table then hand him a dry ball. If he ask why then tell him "because of your wet balls".

and do this a few times.

If he complains about your wet arms, bring a towl and dry your arms a few times. Just so he has to admit that it is on him. If you don't have to play him play with somebody else.

 

[JoeZhendong]

Update:
Our group is quite small so not playing him is almost unavoidable and I do like to play against him cause then I go no mercy on him allowing me to be most aggressive. So I did approach him about the wet balls, with another member there, just so that it doesn't get hostile. I explained about why I think it was coming from him. Seemed like he was just so-so. I did encounter a couple more wet balls, but just let them go. The next time we met, SURPRISE! He had sweat bands for his wrist. We played 4 matches and NOT A SINGLE WET BALL!

 

[rbtitco]

Sounds like he didn't realize. Glad it was resolved with no dramatics

 

[Tyce]

Sometimes people just don't know how to react and even feel a little bit insulted. But he got over it and took measures, kudos to the both of you