Good Morning Britain making fun of little TT girl and calling TT "boring" sport

[JST]

Good Morning Britain making fun of little TT girl and calling TT "boring" sport

Piers Morgan trying to be funny and partially he does the job.

However these 2 minutes capture so many stereotypes about TT that I wanted to share it here:
- TT is done seriously just in China
- you need to start at the age of 2 (3 max) and you need to train 5 hours a day (that is unfortunately partially true
- general public sees TT as "boring" sport (or not sport at all)

For the last point: we all know that, it's just good to see it live as spontaneous reaction so it strikes us again into the face (at least it does to me) and we can think further if this is the end point or we can change this perception (without ruining the game by playing single game up to eleven or introducing 50mm balls).

Floor is yours (please balance the funny and joking comments with some new unheard insights

 

[passifid]

I mean I feel they respected it more than most would, they outright referred to her as sporting excellence many times.

 

[killiegradge]

Does anyone know the name of the guy who called TT "boring"?

 

[jawien]

Well tt is boring ... to watch, specially for the 'lay' people. As Brs once wrote it's a participation sport, not the viewers sport.

For me, and I'm probably known here for this, we are a little too technical as a sport imho.

I remember the World Tour in Olomouc this year, and the match between Marcos Freitas and Daniel Habesohn and specially their last exhibition point. They played a long rally far away from the table of a quality counter topspins, that wowed everybody. Before that, their whole match was happening close to the table or net with fast attacks or counters with relatively short rallies. You could hardly hear anybody's amazement or appreciation ...

I'm not saying this is the proper way, but I've made few posts (or one or two threads) about experimenting with the current setup - it was the net height ... I'm still due some videos about it (I will make them eventually : ) But what struck me, was that when I was playing with a novice people, they could suddenly realize and appreciate how important the quality of the stroke and its proper execution is. The gap between a keen amateur player and them - novices, suddenly became obvious. It even brought a smile on their faces more.
Before with the current setup (net height in my case), I think it wasn't so clear for them and they were not aware of this ...

Little less technicalities (some refer to it as dumming the sport ; ) and a bit more athleticism and body coordination could do us good imho and nullify the "boring" remarks. I'm not saying we should do it, but we should try to develop the sport and also try experiment to some extend ...

PS. I actually love watching nowadays tt, but it does not count cause I'm addicted .. and the girl is mesmerizing ; )

 

[FruitLoop]

Posting Piers Morgan should get you temp banned at minimum.

 

[doraemon]

Piers Morgan trying to be funny and partially he does the job.

However these 2 minutes capture so many stereotypes about TT that I wanted to share it here:
- TT is done seriously just in China
- you need to start at the age of 2 (3 max) and you need to train 5 hours a day (that is unfortunately partially true
- general public sees TT as "boring" sport (or not sport at all)

For the last point: we all know that, it's just good to see it live as spontaneous reaction so it strikes us again into the face (at least it does to me) and we can think further if this is the end point or we can change this perception (without ruining the game by playing single game up to eleven or introducing 50mm balls).

Floor is yours (please balance the funny and joking comments with some new unheard insights

i had a good laugh watching this

 

[Lightzy]

Posting Piers Morgan should get you temp banned at minimum.

Agreed

 

[JST]

the headline was indeed just provocative joke, they pay certain respect to the girl (and she is amazing!). Although I'm not a fan of parents who drill their kids in any activity since age of 2 or 3...

 

[hantekin]

Watching any sport without actively and seriously doing it is the boring and stupid thing.

 

[jawien]

Watching any sport without actively and seriously doing it is the boring and stupid thing.

Beg to differ. Checkout soccer, basketball, ski jumping ... etc.

 

[hantekin]

may be I should correct myself. What I mean is not watching the most critical moments or top performances.

 

[TTHopeful]

That was horrible to watch

 

[jamesmith]

why nobody say she is enjoying it ? We are not there, We were not her, we don,t know , from her movement, I think she is enjoying it.

 

[jamesmith]

I knew a kid , he found out table tennis sport two yrs ago, he was 8, he loved it and asked everybody in the club to play with him every night, he lost many times 11-0 or 11-1...etc but he never gave up, day and night he wants to play table tennis, after only one yr, he played so well and can match with everybody in our club, two yrs later , he is under 10 yrs old group top 3 in his country. If he has 12 hours free, he will love to play 12 hours. That is what he likes ,he was not forced. To play like this girl , she needs to have enthusiastic to the sport and she likes to play, otherwise she won,t be that good. That is only my opinion .

 

[Trismegistus]

Beg to differ. Checkout soccer, basketball, ski jumping ... etc.

Well I find soccer to be completely unwatchable: an unbearably boring sport in which scoring happens once or twice over the course of 90 minutes of drudgery. And I enjoy watching tennis, table tennis, and gymnastics, which I think have a lot more visually interesting elements (e.g. ball trajectories; acrobatic body motions) compared to many heavily watched sports that feel visually static to me (soccer, baseball, golf). I think the levels of current spectator interest just reflect established cultural norms, and don't reflect anything about the "innate interestingness" of a sport (if such a thing could be measured).

 

[jawien]

Well I find soccer to be completely unwatchable: an unbearably boring sport in which scoring happens once or twice over the course of 90 minutes of drudgery. And I enjoy watching tennis, table tennis, and gymnastics, which I think have a lot more visually interesting elements (e.g. ball trajectories; acrobatic body motions) compared to many heavily watched sports that feel visually static to me (soccer, baseball, golf). I don't think the levels of current spectator interest just reflect established cultural norms, and don't reflect anything about the "innate interestingness" of a sport (if such a thing could be measured).

I mean you "do" think the levels of current spectator interest ... right? : )

Sure there's some truth to what you said, soccer seems interesting to many people i.e. in Europe and not very popular in the US. I guess something analogical could be said about the American Football.

I was referring to a slightly different problem commented by Hantekin, whether you might enjoy watching the sport without actively playing it. Ski jumping would be a pure example for me.

Not sure about "innate interestingness", but there might be something like innate simpleness or complexity of the sport I guess.

 

[mart1nandersson]

Well I find soccer to be completely unwatchable: an unbearably boring sport in which scoring happens once or twice over the course of 90 minutes of drudgery. And I enjoy watching tennis, table tennis, and gymnastics, which I think have a lot more visually interesting elements (e.g. ball trajectories; acrobatic body motions) compared to many heavily watched sports that feel visually static to me (soccer, baseball, golf). I don't think the levels of current spectator interest just reflect established cultural norms, and don't reflect anything about the "innate interestingness" of a sport (if such a thing could be measured).

Isn’t the main difference between team sports like football/soccer/baseball and sports like TT/gymnastics/athletics/etc that one is about supporting a team and the other one is more about the performance. I for one can’t assemble the same excitement when watching TT as when I watch my local football/soccer team. The result is more interesting than the quality of play.

 

[Trismegistus]

I mean you "do" think the levels of current spectator interest ... right? : )

Sure there's some truth to what you said, soccer seems interesting to many people i.e. in Europe and not very popular in the US. I guess something analogical could be said about the American Football.

I was referring to a slightly different problem commented by Hantekin, whether you might enjoy watching the sport without actively playing it. Ski jumping would be a pure example for me.

Not sure about "innate interestingness", but there might be something like innate simpleness or complexity of the sport I guess.

Yep, sorry - good catch! It's probably true that there's several dimensions of table tennis that aren't really observable for someone who isn't a serious player, and that this complexity could reduce its appeal. I admit that I still mostly enjoy watching the cool arching ball trajectories in counterloop rallies, even though fewer than 10 percent of points reach those kinds of rallies.

 

[jawien]

[...] I admit that I still mostly enjoy watching the cool arching ball trajectories in counterloop rallies, even though fewer than 10 percent of points reach those kinds of rallies.

Maybe that's why they are so precious to watch. They happen so rarely, you want to cherish them .. like the icing on the cake ... ; )

I mean tt is a fantastic sport for me (always was) and I regret the fact the for some reason it is not as popular as it could/should be.

 

[JHB]

Is it permissible on here to say that Piers Morgan is a supercilious c*@# ?? Oh sorry, i just did......