Life, Existence, and the Meaning of Long Pips - The Opus Maximus of James Z

[UpSideDownCarl]

the "table tennis" that he plays is not the real table tennis and pretty sure we all know that. anyone has trained with a real coach will laugh if someone says "oh table tennis looks easy and fun".

This is not against anyone. And everyone has a right to their own opinion and perceptions. But I think it might be worth knowing that Adam can do everything most offensive players can do, and he can do some pretty darn cool shots that most people cannot do. And his level is honestly higher than 90-95% of the members on this forum. So, it is worth recognizing that, even if he is nowhere near the level of a pro, he is still darn good.

These around the net shots are pretty darn sweet and the BH around the net shots that he does, that is actually pretty high level technique and I have seen him pull those off against players much higher level than him while under pressure.

 

[lodro]

And his level is honestly higher than 90-95% of the members on this forum. So, it is worth recognizing that, even if he is nowhere near the level of a pro, he is still darn good.

this is why I objected to the title of this thread which basically opens it up with a nasty taste and criticism. IMO the question-mark at the end of the title is no excuse.

Is Adam Bobbrow all drama & no substance ?​

This is simply nasty shit-stirring and deserves a reprimand.

 

[JJ Ng]

Ok, I just finished reading the whole thread. Here are a few thoughts:

1) Adam has always played like that. He is a lobber. He is not doing that for (pure) entertainment purpose. He has always played like that. Just like some people are chop defenders. Some players are close to the table hitters (i.e. they don't like to loop). Others play mid distance looping both wings. Adam is a lobber. He lobs because that fits in with his personality and maybe his physical make-up. I don't know. I played against Adam a couple times at the USC table tennis club (Ping Pong Posse) when he was an undergrad. I hated playing him. It was really really annoying. I don't recall what his personality was like back then. No more obnoxous or nicer than a00 table tennis player you would meet at a club. But I digressed.

2) Adam does not have the most orthodox style. He did get coaching but I doubt he started getting coached properly until later in life. So he does not play like those chinese or Japanese players who started playing since they were 5 or 6. They look like robots.

3) Adam has very very good feel for the ball and the spin. That is talent. I am not sure you can teach that. When you see people play ping pong (or piano), sometimes either they are talented or they are not. You can tell. Some stuff you just cannot teach. It is not easy to lob (as all of us who play regularly know).

So he has some talent. He started formal training in TT later in life.

4) I think he pretty plays every day! He has played at all sorts of clubs. He has a ton of game experience. That is also something you cannot teach or train for. You have to play lots of matches to "know how to play matches."

5) He is therefore actually a very good player. He is rated in the 2100-2200 in the US ratining system. As one other poster says, yes, he can beat 90-95% of the people posting here. He narrowed beat Dan from TTD. Dan might be one of the weaker players on the TTD but I am sure Dan will beat 95-98% of the people posting here. Dan has clearly improved his all around gam and especially his backhand since losing to Adam.

6) I think he stumbled upon YouTube. To ordinary viewers of YouTube, Adam's style is more interesting than, say, Ma Long's style. You can see the ball when Adam hits it. You can see the weird spin in slo-motion. There is a reason why Adam is so popular on YouTube.

7) Adam works hard. can you imagine playing 5-6 hours of ping pong every day? I cannot. I have other stuff I do in my life. He then has to travel. Be nice to everyone (just like all entertainers are). He has to sleep in hotel rooms. He has to edit his videos in hote rooms. No thanks, I rather work and go home and sleep in my own bed every night.

8) Adam has success because he has worked for it. I highly doubt being a TT entertainer he makes more money than, say, successful singers or doctors or lawyers. But good for him!

 

[superbackhand]

You sound like a classical musician laughing at people playing jazz...

The difference being I know NO classical musician stupid enough to laugh at jazz, or even jazz musicians laughing at pop-rock musicians.

Being an elitist is the ultimate death of any form of sport or art for instance, it's stupid, it's discriminant.

You've got a pretty high opinion of yourself, would you show us how good you are vs a pro like Gauzy ? oh maybe it's too much for you, maybe you're better than a lobbing Bobrow then !! ask him for a match and show us how you handle that...

what do you know about jazz? i graduated from Berkeley with a degree in contemporary jazz.
But that's not the point.

if you're a fan of entertaining ping pong and pretty much an Adam fanboy, I can understand why you get so upset when I express my opinion about the ping pong that Adam performs.

My level of playing has nothing to do with my opinion about the "entertaining" ping pong that you love so much.

But since you've asked, I destroyed Adam at the US Open so yeah I can have my opinion about this, at least.

 

[JJ Ng]

Ok, I don't want to get drawn into the debate. But I shall give a couple more cents.

1) Do I like Adam as a person? Did not know him that well. He seemed nice enough in the ping pong club.

2) I do know a couple people who went to USC with him and he was somewhat weird. But that is not surprisingly considering his choice of clothing and shorts. We all know what we are talking about here.

3) I think his style of playing and his choices of clothing/shorts are actually reflective of his personality. I don't think he is faking it. So if you like him, great! If you don't like him, move on to some other YouTube channels.

4) He talks about making people love people more and how he has friends everywhere. Any of us in our 40's know that we don't have time for that many friends. He has acquaintances everywhere. That we can agree. No, he does not have friends everywhere. We are all busy adults. We have careers. We have familities we have our kids' birthday parties to throw. No, we are not all friends. But does that make him fake? No, whatever you see on social media is an image. And Adam is trying to create an image. He is no different than Shaq mouthing his mouth off on TNT about NBA players just to stir up some controversies. I kind of rather like Shaq's comments frankly.

5) Is his success on his YouTube channel good for table tennis? Yes I think absolutely!!!! Look, he can market himself much much much much better than ITTF so why are we arguing? I would even argue Adam gets more people to get into the grassroot movement of table tennis in the past 3 years than ITTF has done in the past 20 years.

6) Does he work hard for it? Yes. I do NOT want to travel, film myself all the time and edit it in my lonely hotel room. He deserves whatever level of success he has.

 

[BaRanchik]

Ok, I don't want to get drawn into the debate. But I shall give a couple more cents.

1) Do I like Adam as a person? Did not know him that well. He seemed nice enough in the ping pong club.

2) I do know a couple people who went to USC with him and he was somewhat weird. But that is not surprisingly considering his choice of clothing and shorts. We all know what we are talking about here.

3) I think his style of playing and his choices of clothing/shorts are actually reflective of his personality. I don't think he is faking it. So if you like him, great! If you don't like him, move on to some other YouTube channels.

4) He talks about making people love people more and how he has friends everywhere. Any of us in our 40's know that we don't have time for that many friends. He has acquaintances everywhere. That we can agree. No, he does not have friends everywhere. We are all busy adults. We have careers. We have familities we have our kids' birthday parties to throw. No, we are not all friends. But does that make him fake? No, whatever you see on social media is an image. And Adam is trying to create an image. He is no different than Shaq mouthing his mouth off on TNT about NBA players just to stir up some controversies. I kind of rather like Shaq's comments frankly.

5) Is his success on his YouTube channel good for table tennis? Yes I think absolutely!!!! Look, he can market himself much much much much better than ITTF so why are we arguing? I would even argue Adam gets more people to get into the grassroot movement of table tennis in the past 3 years than ITTF has done in the past 20 years.

6) Does he work hard for it? Yes. I do NOT want to travel, film myself all the time and edit it in my lonely hotel room. He deserves whatever level of success he has.

Adam and Pongfinity were the ones who brought me into this sport a little more than a year ago. Not long after that I started watching TTD too. I think YouTube is an amazing platform for reaching out to people and showing them how fun the sport is (or any other hobby or possible career path for that matter).

 

[Wrighty67]

In my view, and regardless of his TT ability, Adam is a breath of fresh air for table tennis as a commentator and personality. He is knowledgable and I find him very insightful as a commentator, as well as fun to listen to (in comparison to many dull commentators who also may lack TT insight)

I also think his energy and love for the sport are great for raising the profile of a sport that is woefully underexposed given how much fun it can be to play or watch.

The sport would be a lot worse off without his positive contribution IMO.

 

[Jslick89]

what do you know about jazz? i graduated from Berkeley with a degree in contemporary jazz.
But that's not the point.

if you're a fan of entertaining ping pong and pretty much an Adam fanboy, I can understand why you get so upset when I express my opinion about the ping pong that Adam performs.

My level of playing has nothing to do with my opinion about the "entertaining" ping pong that you love so much.

But since you've asked, I destroyed Adam at the US Open so yeah I can have my opinion about this, at least.

At which USA did you play him? WHat year?

 

[OldUser]

Lebrun is playing dirty by serving without checking if his opponent is in position.

Yuan tries to counter this dirty tactic by delaying his position until Lebrun checks on him. Lebrun never bothers to check, and it turns out it makes Yuan look dirty.

The ref did a terrible job here. There must be an official policy on this. If the server purposefully serves when the receiver has his hand up or is clearly out of position, he deserves a yellow card.

If the receiver excessively tries to delay, he deserves a yellow card.

Learn the rules, there is ABSOLUTELY NO OBLIGATION FOR THE SERVER TO WAIT FOR THE RECEIVER:
3.4.4 Intervals
3.4.4.1 Play shall be continuous throughout an individual match except that any
player is entitled to:
3.4.4.1.1 an interval of up to 1 minute between successive games of an individual
match;
3.4.4.1.2 brief intervals for towelling after every 6 points from the start of each
game and at the change of ends in the last possible game of an individual
match.

PERIOD, if you're not ready, that's YOUR OWN FAULT, not server's one. The Lebrun Brothers strictly follow the rules of continuous play, that's why they never receive yellow cards for that reason.

If the receiver raises his hand but the server keeps on going on, it's the referee who decides if the receiver is right to delay the continuous play. But the referee will never tell the server he's wrong in that case, it's only a tolerance allowed by the referee for the receiver to delay the continuous play. If he thinks it's too much, done too frequently, it happens what happened to Yuan Licen.

Therefore you have to adapt to the server's pace. PERIOD.

It's not playing dirty, it's not because you don't like a player, that you're right to tell bullshit about him !

 

[JeffM]

I find it sort of funny when a table-tennis player plays two-handed backhand usually from tennis & just to show off but I think there is a pro TT player who does this

I think you are referring to Hugo Calderano, but I am not convinced he is doing it to show off...

 

[turbozed]

From my limited research on the topic, celebrity net worth estimates are either wild guesses or just outright made up.

 

[Dominikk85]

I don't buy at all than han Ying has a net worth of 7.6M unless she married a rich dude. No way she made that much in table tennis or endorsements.

 

[JesperStef]

Do the right thing at Durban & use a high aspect ratio super long pips one color racket & you can take it all on a level & fair playing field, ...............EASY

Sorry to the rest of you for feeding the troll, but you are aware that Han Ying uses SHORT pips, right? Meaning that changing to long pips - which ever kind - probably won’t be AUTOMATICALLY improving her level as you (very) often suggest…?

 

[lodro]

somebody please remind me how to mark some member as ""ignore", i forgot how to

 

[lodro]

It is more fun to kick me around when I already on the floor.

no problemo, as long as you stay there 🤣

 

[OldUser]

no problemo, as long as you stay there 🤣

That's the thing I love with you aussies: you always care about your wildlife. And if possible you always feed your trolls ! how good are you !

EDIT : oh sh.t sorry I didn't see the NZ flag ! but hey same compliment, plus New Zelanders are always respectfull people, we french rugbymen know you don't play as dirty as the boks hahaha

 

[OldUser]

This is correct. However, as the receiver I think you might be able to deal with this in a live situation. Under 2.6.4 there is an obligation on the server to ensure that the ball is never hidden from the receiver:

"From the start of service until it is struck, the ball shall be above the level of the playing surface and behind the server's end line, and it shall not be hidden from the receiver by the server or his or her doubles partner or by anything they wear or carry".

According to 2.6.4, it seems the onus is not on me (the receiver) to position myself such that I can see the ball, but rather the onus is on the server to make sure its not hidden from me. So for example, if as the receiver I was facing away from the table, 2.6.4 would seem to prevent the server from serving at that point because such a serve would be out of my sight and therefore "hidden from the receiver". So, if the onus is on the server to make sure the ball isn't hidden from the receiver, doesn't this sort of imply that the receiver can set the pace at which serving takes place by employing those sorts of tactics (turning away from the server etc)? This idea that the receiver actually controls the timing of the serve seems to be consistent with the fact that receivers will often hold their hand up if they're not ready to receive, or will simply ignore a served ball altogether if it was served before they were ready (which generally leads to a let being called rather than a point being awarded to the server for an ace serve).

This then ties in with 2.6.6 which states that "It is the responsibility of the player to serve so that the umpire or the assistant umpire can be satisfied that he or she complies with the requirements of the Laws, and either may decide that a service is incorrect".

So, if I can win this argument at 2.6.4, the service could then become incorrect at 2.6.6 in the opinion of the umpire.

Maybe I'm clutching at straws here, but that would be my line of argument in a live situation if I were the receiver.

BUT ! hidden serve are already specified in the rules, we're talking about server's pace here. No tie here. I stand my ground. Hidden serves are not to be judged by the receiver, but by the umpire only. And again, if the umpire thinks the serve is ok, and the receiver uses too much of this excuse, then back to Yuan Licen case.

 

[igorponger]

PROSPECTIVE REVIVAL OF THE DEAD HORSE.

Good news. We have now got a new chairperson for ITTF EQC, young Lebanon lady structural engineer proficient of rubber materials to the full. She is to give a spurr to the dead horse.. Good news, indeed.

 

[BaRanchik]

 

[JeffM]

Hoping no one get's hurt by flying rackets.