Treatments with sanding paper to fool Umpire.

[igorponger]

THE SANDING PAPER TO FOOL UMPIRE.

Recently I was updated on a new international instruction ITTF M9 to describe a new procedure of how to handle players rackets at competitions. And the manual says that now it is a due operation for umpire to remove the rubber sheet and carefully inspect the outer plywood, since some clever athletes learned grinding off the top veneer on blade, and thus they can fool the electronic thickness gauge to their own benefit.

Now I'm seeking to know - which of our masters did took to such a trick? And what the real benefit may be.
-------------
Waiting for an open answer, without unfounded speculation and without perky jestings.
_________________
Thanks a lot in advance.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

this method is literally over 20 years old

 

[tzifos]

@igorponger thank you! your posts give us so many good ideas on how to cheat! Your are like an encyclopedia of cheating!

 

[NetProphet]

Never heard of this but I can't make any sense of it either, too much text missing...

 

[AchyGeorge]

I wonder why we have flatness test?

 

[riemsesy]

An umpire removing rubbers from a blade.

Hilarious

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

@igorponger thank you! your posts give us so many good ideas on how to cheat! Your are like an encyclopedia of cheating!

you should ask me
I could of give you this like 20 years ago.... things are slow for igor, but he is getting there... hopefully

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

An umpire removing rubbers from a blade.

Hilarious

they actually piloted that few years ago
and that was it... not sure when it will happen again
because if you ask the umpires to reglue your rubber back, I'm not sure if they know how to

 

[Grumms]

The outer ply is what, 0,2mm thick? How sand papering it could be useful for cheating?

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

The outer ply is what, 0,2mm thick? How sand papering it could be useful for cheating?

you would have a thicker rubber sweat spot area.
so you would sand the sweat spot area of the blade
so just think of it as a thicker rubber in the middle, against a thinner blade, but the corners are all normal.
so when you measure, it is still within the legal limits

This practice is seldomly used nowadays though

it was a lot more common a decade ago.

 

[damszelfly]

Still, I think, that whenever an umpire does this, I cannot imagine, how the athlete would be compensated for ruining his/her competition-ready racket - I don't think, that a newly glued "identical" configuration would work, because there would be no separate times (like several hours) to do the initial wear-in on the setup, and notice any unacceptable characteristic which might happen due to a given part being defective in a hidden way (e.g. "weaker" piece of a bladewith bad feeling).

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Still, I think, that whenever an umpire does this, I cannot imagine, how the athlete would be compensated for ruining his/her competition-ready racket - I don't think, that a newly glued "identical" configuration would work, because there would be no separate times (like several hours) to do the initial wear-in on the setup, and notice any unacceptable characteristic which might happen due to a given part being defective in a hidden way (e.g. "weaker" piece of a bladewith bad feeling).

igor only has half the story and loves to stir gossips

so during a pilot at some international, but lowly rated tournament couple of years ago, how it worked was that after the player had finish his or her events in the tournament, the players volunteered to give in there rackets for rubber removal and no penalty or fines were given should any illegality came from it.

With so many back to back tournaments, I just don't see this happening today.
and at most, it was a pilot.

the issue of sandpaper is so low now, igor and his cronies are wasting too much time on it, they should focus more energy on the dry boosting technique rather

 

[riemsesy]

igor and his cronies are wasting too much time on it, they should focus more energy on the dry boosting technique rather

 

[nablaz]

Wow, for once Igor might have a point that isn't outdated by 20/30 years...
The following video was posted today on ITTF's channel:

ITTF Racket Control - 2025

Now, for anyone who watched it: what happens when racket C's owner has another match, maybe in doubles or whatever, say 1h after the controls are completed? Do they have to rush to glue back two new sheets of rubber and then try to test / run in said racket in the few minutes they have left? Or do they have to play with their backup (maybe less-preferred) racket?

I'm not sure I would be super happy about this process in a tournament setting, if I was a pro whose livelihood depended on the results I achieved...

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Wow, for once Igor might have a point that isn't outdated by 20/30 years...
The following video was posted today on ITTF's channel:

ITTF Racket Control - 2025

Now, for anyone who watched it: what happens when racket C's owner has another match, maybe in doubles or whatever, say 1h after the controls are completed? Do they have to rush to glue back two new sheets of rubber and then try to test / run in said racket in the few minutes they have left? Or do they have to play with their backup (maybe less-preferred) racket?

I'm not sure I would be super happy about this process in a tournament setting, if I was a pro whose livelihood depended on the results I achieved...

the removal of the racket is only possible if the match referee approves/request it
if they do it after the player is done with the tournament, it isn't so bad
but ongoing - this is a problem for all players.

 

[nablaz]

the removal of the racket is only possible if the match referee approves/request it
if they do it after the player is done with the tournament, it isn't so bad
but ongoing - this is a problem for all players.

Yes, during the tournament, that's what I was asking...

It just seems wildly inconvenient. At the same time, waiting after the end of the tournament to maybe disqualify someone seems equally annoying!