This really wanted me to puke. Why should only the hardbat have a special committee ?
What about a speed glue committee for those who want to use speed glue ?
What about a booster committee for those who want to use boosters ?
What about those who want to use anti spin rubbers ?
Don’t they have historical rights too ?
This whole classic tabletennis garbage was started by one Marty Reisman who wanted to use sponge as an excuse for his personal failure to win the world championships
Marty Reisman was a great player & obviously very charismatic cult leader in that he has conned even a cult leader himself into being one of his cult groupies.
Marty Reisman had many opportunities before & after the 1952 World’s in Bombay when a good if not a great player used sponge to become World Champion. But in fact sponge was used in 1951 & Marty should have seen this coming. Yet he wanted to hide behind sponge as an excuse for his failures. At one World’s he even beat the 4 time World Champion Richard Bergmann but lost to Vana. He could have won. What is his excuse ? And as I understand it, he was the top seed also at 1948 Worlds. What happened then ?
Do I hate hardbat ? No of course not. Even two of my most favorite players are Richard Bergmann & Angelica Rozeanu.
But I do have lots of problems with many players who do not understand how long pips work & why they were invented in the first place. To compound matter further there are these modern day clowns who think they can use short pips on backhand just because Mama Ito & Han Ying use (but keep failing over & over).
My biggest problem with having a separate committee for hardbat & sandpaper is waste of resources. I have no problem in hardbat remaining legal in ITTF play. But sandpaper was or is never legal in ITTF play & I personlly don't care if sandpaper is even made legal in ITTF play. I personally don't really care or obsess with what my opponent uses, like the booster supremacists do (& keep chaging rules to oppress pips / anti player). My only problem comes when ITTF worshippers like Stuart Marquis, Tony'sTableTennis, DukeGaga etc keep trying to tell me I should not even think about (let alone use) high aspect ratio super long pips just because ITTF says so.
I also have no problem in holding separate hardbat & sandpaper events for 60+ old farts who may be still left over from 60’s era. But it is disgusting to run separate hardbat / sandpaper events for children. The biggest problem is that the strokes are very different with hardbat & sandpaper (more open & upwards racket movement) compared to using spinny inverted rubbers (more closed & forward racket movement). While a very talented future star like Danny Seemiller or Jim Butler or Todd Sweeris are capable of switching back and forth between rubbers easily as they are older even in same tournament, this is a totally unwanted distraction for junior development. Most amateur low level junior players cannot switch back and forth between hardbat & sponge domains . So it is a massive unwanted distraction for junior development. It would be a complete waste of time & even worse a totally unwanted distraction for most juniors who should be shielded from this confusing harbat nonsnse. Even more offensive is the fact that all this is being done to fulfill the egos of people like Marty Reisman (who has passed away now) . Fof heaven’s sake, let us just move on with reality.
Hardbat / sandpaper is basically a one size fits all coocept but it was fine before sponge arrived because harbat / sandpaper does not take into account of the fact that the forehand & backhand are very different for most humans in terms of playing style & backhand is usually the weaker side. Sponge domain tabletennis allows players to choose totally different rubber types to enhance the various very different playing styles on forehand & backhand & this was not & is not possible with hardbat & sandpapaer. (It is not a knock on hardbat but sponge just was not available before)
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