p.s. Maybe I drank too many beers and the philosophical side of me emerged!
I love philosophy!
As you already mentioned it is hard to understand what's going on if you're not a table tennis player, because table tennis is a very spin-orientated sport. And spin is something you can't really see (at least not in TV or from further away). But since spin makes a big difference f.e. while receiving serves, it lookes like many TT players make "unforced errors".
I don't really think that it is too fast. I mean look at ice hockey. If you have never seen ice hockey and you watch it for the first time you wont see anything
The black puck is very small. The players have black sticks (or whatever you call them) and the puck is passed at very high speeds. Compared to that following a TT ball is quite simple. Nevertheless ice hockey is popular.
Something I always am confronted to, as a coach for our little kids, is the fact, that table tennis is an extremely hard and disappointing sport for beginners. It takes quite a lot of skill to play f.e. a simple serve and 1-2 strokes each. Just invite 2 guys or childs, who have never played TT and you'll seee what I mean.
Little kids (5-6 years old) have a lot of fun playing football although they have no skill, because it's simple. Chase after a ball and try to kick it. You failed? Try again. There are no limits.
But when it comes to playing table tennis it's a very different story. Even if you don't apply the rules the ball has to land and bounce on the other side.
What would I change? That's a tricky question. I like TT the way it is (maybe allow boosting
).
One thing I definitely would change is the camera perspective. I don't like the static camera from behind. This is neither tennis nor snooker. I really like the camera positions and movements from the WTTC in Dortmund (look here:
Every now and then they would show the match from a near perspective slightly to the side and a little more from the top. I really liked that.
O.K. enough written