It’s been more than year since I updated the blog.
I had lost my interest in publicly voicing my opinions about table tennis, equipment, ITTF and all those issues because I somehow felt I needed to give the people who run the sport a chance to take it to where they wanted to take it, say whatever, do whatever and not have to worry about other opinions and voices.
So what’s happened since then?
Well internationally we have had some serious changes to the game; the guy who was president of the ITTF, who seems to have dedicated his whole life to trying to find a way to change the game, so that a non Chinese player would win, made yet another change to the game; he again made the ball bigger, and this time, he changed the material of the ball from celluloid to plastic. (More on that later)
He also insulated himself from ever being voted out of office by (good news!) stepping down as president and (no surprise) creating a new post of chairman of the ITTF with (guess who?) as our new chairman (himself).
We can’t get rid of this guy, he's taken a page out of Kim Jung Un’s and Vladimir Putin’s playbook.
Which brings me to local table tennis.
I looked back on my post ‘New President in charge of table tennis’ in February 2013 and tried to find what has been accomplished , what promises were kept etc. and scratched my head to find any correlation between what has happened since then and what was promised.
All that talk about increasing memberships and tournaments, it kind of reminds me of what politics are like in Jamaica in the broader sense.
You can tell the public just about anything!
There’s no accountability.
I think the reading public in Jamaica is in the minority (The articulate/literate minority?) and we as a whole are held in contempt by the people who seek and hold office.
Used to be just politics but now sadly, maybe sports.
The other day I saw a memo from the JTTA about having conference, delegates and events being held in constituencies, I wondered if we were talking about sports or politics. Who the hell, other than politicians sees Jamaica as divided up into constituencies?
Flowers blooms
A few weeks ago, I had reason to comment on his Facebook page that I considered him one of the talents in Jamaica and Kareem Flowers has done himself proud.
Tournaments in this country are a rarity under this JTTA and so, even though they decided to have probably their second open tournament for the whole year down at XLCR high school, I decided to take a look at the proceedings along with the dozen or so spectators who dared to drive down to mountain view avenue.
The first thing I saw as I came in, was a match between the two lefties Marsh and Kareem Flowers. I immediately noticed the strange bounce of the ball and the numerous mistakes being made by Marsh in trying to attack Flowers.
On the other table, National Champion Johnny Kane Watson was playing another promising junior Jordan Smasher Hazel. Hazel was doing all of the attacking but couldn't seem to get past Watson, the balls were actually moving slower.
Moving slower? WTF?
Did the JTTA introduce the plastic ball into competition without telling the players?
Theoretical question.
What would be the worse way to introduce a change, to create the most havoc and the most confusion possible?
Hypothetical answer.
Dash it ‘pon them without warning.
Apparently a select few of the players were training with this ball (which is not sold in Jamaica) but other than those select few, the players were given this new ball to play in the competition having never even seen it before!
To add to the chaos, they ran out of balls midway and had to play some matches with the older smaller ball!
So back to table 1.
Marsh struggled to attack the heavier, plastic ball and found it difficult to generate power as the ball dropped sharply once off the board. Normally his loops kick but they were handled with disdain by Flowers who had been preparing with the new ball and defended with consummate ease.
Game Flowers.
Over to table 2.
Kane Watson like Flowers was defending mostly against Hazel who had recently upset him with the standard ball.
This time it would be different.
Hazel had no power, just like Marsh, and clearly was not as well adapted to the slower deader ball as would Watson having trained and practiced extensively with the bigger ball.
Game Watson.
In another game, Philip Drummond loses to Flowers complains about the ball change and that he has had to compete with two different balls in the same tournament.
Diabolical.
Parham gets a walkover from Watson who is now injured.
Simon Tomlinson is at the tournament in full gear but doesn't play (says he is injured).
Finals Parham vs Flowers.
Parham has been training with the regular ball, Flowers has been training with the new ball.
I gave some advise to Parham; don't step back from the table most of your forehands will end up in the net , the ball does not arc like the regular ball.
He plays the match steps back from the table, most of his forehands end up in the net, the ball did not arc like the regular ball.
Game Flowers.
This new ball is a game changer.
They used the Xushoufa seamless.
Thankfully, this is not the ball that is being used in real international competition.
If it were, I certainly would not be playing.
The jury is still out on the seamed 40+ ball which is used on the Pro Tour. (DHS and Nittaku 40+ premium)
Soon I’ll be testing and reviewing these.
Somebody is going to have to speak up for the way the game is being managed in Jamaica and even the world.
The blog is back.
