The balls I had a chance to try were the 3-star, Double Happiness brand, orange, Made in China. They were nice looking and neatly packed in a box of three. The rallies at my level of play, about 1700-1800 level, became somewhat slower, as a result of the size and the weight of this size of the ball. I adjusted rather quickly, and after about 10 minutes I was not making more unforced errors than I usually make. However, since the speed of the ball was slower, it was easier for my opponent, a much younger player, to make good returns. Therefore, naturally, I did not like the larger ball very much.

The table tennis community has recently heard a lot of speculation about the impact of television on the popularity of table tennis. Irrespective of personal feelings, I doubt seriously that legalizing the 40-mm ball will result in increasing popularity of table tennis with the television, which is the core of the whole campaign. This, because I do not believe that the play of world class players will be affected by the 40 mm ball. Consequently, after a short transition period we can expect that the speed of the play at the pro-tour level will be still – thank God - fast enough for the true table tennis enthusiasts/spectators to enjoy, but too fast for the television people to change their minds about table tennis.

The above-mentioned, short encounter with the 40-mm ball has been a kind of an inspiration for me to write a more elaborate treatise on the campaign aimed at changing the currently regular table tennis equipment. I do not think changing equipment is a good idea, and I explain below why. Very briefly stated, little, if anything, will be achieved, and enforcing the proposed change(s) may destroy the sport of table tennis as we know it.

I am just a mediocre player and I realize that this change is not being suggested for the sake of benefit to players at my level. Those who started this "let’s change the equipment" crusade may think it does not matter what players at this average level think but, perhaps, they should think again. After all, the 1500 to 2000 rated players make up the largest group of serious table tennis players, who contribute a lot to the popularity of the sport as well as to the revenue of the whole table tennis industry.

I have been with table tennis for a long time, here since 1981 and in Europe before that, and I think I understand the sport. I’d like to use this opportunity to share with the US table tennis community a few thoughts about changing the size of the ball and other revolutionary ideas we currently have to stomach about equipment changes.

We all know that the campaign to change the currently regular table tennis equipment is money driven. Every person who loves this sport would like to see more money in it, to reward players more equitably for their hard work and excellence. There is a naïve idea going around, however, that if we just could make table tennis more attractive for television, table tennis would become more popular and the money would pour in. This is a myth, a wishful thinking. It just won’t work that way. Table tennis is not off the air because the ball flies too fast, and it will not be on the air because the ball will fly a little slower. The high velocity of the ice hockey puck or the baseball has not taken these sports off the air either. Table tennis will be put on the television’s favorite sports list when the TV people find sufficient number of sponsors willing to pay 5-7 digit sums for 30 seconds of air time in hope that the audience will be large, so that they can sell millions of rolls of toilette paper, packages of laxatives and feminine and other products. However, the audience will not be large merely because table tennis will be on the tube. In order for the TV executives to be reasonably sure that the eyes of a commercially significant number of people will be glued to TV screens, watching and willing to put up with the moronic commercials thrown at them during intermissions, which is the sole purpose of television broadcasting, table tennis must be popular. It is unrealistic to expect television to contribute to the existing popularity of a sport in any significant way. Table tennis is not a can of Budweiser. When Anheuser-Busch wants to make Budweiser more popular by way of television, the company has to pay TV stations a lot of hard bucks. Obviously, table tennis world wants just the opposite. It wants TV stations to pay for the privilege to broadcast table tennis competitions, as they have to for other sport events. Take football, baseball, soccer, ice hockey or golf. These sports became popular long before TV sneaked into our bedrooms and family rooms. With the invention of television, these sports only became commercially easier to exploit. Clearly, one does not have to be a rocket scientist to conclude that in order to attract those zillions of advertising $$$ and get on TV, tennis, baseball and football had to be popular first.

Some of you, my fellow table tennis fans and players, may wonder why so much of the world, including ITTF, wholeheartedly supports the current experimenting with table tennis equipment, when this sport is already quite popular in most of the world. In Europe, Asian countries and elsewhere, major table tennis events are frequently televised, regardless of the small ball flying at 100+ miles per hour over the (only) 6 inches high net. Let me reveal a little secret, in case you do not realize this. This whole worldwide campaign to increase popularity of table tennis is actually aimed at increasing the popularity of table tennis in the USA. This is as much surprising as it is commendable. The surprising part is that the rest of the world, this time for a change, wants to help this country with something, rather than badmouth it or beg for handouts, most of the time both with about 5 minutes in between. We should participate in the commendable part of this campaign with enthusiasm, but we should leave the equipment alone and focus on activities that have a better chance to succeed.

The reason for this worldwide interest in the welfare of table tennis in USA is not all that unselfish. It happens because the world knows that this is the country where the money is, not that there is anything wrong with that, to use the famous Seinfeld’s line. And history has shown that the financial prosperity, worldwide, of those involved in sports that are popular in the USA is exemplary. The point I am trying to make is that when we realize that table tennis is not duly popular in this country and want to do something about it, we should stop looking for the culprit in the currently regular equipment. Neither should we ascribe television the divine powers of a savior.

In this context, it is amusing, and sad at the same time, to see some of our desperate measures aimed at increasing popularity of table tennis in the USA. Take, for example, the routine of playing loud music during finals at the US Open or National Championships. It is orchestrated as a result of a sorry hope that aping the circus which takes place during important events in some more popular sports will make table tennis popular as well. This nonsense, which nobody seems to be able to stop when the finalists are ready to start to play, has no other effect than that it annoys the spectators. To provide this poor show to them is barking at the wrong tree. People in the arena do not have to be preached to. They came to see the finals because they already like the sport. It should not be news for the well traveled USTTA officials who ordered it, that in countries where table tennis is popular, this obnoxious musical extravaganza does not exist. Loud music was not played during the staged events at the recent US Open. The person responsible for this revolutionary change deserves to be commended for the courage to part with the former, silly practice.

Since I originally submitted my article for publication in the USATT Magazine, it occurred to me that there is another area where USATT unnecessarily waists energy and resources. It is the "inventing" the USATT Table Tennis Rules, and disseminating a pamphlet with that title free of charge. The same text can also be found within the USATT web page on the Internet. USATT publishes the pamphlet with the best intentions to make the rules available to the greatest number of players at all levels, members and non-members. However, the title gives many readers of that pamphlet a false impression that the USATT rules differ materially from the ITTF rules. In fact, the difference between the two sets of rules is merely cosmetic: The USATT Rules result from the fragmentation of the official ITTF Rules of Table Tennis into an unnecessary large number of paragraphs. Thus, it is impossible to make references to any specific rule by the rule number without specifying whether it is the ITTF or the USATT rule. Consequently, it causes confusion. Since the actual rules of play are the same, the differences are only in areas concerning running tournaments, there is no need to have separate USATT and ITTF Rules. ITTF clearly states in all its publication that this institution encourages the reproduction of information from booklets it publishes, provided the source is mentioned. Why, then, not adopt the ITTF rules in their entirety, and add few notes about the particulars pertaining to our special domestic situation?

I can certainly understand that when top players were told that if the ball were a little larger and the net were a little higher they could be making the same disgusting amount of monies the baseball or football players make, they joyfully fell for it. Who can blame them? Who wouldn’t? Thus, they are willing to try the large balls. My advice to these dreamers is: Wake up and don’t hold your breath, pals.

Top table tennis players must work at least as hard as champions must in other sports. Therefore, it sure would be only fair if they could be rewarded as generously as their counterparts in sports that are more popular. The magic word which will make table tennis community financially more prosperous is popularity and not "a larger ball" or ‘television’. Consequently, those who want to make more money in table tennis, players and officials alike, should drop the dangerous experimentation with the fundamentals of the sport. Instead of focusing on television as the means through which table tennis might become more popular they would do a better service to themselves and the sport of table tennis if they became personally more actively involved in approaches which could be more successful. The first step in the right direction, at least in this country, would be to organize a viable and successful league. Even if, at the beginning, it would have to be subsidized. This would be the best investment USATT can make. Initially, perhaps, a competition among clubs within every state, followed by the winners competing at the National level. This would slowly but surely result in enlarging the base of local patriots willing to pay admission fees to watch their favorite players or team. Let us not be turned off by the word "slowly". There are no quick fixes for the problem we obviously have. Sports do not achieve sky-high popularity overnight. Just compare current popularity of soccer with what it was thirty years ago! Having a successful league on the national level would also bring the status of table tennis in this country to a par with that in Europe and some countries in other parts of the world. Messing with equipment won’t do the trick. It will only hurt the sport of table tennis and, possibly, discourage the largest crowd of players whose play would be affected by the change most. For those who want to play with a larger ball and a higher net we have tennis, remember?