Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

[Ray de Galles]

Hearn tries to put the "ding dong" in to Ping Pong.

I've always quite enjoyed the Table Tennis at Olympic and Commonwealth Games, not sure it needs the spin ( or lack of it, to be precise) Hearn is putting on it.

.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

Surely this has to be on the WTF thread Harry.

Bring back Desmond Douglas to host it and that guy who wrote the book Bounce.

That's the extent of my knowledge.

[ursus arctos]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

He's going to build flats in the corners again, isn't he?

[Bored Of Education]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

Hold on, is there some suggestion in the thread title that table-tennis (or ping pong) is some sort of sport for the elite?

Table tennis is the third sport most likely to indicate a misspent youth after pool and darts. Show me someone good at table tennis and I will show you someone who has been in the armed forces, the merchant navy, on oil rigs or in borstal.

Or, you know, is Chinese

[Ray de Galles]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

Bored of Education wrote: Hold on, is there some suggestion in the thread title that table-tennis (or ping pong) is some sort of sport for the elite?

Well, it's clear that Hearn is trying to give the sport a less genteel image and I always associate Table Tennis with my church youth club.

Mainly though, it was just an opportunity for a rhyming gag title.

[Bored Of Education]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

As you were then.

I was going to say youth clubs as well but it didn't fit in with my "misspent youth" theory. Although, maybe for you, going to a church youth club does count

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

You'd have thought badminton was more up there on Hearn's list. You know, turning it into an equivalent of women's beach volleyball. With shuttlecocks. Phwoar, etc.

[Janik]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

Matthew Syed (comprehensive but one with a Latin motto, Balliol) had a misspent youth? All the other British international table tennis players I've heard have been similarly well spoken.
Syed claims that over half of the squad when he was in it where from the same Berkshire town as him. Down to one good local coach, i.e. the point of Bounce, that it's practice rather than talent that makes top level players. But practice with a strong coach, and good facilities, therefore for a sport like table tennis, somewhere with money.
I believe the demographic for table tennis in Britain, at least those who played with a view to competing, is fairly well-heeled.

Syed commenting on the georgraphic distribution of table tennis players.

[Ray de Galles]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

I see Squash is trying a similar Hearnification.

[Janik]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

Squash has been trying to glamourise the sport for years, with limited success. Some matches are now played on an all-glass court including the floor, others under outdoors in front of the Great Pryamid, things like that. That is on top of the structural changes, like the pros playing with a lower tin (to make kills more possible), and the scoring now being point-a-rally to 11 rather than hand-in to 9. It's all in an attempt to get into the Olympics.

btw, there are some brilliant rallies in the match included in Harry's link. Shabana and Gaultier are two of the most gifted players around at the moment.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

Squash isn't in the Olympics? No it's not, is it? Surely it must be more "global" than some that are?

[Janik]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

Well, yes. I was one of the 40,000. Squash also has the strong advantage on Tennis, Golf, Football and Basketball that an Olympic Gold would be the pinnacle of achievement in the sport.
But that isn't really how Olympic sports are selected, is it?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

It must be hard to make it 15,000-arena spectator friendly, it's true. But the same must be true of archery, all the spectators for that MUST be watching the real action on big screens, surely?

[treibeis]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

If they want to make table tennis, squash and badminton more attractive, there has to be the same amount of racquet/bat-smashing that goes on in tennis. That bloke a couple of Australian Opens ago who was trashing racquets that he hadn’t even taken out of the wrapper was the best bit of tennis I’ve ever seen.

[Satchmo Distel]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

I'm not sure any of these sports work on telly. The squeaking shoes are very annoying and the playing area is so small it makes the high speed action hard to follow.

[Bored Of Education]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

It hadn't occurred to me but I am amazes that squash isn't in the Olympics

[Janik]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

satchmo76 wrote: the playing area is so small it makes the high speed action hard to follow.

That is Squash problem, or at least it has been. The main issue is 24 fps cameras just not being quick enough. According to a friend who earns his living from Squash (he runs tournaments, sells kit and coaches), if you took an inidivudal frame from a standard TV camera, the ball wasn't circular but was smeared out. With quicker HD cameras, you don't get the same effect, making it far easier to follow the ball around (trying watching some HD Squash footage on youtube compared to non-HD to see how enormous the difference is).
Unfortunately, Squash missed the boat on being a Televisied sport due to this. And given how saturated sports coverage is, reversing that means displacing another sport that is fighting tooth-and-nail not just to keep it's presence but to increase it.

[Janik]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

treibeis wrote: If they want to make table tennis, squash and badminton more attractive, there has to be the same amount of racquet/bat-smashing that goes on in tennis. That bloke a couple of Australian Opens ago who was trashing racquets that he hadn’t even taken out of the wrapper was the best bit of tennis I’ve ever seen.

Actually, one of the things the IOC has told the Squash govenring bodies is that Squash players need to tone down their interaction with officials if they want to get the sport in. Squash referees and markers are much more willing to debate decisions with players than is the case in most sports, where the official makes a call and won't explain why. Also, racquet smashing is far from unheard of in Squah circles (again, my mate Simon sponsors quite a few teenaged talents via his kit sales company, and he is always having trouble with players who smash their racquet the second anything goes against them).

[Ray de Galles]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

Rogin the Kitten Minder wrote: It must be hard to make it 15,000-arena spectator friendly, it's true. But the same must be true of archery, all the spectators for that MUST be watching the real action on big screens, surely?

I went to some Paralympic Archery (in a smaller venue than the Olympic sessions, admittedly) and you can focus on the actual target, though there is a certain amount of checking on the big screen too.

[Janik]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

One of the key problems that Squash is that it is definitely perceived as elitist. That is even more the case in the US than it is in Britain, and it's hardly seen as a sport for the masses here.

[ursus arctos]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

Absolutely, positively.

I'm surprised that anyone is surprised that squash isn't in the Olympics. Tennis, table tennis and badminton are all relatively recent additions ('88, '88 and '92), and each of those are played much more widely.

[E10 Rifle]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

He's going to build flats in the corners again, isn't he?

It kind of warms my cockles that someone living 3,000 miles away feels confident in making that gag, knowing most people reading it will know what it means.

[Ray de Galles]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

As we've wandered on to the subject:

Those potential new sports for the 2020 Olympics in full.

[Bored Of Education]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

Again, I am surprised that Karate and Kung Fu aren't there. The rest can fuck off.

Tennis, table tennis and badminton are all relatively recent additions ('88, '88 and '92), and each of those are played much more widely.

I would have put Squash as more widely played than badminton. It seems to have been widespread for decades. I will bow to your better knowledge however.

As far as the speed of the ball is concerned, couldn't they do the same as, I think, they did for Ice Hockey. Didn't they have some sort of computerised dot that followed the puck around on TV? Either way, the puck must be as small and fast, relatively, as a squash ball?

[ursus arctos]

Wiff Waff for the Riff Raff?

One has to think about the question in global terms.

Badminton is very popular in Southeast Asia, and that fact that it gave countries like Indonesia and Malaysia real chances at medals no doubt played a major role in the IOC's decision.

The Fox Glow Puck was abandoned quite quickly, and is considered by hockey purists as perhaps the dumbest idea ever to stain the sport.

Squash balls are significantly smaller than hockey pucks (though one needs to balance that with the smaller playing surface). They are also capable of travelling at much higher speeds (up to 175 mph, compared to about 105 for ice hockey).