Counting method (table tennis)

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Referee with scoring board

In table tennis , the counting is done within a set . The opponent's failure points are counted. A player has won a set when he has first reached 11 points and has at least two points more than the opponent. If the score is 10:10, the set is continued until a player is two points ahead. Depending on the tournament, a game consists of three or four winning sets. If a player has won three or four sets, then he has won the entire game and the game is over.

Each player serves twice in turn. However, if a score of 10:10 is reached, the service changes after each point until the end of this set.

The German Table Tennis Association (DTTB) has laid down these provisions in Part A of the rules in Sections 11 to 13.

history

Start time

Before 1926 there were no uniform table tennis rules, neither with regard to the play equipment, nor with regard to the way of playing, nor with regard to the counting method. The conditions were usually set in the respective tournament announcements.

The counting method was often adopted from tennis . In addition, there were counting methods similar to our current one, but with different lengths. So around 20 points had to be achieved in one set, at 19:19 the game was continued in the best-of-five mode .

Occasionally a set was played up to 50, for example in Wales and Bristol, or, as in Sunderland, even up to 100 points. However, in the early 1930s in the Japanese Table Tennis Student Association, a forerunner of the Japanese Table Tennis Association , a set ended at 11 points.

January 1926

In January 1926, delegates from Austria, England, Germany and Hungary founded the table tennis world association ITTF (see International Table Tennis Federation # Foundation ). At the same time, they laid down uniform rules, which were written down in a protocol dated January 16.

Statements about the counting method can also be found here. For national competitions, the respective organizer was given the freedom to play sets up to 21, 25, 31, 50 or 100.

"In all countries it shall be legal to use the following forms of scoring:
     21 up, 25 up, 31 up, 50 up, 100up"

- ITTF-Museum (Select year: 1926: ITTF created slide 2: Berlin meeting p.2, point 9 of the protocol)

In international competitions, however, a set should be counted uniformly to 21.

"That each match in this International competition shall be the best of five games of 21 up each, played according to the laws of TTA ..."

- ITTF Museum (Select year: 1926: ITTF created slide 2: Berlin meeting p.3, item 15 of the protocol)
  1. ^ TTA = Table Tennis Association

December 1926

In December 1926 the first table tennis world championship took place in London . All competitions were held here with sets of 21, after every fifth point the right to serve changed.

At the same time, the Biannual General Meeting (BGM) met on December 12th to discuss the rules. Previously, the member associations had been written to with the request to vote on a uniform method of counting. Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Hungary, England, Wales and India spoke out in favor of sentences of 21, which was recorded in the ELS report (English Language Secretary's Report).

At the request of Czechoslovakia and Sweden, however, the tennis counting method should still be allowed. As a result, both counting methods were described in the official manual and it was mentioned that at national tournaments one can also experiment with the tennis counting method.

Established in 1928

The final counting method was discussed at the Biannual General Meeting (BGM) during the second World Cup in Stockholm. On January 29, 1928, with a majority of 7: 2, the 21 counting method was made mandatory. Austria, England, Germany, Hungary, India, Sweden and Wales voted with Pro, Denmark and Czechoslovakia pleaded for the tennis form.

As a result, the description of the tennis counting method was removed from the rules.

1997: ITTF working group Rau

As early as the 1980s and 1990s, there were complaints about a decline in the popularity of table tennis. There was also a need for action with regard to the media; compared to other sports, table tennis was rarely shown on television. To counteract this, the world association ITTF set up a working group in 1997 under the leadership of New Zealander Geoff Rau, which should deal with this problem and present possible solutions.

One of these suggestions was to change the way you count, shorten the sentences, and simultaneously play more sentences in a game. This should create more moments of tension - namely those at the end of a sentence. As early as 1990, a set shortening had been experimented with at some tournaments, from 1997 further tests followed, for example:

  • At the International Championships of Yugoslavia in 1990 and in the Worlds-Allstar Final in 1992 in Kashiwazaki, Japan, a set ended at 11, after every third point the right to serve changed.
  • Both in the team competition of the European Youth Championship in 1990 and in the DTTB-TOP-12 tournament for juniors in 1990 in Frankenthal, a set began with a score of 5: 5.
  • At the Japan Open 1997, a set started at 10:10 and ended - as usual - at 21.

Ultimately, those responsible tended to use sentences up to 11.

2001: Change to record length 11

On April 26, 2001 - during the World Cup in Osaka - the ITTF decision-making body decided with a majority of 104: 7 to shorten the rates to 11 points. At least three sentences must be played (previously two).

The new rule was prescribed for international tournaments from September 1, 2001, the German Table Tennis Association (DTTB) decreed in June 2001 that the new counting method will come into force in all divisions in Germany from August 1, 2001.

A specialty can be found in the Chinese Super League , where a decision set has ended at 7 since 2012.

Effects of the rule change

According to Matzke, Bernhard Hannes has statistically examined the effects of the new rule. The basis was more than 10,000 match reports from all classes, mainly from the area of ​​the West German table tennis association WTTV, as well as match reports from the 2nd Bundesliga. Hannes compared the match reports from the period 1996 to 2001, i.e. before the rule change, with those from the first half of the 2001/02 season, i.e. after the rule change.

The active table tennis players had feared a considerable reduction in the playing time. After all, to win the game you needed at least two sets with 21 points each, i.e. 42 points. According to the new rule, you need at least three sentences with 11 points each, so only 33 points. Hannes showed that the playing time was actually reduced, but not to the extent feared. Because there are now more sets of lengthening, which increases the number of points played. At the same time, there are more moments of tension due to the more frequent set extensions, which increases the attractiveness of table tennis.

Hannes' statistics also show that the results in team fights are a bit tighter. In addition, Matzke refers to investigations into the changed situation for a player due to the more frequent service changes. The individual rallies are now shorter, which means a disadvantage for the attractiveness.

Deviations after 2018

After 2018, some associations experimented with different sentence lengths:

  • In the Russian league, the decisive set ends at seven.
  • From 2020, the fifth set to six will go in the ETTU Champions League , even if only one point ahead, i.e. 6: 5.
  • In T2 Diamond Event tournaments, organized by the world association ITTF , the special rule that all following sentences end with five was applied after 24 minutes of play.

Others

At the Annual General Meeting (AGM) during the 2015 World Championships, the Brazilian Table Tennis Association suggested shortening the sets to four (instead of eleven) in the future. This request was rejected.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Table tennis rules A ( Memento from April 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on August 6, 2013; PDF; 129 kB)
  2. ↑ The Table Tennis and Pastimes Pioneer , A Special Edition For The Slough, Windor And Maidenhead Area , Febr. 1902, Pages 4 + 7 Online (accessed February 11, 2016; PDF; 1.6 MB)
  3. ^ Arnold Parker: The Game and How to Play It , RF Fenno & Company, 1902 Online (accessed August 5, 2013)
  4. ^ The Table Tennis Collector, Issue 32, Page 5 ( Memento from April 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 7.1 MB)
  5. ^ Walter Grein: Tischtennis, Verlag Deutscher Tischtennis-Sport, Hanover, 1953, page 35
  6. ^ ITTF Museum, 1926, ELS report p.2 ( Memento from September 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ ITTF Museum, 1926, AGM minutes pp.6-7, protocol point 5 ( Memento from September 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ^ ITTF Museum 1928, Handbook Laws p.7 ( Memento from September 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ 1928 ITTF Handbook p.7 ( Memento from September 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ↑ 1928 ITTF AGM minutes page 2, protocol item 11 ( Memento from September 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ a b [Matzke] page 31
  12. ^ International Championships of Yugoslavia 1990 - DTS magazine , 1990/12 page 26
  13. ↑ Kashiwazaki 1992 - Worlds-Allstar Finale - DTS magazine , 1992/7 page 31
  14. ↑ European Youth Championship 1990 - DTS magazine , 1990/8 page 41
  15. ↑ DTTB-TOP 12 Juniors 1990 in Frankenthal - DTS magazine , 1990/12 page 28
  16. ↑ Superliga China - table tennis magazine , 2014/9 page 43
  17. ↑ [Matzke] Counting 11: less = more? , Pages 31–40
  18. ^ [Matzke] pp. 35-36
  19. ↑ Susanne Heuing: Please see until eleven! , Journal table tennis , 2020/8 Page 11
  20. ↑ tischtennis magazine , 2015/5 page 21

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