Posted by We Seung Hwang on February 12, 1999 at 00:43:25:
In Reply to: Re: maximum spin posted by Team 20570 on December 17, 1998 at 23:31:54:
Okay, I checked out that book again, but the fact was not present there. The figure was taken from memory. But yes, from watching some of the balls move during high level competition, 3000 rpm probably isn't a bad estimate.
As for the measurement of the spin, it is unlikely that official "measuring" can take place during actual games. Nor do I believe that tests done under non-game conditions will accurately represent the actual possible rpms. As you will probably know, most fact lists don't necessarily show results that had a 100% scientific measurement certification. That is obviously because not all situations are feasible for accurate measurement. Please take all "facts" with a grain of salt, especially if it looks as outrageous as the 9000rpm did:)
Sorry about the long response time, I know how that feels.
Thanks for your comments, we will add supplementary information as soon as we get our ftp access to the files again.
We Seung Hwang
Team 20570
: Well, we were also a bit suspicious about the claim, but if you must know we think we saw it in one of our resource books, "Table Tennis" by Martin Sklorz. It could have been a translation error or something but I am sure the measurement is all based on estimates. And as you know, sometimes estimates can get out of hand:)
: : In the "Table Tennis Facts" section of this site,
: : a maximum spin of 9000 rpm is reported. Can somebody
: : point me to the source of this information. In fact,
: : I wonder how reliable this information is. I had heard
: : about 3 to 4000 rpm and this seemed already very high
: : to me. Another question is how was it measured ?
: : Thanks
: : Gaetan