It is both an insult as well as an addiction/habit.
Amateur and Pro TT players usually have trained from childhood as early as 3 years old tend to have an almost god-like superior ability to learn and relearn in the sport at any age.
But most folks get into TT at an older age around their late-20s.
TT reflexes cannot be gained at the later stages of life. Almost a miracle for an older player to “git gud”.
Hence, you will find the older players have the income to buy equipment used by the Top-10 players in the world. Hence “Equipment Junkie”.
The number of permutations and combinations in TT equipment is crazy for such a “simple” looking sport.
Real problem is when you buy all this expensive stuff and your game gets WORSE not better. You “lend” your equipment to other players and all of them seem to play better than you with your own equipment.
So you spent a lot of money, and don’t want to let anyone touch your equipment ( because it would be embarrassing for them to become “better” players using your stuff while you wallow in misery of not benefitting from your own purchases ).
So EJs tend to have a extremely absurd amount of equipment that they have spent exorbitant prices purchasing and do not want to sell it to others ( again for fear their purchase is fuelling other peoples abilities at their own expense ) but they keep buying the next “Top-10” world TT players latest equipment without even understanding the sport.
It is an endless cycle which continues as more new blood is added to the mix and more EJs end caught up in the craze.
I’m the first to admit that I am one, but backpacking has a similar thing, gear junkies. They like the gear and having the lightest weight x and the most multifunction y more than the actual walking and sleeping outside.
It’s the whole reason why titanium sporks exist when a disposable plastic spoon is cheaper, lighter, and lasts perfectly fine for the duration of 99% of backpacking trips.
In table-tennis / pingpong,
Equipment Junkies.
It is both an insult as well as an addiction/habit.
Amateur and Pro TT players usually have trained from childhood as early as 3 years old tend to have an almost god-like superior ability to learn and relearn in the sport at any age.
But most folks get into TT at an older age around their late-20s.
TT reflexes cannot be gained at the later stages of life. Almost a miracle for an older player to “git gud”.
Hence, you will find the older players have the income to buy equipment used by the Top-10 players in the world. Hence “Equipment Junkie”.
The number of permutations and combinations in TT equipment is crazy for such a “simple” looking sport.
Real problem is when you buy all this expensive stuff and your game gets WORSE not better. You “lend” your equipment to other players and all of them seem to play better than you with your own equipment.
So you spent a lot of money, and don’t want to let anyone touch your equipment ( because it would be embarrassing for them to become “better” players using your stuff while you wallow in misery of not benefitting from your own purchases ).
So EJs tend to have a extremely absurd amount of equipment that they have spent exorbitant prices purchasing and do not want to sell it to others ( again for fear their purchase is fuelling other peoples abilities at their own expense ) but they keep buying the next “Top-10” world TT players latest equipment without even understanding the sport.
It is an endless cycle which continues as more new blood is added to the mix and more EJs end caught up in the craze.
I’m the first to admit that I am one, but backpacking has a similar thing, gear junkies. They like the gear and having the lightest weight x and the most multifunction y more than the actual walking and sleeping outside.
It’s the whole reason why titanium sporks exist when a disposable plastic spoon is cheaper, lighter, and lasts perfectly fine for the duration of 99% of backpacking trips.