Word: balled
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...found out how wrong I was. "They don't worry about the rubber falling off the paddle," he explained. Fox said the pros apply glue to the paddles and use its tackiness to their advantage. "The effect is one of increasing the speed and spin when you contact the ball...
...knew glue could do that? It seems that unlike us basement ping pong champions, table tennis athletes can actually use glue to snap the ball across the table in some pretty astounding ways. Think of slathering your palms with jelly or something equally slippery and then putting your hands together - "that's the springy effect that glue on glue provides," said Fox. Since the 1950s, when table tennis players stopped using hard-backed paddles that consisted of rubber on wood, athletes have been using paddles, or bats, that include a layer of sponge between the paddle and the rubber - anywhere...
...water-based compound that doesn't have the same springy effect. "A lot of players are complaining about the glue," said Chen Wang, the US's top-ranked women's player and the first American to reach the quarterfinals in Olympic competition, "because the glue has no power, the ball drops...
...table tennis more fan - and viewer - friendly. Releasing fewer toxic fumes into the air is one step. They also want to make the action a little easier to follow. After making its Olympic debut in Seoul in 1988, officials decided it was too hard to follow the fast-flying ball as it zipped from one end of the table to the other, so for the 2000 Games, they increased the regulation ball size to 40mm so even the most glassy-eyed couch potatoes could see it better on TV. The next year, they lowered the score scale so sets ended...
...strap can even result in points subtracted from the gymnast's score. Curiously, in each Olympics, one of the five apparatuses isn't contested. In Athens, the clubs, which look like a pair of brightly hued bowling pins, didn't make an appearance. This year, it's the bouncy ball that's missing. Rhythmic gymnastics is certainly mesmerizing, but Cirque de Soleil mixed with a touch of the Bolshoi doesn't deserve a spot at the Games. Similarly, a budding campaign to make yoga an Olympic discipline should be quashed...