League jumps

D K Asked 6 years ago

Greetings Team,

I would like to ask also for your opinion in my little dilemma I was arguing about with many table tennis mates:

In my area, this is the league system, top to down:

Extra League (TOP player, national level)
1st League
2nd League
3rd League
Division League
1st Regional League
2nd Regional League
1st District League
2nd District League
3rd District League
4th District League
5th District League.(Absolute beginners, about 40% is not really aware of what is spin and what which stroke does to the ball)

The topic of argument was this:
There are no really strict rules determining which player can play which league.
Basically said, as far as I know an Extra League player (For example Petr Korbel) CAN by rules participate in 5th District (80y old men who started two months ago or 6y old child with six months of garage play, for example).
It does not make sense right?
With this rule freedom, most players participate in more than one league.

And what I often see that player makes so much progress that he plays one season in 4th as Major and in 3rd and 2nd District as Substitute player, but next season he is a Major in 2nd District.
Or, the other example is that a player is Major in 5th District but Substitute in 1st REGIONAL.
This is so wide level difference.

The opponents in this argument say that this is
1st case: that if a player makes so much progress,he should not be braked.
2nd case: they say that for the lower level players it is a great experience and honor to play with so powerful players they would otheriwse never meet at the table.

My arguments are these:
1st case:the progress itself regarding overall level measured by feel of coach etc. should not be a promoting reason itself. He should step up league by league without skipping.
In my eyes for example jump from 4th District major to 2nd District major position is an unfair step against 3rd District players since the jumping players hasnt defeated them thus he hasnt proven he is better.
2nd case:similar to 1st:this is not fair to players in-between,for example if a player plays in 5th District as major and 1st Regional as Substitute,it is heavily unfair to all players 2nd Regional-4th District.
The differences even between skip-by-one (5th vs 3rd Dist,for example) is so big that the lower level player usually cannot pose a threat to the higher level player no matter how much luck does he have.
I am not against playing in more leagues at once.
But it should be only 2-3 leagues directly neigboring: (playing 3rd Distr + 4th Distr is OK,3rd,4th,5th Distr is OK,but only 3rd+5th is NOT OK)

This is caused by mypersonal feelings:
I play 4th District and 1st District,but I feel discriminated when I clash with 1st Regional+myleague player in either of my leagues.
On the other hand if I play 1st District and I meet a player who plays 1st Dist + 5th Dist while his true level is 5th Dist,I feel like....egoistic.
In both cases I feel like behaving very unfair to my opponent.
Since the rules allowing our clash are in my opinion very unsportsmanlike.

What is you opinion on this?

Thanks
Dan

Alois Rosario Answered 6 years ago

Hi Dan,

There are always a lot of factors that go into which division players participate.  One is obviously overall level however sometimes other things can be taken into account.  The simple one of when a division plays may be an influence.  I am not sure if this is the case with your Leagues.

Also giving players opportunity to develop faster, especially young and upcoming players may fall into this category.

I think, making this whole system completely fair is usually impossible.  There will always be someone that feels they have been dealt with unfairly.