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IgorPonger wrote: on Tuesday 14 January 2025 , 04:52 AM
Recently I was updated on a new international instruction ITTF M9 to describe a new procedure of how to handle players rackets at competitions. And the manual says that now it is a due operation for umpire to remove the rubber sheet and carefully inspect the outer plywood, since some clever athletes learned grinding off the top veneer on blade, and thus they can fool the electronic thickness gauge to their own benefit.

charmander defender wrote: on Tuesday 14 January 2025, 08:02
I did just to make the blade slower and it worked alright.
BTW, ITTF will finally do what the Chinese say,....do not mess with the Chinese,....or the million dollar market is over .

Charmander ,
I think what you are talking about is very different from what IgorPonger is talking about.

In your case if I am not mistaken, you sanded the entire blade (to make it slower) , which is fine & no cheating there

What IgorPonger is is talking about is very different &
What IgorPonger is talking about is what robotNazi booster cheats do to beat the thickness measuring gauge

The thickness measuring gauge is used only near the handle of the blade to measure the total maximum allowed rubber thickness of 4.05 mm (used to be 4.00 mm till rule was changed in 2024) .
These booster cheats sand down only close to the handle but inside where the measurement part of the rubber sits. So the gauge gives a false reading not accounting for the actual thickness of the rubber. This is because the gauge gets elevated even though the bottom of the rubber is below the bottom of the wood closer to the handle. Very tricky & clever indeed

This is because robotNazis have convinced themselves that they are entitled to such cheating though Rule 2.4.7 says boosting is not approved ( also illegal under common law) there is not much that can be done since ITTF has chosen to look the other way & not enforce Rule 2.4.7 strictly using proper measurement methods for boosters.