OOAK Table Tennis Forum

When I started to play LP in competition seriously, about a year ago, I tried out several rubbers to find the one that suited me best. My game is centered around spin-variation in order to get a ball for forehand attack, so on my backhand side I mostly chop-block and push with my LP, besides (less frequently) chopping at mid-distance and hitting. Eventually I kept using the Dawei 388D for most of the season, but it sort of lost its bite for my game, so I changed from OX to 0.5 mm to 0.8 mm in the course of the competition in order to get more backspin out of my chops and increase the possibilities for flipping and hitting over the table. At the end of the season I gave the CTT National Pogo a try, and it worked, but had the same drawback as the 388D - as soon as opponents get wise to your kind of play, and stop feeding you spin, you have to build up your game with a lot more patience. The Pogo and the Dawei take three chops to build up dangerous backspin off low topspin, and they also need three hits to do the same. I wanted something that would be more aggressive straightaway, so I tried the Double Fish 1615 in OX and 0.8 mm, and it worked fine (better in OX for my kind of game), but better in blocking than in hitting. Then, accidentally, I got a Globe blade - Globe 583, a very light-weight (75 grams), medium fast (7 out of 10), very controlled (10 out of 10) frame designed for all-round or defensive play. It is the cheap version of the Globe BW4 defense blade and if that frame, designed for pro's, is better than the 583 it must be a miracle. I liked the 583 so much that I got soft on Globe and wanted only its rubbers on this blade; so I put on a red 1.8 mm Globe 999 National (ordinary sponge) and the black OX Globe 979 I had tried a year before and found too fast to handle. I have played with this combination for two weeks now and beaten players with it who until now won no matter how hard I tried. As far as I can tell the reason for this was on the one hand the amazing control of this combination, forehand as well as backhand, plus the great ability to vary spin both with inverted and LP. The 999 was perfect for both chopping and looping, producing loads of spin, but it also allowed returning heavy topspin as a floater with hardly anything on it, plus it worked great with all kinds of blocks. The 979 was as fast as I remembered it, but the blade made it rather easy to manage and now the speed was a plus, both with hitting (which is very easy with it) and chopping. Chops didn't produce enormous amounts of backspin, but enough to stay in the rally and it was easy to keep the ball low, forcing opponents to loop with less speed and more arc, so I could come in and attack - either with the 999 or with the 979, which made the attack less predictable and more dangerous. Returning serves could be done very aggressive (flipping or pushing short balls, hitting or chopping long balls); I found that flipping with a half-circle (blade pointing downward and bringing the tip very fast upwards when making contact with the ball) worked against any incoming spin and produced very disruptive balls. I'm almost convinced that this will be my set-up for the next season, but there are two questions nagging me. First, if this cheap combination is so good, why isn't it really popular? Globe 999 is still widely used, but the 979 seems to be almost forgotten. Second, if this set-up is so good, would it be even better with the BW4?

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Without opponent, no match.

Very interesting to read Kees!

I think chances are no-one has ever tried that combination. But of course what may be just perfect for you, may simply not work some someone else. With pips there are many more style and way to play than there are with inverted, which is why finding something that suits your particular strokes is so hard.

If you're doing this well with it, I'd say stick to it for now. You game may evolve and you may require something else in the future, but thinking that the BW4 might be even better is probably the EJ talking within you.

There's very little information out on Globe blades, so I'm sure there are some good one among them...

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I agree with the assessment of Globe 999 rubber, I used to have one, and now, three. I have no complains what so ever on this rubber at all, forehand chopping and looping were amazing easy with much control.

Never played Globe 979 and don't know how fast it is but I doubt it would be faster than my Long A 1.1 especially I had two coats of EEII on the sponge. How was that compared to 1615? I have played with 1615 for a long time, love it except for those broken pips. Speed is fast but slower than Long A.

BTW, I can't play with slower blades, my favorite blades playing these fast LP rubbers are all either Off or Off+ blades.

Kees might be our first reviewer for Globe blades.

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Viscaria. H2 Neo 2.15. Tenergy 05 1.9.

I saw this topic and by chance tonight I played with my LP scout outfit, the Galaxy looping machine (986 blade ALL+ speed tops) with Kokutaku Tokyo 2.2 and Globe 979 .6mm and here is the deal. I smashed the Wavestone to smithereens tonight (I had already smashed my beloved TBS), so I broke out the LP scout outfit for an hour. I did FH to FH looping for 10 minutes, then tried attacking the balls to my BH with the 979, instead of stepping around for a FH hit. The results... well, it was FAST for a BH hit. Partner returned ZERO of my sucessful BH hits with the 979 .6mm during 50 minutes of practice. I had to adjust for the impact angle, but had a real good night landing a FAST, DEEP, BH flat hit for winner after winner. I think 979 has a lot of potential on a flexy, controlable blade.

On a separate note, I have always loved the 999 topsheet for its allround offensive properties. I could have had 999 on FH and looped the ball onto the table forever with the slowish, but looping monster called the Galaxy 896, but I wanted to try something different.

By The Way, This is one of the outfits I bought from OOAK shop !! Still have it and make use of it after two + years.

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Yuzuki wrote:

I had better do it right, then . To my surprise I heard the Globe 979 isn’t used much, at least outside China (where it is more popular, it seems – I would be very interested in learning more about that). Maybe it isn’t known well enough. That can be remedied… I’d like to add a few things to the first post of this thread, maybe giving people an idea of how this rubber can be used effectively. The more I play with this set-up (979&999 on 583 – all Globe) the more I’m impressed and I’ve wondered what makes the Globe 979 so different from the LP’s I used before. I guess it is the combination of low throw and good grip with good reversal and good speed with good control; that makes it very all-round, very versatile, which means you will have several options in almost every situation, and this will make your play hard to predict for the opponent.

The 979 can be used effectively at all three distances (over and close to the table, mid-distance, and long distance) but as it is such a terrific attacking-rubber I think it is best used alternately close to the table and mid-distance since this way you can produce the most variation – coming in for frequent attack is hard to manage if you want to chop away from the table a lot, but very feasible if you do not retreat more than about one table-length.

Close to the table, service-reception is the first thing to look at. Generally, because of the degree of friction the 979 has, you have to spot side-spin and compensate a bit for it, but as long as you play an active shot and don’t aim for the edge of the table, you won’t be bothered much by it.
A short to half-long topspin serve can be attacked by a fast flick (will send back topspin, no-spin or backspin, depending on how much friction you make, using a lot of wrist to almost none), a punch (will send back backspin), or a counter-drive or smash (because of the friction you can pick up pretty low bouncing balls). The preferred target is the transition point, because your return will be low, fast enough, and the spin on it will be hard to predict, so your opponent will have to loop safe. If he loops with speed, you can step away and chop, producing good backspin and attack the next loop with your inverted 999. If he loops a slow one, you can attack with your 979. For variation you can aim for the sideline, but you'll have to be precise or run the risk to miss the table, as the ball will not drop quickly (no topspin on it) and be pretty fast - but not fast enough to make it irretrievable for a good opponent.
A short to half-long backspin serve can be blocked, pushed/lifted, or flicked and your return will get different degrees of topspin because of the good reversal, but in any case it will have topspin enough to make the ball land quickly, so you can put good speed on it. Because your return will be fast now, you can aim to cut the forehand sideline (if the opponent serves from the backhand corner). You can also target his transition point or even his backhand, drawing out a fast loop or drive you can either counter-loop, counter-drive, or chop.
Long, fast topspin or no-spin can be chopped and you will produce decent backspin if you go under the ball. Serves like these can be attacked, too, for variation. But a drive or punch against heavy topspin will float, so for that you have to pick a fairly high bouncing ball you can hit directly onto the other half, or you can actually loop against it, performing a roll (open blade, stroking the ball going much more upwards than forwards). The spin and speed of the ball after a roll will be hard to judge for your opponent and cause errors in timing.
A long, fast backspin serve can be easily looped or rolled back with force, producing a very low and fast ball, loaded with topspin.
In the rally, the 979 can be used over the table to stop-block incoming balls. For such a fast rubber it is amazing, but you can actually make almost any incoming ball double-bounce on the other half by performing a pull-back block very shortly after the bounce on your half of the table. The ball will stay low. I use this to break the rhythm of the opponent’s attack, but also in emergencies when I’m wrong-footed, expecting a ball to my forehand; in either case I gain time to recover my position and, for instance, step around my backhand for a forehand attack. Another way to gain time or even win points immediately is to counter-drive or flat-hit or roll one during a rally; it will change the rhythm, and the spin on the ball will be hard to predict, drawing out errors. Of course, if your opponent pushes against one of your chops, the 979 can be used to attack over the table, as in service-reception.

Mid-distance the 979 will be mostly used for defense. Chopping can be done diagonally downward, producing amounts of backspin that will keep you safely in the rally, or more or less horizontally, producing very heavy backspin off heavy topspin. Chopping the first way your touch has to be rather light, producing little forward speed yourself, or the ball may overshoot the table; but because the throw of the rubber is low, the danger isn’t very great. Chopping the second way you do have to produce speed, or the ball will not make it over the net.
Mid-distance blocking (open blade, softly punching forward and either downward to produce backspin or upward to produce no-spin, or contacting the ball on the back/side to produce side-spin) can be effective too, especially against very fast balls.
Because the rubber is so fast, you can even counter-drive or hit from mid-distance, as a surprise-stroke. Counter-looping at this distance is out, for you will produce too slow a ball since you have to graze it.

Putting it all together I think it is obvious that the 979 is a rubber for producing variation and that it needs an aggressive forehand as a counterpart, either a rubber for fast attack or a rubber for topspin attack. I prefer the latter; I also prefer the combination of slow loops loaded up with spin and fast counter-drives, and occasional chopping – variation again. For this, I find the Globe 999 in 1.8 mm pretty much ideal.

Possibly the blade, Globe 583, enhances the characteristics of both 979 and 999, especially control and grip; at times it seems to be one big sweet-spot. It is of normal size (150 by 158 mm), which is a bit of a draw-back when chopping and blocking, but an advantage when looping and hitting. It is light-weight, so very easy to maneuver with.

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Without opponent, no match.

Very comprehensive, thanks Kees! We could use a guide like this for all LP!

Just to make sure, you're referring to the OX version, right?

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Haggisv wrote:
Yes, OX, black.
I have a red one on 1.0 mm too. Didn't feel like trying it again, since the OX black does so well for me, but to cover all the bases I'll try it out tonight. Speaking of comprehensive ...

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Without opponent, no match.

And soon, Globe's blade and rubber sales market share will be sky rocketing and they wonder why.

I already have several Globe 999, all I need now are the Globe 583 blade and the 979 1.0 LP to try. Kind to share where to find these items?

I used Globe 979 for a while and fairly much memory concurs with everything you say about it Kees. I've never had a defensive blade and I haven't used it for over a year at all having settled comfortably with meteor 8512 on my fast blade (which gives me more of what I want from my FH). I do think its a very sturdy LP rubber though, although I think it would be a tad too quick on my Gergely I think when you find an LP that does 80-90% of what you want, as I have with 8512, by sticking with it, you learn its nuances and more about its capabilities and therefore become more effective with it, than trying to find by way of a different rubber that will extract that last 10-20%. Then of course, so much also comes down to how YOU use it on any given night, WHO you are playing and how they handle it. Its amazing how even very good players who think they understand LP tend to put all LP in one basket as to how they are to be played. I've been practising against 2 light-siders one night a week who both play in our A grades. The higher player constantly gives tips to the lower one about how to play me, and for the most part he is fairly right. He instructs to the other guy gives me top and it will come back chop and then hard loop me so not to send the ball long, etc. Boy have he (the better one) and I had some long BH loop (from him) and block back with chop (from me) rallies until eventually he loops short in the net or I block/chop long. Great for me though to hone my skills against heavy topspin. I do fool him at times though with a slight change-up of the return to give a variation in the spin and you see it bugger him up LOL. Sorry to go on a bit of a tangent here, but its sort of relevant because many light-siders see LP's are LP's, yet we know LP's like 979 react differently to 388D to D-tech's to ....... so many others.

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I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
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I've tried out the 979 red 1.0 mm for three sessions of about 2 hrs each. It is slightly faster than black OX, but not a great deal and the sponge actually absorbs incoming fast shots quite nicely. It is about even in reversal on the whole; probably the red is making up for the sponge. When chopping or pushing against backspin, it is not so easy to keep the ball low; you really have to bring it down since the pips won't bend as well as with the OX (probably because the sponge gives, as the wood of the bat won't). And when counter-hitting or looping you will produce a tiny bit of topspin instead of a dead ball or even backspin (against top). Control is a bit less at the table, but better at long distance where you can also chop more backspin into the ball compared with the OX. I think it would suit a game both of long distance backhand chopping combined with mid-distance forehand attack and of all-out attack close to the table, but for my kind of game it is not as good as the OX version. So I removed the sponge and now I will test it in OX to see how red is versus black ...

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Without opponent, no match.

Hello Kees, thank you for taking my suggestion up and making quite the comprehensive review.

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Viscaria. H2 Neo 2.15. Tenergy 05 1.9.

As I said, I removed the sponge of the red 979 and I have now tested it as an OX on the 583 blade. Red should be slightly faster than black, but I didn't notice a difference. Red should be slightly less grippy than black, but I didn't notice a difference - that is, when hitting; I did notice a difference when blocking and chop-blocking, because the reversal is better. And I'm quite certain of that, because I tested it against a penholder single-sided short pips out player and a shakehander double pips-out player, and though they are young (14 and 15) they ended this season as the nr.1and 2 of the 4 northern provinces of my country and would play next season at the second highest national level, but they can't find a third team member in their age-group, so they'll be playing in a men's team at the highest provincial level instead. Yes, they're my sons and their dad is pretty proud of them . They both were absolutely sure they didn't like the red OX 979 to play against, even if it was their 51 year old father handling it. So what does it do the black does not? It can make its own (back)spin as the black can, but it will reverse even the little bit of spin that comes off a short pips-out rubber, so the total amount of backspin returned off low topspin is higher, forcing the boys to push or roll high after the second or third block or chop. With the black, they could go on attacking. Furthermore, they found the amount and kind of spin on my attacking shots harder to read, which forced them to roll, as the ball stays quite low. Then they tried to hammer the 979 with fast long serves (no-spin or backspin), and got rather slow balls with varying amounts of spin when I blocked or chopped; they said the balls were lower and more unpredictably loaded than with the black rubber, so perhaps because of its better reversal the red rubber is better at transforming all incoming energy in spin and thus has a better braking effect. Tomorrow I will test it against grown-ups.

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Without opponent, no match.

Kees how dare you be so blessed to have not one but 2 sons so good at TT!! Then again if you had thought ahead and had 3, the boys could have their third team member Congrats on passing knowledge and genes to your boys to be such good performers in our great sport. Good luck to them as they progress!

Oh and some interesting observations on 979 there too!

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I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
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Testing against adults yielded the same results.

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Without opponent, no match.