OOAK Table Tennis Forum

After 20 years break from table tennis, I must admit I feel a little overwhelmed by the plethora of things you have to worry about aside from just choosing the blade and rubbers, like speed glue and priming, super priming etc...

The first couple of racquets I bought I got Alex to put it together for me. The question is, am I being left behind? Are the effects of all these treatment processes for rubbers so decisive that I'm basically gonna be playing handicap against all the competition I'll be facing in tournaments and club competitions? Does this mean I'm gonna be outgunned against those who have been applying layers and layers of whatyoucallits onto their rubber over weeks and weeks and chanting official gluing chants as they dance around their new racquets in the prescribed fashion?

If it makes such a big difference, I guess I have no choice but to start dabbling in all of this new-fangled stuff myself.....

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Blade: TSP Black Balsa 7.0 flared; FH Rubber - Donic Acuda S3 max sponge; BH Rubber - Speed Spectol 1.8mm

1) The best player in our club glues, but he could still beat the rest of us with no glue, and a patch over one eye (and probably a leg in plaster).

2) Our second best player uses a A$3.50 premade short pips bat he bought in China. No glue. Laughs at how much my rubbers/blades cost before hitting me off the table. (He did train in China as a child/teen though.)

3) The third best player uses chinese stuff and changes it every 5 years or so. No glue (though he is in love with Spin Max ).

4) Our forth best player uses 4-5 year old Sriver L (hard) and no glue. Just rubber cleaner every 3-4 months! The grip is almost worn off, yet he gets amazing spin due to exceptional technique. He is less likely to get caught by a tricky serve (worn out rubbers), and his blocking is deadly (hard sponge helps). If I could get as much spin as he does on my loops, I'd use hard worn out rubbers too.

I'm about 10th at the moment, and no amount of glue etc will get me inside the top 2-3. This will take years of training.

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Custom Re-Impact OFF
Hexer HD 1.9
Hexer Pips 1.9

Member of Anastasia's Fan Club

Don't worry about it. There is an old saying in financial affairs regarding using debt for extra leverage - the gist of which is that doing so makes whatever was going to happen, happen faster. You'll get rich or go broke much quicker, but the overall result will be the same.

It's pretty much the same with all this technology and speed glue. It pretty much makes whatever the person was going to do, that little bit faster. So if your opponent has lousy technique and makes lots of mistakes, he's still going to do so with all the new tech and speed glue. He'll just hit the ball into the net or off the end of the table even quicker!

Where speed glue and the tech gets dangerous is when it's in the hands of someone with the technique to exploit it properly. If you have good technique, you will always be dangerous no matter what equipment you use. Combine good technique with tech and speed glue and you are lethal.

Greg

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Perth Table Tennis Club

thanks for all your answers...they were reassuring for a EN (equipment newbie) like myself. Just about Spinmax. My coach told me never to use the stuff because it destroys your rubber. Is that correct?

And the Ecolo Expander stuff that you apply to the sponge before sticking it to the blade...does that help with spin too? Or is it just speed?

Thanks!

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Blade: TSP Black Balsa 7.0 flared; FH Rubber - Donic Acuda S3 max sponge; BH Rubber - Speed Spectol 1.8mm

I have heard that it's rough on rubbers, but you can get more use out of an overused rubber as a result of the spinmax.

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Photino
My rubbers are 9 years old. They won’t be there long.

the old spinmax pretty much dissolved the rubber surface slightly. Not sure about the new spinmax.

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Chasse Patate

So that's how it got it tacky again then?

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LKT Instinct. FH Kokutaku Tuple 007 2.0mm black; BH Dawei 388D-1 long pips 1.0mm
a posse ad esse

ouch! that sounds a bit drastic!
I might just use vegetable oil (as someone else recommended on this forum) and skip the spinmax!

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Blade: TSP Black Balsa 7.0 flared; FH Rubber - Donic Acuda S3 max sponge; BH Rubber - Speed Spectol 1.8mm

Nah the spinmax does not harm the rubber at all. I think it's a great product. I get more life out of my rubber coz of spinmax.

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

I tried the vegetable oil trick, made the rubber grippy but also changed the feel. Didn't like it afterwards.

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Chasse Patate

I hear a lot of guys love spinmax but never tried it myself.It must work as I have never heard anyone who says it doesn't.I use a product about once a month to revitalize my rubbers I think it just cleans any grease of the rubber and makes it look almost brand new again this is it

http://www.liftoffinc.com/adhesives_grease.htm

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Xiom Control 3/ALL+
FH Andro impuls speed
BH sriver fx
Tibhar CTE

I'll be doing an extensive review on Spinmax shortly... would have done it earlier but got caught up with testing the new glues...

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide