OOAK Table Tennis Forum

What is the best sponge for playing long pips? Hard soft medium? And what effect do these have on the pips. I’ve read about sponge being 35 or 40 or some other number but what do these numbers mean. Any help would be appreciated

The numbers are usually the degree reading on a durometer (the higher the number, the harder the sponge), but every company seems to have their durometers calibrated differently, so its hard to compare. For example, Stiga Vertical/Horizontal 20 is called as such because its sponge hardness is 20 degrees (very soft). Conversely, Vertical/Horizontal 55 has a sponge hardness of 55 degrees (hard).

As for what sponge hardness does... I can make some assumptions, but I'm not sure exactly. There are chopping rubbers with both hard and soft sponges (e.g. Curl P1r is hard, Feint Long 3 is soft). I imagine that softer sponges are better on lower impact shots & harder sponges are better on higher impact shots (much like how sponge hardness effects inverted rubbers). Ruwen Filus did mention that Feint Long 3 is better at making spin close to the table, whereas P1r is better at making spin further from the table (source: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=31656) This would fit the theory, but I'm guessing, like with everything, technique is more important for control/making spin.

I would assume that the speed of the sponge is a bigger issue than the hardness; chopping on a fast, bouncy sponge is going to be more prone to error than chopping on a slow one, regardless of the hardness. The same applies for blocking & hitting styles; if you want to stay near the table & hit, a faster sponge is going to be better than a slower one, regardless of hardness.

Hope this helps!

Wow that’s for the reply seems so complex. How can you tell which is a fast and which is slow. I play close to the table but long pips on forehand. I tend to block and counter hit with the long pips but also rely on the disturbance/reversal effect. Don’t like ox so looking for a .5 or .6 sponge to put on my Bomb Talent ox rubber but which one?