OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I am currently using 2.1mm and a lot of the time I couldn't feel the ball well, felt like the rubber bounce the ball off before it reaches the blade. My coach suggested it was because of the sponge thickness, so he glued a used 1.7mm and 1.9mm onto my blade and let me had a go. The only difference I can tell was that I can feel the ball very well with 1.7mm and not as much with the 1.9mm but not sure which one can benefit me more. My coach is the type of person that won't choose things for me but tell me to decide myself, so which thickness would you people suggest?

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Well if you're a beginner and if 1.7 suits you well then stay with it. When you outgrow it you'll feel that. It's pretty easy - if you like it and feel it - play with it

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What rubber is it? This makes a big difference.

Whether you feel the ball or not also depends a lot on how hard you hit the ball, which depends on your level and style.

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He has a good point. YOU have to feel and see what you like. Not us ...

You can start with 1.7 as it should give more controle. later you can go to 1.9 if you want, or even the 2.2 if you hit it faster/harder. you have to change rubber once a year anyways ..... and if the times comes you will know.

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Regards Marc

I generally do better with 1.9 or 2.0 on my FH with euro/jap rubber. Sponge that is max is generally helpful for high level counter looping more than anything. If you count how often that happens during a match for most amateurs you see that most of us could do fine with thinner sponge.

Chinese rubber is a different beast IMO and max sponge seems almost essential.

To be clear, I think you mean Chinese rubbers like hurricane. But there are some pretty lively tensor or tensor-like Chinese rubbers out there, Palio, Air, Yinhe, etc.

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When I started playing again about four years ago I noticed something interesting. MOST Chinese rubber is only available in one sponge thickness - MAX (usually 2.2mm). This includes the cheap rubbers which are aimed at beginners. And while pretty much all Japanese and European "Tensor type" rubbers do give you the option of a slightly thinner sponge, you can't get most of them in, say, 1.0 or 1.5mm - even 1.7mm isn't that common - if you want thin sponge, there are a few Chinese sheets with thin sponge, or you'd have to get one of the older Japanese or German sheets (like Sriver or Mark V). This was very different from the old days - back then beginners were advised to start with 1.5mm sponge, and the most just about anyone used was 2.0mm, 2.2 being regarded as too thick, even by most top players.

What's the difference? What changed? The ball. When I played last (late 1990s to about 2001) the ball was 38mm in diameter. The 40mm ball was just beginning to appear. It seems now that to generate enough spin on the ball you need max sponge. Speed follows spin - the more spin you can generate the harder you can hit the ball and still have it hit the table.

I wouldn't worry about "feeling" the ball - that comes with practice. Thin sponge has it's place - pips out blockers/hitters, traditional inverted-both-sides choppers, balsa blades. Otherwise, even for beginners, I'd use the thickest sponge (as I said with a lot of rubbers, there isn't a choice anyway). If the rules allowed it, I suspect the best players could actually make use of even thicker sponge without loss of control - and the rest of us would stick with the current max of 2.2mm.

I think the mods should move this thread to where it belongs - this subforum is actually for complaining about rules changes, ITTF, etc.

Iskandar