OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I bought 0.5mm,and played today.Very controable and stable when defense,when attacking,it performed very aggressively.It fits me so well

Are you still using this rubber? If so, I'd like to hear your further experience with it. This is one of the rubbers I've got waiting to try out, and I'd be interested to hear more.

_________________
"Don't let a win get to your head or a loss to your heart"
USATT Rating: 1730
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Sauer & Troger Hellfire X OX

I've been trying out this rubber in 1.0mm against my robot for a week. The robot in question is a V300 so it can't really generate a huge topspin so it'll be interesting to see how it plays in real life this week.

Observations so far:
Bounce test (same blade model): D.TecS OX > DO Knuckle 1.0mm > Curl P1R 0.5mm
Spin sensitivity: Curl P1R > DO Knuckle > D.TecS
Ease of countering topspin: DO Knuckle > Curl P1R > D.TecS

Backspin generation (and what little "reversal" it provides) is a bit hard to judge when using a robot so I'll skip that. I've mainly been chopping from near distance as I have limited space but it's been feeling quite easy to control (compared to Spectol for example that I struggle with)

Do Knuckle seems unusual for a medium pip to come in such thin sponge thicknesses e.g 0.5, 1.00 with a max of 1.5mm

Will be interesting to learn if you find it bottoms out too easily when counter hitting/blocking topspin. also with MP thinner sponge usually makes it a little harder to apply spin but If your blade has a quite a soft feel 1.0mm should be OK - look forward to more feedback

Used it tonight during a 3h session with 5 of my usual practice partners who are all double winged loopers.

Chopping loops is excellent. Very controlled. Backspin is a monster if your timing is right and quite ok on half arsed chops as well. One guy (a leftie) loops with a lot of side spin and I was expecting that to be problematic but I didn't have any major issues with it.

Hitting is easy but the speed is simply too low to bother these guys. Most hits are knuckle balls just like the name of the rubber... it does what it says on the tin. I understand why Sato so rarely hits with her BH. My blade is quite slow on the BH side so maybe a carbon blade or similar would be a better match with this rubber.

Pushing is hard but that probably comes down to my poor technique.

The biggest issue was the service receive. I basically had to aggressively chop all long serves which forced me into a chopping position away from the table. I wasn't able to figure out what to do with the short serves in the 1h of match play. I did return them but most returns were weak. I understand why Sato returns with her inverted FH so often.

Great rubber if you're a classic defender. One of the guys commented that most of my chops weren't massive in backspin (compared to D.TecS) but problematic enough to force him to loop. I was much more consistent in our loop vs chop drills so he became quite tired.

The problem of blade & rubber speed with SP or MP is a tricky one. If you want to chop well then unless well back from table you need a fairly slow blade and rubber however this then makes attacks less effective due to lack of speed . I use the S&T black & white blade which has a slightly slower BH side and some rubbers I have tried such as Hipster gave great control but just lacked pace.

Mart I would suggest experimenting by swopping the Do Knuckle to the FH side of your Wizard blade as the BH is very slow. This should then give you the pace you require for offensive play and you would be able to see if you still chop and soft block well. If you do stick with Do Knuckle but go for a faster blade due to the thin sponge I would stay away from carbon unless the blade still has a soft feel with good dwell perhaps with limba in the outer plies .

With MP's I find a kind of sliding action with a slightly open blade very effective for pushing/soft blocking

Going with another blade is an absolutely no go as this is the first blade that allows me to BH loop securely (and the FH isn’t too bad either). I really love the stiff feeling. I twiddle quite a lot.

I get what you’re saying and I’m probably trying to use the rubber in the wrong way with the wrong kind of blade. I did however gather some courage tonight and asked three of our division 1 players (same level as TTD Tom) to loop against me and I was amazed. I managed to get them to net quite a few times when chopping. This rubber does seem to have a little bit of reversal going on while at the same time allowing you to generate your own spin. Passive strokes seem to generate a little reversal while “rip chops” really generates crazy backspin. This is the first pip rubber that I find “just a little bit” slower than D.TecS which is something that I’ve been looking for quite some time.

My offensive shots and service receive are still quite poor but at least I managed to snatch 2 games (lost 2-3) against a division 3 player which is on par with what I achieve against him normally. I will give this rubber some weeks as league or tournament play is probably 3-4 months away at best.

The medium Pip shot that I find most effective against loopers at club level is the stiff wrist counter hit. Although the slight upward motion looks like you are adding topspin invariably opponents will dump it in the net if they do not correctly read the low bounce and slight reversal. The next trick is to vary the pace of the shot to confuse more i,.e you can accelerate or decelerate the return the latter dying low ball often catching FH loopers out. This can then be mixed with an actual topspin counter hit which with MP requires a short but quick wristy upward motion or in your case a backspin chop thrown in - have fun.

To see what I mean at a higher level have a look at some of the Maxim Cherepnin you tube videos with rubbers like KO. His playing partner is well practiced playing againtst MP's but still struggles at times

This You tube video is supposed show someone using Do Knuckle for defensive chopping, over table pushing and the occasional attack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xba5kff39GE

Great video!

I’m a bit torn when it comes to this rubber. In these Covid times I managed to play a few matches vs players that are considered “elite” here in Sweden. This typically happens 2-3 times per year when absolutely no one else is available. I’m starting to understand DO Knuckle now and it probably isn’t for me. You have two options:
A) Stay close to the table and be active as hell
B) Chop and run to the hills

This is most likely not for me. It has been fun to play with a spin sensitive rubber proving to myself that I actually can read spin. Chopping is amazing but attacking is too weak with my current setup. I’ve been forced to twiddle a lot to win points (which I assume is a good thing). If I was into classic defense I would use this rubber and wouldn’t look back (... but this isn’t me).

Edit: One really has to look at Hashimoto or Sato using this rubber. It won’t win you points but will win you time as chopping very high level loops is doable. It’s sort of a “pseudo modern defense” rubber leaning a little bit more towards classic defense. Pretty much everyone I played tonight asked what LP I was using. I think that says it all.

Martin have you tried DtecS in 1.2 sponge? on a def blade and coming from SP/MP I find it has interesting attacking options as a slow blade allows you to really bend the pips and create lot of swerve and dip with more than enough speed. The black has a bit more control and grip whilst the red seems harder and more dangerous. Once we start playing again the UK I am going to experiment more with it.

Nope. Only OX and 0.5mm. The difference isn’t that massive but 0.5mm is a bit tricky to block with.

Completely out of topic but it’s quite fun when you go back to fairly frictionless pip after a week with SP or MP. Your touch is so much better especially when chopping. I experienced the same things some months ago when I had a short fling with Spectol. Tonight I absolutely butchered one of our kids who are in the national mini cadets. Better chopping and confidence when hitting is a great combo. May revisit this rubber.

is suitable for modern defensive player?

Under what circumstances would a medium pips rubber be *unsuitable* for a modern defender? What could possibly the the characteristics of a medium pips rubber than would prevent you from playing in this fashion?

I mean - what is a modern defender? A player who will defend until there's an opportunity to attack, or use defence to generate possibilities to attack. Assuming the modern defender can attack with their other rubber, whether it's FH or BH, the other rubber makes no difference there. Can you attack with a medium pimple rubber? Of course - there's nothing that would prevent you from attacking with it. So all that remains is to ask if you can defend with it. Again, why not? This thread has already mentioned people defending and attacking with this rubber, so I don't understand your question.

My apologies if I'm being a bit dim-witted, but I just can't see any reason why the answer to your question would be anything other than "yes".

_________________
Woodnut Dead Slow | DHS 651 | Spinlord Dornenglanz
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - soon entering its 10th year!