OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Thanks foam but what I wanted to know was if anyone uses training rubber for training and then different rubber for competition matches.

Oh.. I wouldn't think so. The term is more used as in these aren't good enough or not ITTF approved etc. Not as in specifically for training as in being better to train with.

Like this is my work car, or this is my paddock bomb..

For the non Australians, paddock bomb is an old car no longer suitable to drive on the road that you practise driving in. Off the roads in your paddock/farm. Typically its the retirement home of the family car once you buy a new one. Its not an explosive device in the paddock, we call those 44 gallon fertiliser bombs, they are outlawed in the modern day .

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Donic defplay senso
Haifu whale soft (grips-euro)
Nittaku pimplemini 1.0mm

I'm pretty sure those who use training rubber also use it in whatever competitions they enter. I don't think there's any difference between, say, 729FX with 42 degree sponge from the same sheets sold as 729XL training rubber, it's exactly the same rubber, just packaged differently and sold for less. Who would buy this rubber? I see some mail order shops in Europe carrying some of it (specifically, the 868 in the pink envelope). But mainly European, American and Australian club players wouldn't be interested in the stuff, even if they do buy the same rubber in other packaging. The real target, as I've said, was schoolkids and other beginners in developing countries, where you DO find packets of this stuff on sale in bookstores.

Batwings 729 (i.e. General Sponge) sells in Chinese bookstores here for about US$17 (it's more like $9 on AliExpress.com) a packet of two sheets. I've found it even in some pretty tiny towns. Imagine you're a kid in middle school, your parents are working class, you get maybe $3 a day lunch money. You aren't going to spend your lunch money on Tenergy 05, it'd take you a month, skipping lunch altogether, to save enough. (Two months for two sheets.) So you put aside a dollar a day and you can afford two sheets of Batwings in about three weeks. If you play penhold you might even split the cost with a friend. You're enough of a table tennis player to represent your class, or your house, on Sports Day, or even your school, are you going to switch to "better" rubber just for a tournament? I think not, not if you want to play well!

The Chinese club using bulk Haifu rubber is interesting - I'll bet it was an off-open-market source (direct from a factory or from a wholesaler to the club). Wish they'd start selling it online. Minimum order is probably 20-30 sheets, though.

Iskandar

So it is really just cheap rubber rather than training rubber(?).

It only depends on each persons interpretation of the word training. I see the way you read it by default because in you're mind training is a word of great importance and should go with the very best of everything. Some kind of mind conditioning going on there. I can understand both meanings and it makes sense to call it training rubber to me. I can see how it doesn't to you but most people won't read it like that. But yes it only means a cheaper rubber you can burn through without going broke.

An example would be, very few cyclists train with their race wheels and have seperate wheels to put in the long hours.

_________________
Donic defplay senso
Haifu whale soft (grips-euro)
Nittaku pimplemini 1.0mm

Actually, in this case I'm calling it "training rubber" because that's what it's called on some of the packets. (Or in the case of the Boll Warheads, "Training With Rubber".. ) Or they imply it's meant for developing players in the description. It is indeed cheaper rubber, but I don't think it's in any way rejects or seconds. Rejects or seconds would be inconsistent from lot to lot, you'd get by selling seconds in large quantities to clubs, but I don't think you could put them on sale in packets in stores unless they're marked as such. On the other hand, it IS Chinese stuff, so who knows..

It IS interesting what the Chinese consider "training rubber" - generally thick, grippy, med-hard sponge. In other words they have a certain style in mind when "training" players.

Iskandar

foam I actually had no idea what the rubber was about and was just trying to find out. Do the Chinese use it for training beginners/young players then?

I think that is correct.

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I dont know what the Chinese especially do with these rubbers but 729 general and Haifu shark in the unmarked packet, fh and bh are good enough rubbers for most people. At less than $15 for both its a pretty good thing. It wouldn't affect me at all using those two.

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Donic defplay senso
Haifu whale soft (grips-euro)
Nittaku pimplemini 1.0mm

I suppose there is a perception that the plain vanilla forms of 729 and 868 are for "beginners", while the "pro" players would use the more expensive "pro" rubber such as the various Hurricanes. In actuality, for most players my level (which, I suppose, WOULD be "beginner"!) the cheaper rubber is more than adequate. At some point in time I'll be tempted to spring for a sheet of H3 Neo just to see what the difference is. It's not that I can't afford the "pro" stuff, it's more that I'm curious about the various varieties of the cheap stuff, since few people ever talk about it or review it.

Iskandar

Very interesting thread.

I use have training er..training shoes, and match shoes!

These training rubbers would be good for coaches, to do feeding of muti ball for example or blocking. I have shaved side of a blade to make it flatter, so better for muti ball feeds (it was battered and splintered anyway before anyone reports me!).

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Match set up: Nittaku Violin, JP01T, JP03

Interesting idea, that. Maybe I'll build a blade with a flat side just for multiball feeding. Or get a cheap blade and modify it.

Iskandar

Whaddya know. Haifu training rubber (both Shark and Whale) are available from Eacheng and Eacheng's Aliexpress avatars. Whale costs more than Shark, maybe because whales are bigger than sharks.... (~$14 vs. ~$10, including shipping), and both are supposedly "factory tuned" (Seamooned at the factory?). They seem to come in plain plastic bags, two corners of the Shark rubber are cut off. They're still cheaper than Shark II and III and Whale II and III (apparently plain vanilla Shark and Whale are no longer available except perhaps as the training rubber). So here is actual training rubber that isn't bargain-basement in price. They claim Whale is used by the Chinese National Team as their training rubber, whatever that means, so yes, perhaps SOME people practice with this and play with some other rubber.. ? What that does for consistency I don't know, I doubt the very top players practice with anything other than what they play competitions with.

So here you have it, even among training rubber, there's low priced and moderately priced stuff. Since it's quite above my self-imposed price ceiling, I'll probably only get sheets of these after a while, or if they go on sale.

Iskandar

More training rubber!

Super 999T in the 1+1 packaging. Two sheets in a pack, 2.2mm sponge, 40-42 degrees.



Comes in a manila wrapper with a cellophane fold-over bag. The cover film is stiffer than the one 729 uses. Quality control doesn't seem as good, note the blemish on the red sheet (it got cut off when I mounted the sheet, so no problems, really).

Put one sheet on my 729 A3 and another on my new Yinhe N-11 yesterday, and hit with it some. On the A3, it played almost like the 729 Super FX on the other side (this was part of a "729 XL" pair) except it was a little slower and spinnier. The FX felt nicer for looping, but it's been Seamooned and I've been playing with it the last two weeks. The N-11 is going to take some getting used to - it feels quite different, touch shots ended off the table in many cases. I'll write about it elsewhere.

red 62.61g 170x167.5mm 0.220 g/cm2
black 63.33g 170x168mm 0.222 g/cm2 44.38g mounted 200.14 cm2

The Super 999T also comes with a harder 44-45 degree ("999") sponge, in this packaging:



This probably doesn't qualify as "training rubber" per se - sponge falls outside the usual range, plus the sheets are packaged separately. The 1+1 was slightly under $6 a sheet (less than $5 a sheet last week), these were more like $6.50 (including shipping). There is a third variant which is coming in the mail - this was just under $7 a sheet but was cheaper during last week's mega sale.

A little heavier.

red 64.66g 168x168mm 0.229 g/cm2
black 63.71g 168x168mm 0.226 g/cm2

Iskandar

VERY interesting. I just got a message (in response to a query) that the 999-T 1+1 rubber is available with either 40-42 sponge, OR 44-45 sponge. It's not mentioned anywhere on the product description! Be sure to ask for the sponge hardness you want when you order. I wonder what other cheap rubber gives you the option (but they don't tell you about it).

Somewhat bizarre. Last night, I was trying out my new Yinhe N-11 blade (which I was told was "soft" and "flexible", and would be great for looping. I had 999-T (40-42 sponge) on one side and the Reactor Corbor with "41 +/- 1 degree" (in other words, 40-42!) sponge on the other side. The 999 was seamooned. I thought it was OK, but my 729 A3 (729 Super FX and 999) felt better for loops and everything else. Well, tonight, I ran into the sometimes-mentioned dreaded humidity problem (at least, I think it was that). It was raining outside and it felt REALLY humid (not that it's ever NOT humid here, unless you're in an airconditioned room). The 729 would NOT lift the ball in a loop against backspin, there'd be a squeaking sound and the ball would drop in the net. So I picked up the N-11 and guess what, after about 5 minutes it started feeling really, really good. I changed back and forth between the two rackets and I continued to have problems with the A3. The N-11/999 felt REALLY good, paradoxically, for flat hits. Loops were OK, but the hits really felt sweet.

The 999 sponge doesn't dome up that much when seamooned, the effect isn't nearly as pronounced compared to the 729 red sponge (which curls into a pretzel after a day).

Iskandar