OOAK Table Tennis Forum

To a laymen, it appears that the more the friction the better these two. But there could be difference beyond that I'd like to known.

My particular questions are...

I want to maximize the spin on my serves... After doing all that is needed, I'd like to rubber to put the final nail on the coffin. Should I choose a best chopper inverted rubber or the best spin inverted rubber. As I said earlier, all I need is to focus on the friction level, right? And the more grippy/tacky/sticky the rubber is the more friction. Therefore, I should be researching on the highest level stickiness, no? Please advise.

And if I choose that rubber for my attacking side, I should be benefiting in the in-game top spin and chop motions too. No?

But on the other hand, there is the European rubbers ( like dignics/tenergy ) which are not sticky and but hey they are known to put tremendous amount of spin.

My final conclusions are...

The slower & stickier the rubber is, the more the dwell time on the ball, and therefore, the spin placed on a pendulum serve or a chop serve would be the max. Is that true?

And also, these rubbers will allow the max trajectory and therefore they will help lift the low balls with more confidence due to sticky/grippy nature. Is that true too?

Going to a club may help...There, seems it's possible to find a Tackiness Chop and Tenergy...then you can chop with that rubbers and some others and see ...you get your answers existentially.
if you spin more when you play then get a ''spin'' rubber or if you chop more then get a ''chop'' rubber...
Lets say, rubbers like Victas 401 or Hurricane 3 are good to do both.
I'd like to make an emphasis on footwork and practicing techniques and ''reading'' the ball. If they are ''good'' then you can use an ''attacking'' rubber for defence easier.
Choppin and spinning are both spinning the ball. Rubbers with less rebound are beneficial for chopping.

Depends how you play and swing. You can serve with a lot of spin using pretty much any rubber with good surface grip. Tacky or not. But when off the table, with tenergy or dignics the pushes and chops get touchier. More bounce, more speed.

With deader sponges, say tackiness chop for example, it will help slow the ball down a lot and generally allow for extra safety. Spin wont be as high... however do you really NEED that additional bit of spin? Do you want pure safety and consistency?

If you just want max spin potential, get pretty much any new modern rubber out now in max thickness and go to town. You might discover that sheer power and spin potential is not the most conducive to landing balls on the table... as for which has more on serves? Amateur level that really comes down to individual technique. Do you brush or engage the sponge at all? Two people might try the same rubber - one says it sucks, the other says it's the greatest ever made!

Right now I've got

Victas 401
Tenergy 64
Nittaku hurricane 3 blue turbo
Victas 07 extra sticky
Golden tango
Golden tango ps
Tsp triple spin chop
Victas v15
Dynaryz acc and acr
Tackiness chop
Elite defense 999
More...

End of the day... I could play and use any of them! Some are better at this or that, but not enough to say you cant use them. Really comes down to base speed and desired feel.

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SOULSPIN CUSTOM BLADES
Fh: Spinny rubber
Bh: Not so spinny rubber...

A rubber consists of two parts: The sponge and the topsheet.
Most people don't even think about why that is and what the different aspects of those two parts are.

The sponge produces mechanical spin by deforming. This is what happens when you throw the ball against the angled bat, and the ball begins to spin, even though you have not even moved the bat. The ball sinks into the sponge, the sponge is deformed, and then the ball is catapulted out again.

The topsheet produces spin by movement. If you just had a sticky surface and threw the ball against that angled surface, the ball would not begin to spin at all. Spin is only produced if the surface is moved while the ball touches the surface.

Now table tennis rubbers have two parts because both of these aspects play a role in the game, but at different times. The sponge is mostly used during topspin play. It is for this reason that it is easier to topspin with softer sponged rubbers (the activation of the sponge is easier), but pros always play with hard sponges, because their technique is so good that they don't have trouble activating the sponge, and if the hit the soft sponge with their powerstrokes, the ball would go right through it and hit the wood.

The topsheet is used during short play, and for serves. For this reason, it is as you said, the friction level of the topsheet is decisive for how much spin you can generate in serves and pushes. But this is not all. If you have a soft sponge, it can happen that the sponge is activated when serving or pushing, and the ball tends to bounce, making it harder to control. People tend to compensate for that, resulting in harmless serves. This problem tends not to exist with
a) hard sponge topspin rubbers (like chinese rubbers or the new chinese-like rubbers)
b) chopper rubbers (because they have a thin and/or non-bouncy sponge

So to answer your question, if we talk about serving alone, I would say a chopper or a hard topspin rubber work equally well, but easy to loop rubbers don't work as well.

(This explanation is not 100% accurate, e.g. I have not dwelt on the effect of the pimples in, or on people activating the sponge on purpose with high-throw serves, but I think what I wrote will fit in most situations regarding this question)

At average club level around me I know several players who win through high spin during service and the rest of the game. Everybody plays with different rubber. The most difficult to play against are those who know how to send spiny and nospin balls with similar looking motion.

Liu Guoliang is known as one of the best servers in the history of TT and he served with short pips.

Also with the 38mm ball. Just more difficult to do now with short pips.

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SOULSPIN CUSTOM BLADES
Fh: Spinny rubber
Bh: Not so spinny rubber...