OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Some background:
Due to some accumulated shoulder injuries, doing much forehand looping causes me a lot of pain.
For this reason I've been trying to develop more of a flat hit/smash on the forehand.
To aid my transition, I've used short pimples for the last few years, but I still prefer the feel of inverted for most other shots.
I generally prefer a medium hardness rubber on the forehand.
I'd like it light to minimize the weight gain from short pimples as having a lighter bat puts less strain on the body.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Regards,
Jonathan

I'm in the same boat as you are - issues with my Shoulder, plus, my elbow and wrist too, due to which I was forced to switch to light-weight setups ..

For the past couple of months, I've been playing with Palio AK-47 Red .. It's fairly light-weight, and can pack a punch .. Not the spiniest rubber I've ever played with, but can generated respectable amounts of it. If I had to compare it to a tensor, then I'd say it's like a toned-down version of MX-P... Oh, and it costs, just $12.

A few short-comings - Takes some effort to lift back-spin with it (This, in part could also be due shot-comings, in my technique). There have been reports of manufacturing inconsistencies, durability issues, and also, that the rubber loses grip, after sometime..

I feel this is an awesome, light-weight, attacking rubber, with hard to matched price:performance

Xiom Omega IV Elite

oooh... nice one .. liked on FH, for loops .. blocking is okay ... but, I found it to be quite soft... not medium-hard at all.

A thinner sponge Bryce Highspeed (medium weight) and a balsa or balsa-carbon blade .

Thanks for all the suggestions. One rubber I had considered was the Victas VJ>7 Limber. From Alex's review it seemed much like what I was looking for.

I'm already using very light, custom made bat .

Price isn't really a concern for me.

Regards,
Jonathan

Rasanter R42 best rubber I have used for all round play with great control and speed when you need it on an all+ to off- blade. Feels medium hard in 2.00mm despite stated 42degree sponge. Plus of course quite light in 2.00mm at close to 40gm cut.

Donic Desto F3 Big Slam - great for smashing and with a very soft and light sponge.

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[quote="haggisv"]Donic Desto F3 Big Slam - great for smashing and with a very soft and light sponge.[/quote]

The light sounds good, but not so much the very soft. I was thinking more of the 40 - 42 degree hardness range.
The short pimples I used were spinpips blue and spectol blue.

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Regards,
Jonathan

Butterfly Raystorm 2.2
Tibhar EL-S
RL Australis

Harder sponges are typically denser and therefore not lightweight. Another two that come to mind are Donic S1 Turbo and Tuttle Beijing IV, assuming you can still find either..

The Limber is a bit too bouncy for smashing, I would rather recommend the Victas VJ>7 Regular which is also light weight but a bit harder and higher control for flat hitting and pushing

I have been playing a long time, but I have NO IDEA what rubber is best for smashing. In fact, I am not sure if I understand what others mean by smashing. I have understood a smash is a totally flat hit on a very high ball with no topspin applied. By that definition I may get 1 or 2 balls to smash in a match and probably have many, many matches where I never smash at all. From how the chinese used to flip the paddle I assume a non-tacky rubber is best for this.

If by smash you mean "hit really hard to win the point on speed but use a closed racket and impart some top spin" I think a moderately tacky, harder sponge is best. This I can see as a strategy/playing style. I would also think the blade is very important (harder usually better).

Do I not understand correctly?

By smashing I meant a flat or almost so hit against backspin, as you would do with short pimples. I recognize that this is inferior to a loop.
I too have been playing a long time, and used to be a strong looper, but shoulder damage makes the forehand loop shot painful for me.

_________________
Regards,
Jonathan

Butterfly Raystorm 2.2
Tibhar EL-S
RL Australis

I haven't found any rubber better for flat hit smashes than Calibra LT. It's quite insensitive to spin, very fast, and as an added bonus, very light. It is also medium hard, so it may be what you are looking for. It's been my rubber of choice for the past two years...

To me a "flat hit" doesn't mean no topspin - it's a topspin drive which is hit relatively flat, compared with a loop. If you don't put any topspin on it the ball will not dip towards the table. You can hit the ball considerably faster if there's topspin on it.

If you're hitting balls against lobs, you SHOULD still try to hit above the ball and apply some topspin to it. At least that's what Danny Seemiller taught us.. "Smash"? I suppose you could use that word, but few if any books on table tennis I've come across use it - the term for the shot analogous to the "smash" in field tennis is usually called a "kill" - a hard put-away against a high ball. A fast topspin shot which isn't a loop and isn't a kill would be a "topspin drive".

Iskandar