OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I've had a few people ask me about this recently...why do some people think a rubber is fast, whereas other think it's slow? Apart from the obvious difference in people's perception and style, I think it depends on the rubber type as well. The more I thought about it, the more I felt I could write about, so I wrote a little article on it on my review website here:

Inverted rubber speed ratings

I'd love to hear your views on this... see if you agree... Cheers!

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Cheers! A wonderfully written piece!

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Viscaria. H2 Neo 2.15. Tenergy 05 1.9.

Thank you!

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Interesting haggisv, thank you.

However, I'd have expected the highest point of the tensioned rubber line to always be higher than the highest point of the tacky rubber line although the difference between the two would decline once past the optimum effort point of the tensioned rubber. The graph suggests that if you hit a ball with maximum effort with a tacky rubber, the ball will travel faster than when hit with optimum effort with a tensioned rubber. Is this right?

I'd also be interested to know if there comes a point where if you hit the ball with too much effort it actually becomes counter productive ie the speed drops rather than increases as the sponge can't cope? Finding the optimum racket speed to maximise rubber/sponge effect and hence ball speed is way beyond me though.

IMO The harder sponged rubbers (tacky or non-tacky) have a higher topspeed than soft ones... of course when you put it onto a blade, you can get just as much speed from the completel bat (as the rubber bottoms out and you're hitting with the blade). But this is not the speed of the rubber, it's the blade that's providing the power... Since ratings only refer to the rubber, I'm considering just the rubber effect in the article...

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

I'm confused. Are you saying you are judging these types of "rubber" by the speed generated from the rubber pips themselves or when combined with the sponge?

In my own experience, it didn't matter how hard I hit a tacky rubber with a hard sponge, it couldn't come close to the speed generated by something like juic couga when looping (and I wouldn't class the Couga as a true loopers rubber) which is why I am surprised the graph shows the tacky rubber as having the fastest top speed. Can you name a tacky rubber which has a top end faster than couga? and I wouldn't class couga as the exception here either.

That said, if hardness of sponge is so important why is Butterfly tenergy 05 - listed as 36 degree hardness in Silvers rubber mass data base - so fast? Have they done something to the pimple structure - in which case, pimple structure is just as important as tackiness and rubber hardness when considering speed. Gewo Proton XP 450 is listed at 44 degrees, Zeta and Omega asian versions also in the 40's so there is a wide variation in within SGE rubbers as to the hardness of the sponge used.

Ultimately I think there are too many factors to consider when trying to figure out what impacts on rubber speed ratings other than to list what they are. Imagine Butterfly Tenergy rubber stuck to the Omega III asian hard sponge. How would that play?

The scale Butterfly uses is different to the scale the ESN rubbers use. Refer to Haggisv's hardness list for a consistent grading cross-brands. The hardness field in my database is for manufacturer reference, since I have no way of measuring the hardness empirically (and don't intend to).

Poorly

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Chasse Patate

Is there anything consistent between manufactures - other than red and black -

As Silver mentioned, they are on a different scale. I agree there are many factors that contribute to speed, but I think in general the sponge hardness determines the topspeed.

I really appreciate the feedback BTW... it's a good subject to discuss, and as always I'm happy to be proven wrong

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Actually, that's not even consistant. Just to name a few, Mark V's black isn't as opaque as Omega. Omega's black is deeper and glossier than Tenergy and Bryce Speed's black. Mark V's red is more crimson and not as bright as Tenergy 05. Slight colour variations everywhere

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Chasse Patate

The article is about speed of a loop... flat hits/drive get most of their power from the blade.
If you've ever tried a fast loop/drive with a 999 Nat or H2 you might feel differently...it really flies but only if you hit it hard enough... most of us probably won't even reach the top of the chart...



Very true, and dont' forget that we normally don't consider the rubber without the blade either... But this is what the rubber ratings refer to, which is what the article is based on...

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Maybe you want to change your labels from "tacky" and "non-tacky" to "hard" and "soft"; that sounds more like what you're trying to describe, as it's not the surface tack that produces the speed.

I think all inverted rubber (excluding anti) will show the curve that you have with tensioned rubber, it's just more pronounced with tensioned rubber.

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Equipment: Matsushita PowerDefence, Spin Art 1.9 black, Xiying 979 ox red
Style: American | US Rating: barely 2000

Good point, thanks kagin!

The reason I used 'tacky' is that the actual tack on the ball does slow it down on low impact, but you're quite right though, when the impact gets a little higher, it's really the sponge that makes the difference.

_________________
OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide