OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Calling out to the gurus of OOAK. I've been using D.TecS since April last year both in OX and 0.5mm and I have a few questions that I don't seem to find answers for in the existing threads.

1) Does it loose a considerable amount of friction with age? I've got three sheets that I've bought at different times in the past year and I can't really tell them apart when it comes to friction. All three sheets looks good as new even though I hit quite a lot (most opponents ask if I use MP).

2) Is a sheet that has been separated from the sponge different to a store bought OX sheet?

3) Does it loose speed with age?

Some background: I practice 6-8h week and usually play a tournament or league match which probably totals to 10h of TT per week on an average.

Speed seems to be about the same over time, but the grip friction reduces.

As far as I can tell, sponge sheets soaked in acetone and then glued on in OX perform the same as regular OX sheets.

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

Doesn't answer your questions but when testing d techs,bomb talent,dornenglanz ,388d-1 recently in ox d techs was the fastest and most difficult to control without any real benefits then I tried all 4 again over a slow/elastic 0.3 sponge and it was now the easiest to control ,most backspin,most wobble and more trouble for opponent..most unexpected and still trying to get my head around it!

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Tsp Black Balsa 3.0 Tenergy 05 1.9 388d ox black

There are lots of benefits with the speed being number one. It’s really useful once you learn how to control it as your hits becomes much more dangerous. It’s also really useful when chopping when you’re out of position or the opponent hits your pocket. An “emergency chop” is much easier to execute as it will travel quite far even with a small stroke. The blade you chose is also really important. I could never control it consistently with the VKM but on a real DEF or ALL blade it works great.

I’ve tried a lot of LPs and the only thing that comes remotely close is DG but I got tired of the pips falling off when hitting with it.

My 0.02$.

1) Does it loose a considerable amount of friction with age? I've got three sheets that I've bought at different times in the past year and I can't really tell them apart when it comes to friction. All three sheets looks good as new even though I hit quite a lot (most opponents ask if I use MP).
Friction defintly with age, u can notice the difference , roll shot with new dtecs is easy and old dtecs is
difficult.
2) Is a sheet that has been separated from the sponge different to a store bought OX sheet?
No idea, but dtecs advertises that the sponge is tensor similar to inverted, hence should be different

3) Does it loose speed with age?
little , not noticable within a year.

How often do you replace your sheets?

I sometimes talk to a guy at tournaments who has a Swedish rating of about 2100 (probably equivalent of 2300 in the US) and he hasn’t replaced his sheet for 2 years but he plays a very passive game and doesn’t hit with his LP. Feeling a bit uncertain if I should try a new sheet as I hit a lot.

Yes, you are right.A sheet of D.Techs should last long, especially if you do passive blocking and pushes.A horse of another color is if you hit.I'd say you can see for yourself how the rubber performs after a year or so of continued use .
Also, it depends on how many hours you train per week.The more use, the sooner you have to replace the rubber, that's obvious .For some people a year of use ( 4 hours per week ) is different from a year of use with 8 / 10 hours per week.Therefore, we need to be cautious when we talk about durability.

Good point. I train 6-8h week with league matches or tournaments during the weekend so the total is probably greater than 10h. I have two exact same setups as the FH rubber wears out fairly quickly. I guess that I'll just have to see if a new sheet performs dramatically different as I just found it discounted for approx 32€ so it won't hurt my wallet that much.

A small update. I was recommended to try the DMS Wizard by my coach so I had to get a new sheet of D.TecS. It's most def easier to hit with compared to my 5+ months old sheets. Spin sensitivity seems very similar (= zero). It would be interesting to know how often Manika Batra replaces her rubber as she plays quite a lot of active strokes.

Do you play with red or black D.Techs.?.I seem to remember it plays a bit different in black.I am not a fan of the new D.Techs, really.That's why I am asking.

And how about the mm on your FH rubber? Maybe by reducing them you can gain more control with D.Techs.

I use D.TecS in red as I always use black on my FH.

I use Fastarc in 2.0 and I want to keep it that way since I use my FH more than 50% of the time. Both the Stiga Def Classic and DMS Wizard are really really slow blades so I need any help I can get from the inverted when looping.

Maybe a good idea is to find close to the table blockers who like well worn down D.Techs and exchange them for their new fresh ones since hitting is better with new sheets. .There STILL are plenty of D.techs users .

Around here (Stockholm, Sweden) it's quite uncommon. Most people have switched to DG due to Japsko pitching it quite a lot which is a good thing for me as most people are used to playing against DG and not so much against D.TecS. I also meet quite a lot of players with DG and P1R which means that I get plenty of practice.

The guys at TT Maximum say that Yinhe 955 EURO OX has shorter, more disruptive blocks than Grass D.Techs.Also,the spin reversal was worse in Grass,.... I cannot believe this .Maybe they want to promote
Yinhe 955 EURO OX .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JhLMBjvvc0

Experimenting with dtecS with 1.2mm sponge as an alternative to medium pips the speed of dtecS is a real bonus as I do not have to adjust my strokes as much and can attack with less effort. Black seems softer and grippier than red, the latter being faster but harder to control. Slower blades allow more force to be used to bend the pips creating lots of swerve and dip with more shots landing on the table. Lots of fun as club players are just not used to facing counterhits from LPs.