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Functional vs social rubbers &
dumb rackets vs smart rackets
Sorry this is a long read but well worth it because this is
based on more than my 40 years of
experience & literally 1000s of iterations of various racket designs.
I am trying to save others from wasting their time in the sport
& not fully enjoying it & avoiding the tricky pitfall I failed to avoid
over the years.
Jonyer was a world singles & twice doubles champion & a member of Hungarian side looping trio who decimated China twice a 1979 Teams
WTTC. Jonyer is also is
considered an early pioneer of the backhand loop. But he switched to Anti at
the end of his career. (Long pips were still in its early stages arrived in around
1973 & promptly banned at 1977 Birmingham BGM mostly due to the great chopper Liang Geliang) So there
is no shame in choosing the right functionally optimal rubber at a given point
in your career. Unless one is more into “How to win friends and influence people”
(Dale Carnegie all time best seller book) and would rather continue to use
social rubbers.
What are social rubbers & functional rubbers ? I thought
you would never ask.
Before I get into that let use understand what dumb rackets & smart rackets are in the context of almost ll amateur players & even some pro players
A dumb racket has same type rubber on both sides such as spinny inverted both side
A smart racket has different rubber types on either side of the racket.
I wont get into much details as to why I called these as such but provide details later.
If you are using a dumb racket user and this upsets you that is too bad because you will have to get used to it. Because dumb racket users have abused the smart racket users calling their rackets junk rackets for over 40 years. So you will have to get used to the truth when the tables are turned.
Keep in mind that this is only in the context of amateur players. Most pros can use rackets with same rubber types but most amateurs cannot but they would rather live that fantasy.
Social rubbers are rubbers that are used more because you
want fit in socially with others or you are
irrationally terrified of social rejection due to the intense peer pressure
(like teen high school children behavior) & ITTF brainwashed coaches.
For almost all amateurs & even some few pro players, any one of the
four type rubbers (anti, Spinny inverted, wide pips or slim pips) listed on (click
link) ITTF LARC can be a social rubber or a functional rubber.
For most amateurs inverted is probably the best functional rubber on the forehand.
But unfortunately it is also a social rubber for most amateurs & even some
pros on the backhand. It is not anyone’s
fault but just simple nature of human anatomy physiology or whatever. Tennis has accepted this and moved on to
twohanded backhand for almost all players (I said almost …so don’t start with
me with Federer) . The twisted irony of all this that Bjorn Borg (son of a
table tennis player) , who pioneered super topspin & also the two handed
backhand, has singlehandedly destroyed diversity tabletennis (but not by any diabolical
design but just accidental) because
tabletennis is now almost topspin only sport and all spin players (back spin or
no spin) are considered a disease.
Another irony is that Jimmy Connors (Borg’s first arch rival) was also probably
the last pure flat hitters (no spin) players & he also ushered the
composite material era with his Wilson 2000 aluminum racket .
Anyway my point is that inverted rubber is a social rubber on the backhand
for almost 85% of amateur players (but they all live under the delusion that
they are Ma Long or Fan Zhendong etc). Keep also in mind that just
blocking or pushing or even hitting does not qualify you as a two winged looper
that you fantasize to be. The probably of success for a player with a good &
consistent backhand loop (not a one shot wonder) is about 10% at best. Fact is
that most players suck in their consistency with looping even on their forehand
to start with LOL. But given that tabletennis is the most forehand dominant
sport & given that most players are not talented enough to be able to use
wide pips on forehand, spinny inverted rubber is only OK by default for most players but on the forehand ONLY since
they need the enormous error margin that
inverted rubber provides
In the same context wide pips is theoretically the best
rubber in tabletennis but only on the forehand and only for the most talented.
Johnny Huang is probably the only shakehand two winged wide pips player in history
at the highest level. (There were a few
world champion wide pips players men and women, by they were penholders).
Wide pips however is by far the worst backhand rubber & therefore
a social rubber on the backhand.
All the slim pips ( listed deceptively as "long" on ITTF LARC ) are also social rubbers for almost all amateurs except those just transitioning to pips in the 40+ plastic ball ONLY era.
Anti is also a social rubber for almost all players . Because the original intended
purpose of both anti & long pips was not close to the table blocking but
away from the table chopping. But almost all choppers (all levels) have rejected anti as a chopping rubber. There had been only very few players at the highest levels of the sport using anti and that too as a close to the table blocking rubber ONLY and there is no known high level away from the table choppers in the history of the sport. (ITTF realized this quickly within four or five years of arrival of anti and long pips in teh sport and quickly and promptly banned long pip in 1977 to starting severely limiting the choppers). Ever since then ITTF has also been quietly pushing for the use of anti for even close to the table block defenders because they are lot less functional & less of a nuisance (for the booster supremacists who control teh ITTF) than the lot more functionally powerful frictionless slim pips, which were also promptly banned in 2008
Anti can be a functional rubber for some older or para players but on the forehand only if these players came to the sport late and never learned to loop in their youth or have some physical or health limitations preventing them from looping
Anti therefore has evolved as a blocking rubber. However the
initial battle between 2 rubber dealers ITTF’s Scholer & Dr.Neubauer was about slim
pips rubbers for close to the table blocking style because ITTF successfully exterminated
almost all choppers with the 1998 Durban Aspect Ratio Regulation. So Dr.
Neubauer started making frictionless rubbers & an angry Scholer again
stepped in and passed the Frictionless Pips Ban of 1998.
So then Dr. Neubauer has switched his focus on making better
frictionless rubbers LOL
Keep in mind that there is a minimum COF (Coefficient of
Friction) limit of 0.5 for (slim) pips but there is no such limit for Anti
rubbers.
Best functional rubbers for forehand for amateurs
1.
Wide pips with thick sponge – Best (theoretical)
2.
Spinny inverted – next best
3. Frictioned Anti – next best (for players who cannot loop . never learned, older etc)
Best social rubbers for back hand for amateurs
1. Wide pips (best social rubber & worst functional rubber for backhand)
2.
Spinny inverted (next best social rubber &
worse functional rubber for backhand)
3.
Frictionless anti (next best social rubber &
worse functional rubber for backhand)
The ONLY best functional rubbers for back hand for amateurs
1.
OX long pips (best functional rubber for backhand) for amateurs (with thick sponge for pro or
semi-pro)
2.
Slim pips (OX or with pips)
Keep also in mind that this presentation is mostly focused
on frictionless anti or (frictionless) slim pips or (frictionless) long pips .
This is assuming that one clearly understands that anti rubbers
never evolved to am away from the table choppers’ rubber. Choppers have always used long pips (or slim
pips after long pips ban of 1977). Therefore anti is strictly a close to the table
rubber . However frictionless slim pips or frictionless long pips are far
superior for this purpose. Of course, players who choose anti (or worse wide pips) over
pips do so because
1.
They are easier to use & learning to use
slim or long pips takes much much longer
2.
They fear
social rejection if they use slim or long pips.
But the bad news is that booster supremacists still won’t accept you completely
if you use anti or wide pips. It is just that they just despise you a little less
compared to those who use slim pips or long pips or anti.
This is why those who use anti or wide pips on backhand or known as “Honorary
Loopers”
The most important fact to understand is this > To fully enjoy creating and solving all types of spin in table tennis, the best racket is a smart racket (with different rubber types on either side) . Because once you reasonably understanding using a given rubber on either forehand or backhand, you can always learn to twiddle & enjoy strokes for full spectrum of spins from either side. Of course this is easier said than done & takes years to even get a clue & you never ever master it fully & even most pros don’t.
Of course the alternative is to just to stick to a dumb
racket with same rubber both sides usually spinny inverted and stick to just
top spin if that is what you think is cool or to better fit in socially.
Your choice.
BTW Jonyer would probably have chosen frictionless slim pips
or at least frictionless anti if they had been available during his time.
Take a look at the web page below for best choice of
functional rubber for weakside (backhand)
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