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Switching From Hardbat to Sponge Rubber – Answer to Q#2: Part 3

By Larry Thoman

This series of blog posts consists of questions about table tennis accessories that have been asked of some of the experts and the corresponding answers those experts gave.

ANSWER to Q#2 Part 3:

Do not use speed glue at this stage of development. Regular rubber cement should be used to attach the rubbers to the blade. If you only want to buy a single racket, then I would stay with my recommendation of an all-round type of blade covered in 1.5mm high control style inverted rubber (Flextra would be best, Sriver FX would be acceptable but not ideal). Please be aware that regardless of the type of inverted you choose, you will be much more susceptible to the effects of spin on your rubber than you were with hard rubber. I would stay away from “tacky” inverted rubbers like Tackifire and Tackiness. Their grippiness will only make the transition more difficult.

The last problem you have to deal with is altering your strokes from hard rubber to inverted. This is where the real work begins. It would help tremendously to have a knowledgeable coach to guide the transition process and demonstrate correct form. In addition to a coach, studying instructional books and tapes or learning from online coaching resources will help tremendously. (Our Coaching Forum contains many good articles.) Shadow stroking at home is a time-proven, low-cost method to speed up the learning process.

If you want to buy an instructional book or tape, be sure they were published at least after 1990 to make sure you get instruction that is not outdated. Some more recent publications include:

• Table Tennis From A to Z by Dimosthenis E. Messinis
• Table Tennis, Steps to Success by Larry Hodges
• Table Tennis 2000: Technique With Vladimir Samsonov by Radivoj Hudetz

But even with a coach, you must spend as much time practicing as possible. I would forget about playing games entirely at this stage. I recommend you concentrate fully on perfecting your form and “grooving” your new strokes. Worrying about winning or losing will only slow your progress; worry about that after you have gotten through this initial transition stage. Regular robot and/or multi-ball drills will help speed up your progress because of the large number of balls you get to return in a short period of time. If playing with a human practice partner, work on consistency first and keep the ball in play with fluid, firm strokes. Power is always developed after your medium strokes become consistent.

For more table tennis accessories tips and options, visit www.tabletennis.com.

Popularity: 31%

Popularity: 33%

Modern Table Tennis Styles – Part 8 – The Close to the Table Defender

By Richard McAfee, USATT International Coach

This series of articles will provide you with the strengths and weaknesses of each style, along with some suggested robot drills to help you develop your game. In reading the descriptions you may find that your personal style will have attributes from more than one. However, you should be able to recognize your dominant style (”A” style) and your secondary style (”B” style). Each article will also give you some suggestions on tactics to use against the other styles of play. Hopefully the style descriptions will serve as a guide in analyzing your own.

Part 8 – The Close to the Table Defender

Description:

This style is built around a chop/block executed from close to the table. Players of this style most often use combination rackets with long-pips or anti-spin on one side and inverted rubber on the other. Players of this style use underspin blocks to force weak topspin shots from their opponents. They will then attack the weak topspin with a well-placed drive or loop. This style is often the master of placement but lacks real finishing power.

Strengths:

• Very consistent close-to-the-table chop/blocks.
• Excellent serve and receive game.
• Very accurate forehand drives.
• Excellent short game using pushes and drop shots.
• The ability to absorb their opponent’s strong opening shots.
• Often use the speed and spin of oncoming shots to make their returns stronger.

Weaknesses:

• No real power.
• High looping balls directed to the backhand.
• Hard balls directed towards the wide forehand.
• No spin serves, loops, and pushes will often cause errors.

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Popularity: 28%

Switching From Hardbat to Sponge Rubber – Answer to Q#2: Part 2

By Larry Thoman

This series of blog posts consists of questions about table tennis accessories that have been asked of some of the experts and the corresponding answers those experts gave.

ANSWER to Q#2 Part 2:

The problem you were having with returning serves is, in my opinion, due mostly to the grippiness of the topsheet. You can test the grip of the topsheet by rubbing a ball across the surface. With decent quality inverted’s, the rubbed ball will practically stop on the surface; whereas, a pips out rubber will create a little amount of resistance and an anti-topspin sheet will offer very little resistance. Some of the “super-tacky” sheets, like Tackiness, are so grippy that a ball can literally “stick” to the topsheet even with the paddle turned upside down.

This grip is what causes the problem on softer shots like serve returns and pushes. The grippier the topsheet, the more precise you will need to be with your racket angle to return spins effectively. That is why I believe Tackiness or Tackifire would be poor choices. On the other hand, you do want adequate grip if you want to learn inverted strokes and how to apply high amounts of spin. So you don’t want to go with anti or a very low grade of inverted (many low cost, pre-assembled inverted rackets come with such low-grip inverted rubbers attached).

Inverted strokes are quite different from hardrubber or anti strokes, so you will need a decent amount of grippiness on your racket to learn proper inverted strokes. For this reason, it is important to keep your inverted surface clean, because even a small amount of dirt or grime can alter a rubber’s grip.

Likewise, keep the surface covered, out of direct sunlight, and at room temperature to preserve the grip as long as possible. Age will eventually destroy the inverted’s characteristics, so you will need to replace the rubber when you notice a substantial difference between the grip at the center (where you strike the ball the most) as opposed to the grip at the edges of the rubber (where you seldom hit the ball).

Ideally, considering your background as you have described it to me, your new racket should have a fairly soft sponge to reduce the rebounding speed and transmit more vibrations into the blade (which would be more similar to hard rubber than hard sponge would offer). And the topsheet should be medium tacky at best. Butterfly’s Flextra fits the bill perfectly.

For more table tennis accessories tips and options, visit www.tabletennis.com.

Popularity: 16%

Switching From Hardbat to Sponge Rubber – Answer to Q#2: Part 1

By Larry Thoman

This series of blog posts consists of questions about table tennis accessories that have been asked of some of the experts and the corresponding answers those experts gave.

ANSWER to Q#2 Part 1:

Experimenting with equipment can be a very expensive obsession and there are so many choices available, it’s hard to know where to start. You are facing three big adjustments: (1) transitioning to the rebounding effects of the sponge, (2) learning to control your racket angle more precisely because of the grippiness of the inverted topsheet, and (3) altering your strokes to take advantage of your new paddle’s spin and speed producing capabilities.

You’ve already described the first two problems to me in your original message. When you stroked the ball with your regular hard rubber stroke, the ball went flying off the end of the table. This was primarily a result of the rebounding effects of the sponge. The sponge comes into play mostly on firmly stroked returns.

For the sponge to affect the ball, either the incoming ball needs a lot of speed or your stroke must generate the force to drive the ball past the top sheet and depress the sponge. So the rebounding effects of the sponge will usually only affect you when returning hard hit shots or you are attacking the ball with speed.

Sponge comes in many qualities but can generally be categorized by degree of softness and the amount of speed the sponge generates when it rebounds. Nowadays, many rubbers will give a softness rating with a rating of 30 being soft, 40 being medium and 50 being hard. The softness will determine how much force is required to drive a ball through the topsheet to depress the sponge.

Soft sponges are typically slow in speed, but this can be changed drastically by using “speed glue” to increase rebounding speed. Also, soft sponges typically give the best “touch” because even slower stroked shots can often drive the ball into the sponge enough that the ball’s impact vibrations are transmitted to the blade.

Hard sponges, on the other hand, require very forceful strokes to drive the ball into the sponge. And the sponge will snap back very forcefully, adding still more speed to the stroke. Softer shots are primarily returned with the topsheet and typically feel “mushy” because so little of the ball impact is transmitted to the blade.

For more table tennis accessories tips and options, visit www.tabletennis.com.

Popularity: 14%

Modern Table Tennis Styles –

Part 7 – The Attacking Chopper

By Richard McAfee, USATT International Coach

This series of articles will provide you with the strengths and weaknesses of each style, along with some suggested robot drills to help you develop your game. In reading the descriptions you may find that your personal style will have attributes from more than one. However, you should be able to recognize your dominant style (”A” style) and your secondary style (”B” style). Each article will also give you some suggestions on tactics to use against the other styles of play. Hopefully the style descriptions will serve as a guide in analyzing your own.

Part 7 – The Attacking Chopper

Description:

This style can be best thought of as an attacker who uses underspin to set up their attacking shots. Players of this style most often use two different racket surfaces and will flip the racket to produce great variations in their defense and their attack.

Attacking Choppers usually have powerful forehand loops or kills. They will strongly attack any weak return by their opponent, as well as any third ball opportunity. Placing less backspin on a return than the previous return will often result in a pop-up that can be killed. A heavier than normal backspin return often results in a safe push return that can be looped. For players of this style, patience and footwork are the keys for advancing to a high level.

Strengths:

• Great variation of strokes and spin puts opponents under a lot of pressure.
• Strong forehand drives or kills.
• Strong 3rd ball attacks.
• Good movement and physical ability.

Weaknesses:

• Can become impatient and attack the wrong ball.
• Footwork when switching from chopping to topspin attack shots.
• Defense may not stand up under pressure.
• Too many options may result in some indecisiveness under pressure.

For more ping pong tips and training opportunities, visit TableTennis.com.

Popularity: 11%